You can picture something with every string cut: no conditions attached, nothing held back, nothing it depends on. Because the ties are gone, it is complete in itself — and that is also why nobody can limit it and nothing can qualify it.
From the word’s history
From Latin absolutus, past participle of absolvere 'to loosen from, set free': ab- 'off, away' + solvere 'to loosen, untie'. The sense went from 'detached, disengaged' to 'complete, unrestricted' — and the 'despotic' use (1610s) comes from being 'absolute in position'.
來自拉丁文 absolutus，是 absolvere「鬆開、解開」的過去分詞：ab-「離開」＋ solvere「解開」。意思從「被鬆開、不受牽連」走向「完整、不受限制」；而「專制的」這個用法（1610 年代）則來自「地位上不受任何牽制」。所以中文的「絕對」剛好也帶著「斷絕相對」的味道，兩邊想的是同一件事。
Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/absolute
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料30 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
Absolutenoun/ˈæb.səˌluːt/
- 1
human-sciencesphilosophysciencesThat which is totally unconditioned, unrestricted, pure, perfect, or complete; that which can be thought of without relation to others.
absoluteadj/ˈæb.sə.luːt/
- 1
Free of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions; unconditional.
- While Americans enjoy an almost absolute freedom to name their children whatever they please, in Germany the State (as public guardian of the good of the child) restricts parents [...]
- 2
Free of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions; unconditional.
- An absolute monarch is free from all forcible restraint, and so far as he is absolute[,] from all legal restraints of positive laws.
- 3
Free of restrictions, limitations, qualifications or conditions; unconditional.
- The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, / With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed.
- […] the more absolute the ruler, the more absolute the revolution will be which replaces him.
- 4
Free from imperfection, perfect, complete; especially, perfectly embodying a quality in its essential characteristics or to its highest degree.
- absolute purity, absolute liberty
- So absolute she seems, / And in herself complete.
- 5
Pure, free from mixture or adulteration; unmixed.
- absolute alcohol
- 6
Complete, utter, outright; unmitigated, not qualified or diminished in any way.
- an absolute denial of all charges
- When caught, he told an absolute lie.
- 7
Positive, certain; unquestionable; not in doubt.
- Yet if the register is not to be absolute evidence of proprietorship, it is clear that some investigation of title would still be necessary.
- [...] and in the absence of other signs, or when these latter are inconclusive, it is extremely useful. But it is not, under any circumstances, absolute evidence of the syphilitic nature of a given symptom or set of symptoms.
- 8
archaicCertain; free from doubt or uncertainty (e.g. a person, opinion or prediction).
- I am absolute ’twas very Cloten.
- The colour of my hair—he cannot tell, Or answers "dark," at random,—while, be sure, He's absolute on the figure, live or ten, Of my last subscription.
另外 16 個記錄的用法
- 9
human-sciencesphilosophysciencesFundamental, ultimate, intrinsic; not relative; independent of references or relations to other things or standards.
- the doctrine that absolute knowledge of things is possible; an absolute principle
- Absolute rights and duties are such as pertain to man in a state of nature as contradistinguished from relative rights and duties, or such as pertain to him in his social relations.
- 10
natural-sciencesphysical-sciencesphysicsIndependent of arbitrary units of measurement, standards, or properties; not comparative or relative.
- absolute velocity, absolute motion, absolute position
- His experiments led him to infer that the boiling point of the substance is probably below 9 degrees absolute.
- 11
natural-sciencesphysical-sciencesphysicsIndependent of arbitrary units of measurement, standards, or properties; not comparative or relative.
- 12
natural-sciencesphysical-sciencesphysicsIndependent of arbitrary units of measurement, standards, or properties; not comparative or relative.
- 13
grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsNot immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence; not in a syntactical relation with other parts of a text, or qualifying the text as a whole rather than any single word in it, like "it being over" in "it being over, she left".
- 14
grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsNot immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence; not in a syntactical relation with other parts of a text, or qualifying the text as a whole rather than any single word in it, like "it being over" in "it being over, she left".
- 15
grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsNot immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence; not in a syntactical relation with other parts of a text, or qualifying the text as a whole rather than any single word in it, like "it being over" in "it being over, she left".
- 16
grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsNot immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence; not in a syntactical relation with other parts of a text, or qualifying the text as a whole rather than any single word in it, like "it being over" in "it being over, she left".
- Even when the absolute form of an adverb ends in -ly, the comparative and superlative are identical with the corresponding forms of the adjective: badly, worse, worst.
- 17
grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsNot immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence; not in a syntactical relation with other parts of a text, or qualifying the text as a whole rather than any single word in it, like "it being over" in "it being over, she left".
- 18
grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsNot immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence; not in a syntactical relation with other parts of a text, or qualifying the text as a whole rather than any single word in it, like "it being over" in "it being over, she left".
- 19
mathematicssciencesAs measured using an absolute value.
- absolute deviation
- absolute square
- 20
mathematicssciencesIndicating an expression that is true for all real numbers, or of all values of the variable; unconditional.
- 21
educationPertaining to a grading system based on the knowledge of the individual and not on the comparative knowledge of the group of students.
- 22
artartsdanceIndependent of (references to) other arts; expressing things (beauty, ideas, etc) only in one art.
- absolute music
- 23
formallawIndicating that a tenure or estate in land is not conditional or liable to terminate on (strictly) any occurrence or (sometimes contextually) certain kinds of occurrence.
- A freehold property is an estate in fee simple absolute in possession.
- 24
obsoleteAbsolved; free.
absolutenoun/ˈæb.sə.luːt/
- 1
That which exists (or has a certain property, nature, size, etc) independent of references to other standards or external conditions; that which is universally valid; that which is not relative, conditional, qualified or mitigated.
- moral absolutes
- There is a well-known generalization that human rights come before property rights. […] Unqualified absolutes like these do not contain the truth as tested by human experience. What we do say is that human rights and property rights are related to one another, are intertwined with one another, work with and play upon one another.
- 2
geometrymathematicssciencesIn a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity.
- 3
human-sciencesphilosophysciencesA realm which exists without reference to anything else; that which can be imagined purely by itself; absolute ego.
- Withdrawn as a Buddha he sat, watching the alien world from his perch in the absolute.
- 4
human-sciencesphilosophysciencesThe whole of reality; the totality to which everything is reduced; the unity of spirit and nature; God.
- 5
chemistrynatural-sciencesphysical-sciencesA concentrated natural flower oil, used for perfumes; an alcoholic extract of a concrete.
- Complete concentration in a vacuum still at low temperature results in a concentrated flower oil, free from alcohol, the so-called absolute of enfleurage. The crude absolutes of enfleurage are usually of dark color and, because of their fat content, […]
- The main difference between these and those of indifferent quality is that the former contain flower absolutes in fairly large proportion and the latter either an insignificant quantity or […]
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。