牛
解説 Definition
ox の不規則な複数形。通常、荷車や犂などを引くために飼育・訓練された成牛、特に去勢雄牛を2頭以上指す。
The irregular plural of ox. Oxen are adult cattle, especially castrated males, kept and trained to pull carts, plows, or other heavy loads.
覚え方のコツ Memory Tip
ox「雄牛・役牛」の複数形が oxen です。現代英語の普通の複数語尾 -s を付けた oxes ではなく、古い複数語尾 -en が残った不規則形と覚えます。one ox, two oxen と対で定着させ、同じく -en を残す children と結び付けると形を思い出しやすくなります。
Learn oxen as a historical plural rather than trying to build it with the modern plural ending -s. The fixed pair is one ox, two oxen. The -en ending survives from an older English noun pattern, much as an old plural element survives in children, although the two words developed differently. Picture a pair of oxen pulling a plow or an ox cart; these traditional work scenes commonly require more than one animal and therefore naturally reinforce the plural form. Avoid oxes in standard usage when referring to the animals.
例文
Two oxen pulled the cart along the muddy road.
2頭の役牛がぬかるんだ道で荷車を引きました。
The farmer used oxen to plow the field.
その農家は畑を耕すために役牛を使いました。
A team of oxen carried the heavy load.
一組の役牛が重い荷を運びました。
oxen の語源・成り立ち Etymology
oxen は ox「雄牛・牛」の古い複数形で、-en は古英語の名詞に見られた複数語尾です。ox は古英語 oxa にさかのぼるゲルマン系の語で、単数 ox に対し oxen となる形がそのまま歴史を残しています。関連する形に ox, ox-cart があります。
Oxen is the inherited plural of ox. Ox comes from Old English oxa and belongs to a Germanic family of words for cattle. Its plural once had an ending represented in Old English by forms related to -an; this developed into the modern -en ending. Most English nouns later adopted the regular plural -s, but oxen survived as a familiar historical exception alongside singular ox.
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