mercy: [12] Latin mercēs meant ‘payment, reward’. In the Christian era the notion of a ‘reward’ was taken up and reapplied metaphorically to the ‘compassion given freely by God to humankind’, and the word passed into Old French (in the form merci) with the broader sense ‘compassion’, and hence ‘forbearance from punishment’. English took it over and has continued to use it in much the same way, but its main role in modern French is as the word for ‘thank you’.
mercy (n.)
late 12c., "God's forgiveness of his creatures' offenses," from Old French mercit, merci (9c.) "reward, gift; kindness, grace, pity," from Latin mercedem (nominative merces) "reward, wages, pay hire" (in Vulgar Latin "favor, pity"), from merx (genitive mercis) "wares, merchandise" (see market (n.)). In Church Latin (6c.) applied to the heavenly reward of those who show kindness to the helpless.
Meaning "disposition to forgive or show compassion" is attested from early 13c. As an interjection, attested from mid-13c. In French largely superseded by miséricorde except as a word of thanks. Seat of mercy "golden covering of the Ark of the Covenant" (1530) is Tyndale's loan-translation of Luther's gnadenstuhl, an inexact rendering of Hebrew kapporeth, literally "propitiatory."
雙語例句
1. The Emperor must realize that he has us at his mercy.
皇帝必須意識(shí)到我們?nèi)斡伤幹谩?/dd>
來自柯林斯例句
2. Ordinary people are at the mercy of faceless bureaucrats.
普通人的命運(yùn)任憑那些平庸刻板的官僚們擺布。
來自柯林斯例句
3. They meant to finish her off, swiftly and without mercy.
他們打算毫不留情地迅速結(jié)果了她。
來自柯林斯例句
4. He's going to throw himself on the mercy of the court.
他準(zhǔn)備聽?wèi){法庭發(fā)落。
來自柯林斯例句
5. Kelly prayed that God would judge her with mercy.