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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.
一则与本期单词相关的故事告诉我们，咸面包圈（pretzel）是由一个德国教士发明的。因为他想教导小孩如何祈祷，所以他将pretzel作为奖励派发给孩子们，同时希望这种面包圈能够对孩子起到提醒的作用——pretzel交叉到一起的两头代表着祈祷者胸前交叉的双臂。
Although there isn’t authoritative evidence to back this story up, the etymology of pretzel tends to support at least part of the story.
尽管人们并没有权威的证据来证实这个故事，但至少它还是部分得到了pretzel词源的支持。
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.
人们普遍认为，单词pretzel确实是从德语单词Bretzel衍生而来的，它被用来指称一种在烤前撒上粗盐粒、两端被打成小结的细面包卷。相应地，如果再往前追溯，这个词指向了一个拉丁语单词bracellus，其同样指称一种烘烤食品。
The image of crossed arms also comes through in the name because brachium was Latin for “arm.”
双臂交叉的形象同样也在这个单词中得到体现，因为brachium在拉丁语中就曾经有“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，此类烤制食品似乎尤其被与宗教假日联系起来，因此我们可以推断，祈祷和咸面包圈之间存在着一定的联系。
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.
英语中第一个涉及到pretzel的引语，出现在十九世纪二十年代，一部名为《长岛古风》（Antiquities of LongIsland）的作品集中。在其中，我们找到了一条宗教礼仪和咸面包圈之间的联系。
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.
该书的作者谈到，在他所处的时代，作为一种欢度新年的仪式，人们将各种各样的人，包括朋友，邻居，甚至是陌生人请到家中做客。他相信，这一风俗源于自己诚实善良的荷兰祖先。此外，他还说道，对他们而言，在节日里享用咸面包圈、圣诞坚果、啤酒和苹果酒，是一件多么愉悦的事情。
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，当他提到，这种美食与马德拉（白葡萄）酒、其他葡萄酒，果酒以及各式烈酒搭配到一起，口味会更上一层楼的时候，宗教的礼仪在他的这段陈述中流失殆尽。还好，后来的戒酒运动扭转了人们的餐饮习惯，酒精饮品逐渐被咖啡和柠檬汽水所替代。
The publication of the book in which we find this first citation is a little unusual.
我们就是在这部作品集中找到上述的第一条引语，而说到这部作品集的出版，其中还有些不同寻常的地方。
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《长岛古风》大约50年之后，该书的出版商在一家旧书书店里，从一堆纸张中找到了书的手稿。他很喜欢这本书，并且最终出版了它。而此后，他似乎也没有与该书的作者打过任何交道。
Who needs the internet for copyright infringement?
由此可见，要侵犯图书版权，谁用得着互联网啊？