【英语学习】【WOTD】 putsch 释义/词源/示例

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putsch n. [PUTCH]

起义，叛乱

Definition

: a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government
：秘密计划，突然实施地推翻政府的企图

Did You Know?

In its native Swiss German, putsch originally meant “knock” or “thrust,” but these days both German and English speakers use it to refer to the kind of government overthrow also known as a coup d’état or coup. Putsch debuted in English shortly before the tumultuous Kapp Putsch of 1920, in which Wolfgang Kapp and his right-wing supporters attempted to overthrow the German Weimar government. Putsch attempts were common in Weimar Germany, so the word appeared often in the stories of the English journalists who described the insurrections. Adolf Hitler also attempted a putsch (known as the Beer Hall Putsch), but he ultimately gained control of the German government via other means.

词源词根演化：putsch (Swiss German, “knock” or “thrust”) —> putsch

在本地瑞士德语中，putsch最初的意思是“敲”或者“刺”，但是在现代，不管是德国人还是英国人，都把这个词用作“推翻政府的行为”，也被称为coup d’état或者coup。putsch这个词第一次出现在英语中，是在1920年激烈的的Kapp Putsch发生之前的不久，在Kapp Putsch中，Wolfgang Kapp与他的右翼支持者试图推翻德国Weimar政府。在Weimar Germany时期，这种政变很常见，所以这个词也经常被英文记者在报道叛乱暴动时使用。Adolf Hitler（希特勒）也试图做过政变（被称为Beer Hall Putsch），但是他最后还是通过其他方式控制了德国政坛。

注：tumultuous [tuː’mʌltʃuəs]：激烈的，喧哗的，骚动的；insurrection：叛乱，暴动

Examples

• The graduate-level seminar focuses on the events surrounding the August 1991 putsch against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
  这个研究生级别的研讨会重点围绕着1991年8月针对前苏联领袖Mikhail Gorbachev（戈尔巴乔夫）的政变的一系列事件。

• “[Christian Petzold’s] thriller Transit twists modern concerns about national identity, immigration, and fascism into a personal, artsy mystery. Petzold starts with Georg …, and emotionally wounded German living in France, during a spookily contemporary, unspecified putsch, who seeks refuge in the Americas.”
  — Armond White, National Review, 13 Mar. 2019

  [Christian Petzold]的惊险小说《Transit》把现代的一些对国民同一性，移民，与法西斯主义担忧交织在一起赋予了一个个人化的艺术角色。Petzold的小说通过人物Georg讲起，他是一个有心理创伤的德国人，居住在法国，在一场令人毛骨悚然的现代但是未指明的暴乱中，寻求美国的庇护。

  注：thriller：惊险小说；national identity：国民同一性；artsy：(=arty) 装艺术的，艺术家气派的；mystery：神秘的人/物，推理小说；spookily：幽灵般的，令人毛骨悚然的；