ab.a.cus

abacus的音标和读音：
DJ音标发音： [ˈæbəkəs, əˈbækəs]
KK音标发音： [ˈæbəkəs, əˈbækəs]

abacus的词性：
n.（名词）

1. A manual computing device consisting of a frame holding parallel rods strung with movable counters.
算盘：一种手动计算器，由装有平行木杆的框架构成，木杆上串着可移算珠

2. Architecture A slab on the top of the capital of a column.
【建筑学】 圆柱顶板：圆柱柱顶上的背板

abacus的词源：

3. Middle English
中古英语

4. from Latin
源自 拉丁语

5. from Greek abax abak- [counting board]
源自 希腊语 abax abak- [计算盘]

6. probably from Hebrew ’3b3q [dust]
可能源自 希伯来语 ’3b3q [尘土]

abacus的注释：

7. The adjective dusty, with its connotations of disuse and age, might seem to be an appropriate word to describe the abacus, since this counting device was used for solving arithmetical problems in the days before the advent of calculators and computers. Originally the abacus was, in fact, dusty. The source of our word abacus, the Greek word abax, probably comes from Hebrew ’3b3q, “dust,” although the details of transmission are obscure. In postbiblical usage ’3b3q meant “sand used as a writing surface.” The Greek word abax has as one of its senses “a board sprinkled with sand or dust for drawing geometric diagrams.” This board is a relative of the abacus with movable counters strung on rods that is familiar to us. The first use of the word abacus, recorded in Middle English in a work written before 1387, refers to a sand-board abacus, in this case, one used by the Arabs. The difference in form between the Middle English word abacus and its Greek source abax is explained by the fact that Middle English actually borrowed Latin abacus, which came from the Greek genitive form (abakos ) of abax.
形容词dusty 一词带有废旧的隐含意义， 用这个词来描述算盘似乎是合适的，因为在计算器和计算机发明以前，算盘是用来解决算术问题的计算工具。事实上算盘原本就很容易脏。abacus 一词的希腊词源 abax 可能源自希伯来语 abaq， 意为“灰尘”， 但具体的演变过程已不是很清楚了。abaq 在《圣经》之后的用法中有“用以书写的沙面”的意思。 希腊词abax 有“在一木板上洒上沙子或尘土用以画几何图形”之意。 这种木板就类似于我们所熟悉的装有可移动算子的算盘。abacus 第一次被使用是在一本1387年以前用中古英语写成的作品中， 指阿拉伯人使用的沙板算盘。中古英语的abacus 与其希腊词源 abax 词形上的区别是因为中古英语借用了拉丁文 abacus， 而该拉丁文又是从希腊词abax 的所有格形式 abakos 演变而来的