conscience

英 ['kɒnʃ(ə)ns] 美['kɑnʃəns]

CET4TEM4IELTSGRE考研TOEFLCET6中低频词常用词汇

复数: consciences;

conscience 良知

con-, 强调。-sci, 知道，词源同science.

conscience: conscience: [13] Latin conscīre meant ‘be mutually aware’. It was a compound verb formed from the prefix com- ‘with, together’ and scīre ‘know’ (source of English science). To ‘know something with oneself’ implied, in a neutral sense, ‘consciousness’, but also a moral awareness, a mental differentiation between right and wrong, and hence the derived noun conscientia carried both these meanings, via Old French, into English (the more general, amoral, ‘consciousness’ died out in the 18th century).

A parallel Latin formation, using *sci-, the base of scīre, was conscius ‘aware’, acquired by English in the 17th century as conscious. Conscientious is also a 17th-century borrowing, ultimately from Latin conscientiōsus.
=> science
conscience (n.): early 13c., from Old French conscience "conscience, innermost thoughts, desires, intentions; feelings" (12c.), from Latin conscientia "knowledge within oneself, sense of right, a moral sense," from conscientem (nominative consciens), present participle of conscire "be (mutually) aware," from com- "with," or "thoroughly" (see com-) + scire "to know" (see science).

Probably a loan-translation of Greek syneidesis, literally "with-knowledge." Sometimes nativized in Old English/Middle English as inwit. Russian also uses a loan-translation, so-vest, "conscience," literally "with-knowledge."

1. The Daily Mail has the headline "The Voice of Conscience": 《每日邮报》的头版标题为“良知的声音”。

3. I would like your advice on a matter of conscience, Father.: 我想就一件有关良心的事征求您的建议，神父。

4. Now the murderer has two deaths on his conscience.: 现在，这个杀人犯背着两条人命，受到了良心的谴责。

5. Mr Garcia said his conscience was clear over the jail incidents.: 加西亚先生说他对监狱中发生的事件问心无愧。