utter

英 ['ʌtə] 美['ʌtɚ]

CET4TEM4GRE考研TOEFLCET6中低频词常用词汇

第三人称单数: utters;过去式: uttered;过去分词: uttered;现在分词: uttering;副词: utterly;

utter 完全的，绝对的，发出声音

来自out的古英语书写形式比较级，更外面的，完全的，绝对的，同时由形容词作动词使用，说出，发出声音。

utter: utter: English has two distinct words utter, but they come from the same ultimate source – out. The older, ‘complete, thorough-going’ [OE] originated as a comparative form of out (or ūt, as it was in the Old English period), and so morphologically is the same word as outer. It did not begin to be used as an intensive adjective until the 15th century. Utter ‘express openly, say’ [14] was borrowed from Middle Dutch ūteren ‘drive out, announce, speak’, a derivative of Old Low German ūt ‘out’.
=> out
utter (adj.): Old English utera, uterra, "outer, exterior, external," from Proto-Germanic *utizon (cognates: Old Norse utar, Old Frisian uttra, Middle Dutch utere, Dutch uiter-, Old High German uzar, German äußer "outer"), comparative adjective from ut (see out (adv.)). Meaning "complete, total" (i.e. "going to the utmost point") is from early 15c.
utter (v.): "speak, say," c. 1400, in part from Middle Dutch uteren or Middle Low German utern "to turn out, show, speak," from uter "outer," comparative adjective from ut "out" (see utter (adj.)); in part from Middle English verb outen "to disclose," from Old English utan "to put out," from ut (see out (v.)). Compare German äussern "to utter, express," from aus "out;" and colloquial phrase out with it "speak up!" Formerly also used as a commercial verb (as release is now). Related: Uttered; uttering.

1. Neil's ability to utter banalities never ceased to amaze me.: 每次我都很惊讶，尼尔怎么能讲出这么索然无味的东西。

2. A look of utter confusion swept across his handsome face.: 他英俊的脸上掠过一丝大惑不解的神情。