• n. 斯芬克斯（帶翼的獅身女怪，傳說常叫過路行人猜謎，猜不出者即遭噬食）；獅身人面像；謎一樣的人

來自拉丁語 Sphinx,來自希臘語 Sphinks,古希臘神話傳說中的獅身人面長翼女妖，每當(dāng)過路 人經(jīng)過即讓其猜謎，猜不中者將就其吃掉，這個(gè)著名的謎語就是“什么動物早晨用四條腿走 路，中午用兩條腿走路，晚上用三條腿走路”，后古希臘英雄 Oedipus 猜中了謎底，斯芬克 斯羞愧萬分，跳崖而死。對應(yīng)于或原型來自埃及神話中的男獅身人面像，法老的守護(hù)神。其 詞源可能來自希臘語 sphingein,綁，擠，勒，因獅子用牙齒咬住獵物后勒緊使獵物窒息而死， 或俗化自埃及語 Szp-'nx(sheap-ankh),神圣的雕像。

sphinx

sphinx: [16] The original Sphinx was a monster, half woman and half lion, which terrorized the country around Thebes in ancient Greece. According to legend, it would waylay travellers and ask them a riddle; and if they could not solve it, it killed them. One of its favoured methods was strangulation, and its name supposedly means ‘the strangler’ – as if it were derived from Greek sphíggein ‘bind tight’ (source of English sphincter [16]).

However, this account of its name sounds as mythological as the account of its existence, and a more likely explanation is perhaps that the word was derived from the name of Mount Phikion, not far from ancient Thebes. One of the first yachts to carry a spinnaker sail, in the mid-1860s, was the Sphinx, and it has been conjectured that its name (or rather a mispronunciation /spingks/) formed the basis of the term spinnaker [19], perhaps as a partial blend with spanker, the name of another type of sail.
=> spinnaker

sphinx (n.)

monster of Greek mythology having a lion's (winged) body and a woman's head; she waylaid travelers around Thebes and devoured those who could not answer her questions; Oedipus solved the riddle and the Sphinx killed herself. In English from early 15c., from Latin Sphinx, from Greek Sphinx, said to mean literally" the strangler," a back-formation from sphingein "to squeeze, bind" (see sphincter).

There also was an Egyptian form (usually male and wingless); in reference to this it is attested in English from 1570s; specific reference to the colossal stone one near the pyramids as Giza is attested from 1610s. Transferred sense of "person or thing of mysterious nature" is from c. 1600. The proper plural would be sphinges. As adjectives in English, sphingal, sphingian, sphingine, sphinxian, sphinxine, and sphinx-like all have been tried.

1. We set off to see the Pyramids and Sphinx.

我們出發(fā)去看金字塔和獅身人面像。

來自柯林斯例句

2. The Great Pyramids and the Sphinx are nearby.

雄偉的金字塔和獅身人面像就在附近.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

3. I. Comparisons to a Living Creature ( i . e . , the Sphinx riddle )

1.比作某種生物 ( 如斯芬克司謎 )

來自英漢非文學(xué) - 民俗

4. It suited him to play the sphinx.

讓他演神秘莫測的人很合適。

來自辭典例句

5. She was the picture of a serene and exquisite but impenetrable sphinx.

她看上去就象一尊非常安詳精致、但又高深莫測的獅身人面像.

來自辭典例句