sabotage

• vt. 妨害；對…采取破壞行動
• vi. 從事破壞活動
• n. 破壞；破壞活動；怠工

來自法語 sabotage,搗亂，破壞，來自 sabot,木鞋，來自中古法語 savate,舊鞋子，詞源同 sabaton, 護腳甲，savate,法國腿踢，ciabatta,拖鞋面包。現詞義據說是來自 18，19 世紀機器工業剛興 起時，手工業者擔心機器會搶走他們的飯碗，憤而把木鞋扔進機器里面破壞機器運轉。

sabotage

sabotage: [20] The etymological idea underlying sabotage is of ‘clattering along in noisy shoes’. For its ultimate ancestor is French sabot, a word of unknown origin which means ‘clog’. From it was derived saboter ‘walk along noisily in clogs’, hence (via the notion of ‘clumsiness’) ‘do work badly’, and finally ‘destroy tools, machines, etc deliberately’. This in turn formed the basis of the noun sabotage, which originally denoted the ‘destruction of machinery, etc by factory workers’, but gradually broadened out to include any deliberate disruptive destruction. English acquired it around 1910.

sabotage (n.)

1907 (from 1903 as a French word in English), from French sabotage, from saboter "to sabotage, bungle," literally "walk noisily," from sabot "wooden shoe" (13c.), altered (by association with Old French bot "boot") from Middle French savate "old shoe," from an unidentified source that also produced similar words in Old Proven?al, Portuguese, Spanish (zapata), Italian (ciabatta), Arabic (sabbat), and Basque (zapata).

In French, and at first in English, the sense of "deliberately and maliciously destroying property" originally was in reference to labor disputes, but the oft-repeated story (as old as the record of the word in English) that the modern meaning derives from strikers' supposed tactic of throwing shoes into machinery is not supported by the etymology. Likely it was not meant as a literal image; the word was used in French in a variety of "bungling" senses, such as "to play a piece of music badly." This, too, was the explanation given in some early usages.

SABOTAGE [chapter heading] The title we have prefixed seems to mean "scamping work." It is a device which, we are told, has been adopted by certain French workpeople as a substitute for striking. The workman, in other words, purposes to remain on and to do his work badly, so as to annoy his employer's customers and cause loss to his employer. ["The Liberty Review," January 1907]

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You may believe that sabotage is murder, and so forth, but it is not so at all. Sabotage means giving back to the bosses what they give to us. Sabotage consists in going slow with the process of production when the bosses go slow with the same process in regard to wages. [Arturo M. Giovannitti, quoted in report of the Sagamore Sociological Conference, June 1907]

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In English, "malicious mischief" would appear to be the nearest explicit definition of "sabotage," which is so much more expressive as to be likely of adoption into all languages spoken by nations suffering from this new force in industry and morals. Sabotage has a flavor which is unmistakable even to persons knowing little slang and no French .... ["Century Magazine," November 1910]

sabotage (v.)

1912, from sabotage (n). Related: Sabotaged; sabotaging.

1. One of the journalists queried whether sabotage could have been involved.

其中一位新聞記者詢問是否有人為破壞的可能性。

來自柯林斯例句

2. He accused the opposition of trying to sabotage the election.

他譴責反對派企圖阻撓選舉的進行。

來自柯林斯例句

3. The bombing was a spectacular act of sabotage.

這場轟炸是一次大規模的蓄意破壞行為。

來自柯林斯例句

4. The fire at the factory was caused by sabotage.

那家工廠的火災是有人蓄意破壞引起的.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

5. They tried to sabotage my birthday party.

他們企圖破壞我的生日晚會.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》