gravity

英 ['gr?v?t?] 美['ɡr?v?ti]

CET4TEM4IELTS考研TOEFLCET6GRE中低頻詞常用詞匯

gravity 重力

來自詞根grav, 重，詞源同barometer, guru, gravity. 用于科學術語。

gravity: gravity: [16] Gravity comes from Latin gravitās, a derivative of the adjective gravis ‘heavy, important’. This in turn goes back to a prehistoric Indo-European *gru-, which also produced Greek bárus ‘heavy’ (source of English baritone [19] and barium [19]), Sanskrit gurús ‘heavy, dignified’ (whence English guru [17]), Latin brūtus ‘heavy’, hence ‘cumbersome, stupid’ (from which English gets brute), Gothic kaurus ‘heavy’, and Latvian grūts ‘heavy, pregnant’.

English descendants of gravis, apart from gravity, include grave ‘serious’, gravid ‘pregnant’ [16], gravitate [17], grief, and grudge.
=> baritone, barium, brute, grave, grief, grudge, guru
gravity (n.): c. 1500, "weight, dignity, seriousness, solemnity of deportment or character, importance," from Old French gravité "seriousness, thoughtfulness" (13c.) and directly from Latin gravitatem (nominative gravitas) "weight, heaviness, pressure," from gravis "heavy" (see grave (adj.)). The scientific sense of "downward acceleration of terrestrial bodies due to gravitation of the Earth" first recorded 1620s.
The words gravity and gravitation have been more or less confounded; but the most careful writers use gravitation for the attracting force, and gravity for the terrestrial phenomenon of weight or downward acceleration which has for its two components the gravitation and the centrifugal force. [Century Dictionary, 1902]

1. Anything with strong gravity attracts other things to it.: 任何有較強重力的物體都會對其他物體產生引力。

3. Increasing gravity is known to speed up the multiplication of cells.: 我們知道不斷增加的引力會加速細胞的分裂。

5. He doesn't think you realize the gravity of the situation.: 他認為你沒意識到局勢的嚴重性.