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A mahout is a person whose work is to ride, guide, and look after an elephant, especially in India and nearby countries. This is an old job. A mahout often stays with the same elephant for years, and the two know each other well. In the past mahouts worked in war, in temples, in forests, and in royal processions; today you are more likely to meet the word in travel writing, at tourist camps, or in talk about whether keeping elephants for shows is kind. English borrowed it from Hindi and related languages. It is not a general word for someone who trains horses or dogs — it is specific to elephants. You may also see it used as a verb, “to mahout,” meaning to work as one, but that is rare; the noun is the form you will actually meet.
馴象師
組成Borrowed from Hindi/Urdu mahaut, from Sanskrit mahāmātra: mahā (great) + mātra (measure). That older word meant a high official, and also an elephant keeper.
同家族的字
- mahatmaboth go back to Sanskrit mahā, “great”
原始詞典資料3 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。
mahoutnoun/məˈhaʊt/
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An elephant trainer, keeper, and driver.
- The Serrievvan hath the overſight of the Camels, and the Mahout, that of the Elephants.
- The very best of all the elephants belonged to the very worst of all the drivers or mahouts; and the superior beast's name was Moti Guj. He was the absolute property of his mahout, which would never have been the case under native rule, for Moti Guj was a creature to be desired by kings; and his name, being translated, meant the Pearl Elephant.
mahoutverb/məˈhaʊt/
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To drive (an elephant or elephants).
- Word was passed down the river, the call going out for the bravest of Brul mahouting only the strongest of mounts.
- Don't forget, though, your wedding will always be memorable to you yourself, […] On the other hand, even if you arrive on an elephant mahouted by Lady Gaga, there will still be guests in years to come who won't be able to remember whose wedding that was because they were aged 26–32 at the time and it was the eighth wedding they were at that year.
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To drive elephants.
- First a team of six ponied pulling a miniature fire engine jumping with midget firefighters, then a dozen scantily mahouted elephants painted pink, came out of the arc light and sawdut into neon glow and mirroring asphalt.
- Traditionally they are hunters and gatherers but today they are agricultural labourers. […] They are experts at collecting honey and mahouting.
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。