Meaning "card or piece of paper that gives its holder a right or privilege" is first recorded 1670s, probably developing from the sense of "certificate, license, permit." The political sense of "list of candidates put forward by a faction" has been used in American English since 1711. Mea...
The meaning "something which stands for something else" first recorded 1590 (in "Faerie Queene"). As a written character, 1610s.双语例句1. His bristling determination has become a symbol of England's renaissance. 他精力旺盛,坚毅顽强,已经成为英格兰文艺复兴的一个象征。 来自柯林斯例句 2. A ...
But the main present-day meaning, ‘disorderly thing or condition’, did not emerge until as recently as the 19th century, apparently based on the notion of a mess as a ‘dish of assorted foodstuffs dumped unceremoniously and without thought on to a plate’.=> admit, commit, mission, ...