precarious: [17] Precarious comes from Latin precārius (source also of English prayer), which meant ‘obtained by asking or praying’. It was originally used in English as a legal term, in which ‘obtained by asking’ had undergone a slight change in focus to ‘held through the favour of another’. This introduced the notion that the favour might be withdrawn, and that the possession was therefore uncertain, and so the adjective soon came to be used for ‘depending on chance or caprice’ and, in the 18th century, ‘risky’.
Latin precārius was derived from prex ‘prayer’, a close relative of precārī ‘ask, entreat, pray’, from which English gets pray. => pray
precarious (adj.)
1640s, a legal word, "held through the favor of another," from Latin precarius "obtained by asking or praying," from prex (genitive precis) "entreaty, prayer" (see pray). Notion of "dependent on the will of another" led to extended sense "risky, dangerous, uncertain" (1680s). "No word is more unskillfully used than this with its derivatives. It is used for uncertain in all its senses; but it only means uncertain, as dependent on others ..." [Johnson]. Related: Precariously; precariousness.
中文解释
1. prex (genitive precis) "entreaty, prayer" (see pray) => precarious.2. Notion of "dependent on the will of another" led to extended sense "risky, dangerous, uncertain".
实用例句
1. They looked rather comical as they crawled up precarious ladders.
他们顺着摇摇晃晃的梯子往上爬，看起来非常滑稽。
来自柯林斯例句
2. He earned a precarious living as an artist.
作为一个艺术家，他过的是朝不保夕的生活。
来自《权威词典》
3. They eke out a precarious existence foraging in rubbish dumps.
他们靠在垃圾场捡垃圾维持着朝不保夕的生活.
来自《简明英汉词典》
4. A soldier leads a very precarious life.
军人过着非常危险的生活.
来自《简明英汉词典》
5. Washington struck me as a precarious place from which to publish such a cerebral newspaper.