curtail: [16] The now defunct English noun curtal meant ‘horse with a docked tail’. It was borrowed in the 16th century from French courtault, a derivative of the adjective court ‘short’. Like English curt [17] this came from Latin curtus ‘cut off, shortened’, which in common with English short and shear, can be traced back to an Indo-European base *ker- or *sker- ‘cut’. In the late 16th century the noun was converted into a verb, originally meaning literally ‘dock a horse’, and the close semantic link with ‘tails’ led to its alteration to curtail. => cuirass, curt, shear, shirt, short, skirt
curtail (v.)
late 15c., from Middle French courtault "made short," from court "short" (Old French cort, from Latin curtus; see curt) + -ault pejorative suffix of Germanic origin. Originally curtal; used of horses with docked tails, which probably influenced the spelling in general use; curtal is retained in poetics to describe a "shortened" stanza or poem. Related: Curtailed; curtailing.
实用例句
1. I told Louie that old age would curtail her activities in time.
我告诉路易，一上年纪她的活动量就会减少。
来自柯林斯例句
2. NATO plans to curtail the number of troops being sent to the region.
北约计划缩减派往该地区的士兵数量。
来自辞典例句
3. It is necessary to curtail or alter normally coexisting stimuli.
必需消除或改变正常时并存的刺激.
来自辞典例句
4. Again the purpose of this action was to curtail inflation.
