密歇根新闻广播 乱七八糟的正确解读法

If your life is in shambles¹, you probably have bigger things to worry about than grammar.

This week's topic comes from a listener who wanted to know the origin of in shambles.

Soon after we received this question, a co-worker told us she was surprised to learn this phrase, used to refer to a mess or state of disorder², was originally a shambles.

Shambles has an interesting etymology³. It was borrowed into West Germanic from Latin before it came into English. It first came into English as "shamel", one of its many early spellings, to refer to a footstool. In the 1400s, a "b" is added to the spelling, and we get "shamble."

In terms of meaning, in the Old English period, "shamel" referred to a table or a counter where someone could display goods or count money. In the 1300s, it comes to refer specifically to a table for selling meat.

In the 1400s, this word comes to refer to a meat market. This is also when the "b" gets added and the plural⁴ form starts to become common. Therefore, if someone said they were going to the shambles, it meant that they were going to a meat market.

Following that transition, "shambles" becomes a slaughterhouse. From there, it grows to refer to any bloody⁵ scene or place of carnage. By the 1900s, it takes on the weaker meaning of a mess or scene of disorder that many of us are familiar with today.

Here's a 1926 example from the book Microbe Hunters: "Once more his laboratory became a shambles of cluttered⁶ flasks⁷ and hurrying assistants..." Did you notice the "a" before "shambles" in this example? Like "measles⁸" and "gymnastics," "shambles" is one of those nouns that functions as a singular, even though there's an "s" at the end.

It was more common in the early 1900s to say "a shambles," but by the mid-1900s, "in shambles" starts to take off. That may be because of a re-understanding where people heard "in" instead of "a."

1 shambles   

n.混乱之处；废墟

参考例句：

• My room is a shambles.我房间里乱七八糟。
• The fighting reduced the city to a shambles.这场战斗使这座城市成了一片废墟。

2 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

3 etymology   

n.语源；字源学

参考例句：

• The hippies' etymology is contentious.关于嬉皮士的语源是有争议的。
• The origin of OK became the Holy Grail of etymology.OK的出典成了词源学梦寐以求的圣杯。

4 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。

5 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

6 cluttered   

v.杂物，零乱的东西零乱vt.( clutter的过去式和过去分词 )；乱糟糟地堆满，把…弄得很乱；（以…） 塞满…

参考例句：

• The room is cluttered up with all kinds of things. 零七八碎的东西放满了一屋子。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The desk is cluttered with books and papers. 桌上乱糟糟地堆满了书报。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 flasks   

n.瓶，长颈瓶， 烧瓶( flask的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The juggler juggled three flasks. 这个玩杂耍的人可同时抛接三个瓶子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The meat in all of the open flasks putrefied. 所有开口瓶中的肉都腐烂了。 来自辞典例句

8 measles   

n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子

参考例句：

• The doctor is quite definite about Tom having measles.医生十分肯定汤姆得了麻疹。
• The doctor told her to watch out for symptoms of measles.医生叫她注意麻疹出现的症状。