device: [13] A device is something which has been devised – which, etymologically speaking, amounts to ‘something which has been divided’. For ultimately devise and divide come from the same source. The noun device comes in the first instance from Old French devis ‘division, contrivance’ and latterly (in the 15th century) from Old French devise ‘plan’, both of which were derivatives of the verb deviser ‘divide, devise’ (source of English devise [13]).
This in turn came from Vulgar Latin *dīvisāre, a verb based on the past participial stem of Latin dīvidere, source of English divide. The semantic development by which ‘divide’ passed to ‘contrive’, presumably based on the notion that dividing something up and distributing it needs some planning, happened before the word reached English, and English device has never meant ‘division’.
late 13c., from Old French devis "division, separation, disposition, wish, desire; coat of arms, emblem; last will," from deviser "to divide, distribute" (see devise). Sense of "method by which something is divided" arose in French and led to modern meaning.
双语例句
1. The device had been used operationally some months previously.
该设备几个月之前曾投入运行。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The device exploded, throwing Mr Taylor from his car.
那个装置爆炸了，把泰勒先生从车里抛了出去。
来自柯林斯例句
3. The device can discriminate between the cancerous and the normal cells.
这台仪器可以辨别癌细胞和正常的细胞。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The built-in safety device compensates for a fall in water pressure.
该内置式安全装置在水压下降时能提供保护。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The device plugs into one of the laptop's USB ports.
