engine

• n. 引擎，发动机；机车，火车头；工具

来自拉丁语ingenium, 来自词根gen，生育，词源同gene, generate.原指内生的天赋，技术，后用来指机械装置。

engine

engine: [13] The underlying etymological meaning of engine is ‘natural talent’. It comes ultimately from Latin ingenium (source also of English ingenious) which was formed from the base *gen- (as in genetic) denoting ‘reproduction’ and meant literally ‘skill or aptitude one was born with’. Abstract meanings related to this (such as ‘ingenuity’ and ‘genius’) have now died out in English (which acquired the word via Old French engin), but what remains is a more specific strand of meaning in the Latin word – ‘clever device, contrivance’.

Originally this was an abstract concept (often used in a bad sense ‘trick, cunning ruse’), but as early as about 1300 there is evidence of a more concrete application in English to a ‘mechanical device’. The word’s modern use for ‘machine producing motion’ originates in its early 19thcentury application to the steam engine. Engineer [14] comes via Old French engigneor from medieval Latin ingeniātōr, a derivative of the verb ingeniāre ‘contrive’, which in turn came from ingenium.
=> gin, ingenious

engine (n.)

c. 1300, "mechanical device," especially one used in war; "manner of construction," also "skill, craft, innate ability; deceitfulness, trickery," from Old French engin "skill, wit, cleverness," also "trick, deceit, stratagem; war machine" (12c.), from Latin ingenium "inborn qualities, talent" (see ingenious), in Late Latin "a war engine, battering ram" (Tertullian, Isidore of Seville). Sense of "device that converts energy to mechanical power" is 18c.; in 19c. especially of steam engines.

来自柯林斯例句

2. In 1941, the train would have been pulled by a steam engine.

1941年，火车本可以由蒸汽机车拉动。

来自柯林斯例句

3. Two of them got out to fiddle around with the engine.

其中两人下车鼓捣引擎。

来自柯林斯例句

4. Arnold stopped the engine and got out of the car.

阿诺德关掉发动机，下了车。

来自柯林斯例句

5. The GM diesel engine shunted the coaches to Platform 4.

通用柴油动力火车头将车厢转轨到了4号月台。

来自柯林斯例句