Thu, Feb 27, 2020 page15

• English etymologies: The origins of ‘corona’ 英語字源學:「冠狀」的起源

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  The name “coronavirus” is descriptive of the virus particles (virions), which look like the tines of a crown. In ancient Rome, the Latin corona meant a crown or a garland bestowed for distinguished military service. By extension, it has come to be used as a byword for the royal family.

  In old English law, the title custos placitorum coronae meant “keeper of the pleas of the crown.” The title was then simplified to coroner, and later, by the 17th century, the coroner’s duties were reduced to examining the reasons for a person’s death.

  “Coronation” also derives from the Latin root, and from around 1400 has meant the “act or ceremony of investing (a sovereign) with a crown.”

  

  This illustration, created at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reveals the ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. 冠狀病毒之超顯微結構形態。美國疾病管制與預防中心製圖。

  Photo: Wikimedia Commons
  照片：維基共享資源

  The shape of the crown has led to the use of “corona” to refer to things resembling a tined ring around another object, giving us the sun’s corona — first used in 1809 — and the coronary arteries, first recorded in 1741, surrounding the heart.

  A “coronary,” meaning a blockage of the flow of blood to the heart caused by a clot in a coronary artery, was first used in 1955. It is short for coronary thrombosis.

  (Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)

  冠狀病毒「coronavirus」這個名字，描述該病毒的顆粒(病毒粒子)，看起來就像是皇冠上的尖叉。在古羅馬時期，「corone」這個拉丁字可指皇冠，或因傑出軍功所贈與的花冠，後來引伸為皇室的代稱。

  在古老的英格蘭律法中，「custos placitorum coronae」這個頭銜曾意指君王訴訟的掌管者，後來被簡化為「coroner」，之後到了十七世紀，該職位限縮為驗屍官，僅負責查驗人們死亡的原因。

  加冕典禮「coronation」同樣衍生自這個拉丁字根，大約自一四○○年起，被用來表示授予(君王)皇冠的動作或儀典。

  而皇冠的形狀，亦導致「corona」這個字被類比為︰一圈尖齒狀的東西環繞在某物體上，如我們所知太陽的日冕——該詞在一八○九年首次被使用——及圍繞著心臟的冠狀動脈，該詞在一七四一年首次被記載。

  所謂的冠心病「coronary」，則是指冠狀動脈中的凝塊阻塞了流向心臟的血液，該詞在一九五五年首次被使用，是冠狀動脈血栓的簡稱。

  (台北時報張聖恩譯)
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