• n. 口令；（基督教《圣經(jīng)》）考驗(yàn)用的詞；特殊的習(xí)慣

來(lái)自希伯來(lái)語(yǔ) shibboleth,麥穗。 現(xiàn)詞義來(lái)自圣經(jīng)中記載的小故事，兩民族 Gileadites 和 Ephraimites 打戰(zhàn)，Ephraimites 人打敗了逃跑，但由于這兩個(gè)民族人長(zhǎng)得一樣，從長(zhǎng)相上無(wú) 法辨別，但是口音有差別，Ephraimites 人無(wú)法發(fā)-sh-音，于是，Gileadites 人在關(guān)卡上讓所有 通過(guò)的人念 shibboleth 這個(gè)詞，不能正確的發(fā)-sh-的人就抓起來(lái)。因而引申諸相關(guān)詞義。類(lèi) 似于中國(guó)南北東西口音差異。

shibboleth

shibboleth: [14] Hebrew shibbōleth meant ‘stream’. According to the Bible, the Gileadites used it as a password, for they knew their enemies the Ephraimites could not pronounce the sh properly (‘And it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay, then they said unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right’, Judges 12:5–6).

In 17th-century English it came to be applied generically to any word used as a test of pronunciation, particularly as a sign of belonging to a group, and hence by extension to any catchword or slogan adopted by a group, and this eventually evolved into the modern sense ‘outmoded slogan, practice, etc still adhered to’.

shibboleth (n.)

late 14c., the Hebrew word shibboleth, meaning "flood, stream," also "ear of corn;" in Judges xii:4-6. It was the password used by the Gileadites to distinguish their own men from fleeing Ephraimites, because Ephraimites could not pronounce the -sh- sound. Hence the figurative sense of "watchword" (first recorded 1630s), which evolved by 1862 to "outmoded slogan still adhered to." A similar test-word was cicera "chick pease," used by the Italians to identify the French (who could not pronounce it correctly) during the massacre called the Sicilian Vespers (1282).

1. It is time to go beyond the shibboleth that conventional forces cannot deter.

是時(shí)候擺脫那些傳統(tǒng)力量無(wú)法遏制的陳規(guī)陋習(xí)了。

來(lái)自辭典例句

2. They would say to him, Then say, Shibboleth.

6就對(duì)他說(shuō), 你說(shuō)示播列.

來(lái)自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)

3. Maritime nations still respond automatically to the shibboleth of the freedom of the seas.

海洋國(guó)家依然聽(tīng)從[四海自由]的口令.

來(lái)自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)