✔ 最佳答案
在生物分類上,您問的應該是這種植物:
科名:Pedaliaceae
屬名:Sesamum
種名:Sesamun indicum
Sesame的字源演變(資料來源:
www.etymonline.com)
1) 巴比倫將此植物叫作 shawash-shammu;同樣位於中東地區的亞述文是 shamash-shammu,字面義為「油種子」。
2) 後來透過擅長國際貿易的腓尼基人,希臘人學到這種植物,念作sesamon。
3) 後起的羅馬人又把該植物名稱納入拉丁文字彙:sesamum。
4) 最後大約在西元1440年傳入中世紀法文,稱作sisame。
5) 別忘了西元1337~1453年英法百年戰爭,想必這個法文字大概也跟著傳入英文語彙(我不很確定)。而發音就模仿原來的法語,讀出字尾的e。
字尾e有發音的英文字例如:
abalone
aborigine
acme
acne
adobe
apostrophe
catastrophe
巴比倫王漢摩拉比制定的法典中(Code of Hammurabi),特別針對租用田地耕種芝麻或玉米的收穫所有權及租金做出明文規定,可見芝麻在巴比倫人生活所佔的重要性(資料來源Microsoft Encarta Premium Suite 2004):
49. If any one take money from a merchant, and give the merchant a field tillable for corn or sesame and order him to plant corn or sesame in the field, and to harvest the crop; if the cultivator plant corn or sesame in the field, at the harvest the corn or sesame that is in the field shall belong to the owner of the field and he shall pay corn as rent, for the money he received from the merchant, and the livelihood of the cultivator shall he give to the merchant.
50. If he give a cultivated corn-field or a cultivated sesame-field, the corn or sesame in the field shall belong to the owner of the field, and he shall return the money to the merchant as rent.
51. If he have no money to repay, then he shall pay in corn or sesame in place of the money as rent for what he received from the merchant, according to the royal tariff.
52. If the cultivator do not plant corn or sesame in the field, the debtor's contract is not weakened.
2010-02-19 17:05:15 補充:
又想到兩個:
epitome
anemone
fiance, fiancee
至於單音節的字 he, she 字尾e是一定要發音的囉^^
而許多-ee結尾的字 也都要念出來:
employee
trainee
addressee
attendee
detainee
devotee
absentee
committee
deportee
draftee
參考: etymonline, Encarta, Longman dictionary