- bromide
[bromide 词源字典] - bromide: [19] Potassium bromide is used as a sedative, and it was that which inspired the American humorist Gelett Burgess’s book Are You A Bromide? (1906), in which he metaphoricized bromide as a ‘dull conventional person’. In British English it is the more abstract figurative sense ‘trite or conventional remark’ that has caught on. Bromide was based on bromine [19], the name of a liquid element, which in turn was formed from French brome. The element was so christened, from Greek brōmos ‘stench’, because of its highly irritant and unpleasant smell.
[bromide etymology, bromide origin, 英语词源] - bromide (n.)
- compound of bromine and another metal or radical, 1836, from bromine, the pungent, poisonous element, + -ide. Used as a sedative; figurative sense of "dull, conventional person or trite saying" popularized by U.S. humorist Frank Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) in his book "Are You a Bromide?" (1906). Related: Bromidic.
