zenith: [14] Arabic samt arrās means literally ‘path over the head’. Samt ‘path, road’ made its way via Old Spanish zenit and Old French cenit into English as zenith, bringing with it the metaphorical application to the ‘point in the sky directly overhead’. The plural of samt, sumūt, is the ultimate source of English azimuth [14]. => azimuth
zenith (n.)
"point of the heavens directly overhead at any place," late 14c., from Old French cenith (Modern French zénith), from Medieval Latin cenit, senit, bungled scribal transliterations of Arabic samt "road, path," abbreviation of samt ar-ras, literally "the way over the head." Letter -m- misread as -ni-.
The Medieval Latin word could as well be influenced by the rough agreement of the Arabic term with classical Latin semita "sidetrack, side path" (notion of "thing going off to the side"), from se- "apart" + *mi-ta-, suffixed zero-grade form of PIE root *mei- (1) "to change" (see mutable). Figurative sense of "highest point or state" is from c. 1600.
實(shí)用例句
1. The zenith of Perugia'sinfluence came with the defeat of Siena in 1358.
1358年擊敗錫耶納之后佩魯賈的影響力達(dá)到了頂峰。
來自柯林斯例句
2. His career is now at its zenith.
他的事業(yè)現(xiàn)在處于鼎盛時(shí)期。
來自柯林斯例句
3. The sun rises, reaches its zenith and sets.
太陽升起，達(dá)到最高點(diǎn)，然后落下。
來自柯林斯例句
4. Opera reached its zenith at the turn of the century.
歌劇在本世紀(jì)初達(dá)到了它的頂峰.
來自《簡(jiǎn)明英漢詞典》
5. It felt as if we had traveled from nadir to zenith.
