scope: [16] Greek skopós meant ‘target’. As it passed via Italian scopo into English it evolved metaphorically to ‘aim kept in view, goal, purpose’ (‘the seventh Council of Carthage and the Milevitane Council, which both tend to one end and scope, that there should be no appellations made out of Africa’, Nicholas Harpsfield, The Pretended Divorce between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon 1555), but the further step to ‘range’ seems to be an English development.
The Greek word came from the base *skop- ‘look, observe’, which also produced -skopos ‘looking’ (ultimate source of English bishop, which etymologically denotes ‘overseer’) and -skópion ‘instrument for observing’ (which lies behind English microscope, telescope, etc). Sceptic comes from a variant of the same base. => bishop, sceptic
scope (n.1)
"extent," 1530s, "room to act," from Italian scopo "aim, purpose, object, thing aimed at, mark, target," from Latin scopus, from Greek skopos "aim, target, object of attention; watcher, one who watches" from metathesized form of PIE *spek-yo-, from root *spek- "to observe" (cognates: Sanskrit spasati "sees;" Avestan spasyeiti "spies;" Greek skopein "behold, look, consider," skeptesthai "to look at;" Latin specere "to look at;" Old High German spehhon "to spy," German spähen "to spy"). Sense of "distance the mind can reach, extent of view" first recorded c. 1600.
scope (n.2)
"instrument for viewing," 1872, abstracted from telescope, microscope, etc., from Greek skopein "to look" (see scope (n.1)). Earlier used as a shortening of horoscope (c. 1600).
scope (v.)
"to view," 1807, from the source of scope (n.2). Related: Scoped; scoping.
实用例句
1. Mr Dobson promised to widen the organisation's scope of activity.
多布森先生许诺拓宽该组织的活动范围。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Banks had increased scope to develop new financial products.
银行已为开发新的金融产品留出了更大余地。
来自柯林斯例句
3. There is still scope for new writers to break through.
仍有一些领域需要新作家们去开拓。
来自柯林斯例句
4. There's still plenty of scope for improvement.
还有很大的改进余地。
来自《权威词典》
5. Articles of this kind fall within the scope of our business activities.
