Word 30: VERBOSE (vur-BOHS)
Wordy, having too many words, long-winded, full of verbiage (VUR-bee-ij).
More difficult synonyms of verbose include garrulous (GAR-uh-lus),loquacious (loh-KWAY-shus), voluble (VAHL-yuh-bul), and prolix (PROH-liks).
Verbose refers to speech or writing that uses more words than necessary toget the point across. The corresponding noun is verbosity, wordiness, long-windedness, an overabundance of words.
Whenever you see verb- at the beginning of a word, you can safely assumethat the meaning of the whole word has something to do with words. That’sbecause most English words containing verb- come from the Latin verbum,word. From this verbum come the English words verbal, pertaining to orexpressed in words; verbatim, expressed in precisely the same words;verbiage, an excess or overabundance of words; and verbose, wordy, long-winded, using more words than necessary to get the point across.
Since I’m already waxing verbose about words from the Latin verbum,word, allow me to digress even further and proffer a few words of advice onthe words verbal and verbiage. (Are you familiar with the verb to proffer,pronounced PRAHF-ur? It means to put forward for acceptance, present as agift, as to proffer one’s services, or to proffer friendship.)
But back to the word verbiage (VUR-bee-ij), which is oftenmispronounced VUR-bij, as if it had only two syllables. Carriage andmarriage have two syllables, but verbiage and foliage (FOH-lee-ij) havethree. Try not to say VUR-bij and FOH-lij, or even worse, FOY-lij. You willhear many educated people mispronounce these words, but believe me whenI say that careful speakers consider the two-syllable variants beastlymispronunciations. Take care to pronounce these words in three syllables:VUR-bee-ij and FOH-lee-ij.
Now for a word to the wise on the proper use of verbal. You will oftenhear or read such phrases as “a verbal agreement” or “a verbalunderstanding.” Have you ever stopped to ask yourself exactly what theymean? If you’re like most people, you probably figured that a verbalagreement or a verbal understanding meant one that was arrived at through
conversation, one that was spoken but not written down—and therein lies theproblem.
The word oral means spoken, not written, and the precise meaning ofverbal is expressed in words, either orally or in writing. Too often verbal,expressed in words, is used to mean oral, spoken, and the message thatresults from that confusion is usually ambiguous. For example, listen to thissentence, which I found recently in the business section of my localnewspaper: “Ensure all promises made verbally are included, in writing, inthe contract.” As written, the sentence means that we should make sure thatall promises, both spoken and written, are included in the contract. The writerwants to say that we should put all spoken promises in writing, but to conveythat meaning precisely the sentence should read like this: “Ensure allpromises made orally are included in the contract.”
In the future, whenever you refer to promises, agreements, orunderstandings, remember that if they are expressed in speech, they are oral,and if they are expressed in words, whether spoken or written, they areverbal. Of course, if they are expressed in too many words, like most long-winded legal contracts, then they are verbose, full of verbiage.
单词30:VERBOSE (vur-BOHS)
啰嗦的，有太多的词，啰嗦的，充满了废话。
啰嗦的更难理解的同义词有garrulous (GAR-uh-lus)、loquacious (loh-KWAY-shus)、voluble (VAHL-yuh-bul)和prolix (PROH- liks)。
啰嗦指的是在演讲或写作中使用过多的词语来表达观点。与之对应的名词是冗长、冗长、啰嗦、词汇过多。
当你在一个单词的开头看到动词-时，你可以放心地认为整个单词的意思与单词有关。这是因为大多数含有动词-的英语单词来自拉丁语verbum, word。从这个verbum衍生出英语单词verbal的，与单词有关的或用单词表达的;一字不差地，一字不差地:用完全相同的词语表达的;冗长，词汇过多;还有啰嗦、啰嗦、啰嗦，用多余的词语来表达观点。
既然我已经啰嗦了拉丁词verbum, word，请允许我继续跑题，就verbal和verage这两个词提供一些建议。(你熟悉动词“提供”，发音为PRAHF-ur吗?它的意思是提出接受，作为礼物呈现，如提供某人的服务，或提供友谊。
但是回到单词verbiage (VUR-bee-ij)，它经常被读错，就好像它只有两个音节一样。“马车”和“婚姻”有两个音节，“冗长”和“枝叶”(FOH-lee-ij)有三个音节。尽量不要说VUR-bij和FOH-lij，或者更糟，FOY-lij。你会听到很多受过教育的人发错这些词的音，但请相信我，细心的人会认为这些双音节变体是可怕的发音错误。注意把这些单词发音成三个音节:VUR-bee-ij和FOH-lee-ij。
现在我要告诉智者如何正确使用语言。你会经常听到或读到像“口头协议”或“口头谅解”这样的短语。你有没有停下来问问自己它们到底是什么意思?如果你和大多数人一样，你可能认为口头协议或口头理解意味着达成一致谈话，一种口头的但没有写下来的谈话——这就是问题所在。
oral这个词的意思是说的，不是写的，verbal的确切意思是用口头或书面的词来表达的。verbal经常被用来表示口头的，口头的，而这种混乱所产生的信息通常是模棱两可的。例如，听听这句话，这是我最近在当地报纸的商业版上看到的:“确保所有口头承诺都以书面形式包含在合同中。”从字面上看，这句话的意思是我们应该确保所有的承诺，无论是口头的还是书面的，都包含在合同中。作者想说的是，我们应该把所有口头承诺都写下来，但为了准确地传达这一意思，这句话应该读成这样:“确保所有口头承诺都包含在合同中。”
将来，当你提到承诺、协议或谅解时，请记住，如果它们是用言语表达的，它们就是口头的;如果它们是用文字表达的，无论是口头的还是书面的，它们都是口头的。当然，如果它们用太多的词来表达，就像大多数冗长的法律合同一样，那么它们就是啰嗦的，充满了废话。
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