annihilate: [16] Annihilate comes from the past participle of the late Latin verb annihilāre, meaning literally ‘reduce to nothing’ (a formation based on the noun nihil ‘nothing’, source of English nihilism and nil). There was actually an earlier English verb, annihil, based on French annihiler, which appeared at the end of the 15th century, but it did not long survive the introduction of annihilate. => nihilism, nil
annihilate (v.)
1520s, from an obsolete adjective meaning "reduced to nothing" (late 14c.), originally the past participle of a verb, anihil, from Old French annichiler (14c.), from Late Latin annihilare "to reduce to nothing," from Latin ad- "to" (see ad-) + nihil "nothing" (see nil). Related: Annihilated; annihilating.
雙語例句
1. The human race has enough weapons to annihilate itself.
人類有足夠的武器滅絕自己。
來自《權威詞典》
2. Such wonderful and wellestablished facts at once annihilate the theroy.
這些奇異而確定的事實即刻可以推翻這種學說.
來自辭典例句
3. An atomic bomb can annihilate a city.
一枚原子彈能毀滅一個城市.
來自辭典例句
4. I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days!
我多么希望那些無聊的時光快快消逝啊!
來自辭典例句
5. A real or virtual photon may spontaneously annihilate.