breast: [OE] Breast can be traced back via prehistoric Germanic *breustam to an Indo- European base *bhrus- or *bhreus-, whose other descendants, including Old Saxon brustian ‘bud’, Middle High German briustern ‘swell’, and Irish brú ‘abdomen, womb’, suggest that the underlying reference contained in the word may be to the growth and swelling of the female breasts. By the time it reached Old English, as brēost, it had already developed a more general, non-sex-specific sense ‘chest’, but the meaning element ‘mammary gland’ has remained throughout, and indeed over the past two hundred years ‘chest’ has grown steadily more archaic.
breast (n.)
Old English breost "breast, bosom; mind, thought, disposition," from Proto-Germanic *breustam "breast" (cognates: Old Saxon briost, Old Frisian briast, Old Norse brjost, Dutch borst, German brust, Gothic brusts), perhaps literally "swelling" and from PIE root *bhreus- "to swell, sprout" (cognates: Middle Irish bruasach "having a broad, strong chest," Old Irish bruinne "breast"). The spelling conforms to the Scottish and northern England dialectal pronunciation. Figurative sense of "seat of the emotions" was in Old English.
雙語例句
1. The president beat his breast and called that deal a mistake.
總裁捶胸頓足，稱那是個錯誤的交易。
來自柯林斯例句
2. Cancer of the breast in young women is uncommon.
乳腺癌在年輕女子當中并不常見。
來自柯林斯例句
3. The breast can be cut into portions for grilling.
胸脯肉可以切成小塊燒烤。
來自柯林斯例句
4. He reached into his breast pocket for his cigar case.
他把手伸進胸前口袋里拿雪茄煙盒。
來自柯林斯例句
5. Breast self-examination is invaluable for detecting cancer in its very early stages.