donkey: [18] The usual English word for ‘donkey’ from Anglo-Saxon times was ass, and donkey is not recorded until Francis Grose entered it in his Dictionary of the vulgar tonge 1785; ‘Donkey or Donkey Dick, a he or Jackass’. No one really knows where it came from. The usual explanation offered is that it was based on dun ‘brownish grey’ and the diminutive suffix -ey, with the intermediate k added in imitation of monkey (donkey originally rhymed with monkey). => dun
donkey (n.)
1785, originally slang, perhaps a diminutive from dun "dull gray-brown," the form perhaps influenced by monkey. Or possibly from a familiar form of Duncan (compare dobbin). The older English word was ass (n.1).
实用例句
1. He gave the donkey a whack across the back with his stick.
他拿棍子朝驴背上狠狠打了一下。
来自柯林斯例句
2. He gave the donkey a mighty prod in the backside.
他用力捅了一下驴屁股。
来自柯林斯例句
3. He threw the old cloth saddle across the donkey's back.
他把旧布鞍搭在驴背上。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The donkey brayed and tried to bolt.
这头驴嘶叫着试图脱缰而逃。
来自柯林斯例句
5. A mule is a hybrid of a male donkey and a female horse.
