orient: English has two separate words orient, but they come ultimately from the same source: Latin orīrī ‘rise’ (from which English also gets abort and origin). Its present participle, oriēns ‘rising’, was used for the direction of the ‘rising sun’, and hence for the ‘east’, and passed into English via Old French as the adjective and noun orient [14].
The verb orient [18] was borrowed from French orienter, a derivative of the adjective orient. It originally meant ‘turn to face the east’, and was not used for ‘ascertain or fix the direction of’ until the 19th century. Orientate emerged in the mid-19th century, probably as a back-formation from orientation [19], itself a derivative of orient. => abort, origin
Orient (n.)
c. 1300, "the East" (originally usually meaning what is now called the Middle East), from Old French orient "east" (11c.), from Latin orientem (nominative oriens) "the rising sun, the east, part of the sky where the sun rises," originally "rising" (adj.), present participle of oriri "to rise" (see orchestra). The Orient Express was a train that ran from Paris to Istanbul via Vienna 1883-1961, from the start associated with espionage and intrigue.
orient (v.)
c. 1727, originally "to arrange facing east," from French s'orienter "to take one's bearings," literally "to face the east" (also the source of German orientierung), from Old French orient "east," from Latin orientum (see Orient (n.)). Extended meaning "determine bearings" first attested 1842; figurative sense is from 1850. Related: Oriented; orienting.
双语例句
1. The climbers stopped to orient themselves before descending the mountain.
登山者先停下来确定所在的位置,然后再下山.
来自《简明英汉词典》
2. The people in the Orient are mainly yellow or brown.
东方国家的人种主要是黄色的或棕色的.
来自《简明英汉词典》
3. They carried on trade in tea and spices with the orient.
他们同东方国家做茶叶和香料的生意.
来自《简明英汉词典》
4. You can orient yourself by remembering that the hill is due north.
只要记住这座小山位于正北方,你就能确定你所在的方位了.
来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
5. We must orient our work to the needs of the people.