diploma: [17] Etymologically, a diploma is a ‘folded paper’. It comes via Latin diplōma from Greek díplōma; this was a derivative of the verb diploun ‘fold’, which in turn came from diplous ‘double’ (a distant cousin of English double). Since official letters tended to be folded over, díplōma eventually came to mean ‘document, especially one issued by the government’ – the sense in which the word was acquired by English.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the use of the derived Latin adjective diplōmaticus ‘relating to official documents’ with specific reference to the field of international relations led eventually to its French descendant, diplomatique, coming to mean ‘relating to international relations’. English acquired the word as diplomatic in the 18th century. => double
diploma (n.)
1640s, "state paper, official document," from Latin diploma, from Greek diploma "license, chart," originally "paper folded double," from diploun "to double, fold over," from diploos "double" (see diploid) + -oma. Specific academic sense is 1680s in English.
实用例句
1. a BTEC Higher National Diploma in Public Service Studies
BTEC公共服务科高等国家证书来自《权威词典》
2. a two-year diploma course
二年制的文凭课程来自《权威词典》
3. The course leads to a diploma in psychiatric nursing.
