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TEM8 GRE
外刊例句
- WeChat is the best riposte to the condescending, widely held belief that Chinese internet firms are merely imitators of Western ones, and cannot innovate themselves.
人们普遍认为，中国互联网公司仅仅是西方公司的模仿者，自己则无法创新。对于这种傲慢的观点，微信无疑是最好的回击。
——《经济学人》 - Public discourse about the North in most of our enlightened world is crippled, condescending, irrelevant, and, like heartburn, episodic.
文明世界里对朝鲜的公共讨论，大部分都是有缺陷的、居高临下的、不切题的，还像烧心一样是阵发性的。
——《纽约时报》
基本释义
[verb] show feelings of superiority; be patronizing
[动词] 表现出优越感；自认为高人一等
深入解读
Condescend 一词源自拉丁语 condescendere （顺从的），14世纪中期进入英语后原指上帝、国王等对人的弱点“给予极大的宽容”，到了14世纪后期发展为“恭顺地屈服”，不过这些含义现已不再流行。而是到了15世纪初， condescend 开始发展出现在的主要含义“俯就、屈尊”，即自愿放弃自己的优越地位或与地位相称的礼仪或尊严，与下级平等，比如：
- 我不知道特朗普是否会屈尊造访我们？
I wonder if Trump will condescend to visit us? - 顽固的导演放下架子接受舞台工作人员的意见。
The obdurate director condescended to take advice from the stagehand.
这个本是象征着亲切和礼貌的概念，往往更多的用作贬义进行讽刺，即形容某人自视甚高，自以为自己高人一等地去屈尊和俯就，比如：
- 他赏脸开腔后，半个小时内就有三四次说话自相矛盾。他一字一顿，听上去很生硬。
When he condescended to speak, he contradicted himself three or four times in the space of half an hour. His voice was harsh as he enunciated each word carefully. - 我们等了几乎一小时他才屈尊大驾来见我们。他徐缓从容的声音和举止表明他出身贵族。
We had to wait almost an hour before he condescended to see us. His languid voice and manner suggested an aristocratic pedigree.
相比主动善意的俯就，这种假意屈尊明显是“带有优越感地表示关心”或者说“以恩赐态度相待”，这也可以用动词短语 condescend to sb 来表示“对某人表现出高人一等的姿态、带有优越感地对待某人”，比如：
- 别在我面前摆架子。也别自吹自擂了。
Don't condescend to me. And stop blowing your own trumpet. - 他的脾气十分暴躁，别人很难与他相处。但他解释情况时不会对听众表现出高人一等的样子。
He had a volatile temper and couldn't have been easy to live with. But he explained things without condescending to his audience.
而 condescend 的衍生词 condescending 自然相应表示“俯就的、屈尊的”以及“表现出优越感的、抱恩赐态度的、居高临下的”。
名著用例
But her self-control was severely tested many times, because of the personal questions they asked and because of the smug and condescending attitude they displayed toward all things Southern.
不过她的自我克制能力多次受到严峻考验，因为她们经常提出种种涉及私人的问题，而且对南方的一切都表现出一种洋洋自得和好意屈就的态度。
出自美国作家玛格丽特·米切尔（Margaret Mitchell）创作的长篇小说《飘》（Gone with the Wind）。该小说在1937年获得普利策奖，是玛格丽特·米切尔在世时出版的唯一一部作品。不但它成为美国史上最为畅销的小说之一，而且由这部小说所改编的同名电影《乱世佳人》也成为影史上不朽的经典。
同近义词
- patronize: treat in a way that is apparently kind or helpful but that betrays a feeling of superiority
- deign: do something that one considers to be beneath one's dignity
- stoop: lower one's moral standards so far as to do something reprehensible
