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The story goes that pretzels were invented by a monk in Germany who wanted to teach children to pray and so gave out pretzels as reminders and rewards, the crossed branches of the pretzel representing arms in prayer.
一則與本期單詞相關的故事告訴我們，咸面包圈（pretzel）是由一個德國教士發明的。因為他想教導小孩如何祈禱，所以他將pretzel作為獎勵派發給孩子們，同時希望這種面包圈能夠對孩子起到提醒的作用——pretzel交叉到一起的兩頭代表著祈禱者胸前交叉的雙臂。
Although there isn’t authoritative evidence to back this story up, the etymology of pretzel tends to support at least part of the story.
盡管人們并沒有權威的證據來證實這個故事，但至少它還是部分得到了pretzel詞源的支持。
Pretzel is indeed thought to come from a German word bretzel described as referring to a kind of thin bread roll twisted into a knot and salted before baking. This word in turn points back to a Latin bracellus also a bakery item.
人們普遍認為，單詞pretzel確實是從德語單詞Bretzel衍生而來的，它被用來指稱一種在烤前撒上粗鹽粒、兩端被打成小結的細面包卷。相應地，如果再往前追溯，這個詞指向了一個拉丁語單詞bracellus，其同樣指稱一種烘烤食品。
The image of crossed arms also comes through in the name because brachium was Latin for “arm.”
雙臂交叉的形象同樣也在這個單詞中得到體現，因為brachium在拉丁語中就曾經有“臂膀（arm）”的意思。
Some association between prayer and pretzels could also be inferred in that these kinds of baked goods seemed to be particularly associated with religious holidays.
在以前，此類烤制食品似乎尤其被與宗教假日聯系起來，因此我們可以推斷，祈禱和咸面包圈之間存在著一定的聯系。
The first citation for pretzel in English comes in the 1820s in a collection called Antiquities of Long Island. There too we find a connection between religious observance and pretzels.
英語中第一個涉及到pretzel的引語，出現在十九世紀二十年代，一部名為《長島古風》（Antiquities of LongIsland）的作品集中。在其中，我們找到了一條宗教禮儀和咸面包圈之間的聯系。
The author talks about how in his day it is a New Year’s ritual to welcome all manner of friends, neighbors and even strangers into one’s home. He credits his honest good-natured Dutch ancestors for the habit and tells how they had been happy with pretzels, Christmas nuts, beer and cider.
該書的作者談到，在他所處的時代，作為一種歡度新年的儀式，人們將各種各樣的人，包括朋友，鄰居，甚至是陌生人請到家中做客。他相信，這一風俗源于自己誠實善良的荷蘭祖先。此外，他還說道，對他們而言，在節日里享用咸面包圈、圣誕堅果、啤酒和蘋果酒，是一件多么愉悅的事情。
The religious observance drains out of his account however when he relates that such good food was enhanced with Madera and other wines, cordials and liquors but that the temperance movement has caused these to be replaced with coffee and lemonade.
然而，當他提到，這種美食與馬德拉（白葡萄）酒、其他葡萄酒，果酒以及各式烈酒搭配到一起，口味會更上一層樓的時候，宗教的禮儀在他的這段陳述中流失殆盡。還好，后來的戒酒運動扭轉了人們的餐飲習慣，酒精飲品逐漸被咖啡和檸檬汽水所替代。
The publication of the book in which we find this first citation is a little unusual.
我們就是在這部作品集中找到上述的第一條引語，而說到這部作品集的出版，其中還有些不同尋常的地方。
Some 50 years after the author wrote Antiquities of Long Island the publisher found the manuscript among piles of other papers in a used book store. He liked it and published it, seemingly with no further involvement of the author.
在作者完成《長島古風》大約50年之后，該書的出版商在一家舊書書店里，從一堆紙張中找到了書的手稿。他很喜歡這本書，并且最終出版了它。而此后，他似乎也沒有與該書的作者打過任何交道。
Who needs the internet for copyright infringement?
由此可見，要侵犯圖書版權，誰用得著互聯網啊？