tangle

n. 纠纷；混乱状态

vt. 使纠缠；处于混乱状态

vi. 缠结；乱作一团

中文词源

tangle 使缠结，纠结

来自中古英语 tagilen,卷入，缠结，来自 Proto-Germanic*thangul,海藻，海草，词源同 entangle. 比喻用法。

tangle (n.): 1610s, "a tangled condition, a snarl of threads," from tangle (v.).
tangle (v.): mid-14c., nasalized variant of tagilen "to involve in a difficult situation, entangle," from a Scandinavian source (compare dialectal Swedish taggla "to disorder," Old Norse þongull "seaweed"), from Proto-Germanic *thangul- (cognates: Frisian tung, Dutch tang, German Tang "seaweed"); thus the original sense of the root evidently was "seaweed" as something that entangles (itself, or oars, or fishes, or nets). "The development of such a verb from a noun of limited use like tangle 1 is somewhat remarkable, and needs confirmation" [Century Dictionary]. In reference to material things, from c. 1500. Meaning "to fight with" is American English, first recorded 1928. Related: Tangled; tangling. Tanglefoot (1859) was Western American English slang for "strong whiskey."

1. Better not tangle with the censors. They're very vindictive.: 最好别和检查员发生冲突，他们可爱记仇了。

2. I was thinking what a tangle we had got ourselves into.: 我在想，我们卷入了怎样的纷争之中。