dear

英[d??] 美[d?r]

反義詞cheap

復數:?dears;比較級:?dearer;最高級:?dearest;

dear 親愛的

.來自古英語deore,珍貴的，昂貴的。引申義親愛的，珍重的。比較漢語成語物以稀為貴。

dear: dear: [OE] Dear is one of the English language’s more semantically stable words. By the 11th century it had already developed its two major present-day senses, ‘much-loved’ and ‘expensive’, which are shared by its Germanic relative, German teuer (Dutch has differentiated dier ‘much loved’ from duur ‘expensive’). All these words go back to a prehistoric West and North Germanic *deurjaz, whose ultimate origin is not known.

In the 13th century an abstract noun, dearth, was derived from the adjective. It seems likely that this originally meant ‘expensiveness’ (although instances of this sense, which has since disappeared, are not recorded before the late 15th century). This developed to ‘period when food is expensive, because scarce’, and eventually to ‘scarcity’ generally.
=> dearth
dear (adj.): Old English deore "precious, valuable, costly, loved, beloved," from Proto-Germanic *deurjaz (cognates: Old Saxon diuri, Old Norse dyrr, Old Frisian diore, Middle Dutch dure, Dutch duur, Old High German tiuri, German teuer), ultimate origin unknown. Used interjectorily since 1690s. As a polite introductory word to letters, it is attested from mid-15c. As a noun, from late 14c., perhaps short for dear one, etc.

1. Outside, Bruce glanced at his watch: "Dear me, nearly oneo'clock.": 出了門，布魯斯瞥了一眼自己的手表，“天哪，快一點了。”

2. "Could I have a word?" — "Oh dear, if you must.": “我能說一句嗎？”——“親愛的，如果你非說不可的話，好吧。”

5. "Ooh dear me, that's a bit of a racist comment isn't it.": “嗬，天哪！那評論有點種族歧視，不是嗎？”