| 释义 |
-grapher|grəfə(r)|
an ending of many Eng. words of Greek derivation. First found in the earlier half of the 16th c. The analogy of astronom-er (really f. astronomy, but having the appearance of being f. L. astronom-us + -er1) naturally suggested the use of the suffix -er as a means of anglicizing L. words in -ˈographus without altering their rhythm, as in cosmographer (recorded 1527). In the 16th c. there also occur a few derivatives in -er from nouns in -graphy, as geographier (1542), chronographier (1548), but these were soon superseded by the forms in -grapher. (In chirographer, q.v., the ending has a different source.) From the latter part of the 16th c. the formation with -grapher has been the normal mode both of anglicizing a real or assumed Gr. word in -γράϕος (see -graph) denoting a personal agent, and of providing a personal designation correlative to n. in -graphy denoting an art or science. It would often be impossible to determine in which of these two ways an individual word actually originated; but the question is unimportant, because Gr. words in -γράϕος were themselves influenced in sense by their derivatives in -γραϕία, so that, e.g. γεωγράϕος meant not so much ‘one who describes the earth’ as ‘one versed in γεωγραϕία’.
The suffix -ist has sometimes been used instead of -er in anglicizing Gr. words in -γράϕος or forming derivatives from ns. in -graphy; cf. biographist for the more usual biographer; telegraphist is more common than telegrapher. |
