busy: [OE] Busy goes back to an Old English bisig, which also meant ‘occupied’. Apart from Dutch bezig, it has no apparent relatives in any Indo-European language, and it is not known where it came from. The sense ‘inquisitive’, from which we get busybody [16], developed in the late 14th century. Business was originally simply a derivative formed from busy by adding the suffix -ness.
In Old English it meant ‘a(chǎn)nxiety, uneasiness’, reflecting a sense not recorded for the adjective itself until the 14th century. The modern commercial sense seems to have originated in the 15th century. (The modern formation busyness, reflecting the fact that business can no longer be used simply for the ‘state of being busy’, is 19th-century.) => pidgin
busy (adj.)
Old English bisig "careful, anxious," later "continually employed or occupied," cognate with Old Dutch bezich, Low German besig; no known connection with any other Germanic or Indo-European language. Still pronounced as in Middle English, but for some unclear reason the spelling shifted to -u- in 15c.
The notion of "anxiousness" has drained from the word since Middle English. Often in a bad sense in early Modern English, "prying, meddlesome" (preserved in busybody). The word was a euphemism for "sexually active" in 17c. Of telephone lines, 1893. Of display work, "excessively detailed, visually cluttered," 1903.
busy (v.)
late Old English bisgian, from busy (adj.). Related: Busied; busying.
雙語(yǔ)例句
1. There has been a busy start to polling in today's local elections.
今天地方選舉的投票一開(kāi)始就人頭攢動(dòng)。
來(lái)自柯林斯例句
2. The ward was busy and Amy hardly had time to talk.
病房里非常忙碌，埃米幾乎沒(méi)有時(shí)間說(shuō)話。
來(lái)自柯林斯例句
3. I had a busy day and was rather tired.
今天很忙，我累壞了。
來(lái)自柯林斯例句
4. It is the mother who is expected to reorganize her busy schedule.
應(yīng)該讓母親來(lái)重新安排自己緊張的日程。
來(lái)自柯林斯例句
5. Across the busy plaza, vendors sell hot dogs and croissant sandwiches.