美国印第安纳州一名叫薇薇安的高中学生,她在学习英语的时候,遇到了一个百思不得其解的问题:单词number的缩写为什么是No?特别是这个单词本身没有字母O的存在。于是,她将这个问题带到了一档节目:
- Hello, you have a way with words.
你好,《能说会道》节目。
- My name is Vivian, I am calling from Indianapolis, Indiana.
我的名字叫薇薇安。我来自印第安纳州的印第安纳波利斯市
- Welcome, Vivian! What can we do for you?
欢迎薇薇安,我们有什么能帮到你的吗?
- I had a question why is the abbreviation for the word Number (it just spelled n-u-m-b-e-r) No, is the letter O isn't anywhere in the original word.
我有一个问题,为什么number,拼写是n-u-m-b-e-r,这个单词的缩写是No,在原单词里根本没有o这个字母啊
- Oh, so you think it maybe should be Nu instead of No is the abbreviation ha?
哦,所以其实你觉得它的缩写更应该是Nu,而不是No
- Right I mean like... probably.
是的,可能是吧
- Ha ha ha ha! It's part of a set of abbreviations we have that are basically older than English, at least modern English. It goes back to the Latin form of the word number... it's... One form of it was numero, very much like in Spanish and Italian today in n-u-m-e-r-o.
这是一套比英语,至少是现代英语更古老的缩写的一部分。它可以追溯到单词number的拉丁语形式,其中的一种是numero,非常像现在西班牙语和意大利语中的n-u-m-e-r-o
- And Latins scribes abbreviated a lot of their writing and the way they abbreviate that word was in №, the little marker maybe they raise O with the line above it to indicated that the word had been shortened.
拉丁文字中有很多缩写,他们缩写这个词的方式是用o这个小标记,把o加上横线升格表示这个词被缩短了
- So that's it...so we just capt that Latin abbreviation.
就是这样,我们就使用了拉丁语的缩略语
- Wow! That's so cool!
哇,太酷了
- Well cool, thank you for telling me.
谢谢您帮我解惑
- Yes, that's pretty much it. Thanks for call. Really appreciate it.
是的,差不多就是这样,感谢你的来电
- Thanks, bye!
谢谢,再见
- Take care, bye!
保重,再见
看完了上面的对话,不知道大家有没有理解,按照节目方的说法,Number的单词缩写,是其拉丁语形式Numero取首尾字母N、O,其中O做小标记,加上横线升格表示这个单词被缩短了,所以说,单词Number的缩写应该是№。
是不是更疑惑了,这不还是没有解释清楚单词Number的缩写为何是No嘛,其实很好理解,№在电脑上你知道怎么打出来吗?不知道吧,不仅你不知道,很多人同样不知道,所以为了方便打字书写,就直接以No表示了。这个英语小知识你学会了吗?学会就点个赞吧。