belfry

• n. 钟楼；钟塔

来自古德语复合词*berg-frithu, 和平保卫者，讽刺的用于一古老的攻城塔的名字。berg,保护，词源同harbor, 港口，保护。frithu, 和平，友好，词源同free, friend. 后该攻城塔用于眺望，因与钟楼功能相似而词义也随之变化，拼写也受bell影响俗化。

1. a bell tower; usually stands alone unattached to a building

2. a room (often at the top of a tower) where bells are hung

belfry

belfry: [13] Etymologically, belfry has nothing to do with bells; it was a chance similarity between the two words that led to belfry being used from the 15th century onwards for ‘bell-tower’. The original English form was berfrey, and it meant ‘movable seige-tower’. It came from Old French berfrei, which in turn was borrowed from a hypothetical Frankish *bergfrith, a compound whose two elements mean respectively ‘protect’ (English gets bargain, borough, borrow, and bury from the same root) and ‘peace, shelter’ (hence German friede ‘peace’); the underlying sense of the word is thus the rather tautological ‘protective shelter’.

A tendency to break down the symmetry between the two rs in the word led in the 15th century to the formation of belfrey in both English and French (l is phonetically close to r), and at around the same time we find the first reference to it meaning ‘bell-tower’, in Promptorium parvulorum 1440, an early English-Latin dictionary: ‘Bellfray, campanarium’.
=> affray, bargain, borrow, borough, bury, neighbour

belfry (n.)

c. 1400, "wooden siege tower on wheels" (late 13c. in Anglo-Latin with a sense "bell tower"), from Old North French berfroi "movable siege tower" (Modern French beffroi), from Middle High German bercfrit "protecting shelter," from Proto-Germanic compound *berg-frithu, literally "high place of security," or that which watches over peace." From bergen "to protect" (see bury) or *bergaz "mountain, high place" (see barrow (n.2)) + *frithu- "peace; personal security" (see affray). It came to be used for chime towers (mid-15c.), which at first often were detached from church buildings (as the Campanile on Plaza San Marco in Venice). Spelling altered by dissimilation or by association with bell (n.).

The poor man must have bats in the belfry -- he wears such peculiar clothes.

这个可怜的人准有点疯 -- 他穿这么怪的衣服.

辞典例句

Belfry: bell tower , either freestanding or attached to another structure.

钟楼: 独立的或附在另一建筑上的钟楼.

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There also had been hundreds of in my belfry and attic.

在我的钟楼和阁楼也有好几百只.

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Everybody said that the old man had bats in his belfry.

人人都说那老头是神经病.

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Paddy: Uh oh, It'sounds like you've belfry!

派迪: 喔哦, 听起来你是脑袋不太正常!

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If somebody has bats in the belfry, they are slightly mad or eccentric.

用来形容人有点疯疯癫癫或是古里古怪的.

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The poor man have bats in the belfry -- he wears such peculiar clothes.

这个可怜的人“准”有点疯 -- 他穿这么怪的衣服.

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The poor man must have bats in the belfry -- he wear such peculiar clothes.

这个可怜的人准有点疯- - 他穿这麽怪的衣服.

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Don't say such silly things, Tom. People will think you have bats in your belfry.

汤姆,不要说这样的蠢话了, 人们会为你神经不正常的.

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You cannot believe a word she say because she is bats in the belfry.

她说的话你一句也不能相信,因为她神经失常了.

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Galileo is said to have conducted his revolutionary experiments with falling objects from the off - kilter belfry.

伽利略曾在这个失去平衡的倾斜的钟楼上做过具有划时代意义的自由落体实验.

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