Mysteries of vernacular: Odd - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel

神秘的词源：Odd—Jessica Oreck与Rachael Teel

Transcriber: Andrea McDonough Reviewer: Jessica Ruby

翻译人员: Minglei Wang 校对人员: Bighead Ge

Mysteries of vernacular:

神秘的词源：

Odd,

Odd,

different from what is usual or expected.

指不寻常或出乎意料的事物。

Though the modern word odd has many meanings,

尽管odd这个词在今天有很多意思，

mathematical or not,

无论是否和数学相关，

they can all be traced back

所有的意思都可以追溯到

to the Indo-European root uzdho,

印欧语系词根uzdho，

meaning pointing upwards.

意思是“指向上方的”。

Inspired by the idea

由于受到

of a vertical-pointed object,

垂直指向物体的启发，

speakers of Old Norse modified this root

古挪威语使用者将该词根改为

into a new word, oddi,

另一个新的单词oddi，

which was used to refer to a triangle,

这个词用来指代三角形

the simplest pointed object

这种最简单的

geometrically speaking.

几何有点物体。

A triangle with a long point,

人们发现，一个稍长的三角形，

like an arrow head

例如一个箭头

or a piece of land jutting out into the sea,

或一块伸入海洋的陆地，

was recognized to have two paired angles

是由两个成对的角

and a third that stood alone.

和第三个单独的角组成。

And over time, oddi began to refer

随着时间的推移，oddi开始指代

to something that wasn't matched or paired.

那些不对称或不成对的事物。

In Old Norse, oddi also came to mean

在古挪威语中，oddi也指

any number indivisible by two.

“任何无法被2除尽的数字”。

And odda mathr, the odd man,

odda mathr，也就是the odd man，

was used to describe the unpaired man

它用来表示

whose vote could break a tie.

“投出打破平局一票的人”。

Though the English never called a triangle odd,

尽管英国人从未用odd指代三角形，

they did borrow the odd number

但他们却借用了odd一词中“奇数”

and the odd man.

和“投出决定性一票的人”的含义。

And finally, in the 16th century,

到了16世纪，

the notion of the odd man out

“剩下的人（the odd man out）”

gave rise to our modern meaning peculiar.

最终发展为今天“怪异”的意思。