来自拉丁语patere,展开,摊开,来自PIE*pete,展开,词源同petal,feather.-ent,现在分词后缀。引申词义公开的,明显的。词义专利缩写自letters patent,公开信,原指政府公文。
The Letters Patent were ... written upon open sheets of parchment, with the Great Seal pendent at the bottom ... [while] the 'Litteræ Clausæ,' or Letters Close, ... being of a more private nature, and addressed to one or two individuals only, were closed or folded up and sealed on the outside. [S.R. Scargill-Bird, "A Guide to the Principal Classes of Documents at the Public Record Office," 1891]Meaning "a license covering an invention" is from 1580s.
来自柯林斯例句
来自柯林斯例句
来自柯林斯例句
来自《简明英汉词典》
来自《现代汉英综合大词典》