Sphinx

• n. 斯芬克斯（带翼的狮身女怪，传说常叫过路行人猜谜，猜不出者即遭噬食）；狮身人面像；谜一样的人

来自拉丁语 Sphinx,来自希腊语 Sphinks,古希腊神话传说中的狮身人面长翼女妖，每当过路 人经过即让其猜谜，猜不中者将就其吃掉，这个著名的谜语就是“什么动物早晨用四条腿走 路，中午用两条腿走路，晚上用三条腿走路”，后古希腊英雄 Oedipus 猜中了谜底，斯芬克 斯羞愧万分，跳崖而死。对应于或原型来自埃及神话中的男狮身人面像，法老的守护神。其 词源可能来自希腊语 sphingein,绑，挤，勒，因狮子用牙齿咬住猎物后勒紧使猎物窒息而死， 或俗化自埃及语 Szp-'nx(sheap-ankh),神圣的雕像。

1. an inscrutable person who keeps his thoughts and intentions secret

2. one of a number of large stone statues with the body of a lion and the head of a man that were built by the ancient Egyptians

sphinx

sphinx: [16] The original Sphinx was a monster, half woman and half lion, which terrorized the country around Thebes in ancient Greece. According to legend, it would waylay travellers and ask them a riddle; and if they could not solve it, it killed them. One of its favoured methods was strangulation, and its name supposedly means ‘the strangler’ – as if it were derived from Greek sphíggein ‘bind tight’ (source of English sphincter [16]).

However, this account of its name sounds as mythological as the account of its existence, and a more likely explanation is perhaps that the word was derived from the name of Mount Phikion, not far from ancient Thebes. One of the first yachts to carry a spinnaker sail, in the mid-1860s, was the Sphinx, and it has been conjectured that its name (or rather a mispronunciation /spingks/) formed the basis of the term spinnaker [19], perhaps as a partial blend with spanker, the name of another type of sail.
=> spinnaker

sphinx (n.)

monster of Greek mythology having a lion's (winged) body and a woman's head; she waylaid travelers around Thebes and devoured those who could not answer her questions; Oedipus solved the riddle and the Sphinx killed herself. In English from early 15c., from Latin Sphinx, from Greek Sphinx, said to mean literally" the strangler," a back-formation from sphingein "to squeeze, bind" (see sphincter).

There also was an Egyptian form (usually male and wingless); in reference to this it is attested in English from 1570s; specific reference to the colossal stone one near the pyramids as Giza is attested from 1610s. Transferred sense of "person or thing of mysterious nature" is from c. 1600. The proper plural would be sphinges. As adjectives in English, sphingal, sphingian, sphingine, sphinxian, sphinxine, and sphinx-like all have been tried.

It's possible Merian used a magnifying glass to capture the detail of the split tongues of sphinx moths depicted in the painting.

2018年12月六级真题（第二套）阅读 Section B

We set off to see the Pyramids and Sphinx.

我们出发去看金字塔和狮身人面像。

柯林斯例句

The Great Pyramids and the Sphinx are nearby.

雄伟的金字塔和狮身人面像就在附近.

《简明英汉词典》

I. Comparisons to a Living Creature ( i . e . , the Sphinx riddle )

1.比作某种生物 ( 如斯芬克司谜 )

英汉非文学 - 民俗

It suited him to play the sphinx.

让他演神秘莫测的人很合适。

辞典例句

She was the picture of a serene and exquisite but impenetrable sphinx.

她看上去就象一尊非常安详精致、但又高深莫测的狮身人面像.

辞典例句

I've always found her rather sphinx - like.

我总觉得她像个谜一样,难以捉摸.

辞典例句

The lion was a monster sphinx which was astray like them in that gulf of darkness.

这只狮子是个丑怪的斯芬克斯,跟他们一样迷失在这黑暗的深渊里.

辞典例句

Were you there when the Pharaohs commissioned the Sphinx?

当法老王打造人面狮身时你在那儿 吗 ?

电影对白

Did the Sphinx give Oedipus a clue?

斯芬尼克斯给俄狄浦斯线索了 吗 ?

电影对白

As the puzzle , like the Sphinx, it is difficult to answer!

这谜题却如同斯芬克斯的问题, 想找答案难上加难!

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The Majestically - holding Sphinx : A View on " My Ah Q "

雄踞的斯芬克斯: 论 “ 我的阿Q ”

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Tongue Twister J _ K _ L Just think, that sphinx has a sphincter that stinks!

试想想, 那个狮身人面像的括约肌发臭了!

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Atop Athena's helmet, between winged griffins, crouched an inscrutable sphinx.

在雅典娜头盔的上方 、 于带翼的狮身鹰首兽之间, 蹲伏着一头神秘难测的狮身人史芬克斯.

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I heard the Sphinx, but I did not understand.

我听到了斯蒂芬斯的话, 却不懂得.

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That we should finally learn from this Sphinx to ask questions , too?

最后我们若产生怀疑,失去耐心,或不耐烦地走开, 你会惊奇 吗 ?

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