alphabet

• n. 字母表，字母係統；入門，初步

alpha，希臘語第一個字母，同A.bet, 希臘語第二個字母，同B.

alphabet

alphabet: [15] This word is based on the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta, standing for the whole. It derives from Greek alphabētos, via Latin alphabētum. When it first came into English, purists tried to insist that it should be reserved for the Greek alphabet, and that the English alphabet should be referred to by the term ABC (which had been lexicalized in various forms, such as abece, apece, and absee, since the late 13th century), but, like most such prescriptive demands, this was a waste of breath and ink.

alphabet (n.)

1570s, from Late Latin alphabetum (Tertullian), from Greek alphabetos, from alpha + beta. Alphabet soup first attested 1907. Words for it in Old English included stæfræw, literally "row of letters," stæfrof "array of letters."

It was a wise though a lazy cleric whom Luther mentions in his "Table Talk,"--the monk who, instead of reciting his breviary, used to run over the alphabet and then say, "O my God, take this alphabet, and put it together how you will." [William S. Walsh, "Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities," 1892]

1. The alphabet might be more rational if all the vowels came first.

如果把所有的元音列在前麵，字母表可能會更為合理一些。

來自柯林斯例句

2. The modern Russian alphabet has 31 letters.

現代俄語字母表有31個字母。

來自柯林斯例句

3. Q comes between P and R in the English alphabet.

英語字母表中，Q在P和R之間。

來自《權威詞典》

4. the International Phonetic Alphabet

國際音標

來自《權威詞典》

5. Anybody who compiles a dictionary has to know his alphabet backwards.

無論誰編字典都得把字母表記得熟透.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》