Word of the Day：April 8, 2022

mettlesome

勇敢；精力旺盛的

adjective MET-ul-sum [ˈmetlsəm]

What It Means

Mettlesome means "full of vigor and strength of spirit or temperament."

Mettlesome 的意思是“精神上充滿活力、力量的”。

METTLESOME in Context

"My mother was strong, mettlesome—a survivor. We were a lower-middle-class family." — Patti Smith, quoted in The Guardian, 20 Sep. 2020

“我的母親很堅強，很勇敢——她是一位幸存者。我們是中産偏下的家庭。”

The rider was experienced and had no trouble handling the mettlesome horse.

這位經驗豐富的騎手駕禦這匹勇猛的馬毫無困難。

Did You Know?

The 17th-century adjective mettlesome (popularly used of spirited horses) sometimes appeared as the variant metalsome. That's not surprising. In the 16th century and for some time after, mettle was a variant spelling of metal—that is, the word for substances such as gold, copper, and iron. The 16th century was also when metal—or mettle—acquired the figurative sense of "spirit," "courage," or "stamina." However, by the early 18th century, dictionaries were noting the distinction between metal, used for the substance, and mettle, used for "spirit," so that nowadays the words mettle and mettlesome are rarely associated with metal.

形容詞 mettlesome(通常用于形容精力充沛的馬)有時會作為變體metalsome使用在17世紀。這不足為奇，因為在16世紀後的一段時間裡，mettle是metal的變體，描述像金、銅和鐵之類的物質。16世紀metal(或勇氣)也有“spirit【精神】”、“courage【勇氣】”或“stamina【耐力】”這些的比喻含義。而到了18世紀早期，字典編撰者注意到metal(指物質【substance】)和mettle(指精神【spirit】)之間的區别，所以現在的mettle 和 metttlesome 它們很少和 metal 聯系在一起了。

Quiz

Fill in the blanks to complete an adjective meaning "lively in temper, conduct, or spirit": v _ _ ac _ _ us.

vivacious

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