debt

英 [det] 美[d?t]

CET4TEM4考研TOEFLCET6中高頻詞核心詞匯

復數:?debts;

1. debt <===> debit.

debt 借款

來自拉丁語debitum, 虧欠。來自de-, 向下，離開，-hab, 持，握，擁有，詞源同habit. 即把別人的東西拿走的，虧欠的，后指借款，債務。

debt: debt: [13] Debt originated as dēbita, the plural of Latin dēbitum ‘that which is owed’, a noun formed from the past participle of the verb dēbēre ‘owe’. In Vulgar Latin, dēbita was evidently viewed as a feminine singular noun, and it passed thus into Old French as dette, the form in which English originally acquired the word. From the 13th to the 16th centuries the French spelling was latinized as debte, a reform which English adopted in the 16th century.

In the 15th century English independently borrowed Latin dēbitum as debit. (Latin dēbēre ‘owe’, source also of English debenture, due, and duty, was originally a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘away’ and habēre ‘have’, literally ‘have away’, that is, ‘keep in one’s possession what belongs to someone else’.)
=> debenture, due, duty, endeavour
debt (n.): late 13c., dette, from Old French dete, from Latin debitum "thing owed," neuter past participle of debere "to owe," originally, "keep something away from someone," from de- "away" (see de-) + habere "to have" (see habit (n.)). Restored spelling after c. 1400. In Middle English, debt of the body (mid-14c.) was "that which spouses owe to each other, sexual intercourse."

2. The plan is designed to reduce some of the company's mountainous debt.: 該計劃旨在減少公司堆積如山的債務。

3. The American Congress has agreed to forgive Egypt's military debt.: 美國國會同意免除埃及的軍事債務。

4. The Commonwealth Development Corporation has agreed to reschedule Tanzania's debt.: 英聯邦開發公司已經同意推遲坦桑尼亞的債務償還時間。