bore: Bore ‘make a hole’ [OE] and bore ‘be tiresome’ [18] are almost certainly two distinct words. The former comes ultimately from an Indo-European base *bhor-, *bhr-, which produced Latin forāre ‘bore’ (whence English foramen ‘small anatomical opening’), Greek phárynx, and prehistoric Germanic *borōn, from which we get bore (and German gets bohren). Bore connoting ‘tiresomeness’ suddenly appears on the scene as a sort of buzzword of the 1760s, from no known source; the explanation most commonly offered for its origin is that it is a figurative application of bore in the sense ‘pierce someone with ennui’, but that is not terribly convincing.
In its early noun use it meant what we would now call a ‘fit of boredom’. There is one other, rather rare English word bore – meaning ‘tidal wave in an estuary or river’ [17]. It may have come from Old Norse bára ‘wave’. => perforate, pharynx
bore (v.1)
Old English borian "to bore through, perforate," from bor "auger," from Proto-Germanic *buron (cognates: Old Norse bora, Swedish borra, Old High German boron, Middle Dutch boren, German bohren), from PIE root *bher- (2) "to cut with a sharp point, pierce, bore" (cognates: Greek pharao "I plow," Latin forare "to bore, pierce," Old Church Slavonic barjo "to strike, fight," Albanian brime "hole").
The meaning "diameter of a tube" is first recorded 1570s; hence figurative slang full bore (1936) "at maximum speed," from notion of unchoked carburetor on an engine. Sense of "be tiresome or dull" first attested 1768, a vogue word c. 1780-81 according to Grose (1785); possibly a figurative extension of "to move forward slowly and persistently," as a boring tool does.
bore (v.2)
past tense of bear (v.).
bore (n.)
thing which causes ennui or annoyance, 1778; of persons by 1812; from bore (v.1).
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything. [Voltaire, "Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme," 1738]
雙語例句
1. Our tour prices bore little resemblance to those in the holiday brochures.
我們的旅游報價和那些度假手冊里的價格相去甚遠。
來自柯林斯例句
2. Hugo bore his illness with great courage and good humour.
雨果以巨大的勇氣和良好的精神狀態面對疾病。
來自柯林斯例句
3. This guy bore a really freaky resem-blance to Jones.
這個家伙和瓊斯長得驚人地相似。
來自柯林斯例句
4. Her eyes seemed to bore a hole in mine.
她的目光似乎要把我的眼睛看穿。
來自柯林斯例句
5. She bore no ill will. If people didn't like her, too bad.