WORD HISTORY
The earliest use of cloud is recorded in Old English, in the sense ‘a mass of rock; a hill’; from this sense arose a number of place names, such as Thorp Cloud, a hill in Derbyshire. Later it was used in the same sense as clod to mean ‘a lump of earth or clay’; indeed it is likely that cloud, clod, and clot come ultimately from the same root. The current sense, ‘mass of watery vapour’, is first recorded in a reference in the medieval work the Cursor Mundi to the sun climbing the clouds.
原来cloud最初的意思hill，是山峦的意思。
再比如：gossip我们知道是“散布流言蜚语”“嚼舌头”“八卦”的意思，可它最初的意思可不是这样。
WORD HISTORY
A gossip was originally a rather more serious and worthy person than they are now. In Old English the word was spelled godsibb and meant ‘godfather or godmother’, literally ‘a person related to one in God’; it came from sibb ‘a relative’, the source of sibling. In medieval times a gossip was ‘a close friend, a person with whom one gossips’, hence ‘a person who gossips’, later (early 19th century) ‘casual conversation about other people’.
牛津老大：最高级的牛津辞典，就是《牛津英语大辞典》（The Oxford English Dictionary），简称OED，这是牛津兄弟的老大，也是英语辞典界的圣经。它一共有20卷，目前在亚马逊的售价是$877，国内书商动辄索价万元。这么贵的辞典谁会买呢？问得好。其实，没有任何人能够读完这本辞典，它的存在更具有象征意义，象征这人类对知识无限的追求。
顺便说一句，《牛津英语大辞典》（The Oxford English Dictionary）有个缩印版，The Compact Edition of The Oxford English Dictionary，内容跟OED一样，价格只要320，但字体非常恐怖，是把OED四页的内容印到一页上，如果你不想写一部失乐园续集的话，最好还是打消买它的念头。
牛津老二：《牛津简编英语大辞典》（Shorter Oxford English Dictionary），可能是牛津也觉得自己浪费森林太不像话，于是出了一个简编版。不要以为看到shorter，就真shorter，其实，这是牛津家族中第二大的辞典。两大本3888页的厚度，也够意思了。况且这个在牛津大辞典的基础上，做了人性化的处理，只用2500个单词来释词。这本国内没有引进。
牛津老三：Oxford Dictionary of English，国内已经出版了，名为《新牛津英汉双解大词典 》（上海外语出版），售价不菲，在网上也要卖315元左右。如果或OED和SOED侧重词源学，引经据典太多，太学术的话，那么这一本就是给人类预备的。不过这本辞典的中文翻译挺讨厌，因为把每个例句都翻译了，包括：“Yes, I will.” 这样的。如果你想拥有一本英英的原版，先不要急着去亚马逊下单，下面有一个终极解决办法。
牛津老四：《牛津现代英汉双解词典》， 英文版叫 Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 即牛津简明，大学级别的辞典，中高级用用也足够了。
主要用于网上，由动词变成了不可数名词，就像在“A bucket of fail（巨大的失败）”中出现的场景一样。常用的形式包括epic fail（大失败），指总体上倾向于失败或失败的典型案例，FAIL！则是一种强调语气。通常作为win（获胜）的反义词出现，网上常见形式如“Full of win！”，意指“不错！”
Wine comes in at the mouth
and love comes in at the eye
That’s all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.
TheBritish “teaser” was ok, but we were disappointed to see the performerin the wheelchair was not in fact disabled but was leaping around laterin the dance.
JimmyPage and David Beckham have been massive icons of British popularculture. I’m not especially a fan of either, but they perfectly suitedto the ceremony.
Notbothered either way about Leona whatshername, but the chiefembarrassment, reducing us instantly to laughing stock of the world anddiminishing at a stroke the achievements of our athletes, was thepresence of Boris Bloody Johnson!!! This man symbolizes everythingwrong with Britain – a deeply untalented buffoon, with a thoroughlysinister interior. Get him off the stage once and for all.
Abeautifully organised Games all around, then Boris appears, jacketundone, looking like a drunk who gatecrashed the party, what anembarrassment
一个组织有序的美丽的运动会，然后Boris出现了，
衣冠不整
像个酒鬼一样冲进了派对
多么令人羞耻啊！！！！！
Ihave a Grandson living and working in Beijing and I only hope he staysunder cover until the humilation dies down a little. It certainly willnever go away.
In 8 mins we have become the laughing stock of the world.
我有一个孙子生活和工作在北京，我只希望他在这丢人的气氛减小前藏好自己。它肯定永远不会消失。
在这8分钟，我们已成为世界笑柄
—- Leona！ Poor girls must be so nervous!
—- She sounds like a whale mating
I didn’t think it was possibly but this both sucks and blows.
Grow up London 2012 and stop trying to be so ‘cool’. This is embarrassing.
—- 利昂娜！可怜的姑娘们很紧张吧!
—- 她听起来像是只正在交配的鲸鱼
我都不忍心这么说，但是这个的确是又SB又NC
成熟点，London 2012，别那么装酷。真丢人
Why don’t my buses look like that?
汗，我坐的公交车怎么不像那个样子
TheChinese did it again the closing was amazing. First class and out ofthis world. The one negative was the London Show what in the heck wasthat. In Athens when the Chinese did there welccome to show it wasamazing and you knew you where going to get something special inBeijing. I hope that London does better than what they showed to-day.
Replicateit, we don’t have a chance it hell. For one thing we’ll be lucky tofind 1% of the volunteers from Beijing. Perhaps all the people claimingon benefits should be forced to volunteer !!!
Forgetabout the image of Myra Hindley. What about the image of some guypainting graffiti on a wall? What are we trying to say here? “Come toLondon, where criminal disfigurement of public property is welcomed andcelebrated?!”
Dontknow what to laugh more at – the tacky 8 minutes of rubbish the UK puton in Beijing or the smug comments on here about how “At least we arefree..” Last time I looked the UK was the most watched (CCTV) nation onearth and we have a government that has used fear and hate to strip usof freedoms on a daily basis. The only difference between the UK andChina is that they wasted billions more than we can afford to- but Imsure we’ll waste as much as we can. But freedom?? Dont make me laugh!
Ihave two tips for you, Boris. Keep your hands out of your pockets whenattending high-profile events like this, and secondly fire whoeverresponsible for this fiasco and hire proper showbiz professionals from Las Vegas if necessary to handle the opening and closingceremonies in 2012. Another toe-curling embarrassment like this wouldbe unendurable.
