slay: [OE] Etymologically, slay means ‘hit’ (its German relative schlagen still does), but from the earliest Old English times it was also used for ‘kill’. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic base *slakh-, *slag-, *slög- ‘hit’, which also produced English onslaught, slaughter, the sledge of sledgehammer, sleight, sly, and possibly slag [16] (from the notion of ‘hitting’ rock to produce fragments), slog, and slug ‘hit’. => onslaught, slaughter, sledge, sleight, sly
slay (v.)
Old English slean "to smite, strike, beat," also "to kill with a weapon, slaughter" (class VI strong verb; past tense sloh, slog, past participle slagen), from Proto-Germanic *slahan, from root *slog- "to hit" (cognates: Old Norse and Old Frisian sla, Danish slaa, Middle Dutch slaen, Dutch slaan, Old High German slahan, German schlagen, Gothic slahan "to strike"). The Germanic words are from PIE root *slak- "to strike" (cognates: Middle Irish past participle slactha "struck," slacc "sword").
Modern German cognate schlagen maintains the original sense of "to strike." Meaning "overwhelm with delight" (mid-14c.) preserves one of the wide range of meanings the word once had, including, in Old English, "stamp (coins); forge (weapons); throw, cast; pitch (a tent), to sting (of a snake); to dash, rush, come quickly; play (the harp); gain by conquest."
slay (n.)
"instrument on a weaver's loom to beat up the weft," Old English slæ, slea, slahae, from root meaning "strike" (see slay (v.)), so called from "striking" the web together. Hence the surname Slaymaker "maker of slays."
雙語例句
1. Would slay whoever dared confront Those moustaches that Bristled like porcupinequills.
殺人莫敢前,須如蝟毛磔.
來自英漢 - 翻譯樣例 - 文學
2. Will you slay a man because he is the victim of fear?
你們會不會隻因為一個人是恐懼心裏的犧牲者就殺死他 呢 ?
來自辭典例句
3. They will seize, they will slay me.
他們會把我抓走, 他們會殺死我的.
來自辭典例句
4. What does a dragon slayer do now that there are no dragons left to slay?
現在沒有惡龍可殺了屠龍勇士要怎麽辦?
來自電影對白
5. We need survivorship because corporation and gangdom collude and slay worker.