| 词组 | opt |
| 释义 | opt The verb opt has a modern, truncated quality that may make it seem like a recent invention, but in fact it is more than a hundred years old. It is derived from the French opter "to choose," and it was first used in English in a specifically French context—to report the choices of citizenship being made in the 1870s by inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine, a formerly French territory that had been ceded to Germany by the Treaty of Frankfurt (written in French) in 1871: • The Paris correspondent of the Times ... was allowed to speak of Alsatians opting between France and Germany — The World, 25 Apr. 1877 (OED) • ... a native of Alsace-Lorraine, who had 'opted' to become a French subject —George Augustus Sala, Paris Herself Again, 1879 (OED) From this use, opt developed the specific sense in English "to make a choice of citizenship": • Poland, of course, contains a large number of German-speaking citizens in her new territories, and these have "opted" either to become or not to become Poles —Manchester Guardian Weekly, 30 Oct. 1925 • ... the Treaty of Versailles had given three years to Germans in Czechoslovakia who wished to opt for German citizenship —John Gunther, Inside Europe, rev. ed., 1940 Extended use of opt to mean simply "to make a choice" dates back to at least 1899, but it seems not to have become common until the 1950s. Its surge in popularity at that time may have owed much to the widespread use of opt in its original sense to describe the many decisions about citizenship and forms of government that confronted individuals and nations in the years following World War II: • ... the small state of Junagadh ... has caused a turmoil by opting to join Pakistan —The Economist, 11 Oct. 1947 • ... have shown that when the choice is real... Germans opt for the West —Times Literary Supp., 3 Apr. 1953 • Enemy prisoners who had opted for repatriation — Time, 3 Aug. 1953 • ... estranged from a husband who had opted for the "People's Poland" —Time, 12 July 1954 The original sense of opt is now rare, but its connection with the current, general sense of the word is still discernible (if only barely) in the way that opt continues to be applied primarily to the choosing of a course of action: • ... persecuted vagabonds who have opted out of the universal regimentation —Times Literary Supp., 25 Mar. 1965 • ... adopt the view that most members of the [black middle] class opt out of the race —Charles V. Hamilton, TV. Y. Times Mag., 14 Apr. 1968 • ... they opt for peaceful reform of American institutions —Robert E. Kavanaugh, Psychology Today, October 1968 • ... the generals who held power opted for war — Albert H. Johnston, Publishers Weekly, 29 Dec. 1975 • Lars opts to decline medical services and to live out his last months in his own cottage —John Updike, New Yorker, 11 Jan. 1982 Its use in describing the selection of a material thing is relatively uncommon, although it does enjoy some popularity among fashion writers: • ... you can opt for short sleeves ... or none at all — New Yorker, 20 Nov. 1965 • ... opts for a leather-like polyester-coated cotton zip-front jacket —Playboy, September 1968 |
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