allay的意思

allay

英式音标[ə'le]
美式英标[ə'leɪ]

基本解释

vt. 减轻；使缓和；使平静

allay 缓和

古英语前缀a-, 放下，离开，来自PIE *uz, 词源同out ，此处受前缀al- 影响俗化. 单词lay,放置。

allay: allay: [OE] In Old English, alecgan meant literally ‘lay aside’ (-a ‘away, aside, out’, lecgan ‘lay’). The more recent senses ‘relieve, mitigate’ developed from the 13th to the 15th centuries owing to the influence of two formally similar Old French verbs: aleger ‘lighten’ (from Latin alleviāre, source of English alleviate [15]); and al(e)ier ‘qualify, moderate’ (source of English alloy).
=> lay
allay (v.): Old English alecgan "to put down, remit, give up," a Germanic compound (cognates: Gothic uslagjan, Old High German irleccan, German erlegen), from a- "down, aside" + lecgan "to lay" (see lay).

Early Middle English pronunciations of -y- and -g- were not always distinct, and the word was confused in Middle English with various senses of Romanic-derived alloy and allege, especially the latter in an obsolete sense of "to lighten," from Latin ad- "to" + levis (see lever).
Amid the overlapping of meanings that thus arose, there was developed a perplexing network of uses of allay and allege, that belong entirely to no one of the original vbs., but combine the senses of two or more of them. [OED]
The double -l- is 17c., a mistaken Latinism. Related: Allayed; allaying.

3. They are trying to allay public fears about the spread of the disease.: 他们正竭力减轻公众对这种疾病传播的恐惧.

4. Despite its condescension toward the Bennet family, the letter begins to allay Elizabeth's prejudice against Darcy.: 尽管这封信对班纳特家的态度很高傲, 但它开始消除伊丽莎白对达西的偏见.