单词学习-Furtive

Furtive 鬼鬼祟祟的，鬼头鬼脑的，可以通过fur来扩散记忆这个单词，在皮毛掩盖之下做的事情。事实上，拉丁语的fur或者希腊语 phor 是小偷的意思。 

In the street, the gaze of desire is furtive or menacing - Mason Cooley (1927 -2002) 那条街上，渴望的目光要么是偷偷摸摸的，要么是来势汹汹的。

韦氏词典解释的词源：

Furtive 

has a shadowy history. It may have slipped into English directly from the Latin 

furtivus 

or it may have covered its tracks by arriving via the French 

furtif

. We aren't even sure how long it has been a part of the English language. The earliest known written uses of 

furtive 

are from the early 1600s, but the derived 

furtively 

appears in written form as far back as 1490, suggesting that 

furtive 

may have been lurking about for a while.

However furtive got into English, its root is the Latin fur, which is related to, and may come from, the Greek phōr (both words mean "thief")

. When first used in English,

furtive 

meant "done by 

stealth

," and later also came to mean, less commonly, "stolen." Whichever meaning you choose, the elusive ancestry is particularly fitting, since a thief must be furtive to avoid getting caught in the act.