cement: [13] Latin caementa meant ‘stone chips used for making mortar’; etymologically, the notion behind it was of ‘hewing for a quarry’, for it was originally *caedmenta, a derivative of caedere ‘cut’ (from which English gets concise and decide). In due course the signification of the Latin word passed from ‘small broken stones’ to ‘powdered stone (used for mortar)’, and it was in this sense that it passed via Old French ciment into English. => concise, decide
cement (n.)
c. 1300, from Old French ciment "cement, mortar, pitch," from Latin cæmenta "stone chips used for making mortar" (singular caementum), from caedere "to cut down, chop, beat, hew, fell, slay" (see -cide). The sense evolution from "small broken stones" to "powdered stones used in construction" took place before the word reached English.
cement (v.)
c. 1400, from cement (n.) or Old French cimenter. Figurative use from c. 1600. Related: Cemented; cementing.
实用例句
1. The gym teachers lined us up against the cement walls.
体育老师让我们靠着水泥墙排好。
来自柯林斯例句
2. In the old days, television was the cement of society.
过去，电视曾是团结社会的力量。
来自柯林斯例句
3. A puppy stepped in the fresh cement.
一只小狗踩在刚抹好的水泥面上。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The earth-moving trucks and cement mixers lay idle.
