The Latin word plaga means a snare or a hunting net, and is thought to derive from the Proto Indo-European root *plak, meaning “to weave.” From this came the Latin noun plagium, meaning the act of “kidnapping” and “the netting of game.” The perpetrator of the act was called a plagiarius, that is, a kidnapper (a person who steals a human regarded at the time as “belonging” to another, for example a child or somebody else’s slave).
By extension, plagiarius also came to mean a seducer or, after the Roman poet Martial complained of another poet “kidnapping his verses” in the 1st century AD, somebody who commits literary theft by attempting to pass off others’ artistic designs, ideas or writing as their own.
In the 17th and early 18th century the Latin for “kidnapper” and “kidnapping” were adopted into English as “plagiary” and “plagium,” respectively. Martial’s sense of the plagiarius as the committer of literary theft was also adopted into English: over time, the word “plagiary” evolved into “plagiarist,” the modern word for the perpetrator of literary theft, while the modern word for the act changed from “plagium” to “plagiarism.”
Photo: Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times 照片:自由時報記者陳文嬋
(Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
拉丁文「plaga」意為陷阱,或捕鳥獸之網,據信由原始印歐語字根「*plak」(意為「編織」)演變而來。由此字根衍生出之拉丁文名詞「plagium」,意為「綁架」的行動,以及「為狩獵結網」。犯下綁架罪的人則稱為「plagiarius」,亦即綁架者(偷取當時被認為是他人「財產」的人,例如兒童或別人的奴隸)。「plagiarius」的衍伸義還有「誘惑者」,以及犯下文學偷竊罪的人,因其試圖將別人的藝術構思、見解或文字假冒為自己的,其典故來自西元一世紀的羅馬詩人馬提亞爾,他抱怨另一位詩人「綁架了他的詩句」。
在十七世紀與十八世紀早期,「綁架者」及「綁架」的拉丁文被英文吸收,分別成為「plagiary」(剽竊)及「plagium」這兩個字。馬提亞爾所說的「plagiarius」——犯下文學偷竊罪的人,也被英文吸收:久而久之,「plagiary」演變為現今「plagiarist」(抄襲者、剽竊者、文抄公)一字,而抄襲的行為則由「plagium」變成現代的拼法「plagiarism」。
(台北時報林俐凱譯)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
It’s another school day with the same ritual. You wake up to your smartphone’s alarm, scroll through messages during your commute, and listen to your favorite playlist with your wireless earbuds between classes. These devices, integrated smoothly into your daily routine, certainly make life more convenient. However, where do these devices end up after you replace them? In fact, the issue of electronic waste is a growing global concern. According to the United Nations, in 2019 alone, we generated an astonishing 53.6 million tons of e-waste—an average of 7.3kg per person. Projections hint at the figure soaring to 110