demeanour
英 [dɪˈmiː.nər]
美 [dɪˈmiː.nɚ]
1. men- "to lead, direct," from Latin minare "to threaten," in Late Latin "to drive (a herd of animals);" see menace.
2. men- "to lead, direct," => demeanour.
3. A person's demeanour is how they 'conduct' themselves.
- demeanour
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demeanour: [15] A person’s demeanour is how they ‘conduct’ themselves. The word goes back ultimately to the literal notion of driving animals along. It is a derivative of the now virtually obsolete reflexive verb demean ‘behave’, borrowed in the 13th century from Old French demener. This was a compound formed from the intensive prefix de- and mener ‘lead’, a descendant of Latin mināre ‘drive a herd of animals’ (whose original connotation of ‘urging on with threats’ is revealed by its close relationship with minārī ‘threaten’, source of English menace).
This obsolete demean should not, incidentally, be confused with demean ‘degrade’ [17], which was formed from the adjective mean.
=> menace
- demeanour
- chiefly British English spelling of demeanor; for suffix, see -or.
- 1. He maintained a professional demeanour throughout.
- 他始终保持着专业人才的风度。
- 2. The man was polite and his general demeanour had the air of a clergyman.
- 那男人彬彬有礼,一举一动都有教士的风度.
- 3. As soon as she woke up her demeanour had changed.
- 她一睡醒,那动作便截然不同.
- 4. When Hanson came home he wore the same inscrutable demeanour.
- 汉生回到家里,脸上仍是一副莫测高深的表情.
- 5. Minnie was truly distressed at this, but maintained a kindly demeanour.
- 敏妮为这事很忧愁, 不过态度一直很温和.