compass

英 ['kʌmpəs] 美 ['kʌmpəs]

CET4TEM4IELTSGRE考研CET6

解释

n. 指南针，罗盘；圆规
vt. 包围

※ 提供单词"compass"的中文意思、发音示范及音标对照，中英文词源、例句和用法等。

中文词源

compass 界限，罗盘，圆规

com-, 强调。-pass, 走，展开，词源同pace. 后用于指数学和航海物件品。

英文词源

compass: compass: [13] The notion underlying compass is of ‘measuring out with paces’. It originated as a verb, Vulgar Latin *compassāre ‘pace out’, a compound formed from the Latin intensive prefix com- and passus (source of English pace). This passed into Old French as compasser ‘measure’, and thence into English. The derived Old French noun compas was early applied to a pivoted two-armed measuring and drawing instrument, presumably inspired equally by the ideas ‘stepping’ and ‘measuring’, and English acquired this sense in the 14th century.

The use of the word for a magnetic direction indicator, which dates from the 16th century, may be due to the device’s circular container.
=> pace
compass (n.): c. 1300, "space, area, extent, circumference," from Old French compas "circle, radius, pair of compasses" (12c.), from compasser "to go around, measure, divide equally," from Vulgar Latin *compassare "to pace out" (source of Italian compassare, Spanish compasar), from Latin com- "together" (see com-) + passus "a step" (see pace (n.)).

The mathematical instrument so called from mid-14c. The mariners' directional tool (so called since early 15c.) took the name, perhaps, because it's round and has a point like the mathematical instrument. The word is in most European languages, with a mathematical sense in Romance, a nautical sense in Germanic, and both in English.
compass (v.): c. 1300, "to devise, plan;" early 14c. as "to surround, contain, envelop, enclose;" from Anglo-French cumpasser, from compass (n.). Related: Compassed; compassing.

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例句和用法

1. You can go anywhere and still the compass points north or south.: 无论走到哪里，罗盘仍然指向北或南。

2. We didn't have satnav, so the traditional map and compass took over.: 我们没有卫星导航系统，因此使用了传统的地图加指南针。

3. Sightseers arrived from all points of the compass.: 观光者来自四面八方。

4. a map and compass: 地图和指南针

5. the oscillation of the compass needle: 罗盘指针的摆动