n. 太监;阉人
eunuch 阉人,太监
来自希腊语eunoukhos, 床边侍者。来自eune, 床,词源不详,可能来自PIE*wen, 追寻,渴求,词源同 Venus. -okh, 持,握,词源同epoch, school. 后来用来指阉人,太监。
Eunuches is he þat is i-gilded, and suche were somtyme i-made wardeynes of ladyes in Egipt. [John of Trevisa, translation of Higdon's Polychronicon, 1387]Harem attendants in Oriental courts and under the Roman emperors were charged with important affairs of state. The Greek and Latin forms of the word were used in the sense "castrated man" in the Bible but also to translate Hebrew saris, which sometimes meant merely "palace official," in Septuagint and Vulgate, probably without an intended comment on the qualities of bureaucrats. Related: Eunuchal; eunuchry; eunuchize.