zenith: [14] Arabic samt arrās means literally ‘path over the head’. Samt ‘path, road’ made its way via Old Spanish zenit and Old French cenit into English as zenith, bringing with it the metaphorical application to the ‘point in the sky directly overhead’. The plural of samt, sumūt, is the ultimate source of English azimuth [14]. => azimuth
zenith (n.)
"point of the heavens directly overhead at any place," late 14c., from Old French cenith (Modern French zénith), from Medieval Latin cenit, senit, bungled scribal transliterations of Arabic samt "road, path," abbreviation of samt ar-ras, literally "the way over the head." Letter -m- misread as -ni-.
The Medieval Latin word could as well be influenced by the rough agreement of the Arabic term with classical Latin semita "sidetrack, side path" (notion of "thing going off to the side"), from se- "apart" + *mi-ta-, suffixed zero-grade form of PIE root *mei- (1) "to change" (see mutable). Figurative sense of "highest point or state" is from c. 1600.
双语例句
1. The zenith of Perugia'sinfluence came with the defeat of Siena in 1358.
1358年击败锡耶纳之后佩鲁贾的影响力达到了顶峰。
来自柯林斯例句
2. His career is now at its zenith.
他的事业现在处于鼎盛时期。
来自柯林斯例句
3. The sun rises, reaches its zenith and sets.
太阳升起，达到最高点，然后落下。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Opera reached its zenith at the turn of the century.
歌剧在本世纪初达到了它的顶峰.
来自《简明英汉词典》
5. It felt as if we had traveled from nadir to zenith.