certain

英['s??t(?)n;-t?n] 美['s?tn]

比較級:?more certain;最高級:?most certain;

certain 確定

來自PIE*krei, *sker, 切，分開。詞源同crisis, crime, discriminate, shear.

certain: certain: [13] Certain comes ultimately from Latin certus ‘sure, fixed’, which derived from the past participle of the verb cernere ‘decide’. The Latin adjective was extended in Vulgar Latin to *certānus, which passed into English via Old French certain. Other English words based on certus include certify [14] (from late Latin certificāre) and its derivative certificate, and certitude [15] (from late Latin certitūdō).
=> crime, crisis, decree, discern, discrete, discriminate, excrement, riddle, secret
certain (adj.): c. 1300, "determined, fixed," from Old French certain "reliable, sure, assured" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *certanus, from Latin certus "sure, fixed, settled, determined" (also source of Italian certo, Spanish cierto), originally a variant past participle of cernere "to distinguish, decide," literally "to sift, separate" (see crisis).

Of persons, "full of confidence in one's knowledge or judgment," from mid-14c. Euphemistic use (of a certain age, etc.) attested from mid-18c. Certainer, certainest were common to c. 1750, but have fallen from proper use for some reason. Expression for certain "assuredly" is attested by early 14c.

1. There is a certain impatience among some of the soldiers.: 有些士兵有點(diǎn)兒不耐煩。

2. Over the years he's demonstrated a certain prescience in foreign affairs.: 這些年來，他已經(jīng)在外交事務(wù)方面表現(xiàn)出一定的預(yù)見性。

5. Parents can programme the machine not to turn on at certain times.: 父母可以設(shè)定這臺機(jī)器的程序，使它在特定時(shí)間段無法開啟。