A high-schooler in Indianapolis, Indiana, wonders why the word number is abbreviated as no. when there’s no letter O in the word. The answer lies in the Latin word numero, which is the ablative form of the Latin word for number, numerus.
印第安納州印第安納波利斯的一名高中生想知道爲什麽數字這個詞(cí)被縮寫爲No，尤其當數字這個單(dān)詞(cí)中沒有字母O的時候。答案就在它對應的拉丁詞(cí)彙numerus的離格形式Numero身上。
- Hello, you have a way with words.
你好，《能說會(huì)道》節(jié)目。
- Hi! My name is Vivian, I am calling from Indianapolis, Indiana.
嗨 ，我的名字叫薇薇安。我來(lái)自印第安納(nà)州的印第安納(nà)波利斯市
- Welcome, Vivian! What can we do for you?
歡(huān)迎薇薇安 ，我們有什麽能幫(bāng)到你的嗎?
- I had a question why is the abbreviation for the word number (it just spelled n-u-m-b-e-r) No, is the letter O isn't anywhere in the original word.
我有一個問題，爲什麽number，拼寫是n-u-m-b-e-r，這個單(dān)詞(cí)的縮寫是No，在原單(dān)詞(cí)裏根本沒有o這個字母啊
- Oh, so you think it maybe should be Nu instead of No is the abbreviation ha?
哦，所以其實你覺(jué)得它的縮寫更應該(gāi)是Nu，而不是No
- Right I mean like... probably.
是的，可能是吧
- Ha ha ha ha! It's part of a set of abbreviations we have that are basically older than English, at least modern English. It goes back to the Latin form of the word number... it's... One form of it was numero, very much like in Spanish and Italian today in n-u-m-e-r-o.
這是一套比英語 ，至少是現代英語更古老的縮寫的一部分。它可以追溯到單(dān)詞(cí)number的拉丁語形式，其中的一種是numero，非常像現在西班牙語和意大利語中的n-u-m-e-r-o
And Latins scribes abbreviated a lot of their writing and the way they abbreviate that word was in №, the little marker maybe they raise O with the line above it to indicated that the word had been shortened.
拉丁文字中有很多縮寫 ，他們縮寫這個詞(cí)的方式是用o這個小标記，把o加上橫線升格表示這個詞(cí)被縮短瞭(le)
So that's it...so we just capt that Latin abbreviation.
就是這樣 ，我們(men)就使用瞭(le)拉丁語的縮略語
- Wow! That's so cool!
哇，太酷瞭
- Yeah, there's a few others like that... pound is the classic example of that, like a weigh lb for pound.
是的，還有很多跟它一樣的詞(cí)……pound就是個典型的例子，作計量單(dān)位時寫作lb
- Yeah, yeah... in the original Latin word is numerus but that particular case...ablative case means in or with.
是的,是的。在最初的拉丁語單(dān)詞(cí)numero中，這種離格的書寫的意思是in或with
- Yeah, abl... we don't have cases in English in that way so it's kind of ... lost on us but yeah.
是的 ，我們在英語中沒有這種格式，就是慢慢丢失瞭(le)這種情況(kuàng)
- Well cool, thank you for telling me.
謝謝您幫我解惑
- Yes, that's pretty much it. Thanks for call. Really appreciate it.
是的，差不多就是這樣，感謝你的來(lái)電(diàn)
- Thanks, bye!
謝謝，再見
- Take care, bye!
保重，再見
No其實是拉丁語的numero sign數字符号，而numero是拉丁語numerus（number這個(gè)詞(cí)的來源）的離格形式。離格的意思其實就是“和”或者“在”的意思，也就是說No. 1嚴格意義上講是 with the number one的意思。
它最開始的樣子是取numero的首尾字母寫成№、Nº，有那一橫(héng)方便區分。後爲瞭(le)方便打字書寫逐漸成瞭(le)我們現在熟悉的No或no。
