People often think the word "doubt" spelling is a little crazy because of the letter "b". Since it doesn't spell a sound, most folks can't figure out what it's doing there. But in spite of what most of us learn in school, sound is <i>never</i> the most important aspect of spelling an English word. A word's meaning and history need to come first. To doubt means to question, to waver, to hesitate. As a noun, it means uncertainty or confusion. The present-day English word "doubt" started as a Latin word, "dubitare". It first moved from Latin into French where it lost both its "buh" sound and its letter "b". And then it came into English in the 13th century. About 100 years later, scribes who wrote English but also knew Latin, started to reinsert the "b" into the word's spelling, even though no one pronounced it that way. But why would they do this? Why would anyone in their right mind reinsert a silent letter into a spelling? Well, because they knew Latin, the scribes understood that the root of "doubt" had a "b" in it. Over time, even as fewer literate people knew Latin, the "b" was kept because it marked important, meaningful connections to other related words, like "dubious" and "indubitalbly," which were subsequently borrowed into English from the same Latin root, "dubitare". Understanding these historical connections not only helped us to spell "doubt," but also to understand the meaning of these more sophisticated words. But the story doesn't end there. If we look even deeper, we can see beyond the shadow of a doubt, just how revealing that "b" can be. There are only two base words in all of English that have the letters "d-o-u-b": one is doubt, and the other is double. We can build lots of other words on each of these bases, like doubtful and doubtless, or doublet, and redouble, and doubloon. It turns out that if we look into their history, we can see that they both derive from the same Latin forms. The meaning of double, two, is reflected in a deep understanding of doubt. See, when we doubt, when we hesitate, we second guess ourselves. When we have doubts about something, when we have questions or confusion, we are of two minds. Historically, before English began to borrow words from French, it already had a word for doubt. That Old English word was "tweogan," a word whose relationship to "two" is clear in its spelling as well. So the next time you are in doubt about why English spelling works the way it does, take a second look. What you find just might make you do a double-take.
人们常常认为’Doubt(怀疑)这个词的拼法有点疯狂 因为里头有个字母‘b'。 由于它并不发音, 大多数人不知道它到底在那儿是干什么用的 然而,尽管我们在学校已被教导 发音永远不是 拼写英语单词时需要考虑的最重要的方面, 我们必须首先考虑一个词的历史和含义 (作为动词),’怀疑‘意味着‘询问’ ‘踌躇’ ‘犹豫不决’ 作为一个名词,它指的是一种困惑或不确定性 现代英语中,‘怀疑’这个词 源于拉丁词‘Dubitare', 它首先从拉丁语进入法语, 失去了‘buh'的音和字母’b', 接着在十三世纪时,它进入了英语 大约一百年后, 懂英语也懂拉丁语的经学家 开始将’b'重新植入到doubt的拼写里 即便当时没人这么发音 但为什么他们这么做呢? 为什么会有人把一个不发音的字母 重新植入到拼写中呢? 呃,因为他们懂拉丁文 经学家知道‘怀疑’的词根里有个‘b' 随着时间的推移,尽管识字的人当中懂拉丁文越来越少, 'b'还是一直存在与doubt的拼写中,因为它被认为是重要的 它被认为是一个有意义的关联,并且联系着其它相关的词汇 比如说’Dubious(可疑的)',和‘Indubitably(不容置疑地)’, 因为这些词是英文借用了同一个拉丁字根‘Dubitare' 而产生的 了解这些历史的关联 不仅帮助我们拼写‘Doubt(怀疑)' 同时也帮助我们理解 这些更为复杂词汇的含义 但故事并非到此为止 如果我们更深入地探究它 我们可以理解在这个怀疑(Doubt)之外 这个’b'是多么深具启发性 在所有英语中 只有两个基本词有‘d-o-u-b'的拼写 其中一个是Doubt(怀疑) 而另一个是double(双) 我们可以以这两个词为词根 创造出许多衍生词 比如doubtful(令人怀疑的) doubtless(无疑的) 或doublet(成对物) redouble(加倍) 和doubloon(达布隆:古西班牙双金币) 事实证明,如果我们回顾它们的历史, 我们便知道它们都源于 同一拉丁文形式 Double(双重)的意义 ‘两个’ 反映在一种对“怀疑”的深刻理解之中 看,当我们怀疑时 当我们犹豫时 我们批评,纠正自己(second guess ourselves) 当我们怀疑某事时 当我们遇到问题或感到困惑时 我们犹豫不定(of two minds) 从历史上看,在英语开始 从法语那儿借词汇之前 英文已经有了意为“怀疑”的词 在古英语中,这个单词是’Tweogan' 'Tweogan(怀疑)’与‘Two(两个)’之间的关联性 在拼写上展现得一清二楚 所以,当你下次 对英文的拼写方式感到怀疑时 再仔细瞧瞧(second look) 也许之后,你便会恍然大悟(double-take)了