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A lemming is a small furry animal, a bit like a fat mouse or a small rat, that lives in cold northern places. For years people told a story that lemmings follow each other in huge groups and jump off cliffs into the sea. That story is not true — it is an old myth, and it stuck anyway — so the word now has a second, looser use: we call people lemmings when they copy the crowd without thinking, even toward something foolish or dangerous. Scientists do see lemmings move in big numbers when there are suddenly too many of them, but they are not trying to kill themselves.
旅鼠
組成From Danish and Norwegian lemming, from Old Norse lómundr, læmingi, læmingr. It may go back to a Sami word, but that last step is not certain.
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,原文照列,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
lemmingnoun/lɛm.ɪŋ/
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A small arctic and subarctic rodent of the tribes Lemmini, Dicrostonychini and Lagurini.
- The well-known lemmings, in severe winters, at long intervals, move down from the mountains of Scandinavia in immense numbers, crossing lakes and rivers, eating their way through haystacks, and surmounting every obstacle till they reach the sea, whence very few return.
- 2
Any member of a group given to conformity or groupthink, especially a group poised to follow a leader off a cliff.
- Lemmings are strongly cohesive, but could be, in organisational terms, highly destructive for the business.
- Like a lemming, I followed the crowd, got to the right line and was concentrating hard when queried by the customs officer.
資料來源:英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary(CC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。