Word of the Day：July 12, 2022

ECCENTRIC

古怪的；异乎寻常的

adjective /ik-SEN-trik/ [ɪkˈsentrɪk]

What It Means

Eccentric usually describes people and things that deviate from conventional or accepted usage or behavior, especially in odd or whimsical ways. It is also used technically to mean "deviating from a circular path" and "located elsewhere than at the geometric center."

Eccentric通常描述偏离常规或偏离日常习惯的人和事，特别是用奇怪的、异想天开的方式。 它在学术上也用于表示“偏离圆形路径”和“位于几何中心以外的其他地方”。

ECCENTRIC in Context

"This children’s adventure movie from Vietnam is like 'E.T.'—but sloppier and more eccentric." — Beatrice Loayza, The New York Times, 2 June 2022

“这部来自越南的儿童冒险电影很像《E.T.》——但是更加的草率、更加的古怪。”

Down the road from us lives an eccentric old man who claims that he can communicate with the birds that roost in his yard.

离我们不远的路旁住着一位古怪的老人，他说他可以同栖息在他院子里的鸟儿说话。

Did You Know?

Eccentric was originally a technical term at home in the fields of geometry and astronomy. It comes from a Latin word meaning “not having the earth at its center,” and ultimately has its root in a Greek word with various meanings including “stationary point of a pair of compasses” and “midpoint of a circle or sphere.” But its figurative use is long-established too: as far back as the 17th century the word was used to describe people and things that deviate from what is conventional, usual, or accepted.

Eccentric 最初是几何学和天文学领域的一个专业术语。 它来自一个拉丁词，意思是“not having the earth at its center「不以地球为中心的」”，它最终起源于一个希腊词，有多种含义，其中包括“圆规的静止点”和“圆或球的中心点”。 它比喻用法的来源也很久了：早在 17 世纪，该词就被用来描述偏离常规、偏离平时习惯的人和事。

Name That Synonym

Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of eccentric: o _ f-_ il _ er.

off-kilter