arbour: [14] Despite its formal resemblance to, and semantic connections with, Latin arbor ‘tree’, arbour is not etymologically related to it. In fact, its nearest English relative is herb. When it first came into English it was erber, which meant ‘lawn’ or ‘herb/flower garden’. This was borrowed, via Anglo-Norman, from Old French erbier, a derivative of erbe ‘herb’.
This in turn goes back to Latin herba ‘grass, herb’ (in the 16th century a spelling with initial h was common in England). Gradually, it seems that the sense ‘grassy plot’ evolved to ‘separate, secluded nook in a garden’; at first, the characteristic feature of such shady retreats was their patch of grass, but their seclusion was achieved by surrounding trees or bushes, and eventually the criterion for an arbour shifted to ‘being shaded by trees’.
Training on a trellis soon followed, and the modern arbour as ‘bower’ was born. The shift from grass and herbaceous plants to trees no doubt prompted the alteration in spelling from erber to arbour, after Latin arbor; this happened in the 15th and 16th centuries. => herb
arbour (n.)
chiefly British English spelling of arbor (q.v.); for spelling, see -or.
雙語例句
1. They sat in the arbour and chatted over tea.
他們坐在涼亭里,邊喝茶邊聊天.
來自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)
2. Benedick was quietly seated reading in an arbour.
培尼狄克靜靜地坐在涼亭里看書.
來自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)
3. Arbour warned delegates to the U . N. Human Rights Council against pursuing narrow parochial political agendas.