circusとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From 中期英語 circus, circo, from Latin circus (“ring, circle”), from Ancient Greek κρίκος (kríkos), κίρκος (kírkos, “ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to bend, turn”). Doublet of cirque. Cognate with 古期英語 hring (whence English ring) and 古期英語 hringsetl (“circus”, literally “ring-seat”).

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈsɜːkəs/
• (General American) IPA: /ˈsɝkəs/
• 韻: -ɜː(ɹ)kəs

名詞

circus (plural circuses or (rare) circusses or (rare) circi)

1. A traveling company of performers that may include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, and other novelty acts, that gives shows usually in a circular tent. [from late 18th c.]

   The circus will be in town next week.

2. A round open space in a town or city where multiple streets meet.

   Oxford Circus in London is at the north end of Regent Street.

3. (figurative) A spectacle; a noisy fuss; a chaotic and/or crowded place.
   • 2009, Christine Brooks, A Quiet Village, page 81:

     The village would be turned into a circus over this. He groaned, it was just the sort of case the media had a field day over. He had to get the whole thing sorted fast before anyone got wind of it.

4. (historical) In the ancient Roman Empire, a building for chariot racing.
5. (military, World War II) A code name for bomber attacks with fighter escorts in the day time. The attacks were against short-range targets with the intention of occupying enemy fighters and keeping their fighter units in the area concerned.
6. (obsolete) Circuit; space; enclosure.
   • 1817, Lord Byron, The Lament of Tasso:

     The narrow circus of my dungeon wall.

等位語

• (open space): concourse

派生語

関連する語

動詞

circus (third-person singular simple present circuses or circusses, present participle circusing or circussing, simple past and past participle circused or circussed)

1. To take part in a circus; or to be displayed as if in a circus

参照

アナグラム

• Curcis, Ruccis

発音

• (Classical Latin) IPA: [ˈkɪr.kʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: [ˈt͡ʃir.kus]

名詞

circus m (genitive circī); second declension

1. a circular line or orbit; circle, ring
2. a racecourse or space where games are held, especially one that is round
3. the spectators in a circus; a circus

語形変化

Second-declension noun.

派生語

派生した語

Learned borrowings:

参照

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “cĭrcus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 2: C Q K, page 708

Further reading

• “circus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “circus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "circus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “circus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “circus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin