mole

• n. 鼴鼠；痣；防波堤；胎塊；間諜

縮寫自molewarp,歐洲鼴鼠。後用於鼴鼠通用名。引申俚語義內奸。

來自拉丁語moles,大塊，防洪堤，大工程，大建築物，來自PIE*mo,努力，勞苦，詞源同demolish,molecule,molest.

來自古英語mal,斑點，痣，來自Proto-Germanic*mailan,斑點，記號，來自PIE*mai,塗沫，弄髒，玷汙，詞源同miasma.

分子單位，縮寫自molecule.

來自西班牙語，來自南美土著語molli,沙司，調料，燉料，詞源同guacamole.

mole

mole: English has four distinct words mole. The oldest is ‘brown spot’ [OE]. It is the descendant of Old English māl, which meant broadly ‘discoloured mark’. This developed in Middle English to ‘spot on the skin’, but the specific sense ‘brown mark’ did not emerge until fairly recently. The word goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *mailam, a derivative of a base meaning ‘spot, mark’ which also produced German malen ‘paint’ and Dutch maalen ‘paint’ (source of English maulstick ‘stick used as a rest by painters’ [17]). Mole the animal [14] was borrowed from Middle Dutch mol.

No one knows for sure where this came from, but its similarity to the now obsolete mouldwarp ‘mole’ [14] (a compound noun whose etymological meaning is ‘earththrower’) suggests that it could represent a truncated version of mouldwarp’s prehistoric Germanic ancestor. The metaphorical application of the word to a ‘traitor working secretly’ has been traced back as far as the 17th century, but its modern currency is due to its use by the British espionage writer John le Carré. Mole ‘harbour wall’ [16] comes via French môle and medieval Greek mólos from Latin mōlēs ‘mass, massive structure’.

The diminutive form of this, coined in modern times, is mōlēcula, from which, via French molécule, English gets molecule [18]. Other relatives are demolish and, possibly, molest [14], which comes ultimately from Latin molestus ‘troublesome’, connected by some scholars with mōlēs. And German mol, a convenient shortening of molekulargewicht ‘molecular weight’, has given English its fourth mole [20], used as the basic unit of measurement for the amount of a substance.
=> maulstick; molecule, molest

mole (n.1)

spot on skin, Old English mal "spot, mark, blemish," especially on cloth or linen, from Proto-Germanic *mailan "spot, mark" (cognates: Old High German meil, German Mal, Gothic mail "wrinkle"), from PIE root *mai- "to stain, defile" (cognates: Greek miainein "to stain, defile," see miasma). Specifically of dark marks on human skin from late 14c.

mole (n.2)

type of small burrowing mammal (Talpa europea), mid-14c., probably from obsolete moldwarp, literally "earth-thrower." Spy sense first recorded 1974 in John le Carré (but suggested from early 20c.), from notion of "burrowing." Metaphoric use for "one who works in darkness" is from c. 1600.

mole (n.3)

"breakwater," 1540s, from Middle French môle "breakwater" (16c.), ultimately from Latin moles "mass, massive structure, barrier," from PIE root *mo- "to exert oneself" (cognates: Greek molos "effort," molis "hardly, scarcely;" German mühen "to tire," müde "weary, tired;" Russian majat' "to fatigue, exhaust," maja "hard work").

mole (n.4)

unit of molecular quantity, 1902, from German Mol coined 1900 by German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1912), short for Molekül (see molecule).

1. These reactive mole-cules are mopped up and made harmless by Vitamin E.

這些活性分子已被維生素E滅活，沒有害處了。

來自柯林斯例句

2. A mole is a blemish on a person's skin.

黑痣在人的皮膚上是一個疵點.

來自《現代英漢綜合大詞典》

3. The mole bored its way underground.

鼴鼠在地下挖掘路.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

4. A mole can undermine the strongest rampart.

一隻田鼠能毀壞最堅固的堡壘.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

5. A mole mines its way.

鼴鼠挖坑道.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》