- 1食人魚
A piranha is a freshwater fish from rivers in South America, especially the Amazon. It has very sharp teeth, and a group of them can take the flesh off a body quickly. Films love this picture and often make piranhas sound like monsters waiting to eat people. Though actually, many kinds eat more fruit, seeds, or already-dead fish than living humans, and attacks on people are much rarer than the stories suggest. The English word is first found in 1869. It came in through Portuguese piranha or Spanish piraña, from Old Tupi pirãîa, the local name. People also stretch the word: a piranha in a meeting is someone who bites in talk and does not let go.
組成First in English in 1869. From Portuguese piranha or Spanish piraña, from Old Tupi pirãîa.
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，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。
piranhanoun/pɪˈɹɑːn(j)ə/
- 1
biologyichthyologynatural-sciencesAny of certain freshwater fish of the subfamily Serrasalminae, native to South America; they are characterized by razor-sharp teeth and a reputation of being ferocious predators (despite most species being omnivorous).
- At a length of 36cm (14in), the red-bellied piranha was a giant of its kind – more than eight inches longer than an average specimen.
- In The Simpsons, Millhouse is more worried about piranhas than that his mother will stop loving him. Bart is reduced to a skeleton by piranhas from a hosepipe.
- 2
derogatorySomeone, especially a critic, who appears to be part of a swarm and attacks someone when they are vulnerable, as if in a feeding frenzy.
- With the piranhas of Fleet Street working themselves into a feeding frenzy over Commander Brian Paddick, a vicious vocabulary you might have naively imagined abandoned in these more tolerant times has been dusted off and brought back into use.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。