ration: [18] Ration, like reason, comes from Latin ratiō, a derivative of the verb rērī ‘think, calculate’. This meant, among other things, ‘calculation, computation’, in which sense it has yielded English ratio [17]. In the Middle Ages it was used for an ‘amount of provisions calculated for a soldier’, and that meaning has channelled via Spanish ración and French ration into English as ration.
The ‘thinking’ sense of ratiō has reached English as reason, but its derivative rational [14] is less heavily disguised. Other English descendants of Latin rērī include rate and ratify [14], and the -red of hundred comes from a prehistoric Germanic *rath ‘number’, which came ultimately from Latin ratiō. => hundred, rate, ratio, reason
ration (n.)
1550, "reasoning," later, "relation of one number to another" (1660s), then "fixed allowance of food" (1702, often rations, from French ration in this sense), from Latin rationem (nominative ratio) "a reckoning, calculation, proportion" (see ratio). The military pronunciation (rhymes with fashion) took over from the preferred civilian pronunciation (rhymes with nation) during World War I.
ration (v.)
"put (someone) on a fixed allowance," 1859, from ration (n.); sense of "apportion in fixed amounts" is from 1870. Related: Rationed; rationing.
双语例句
1. We all had to queue up for our ration books.
我们都得排队领取定量配给票证薄。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The meat ration was down to one pound per person per week.
肉的配给量降到了每人每周一磅。
来自柯林斯例句
3. The authorities have begun to issue ration cards.
