新概念雙語：牛津詞典：你不知道的6個衣物冷僻詞

1. denim 牛仔布

The hard-wearing cotton twill fabric, usually blue and often used for jeans, is pretty straightforward about its origins; denim comes from Nîmes, France. More fully, the fabric was known as ‘serge de Nîmes’, serge referring to a durable twilled woolen or worsted fabric.

這種耐磨的棉質(zhì)斜紋布織物，通常是藍色的，用來做牛仔褲，名字來源也夠直截了當(dāng)。牛仔布一詞來自法國尼姆。說全面些，這種織物即所謂的“serge de Nîmes (尼姆粗縫毛邊)”，serge指的是經(jīng)久耐磨的斜紋布羊毛或是精紡織物。

2. muslin 平紋細布

The name for this lightweight cotton cloth of a plain weave comes from the Italian word mussolina, which itself comes from Mussolo, or Mosul, the city in Iraq where this type of cloth was first manufactured.

這種輕質(zhì)棉平紋布的名字來自意大利語mussolina，其本身來自摩蘇爾這一伊拉克城市，最初這種布料就是那里生產(chǎn)的。

3. tweed 粗花呢

The term tweed, referring to ‘a rough-surfaced woolen cloth, typically of mixed flecked colors’, emerged thanks to an accidental misreading. Although the circumstances are not clear, the term tweed seems to have come about from an accidental misreading of tweel, a Scots form of twill, or a misunderstanding of an abbreviated tweeled. The adoption of the term was probably helped by association with the River Tweed in the United Kingdom.

Tweed(粗花呢)這一術(shù)語指的是種“表面粗糙的羊毛布料，通常含各種星星點點的混色”。粗花呢的出現(xiàn)源于一次偶然的誤讀。盡管情況并不清晰明了，有說tweed這個術(shù)語是因為偶然間誤讀了tweel這個詞(蘇格蘭語twill)， 也有一說是tweeled這個詞的縮寫為人們所誤解。采用這個術(shù)語多少是因為和英國特威德河(River Tweed)聯(lián)系在了一起。

4. tuxedo 燕尾服

This specific style of dinner jacket first appeared in the late 19th century, in the small village of Tuxedo Park, New York, located just outside New York City.

這一款式特別的晚禮服最初在19世紀晚期，就在紐約市外，紐約的塔克西多帕克的一個小村里出現(xiàn)。

5. balaclava 巴拉克拉法帽

The balaclava, a ‘woolen covering for the head and neck worn especially by soldiers on active service’, was named after the Crimean village of Balaclava near Sebastopol, the site of the Crimean War battle commonly known as the Battle of Balaclava.

巴拉克拉法帽是種“可以覆蓋頭部和頸部的羊毛織物，尤指服役軍人戴的帽子”，名字取自克里米亞塞瓦斯托波爾附近一個名為巴拉克拉瓦的村莊——即克里米亞戰(zhàn)爭巴拉克拉瓦戰(zhàn)役舊址。

6. cardigan 開襟羊毛衫

History buffs and poetry fans may recognize the Battle of Balaclava as the setting for the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade, immortalized in poem form by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The man leading that charge was James Thomas Brudenell, the 7th Earl of Cardigan. You read that right: the same man who helped popularize cardigans, ‘a knitted sweater fastening down the front’, also led the Light Brigade in the Battle of Balaclava.

歷史愛好者與詩歌迷也許能辨認出巴拉克拉瓦戰(zhàn)役就是注定悲劇的《輕騎隊之戰(zhàn)歌》的故事背景，因丁尼生的詩歌而不朽。率領(lǐng)沖鋒的是詹姆斯·托馬斯·布魯?shù)侵Z爾，即卡迪根伯爵七世。你的解讀沒錯，正是這同一個人既普及了開襟羊毛衫這種“前面系扣的針織毛衣”，也在巴拉克拉瓦戰(zhàn)役中率領(lǐng)了輕騎隊。