graft: [15] Graft, in its original sense ‘plant part inserted into a living plant’ (the application to skin and other animal tissue is a late 19thcentury development), came from its resemblance in shape to a pencil. Greek graphíon meant ‘writing implement, stylus’ (it was a derivative of the verb gráphein ‘write’, source of English graphic). It passed via Latin graphium into Old French as grafe, gradually changing in its precise application with the advance of writing technology.
By the time it reached Old French it denoted a ‘pencil’, and it was then that the resemblance to two artificially united plant stems was noted and the metaphor born. English took the word over as graff in the late 14th century (it actually survived in that form into the 19th century), and within a hundred years had added a -t to the end to give modern English graft. Graft ‘corruption’, first recorded in mid 19th-century America, may be the same word, perhaps derived from the notion of a graft as an ‘insertion’, hence ‘something extra, on the side’. Graft ‘hard work’ [19], on the other hand, is probably a different word, perhaps based on the English dialect verb graft ‘dig’, an alteration of grave ‘dig’. => graphic
graft (n.1)
"shoot inserted into another plant," late 15c. alteration of Middle English graff (late 14c.), from Old French graife "grafting knife, carving tool; stylus, pen," from Latin graphium "stylus," from Greek grapheion "stylus," from graphein "to write" (see -graphy). So called probably on resemblance of a stylus to the pencil-shaped shoots used in grafting. The terminal -t- in the English word is not explained. Surgical sense is from 1871.
graft (n.2)
"corruption," 1865, perhaps 1859, American English, perhaps from British slang graft "one's occupation" (1853), which is perhaps from the identical word meaning "a ditch, moat," literally "a digging" (1640s), from Middle Dutch graft, from graven "to dig" (see grave (v.)).
graft (v.)
late 15c., "insert a shoot from one tree into another," from graft (n.1). Figurative use by 1530s. Surgical sense by 1868. Related: Grafted; grafting.
实用例句
1. I am having a skin graft on my arm soon.
我马上就要接受手臂的皮肤移植手术。
来自柯林斯例句
2. His career has been one of hard graft.
他从事的职业劳动强度很大。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Their success was the result of years of hard graft .
他们的成功是多年艰苦奋斗的结果。
来自《权威词典》
4. The Japanese tried to graft their own methods on to this different structure.
日本人试图将自己的方法移植到这种不同的体制中。
来自柯林斯例句
5. Owing to graft, the manager of this company was discharged from his post and prosecuted.
