gravity: [16] Gravity comes from Latin gravitās, a derivative of the adjective gravis ‘heavy, important’. This in turn goes back to a prehistoric Indo-European *gru-, which also produced Greek bárus ‘heavy’ (source of English baritone [19] and barium [19]), Sanskrit gurús ‘heavy, dignified’ (whence English guru [17]), Latin brūtus ‘heavy’, hence ‘cumbersome, stupid’ (from which English gets brute), Gothic kaurus ‘heavy’, and Latvian grūts ‘heavy, pregnant’.
English descendants of gravis, apart from gravity, include grave ‘serious’, gravid ‘pregnant’ [16], gravitate [17], grief, and grudge. => baritone, barium, brute, grave, grief, grudge, guru
gravity (n.)
c. 1500, "weight, dignity, seriousness, solemnity of deportment or character, importance," from Old French gravité "seriousness, thoughtfulness" (13c.) and directly from Latin gravitatem (nominative gravitas) "weight, heaviness, pressure," from gravis "heavy" (see grave (adj.)). The scientific sense of "downward acceleration of terrestrial bodies due to gravitation of the Earth" first recorded 1620s.
The words gravity and gravitation have been more or less confounded; but the most careful writers use gravitation for the attracting force, and gravity for the terrestrial phenomenon of weight or downward acceleration which has for its two components the gravitation and the centrifugal force. [Century Dictionary, 1902]
实用例句
1. Anything with strong gravity attracts other things to it.
任何有较强重力的物体都会对其他物体产生引力。来自柯林斯例句
2. Not all acts of vengeance are of equal gravity.
并非所有的报复行为都同等恶劣。来自柯林斯例句
3. Increasing gravity is known to speed up the multiplication of cells.
我们知道不断增加的引力会加速细胞的分裂。来自柯林斯例句
4. Newton's law of gravity
牛顿万有引力定律来自《权威词典》
5. He doesn't think you realize the gravity of the situation.
