Основы теории английского языка. Листунова Е.И. - 11 стр.

      VIIIa.
      The word amalgam appeared first in the vocabulary of mediaeval
alchemy in the 15th century to denote the combination of some
substance with mercury. Consult the dictionary and speak of-the mod-
ern meaning of the words ‘amalgamate’ and ‘amalgamation’.
      The word antibiotic is dated 1860 with the meaning ‘opposed to
a belief in the presence or possibility of life’. Later (1892) it acquired
the meaning of ‘(a substance) that destroys, or impairs living organ-
isms, e. g. bacteria’. In general English usage, of course, this word has
become known only in more recent times precisely because of the
enormous extension of the treatment of disease by antibiotics. Consult
dictionaries to find other medical or biochemical words in ‘anti-’ which
have come into general usage.
       VIIIb.
       The impact of America on Britain may be observed in a wider
currency of special terms in everyday speech. Read the following and
tell it in your own words.
       One or two expressions hitherto regarded as being more or less
confined to the vocabulary of lawyers have recently become more
generally known because of their frequent occurrence in America.
Assignment was simply the legal transference of a right, but nowadays
it is well-known in the American sense of ‘task, mission’. For obvious
reasons it is safe to assume that its transfer to the British vocabulary
in this meaning has taken place by way of the cinema. A more pictur-
esque case, though one which is rather less well-known than ‘assign-
ment’, is mayhem or ‘the crime of inflicting bodily injury upon a
person’ listed by the OED as belonging to the vocabulary of ‘Old
Law’, though it quotes for the year 1894 an American example
alluding to ‘literary mayhem’. During the last quarter of a century
mayhem has slowly been making its way back into British use, doubt-
less because of American influence, since this word is relatively fre-
quent in the U.S.A. As early as 1940 it is found in an essay by
Dorothy Sayers, who in Unpopular Opinions speaks of an ‘act of
mayhem’. It might possibly be objected that this might in fact stem
directly from English legal terminology, in view of Miss Sayer’s wide
knowledge of the language, and therefore not particularly from Amer-
ica in the present instance, but it can be seen elsewhere that she is not
averse to using transatlantic images, as when she writes ‘allergic to
long term planning’. Taken from an essay of 1943 included in the
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