rhetoric

英 ['retərɪk] 美['rɛtərɪk]

rhetoric: rhetoric: [14] In ancient Greece, a rhétōr was a ‘public speaker’, an ‘orator’. The word went back to a prehistoric Indo-European base *wer- ‘speak, say’, which also produced English verb and word. From it was derived the adjective rhētorikós, which passed into English as a noun via Latin rhētorica and Old French rethorique.
=> verb, word
rhetoric (n.): early 14c., from Old French rethorique, from Latin rhetorice, from Greek rhetorike techne "art of an orator," from rhetor (genitive rhetoros) "speaker, orator, teacher of rhetoric," related to rhesis "speech," rhema "word, phrase, verb," literally "that which is spoken," from PIE *wre-tor-, from root *were- (3) "to speak" (cognates: Old English word, Latin verbum, Greek eirein "to say;" see verb).

1. His rhetoric sounds like the death rattle of a fading leadership.: 他的慷慨陈词听起来像是一个衰落的领导层垂死的挣扎。

4. Behind all the rhetoric, his relations with the army are dangerously poised.: 在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后, 他和军队的关系岌岌可危.