| 词组 | careen, career |
| 释义 | careen, career The verbs careen and career look a lot alike, sound a lot alike, and to many people mean much the same thing. Disapproving usage writers hark back to the older (though still living) sense of careen which refers to leaning a boat over on its side to expose the keel for cleaning or repair. From this and from the intransitive nautical sense of careen that means "to heel over," Follett 1966, Bremner 1980, and Bryson 1984 conclude that any extended use of careen should involve sideways motion such as swaying, tilting, or rocking. And it is true that careen is used this way. • Cars rocketed out of the six tunnels ... and careened in wild zigzags —Mark Murphy, New Yorker, 18 June 1949 • We were careening from side to side and going like nobody's business —Thomas B. Bluff, N.Y. Times Mag., 6 June 1954 • ... the car careened around abrupt corners —E. L. Doctorow, Loon Lake, 1979 But it is also true that careen, influenced no doubt by career and also by the associated idea of speed that is apparent even in the examples of sideways motion above, often refers to rapid headlong movement. • ... the taxi careened west on Forty-seventh Street ... (he had three minutes in which to make the train) —Philip Hamburger, New Yorker, 29 Mar. 1952 • ... and wind careened down the streets and past the corners —Lacey Fosburgh, Cosmopolitan, June 1976 Part of the problem in trying to pin down objectively the movement described by careen or career is that since the movement is headlong, reckless, or uncontrolled, some kind of sideways movement may be involved, actually or potentially. So it is often not clear exactly what a careening or careering object is doing. This indeterminacy may distress usage critics but seems not to bother most writers. • ... the birds careen wildly —Claudia Cassidy, Europe—On the Aisle, 1954 • A bus careened out of control over a precipice — N.Y. Times, 10 Apr. 1955 • ... everyone careens around on roller skates —Jane Howard, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 11 May 1980 • ... oil-rich sheikhs careening over sand dunes in their ... four-wheel drives —Dora Jane Hamblin, Smithsonian, September 1983 • ... sending the craft careening out of control —J. Eberhart et al., Science News, 10 May 1986 • ... send him careering through the salons on a bicycle —Time, 8 Apr. 1946 • ... intoxicated cats careering through our houses — Frank Swinnerton, Tokefield Papers, 1949 • ... and birds career through its open space —Ward Just, Atlantic, June 1975 • ... causing high-performance military aircraft to career out of control —Flight International, 11 Sept. 1976 Figurative uses of careen, of which there are many, are equally imprecise. • ... his mind veered away, careened back giddily to the rock on which he was sitting —Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead, 1948 • The action careens across the ancient world, breathless in its pace —John Mason Brown, Saturday Rev., 20 Dec. 1947 • ... suicidal Vietnam veteran who is careening through his last days on earth by staying high —Sara Blackburn, TV. Y. Times Book Rev., 9 Sept. 1973 • ... the book careens off into political interpretations —James Fallows, Harper's, February 1976 • ... we careened on toward Christmas —John Irving, The Hotel New Hampshire, 1981 Not all usage writers lament over the broadened meaning of careen. Harper's 1985 usage panel gives the "use of careen in the sense of to move fast with a lurching or swerving motion" an 87 percent vote of confidence. Reader's Digest 1983 approves of several extended senses (including a figurative use), adding sensibly: "Trying to discourage the use of perfectly legitimate extensions like this one is what earns 'usage experts' a bad name. Whatever its parentage, careen is a vivid and entirely satisfying word " The disapproving Follett, along with Colter 1981 and Kilpatrick 1984, says that the extended use of careen has elbowed out career. We have healthy evidence for recent use of career, however, so the takeover by careen is far from complete and may very well stay that way. Another point expressed or implied by Follett, Gowers in Fowler 1965, and Evans 1962 is that the use of careen as a synonym for career is an Americanism. The OED Supplement calls it "Chiefly U.S.," and as far as we can tell (since most of our citation-collecting is from American sources anyway), this is the case. So if you simply cannot accept the fact that the broadened uses of careen are here to stay, you might have to pack your bags and head for the more congenial clime of British English. |
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