crocodile: [13] The crocodile gets its name from its habit of basking in the sun on sandbanks or on the shores of rivers. The word means literally ‘pebble-worm’, and it was coined in Greek from the nouns krókē ‘pebbles’ and drilos ‘worm’. The resulting Greek compound *krokódrīlos has never actually been found, for it lost its second r, giving krokódīlos, and this r reappeared and disappeared capriciously during the word’s journey through Latin and Old French to English. Middle English had it – the 13th century form was cokodrille – but in the 16th century the modern r-less form took over, based on Latin crocodīlus.
crocodile (n.)
1560s, restored spelling of Middle English cokedrille, kokedrille (c. 1300), from Medieval Latin cocodrillus, from Latin crocodilus, from Greek krokodilos, word applied by Herodotus to the crocodile of the Nile, apparently due to its basking habits, from kroke "pebbles" + drilos "worm." The crocodile tears story was in English from at least c. 1400.
实用例句
1. The sight of George shedding crocodile tears made me sick.
看到乔治假慈悲，我感到恶心。
来自柯林斯例句
2. That was real crocodile skin.
那是真正的鳄鱼皮。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Use the crocodile clips to attach the cables to the battery.
用鳄鱼嘴夹把电缆接到蓄电池上。
来自《权威词典》
4. The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws.
那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱.
来自《简明英汉词典》
5. The crocodile killed its prey by keeping it under and drowning it.
