observe: [14] Latin observāre meant ‘watch, pay attention to, look to, comply with’. It was a compound verb, formed with the prefix ob- ‘to’ from servāre ‘keep safe’, hence ‘guard, watch, heed’ (no relation to servīre, source of English serve and servant). The two semantic strands ‘seeing, noting’ and ‘complying’ have remained together in the English verb, but have diverged in its derived nouns, the former going to observation [14], the latter to observance [13]. => conserve, reserve
observe (v.)
late 14c., "to hold to" (a manner of life or course of conduct), from Old French observer, osserver "to observe, watch over, follow" (10c.), from Latin observare "watch over, note, heed, look to, attend to, guard, regard, comply with," from ob "over" (see ob-) + servare "to watch, keep safe," from PIE root *ser- (1) "to protect." Meaning "to attend to in practice, to keep, follow" is attested from late 14c. Sense of "watch, perceive, notice" is 1560s, via notion of "see and note omens." Meaning "to say by way of remark" is from c. 1600. Related: Observed; observing.
雙語例句
1. The Royal Greenwich Observatory was founded to observe and catalogue the stars.
當初創立皇家格林尼治天文臺就是為了觀察星體并對其進行編目。
來自柯林斯例句
2. Scientists observe the same dynamics in fluids.
科學家們在液體中觀察到了同樣的驅動力。
來自柯林斯例句
3. Let's observe a minute's silence in memory of the dead.