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smithereens pl. n. [smih-thuh-REENZ]

【常用复数】碎片，小片

Definition

: fragments, bits

Did You Know?

Despite its American sound and its common use by the fiery animated cartoon character Yosemite Sam, smithereens did not originate in American slang. Although no one is entirely positive about its precise origins, scholars think that smithereens likely developed from the Irish word smidiríní, which means “little bits.” That Irish word is the diminutive of smiodar, meaning “fragment.” According to print evidence, the plural form smithereens first appears in English in the late 18th century; use of singular smithereen then follows.

词源词根演化：smiodar(Irish, “fragment”) —> smidiríní(Irish, “little bits”) —> smithereens

尽管单词smithereens有美式发音，并且被火爆的卡通人物Yosemite Sam经常使用，但是这个单词并不起源于美国俚语。虽然确切的起源并没有得到公认，学者们还是认为smithereens有可能从爱尔兰单词smidiríní（小碎片）发展而来，而这个单词是又是Irish单词smiodar（碎片）的小式（diminutive form）。从印刷品证据来看，复数形式的英语smithereens最早出现在18世纪晚期；随后出现了单数形式的smithereen。

注：fiery：火的，炽热的，激烈的，暴躁的，辛辣的

Examples

• For the Soviet Union, it didn’t matter that Luna 2, which became the first spacecraft to reach the moon, had been smashed into smithereens. The point was to get there first — to mark territory."

  — Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 3 Jan. 2019
  对于前苏联，月球2号飞船的坠毁并不重要，重要的是它是对一个到达月球的飞行器；重点是第一个到达 — 用于在月球划分地盘。

• Diagnosed at around age 5 with optic nerve atrophy, an incurable and often progressive disease that damages the nerve connecting the eyes to the brain, Terri doesn’t just defy conventional images of blindness. She smashes them to smithereens. She’s the married mom of two grade-schoolers, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Nevada and a dedicated camper who navigates the woods with a long white cane. “I can do just about anything except drive,” she says.

  — Peg Rosen, Good Housekeeping, October 2018

  在大约5岁时被诊断出视觉神经发育不良，这是一种无法治愈且慢性发展的疾病，会破坏连接眼睛与大脑的神经。Terri不仅仅打破了人们对盲人的传统印象，而且还将这些印象击得粉碎。她是一个婚育妈妈，有两个正上小学的孩子，还是National Federation of the Blind of Nevada的主席，而且还是专注的露营者，她用一根白色的长拐杖在森岭中游历。她说：“除了开车，我可以做任何事情”。

  注：defy：藐视，挑衅，反抗；grade-schooler：小学=elementary school

  Terri Rupp, President：

Bonus

retail：零售

: relating to the business of selling things directly to customers for their own use

• a retail establishment/shop/store
• the manufacturer’s suggested retail price [= the price of something when it is sold to the final customer]
• Is that price retail or wholesale?
  注：wholesale：批发，retail的反义词

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