| 词组 | destruct, self-destruct |
| 释义 | destruct, self-destruct Ever since the 1950s people have been writing to ask if there is such a word as destruct. The Chicago Tribune in March 1962 reprinted a denunciation of the word that seems to have originated in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Barzun 1985, prompted by an instance of self-destruct printed on the bottom of a grocery bag, claims there is no verb destruct. The verb destruct has been entered in our unabridged New International Dictionary since 1909. It was originally formed in the 17th century from the past participle of the same Latin verb that gave us destroy. It was simply a rare alternative to destroy that had only the advantage of contrasting prettily with construct. When it was revived as part of aerospace jargon in the 1950s, its coiners and users probably had no notion that the verb already existed. They probably created it by back-formation from destruction. The revived destruct is not used in quite the same way as destroy. For one thing, it is usually used with self, and destroy is not (except as a participial adjective in self-destroying). What is more, destruct carries the connotation of destroying for some positive purpose, such as safety. • ... a $50 million weather satellite which was deliberately destructed on launch —Springfield (Mass.) Sunday Republican, 19 May 1968 A noun destruct was formed at the same time as the revived verb. It is often used attributively: • ... an attaché case with instant destruct equipment —Walter Wager, Telefon, 1975 Both the noun and verb destruct are seldom found outside the areas of aerospace, the military, and cloak-and-dagger stories. Such is not the case, however, with self-destruct. Self-destruct was popularized by its use in the television series "Mission Impossible." The opening of each show included a tape of recorded instructions that burned itself up after the words, "This tape will self-destruct in five seconds." We have evidence from technical sources for self-destruct used as an adjective (self-destruct mechanism, for instance), but not for the verb. The verb seems to have sprung full-grown from the heads of the "Mission Impossible" writers. The notion of self-destruction seemed to fill a need, for the verb rapidly became popular, established itself, and has continued to be widely used in general contexts. Here is a selection of typical uses: • ... we've designed a leaf bag ... which will self-destruct when it is left in the rain —Norman Seltzer, quoted in Springfield (Mass.) Union, 19 Aug. 1970 • A second homing device went into operation there this afternoon. Both devices will self destruct at 2:00 A.M. —Hugh C. McDonald, The Hour of the Blue Fox, 1975 • ... the hypothesis that all authority can and should "self-destruct" after it has served its purpose — David V. J. Bell, Power, Influence, and Authority, 1975 • Do you psychologically self-destruct every time you double-fault in tennis? —Janice Harayda, Money, June 1976 • There are also other ways, of course, for a film director to self-destruct —John Simon, New York, 10 Jan. 1977 • But no amount of guidance can guarantee that your carefully constructed portfolio won't self-destruct — William G. McDonald, Fortune, 15 Dec. 1980 • Even in a high-vacuum system, the compounds can self-destruct —McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology, 1981 • ... an inventive time-travel story that unexpectedly self-destructs at the end —Gerald Jonas, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 31 July 1983 |
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