喜樂美語

One way to picture ail: something is quietly wearing a person down. They are not fine, they have not been fine for a while, and nobody can point at the exact cause. That is different from a broken arm or a bad cold, which have names. The word keeps that shape wherever it goes: whatever ails you, and whatever ails a school system or a company, is inside, has been there some time, and is still waiting to be named.

可以想成有個東西在慢慢地磨著一個人。他不太好，而且已經不太好一陣子了，卻沒有人指得出到底是什麼。這跟骨折或重感冒不一樣，那些都叫得出名字。ail 走到哪裡都還帶著這個形狀：不管折磨你的是什麼，或是讓一所學校、一間公司撐不下去的是什麼，它都在裡面、拖了一段時間、而且還沒被診斷出來。

From the word’s history

From Middle English eilen, from Old English eġlan 'to trouble, afflict', from Proto-Germanic *aglijaną 'to trouble, vex'. From the start the word named the troubling, not a particular disease, which is why the modern uses still feel undiagnosed.

來自中古英文 eilen，再往上是古英文 eġlan「使人苦惱、折磨」，源頭是原始日耳曼語 *aglijaną「使煩擾」。這個字從一開始講的就是「有東西在折磨」，而不是某一種特定的病——今天的用法之所以還帶著「說不清楚是什麼」的感覺，原因就在這裡。

Wiktionary entry for ail (etymology 1) supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:163412319:12586)

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

容易混在一起的字在訂閱裡。容易混在一起的字需要訂閱帳號。

同家族的字

過去式 ailed過去分詞 ailed-ing ailing三單 ails

意思相近

be illtroublesbe unwellafflictssufferplaguestroublebesetsafflict

原始詞典資料5 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。

ailverb詞源 1/ˈeɪ̯l/

  • 1

    To cause to suffer; to trouble, afflict. (Now chiefly in interrogative or indefinite constructions.)

    • Have some chicken soup. It's good for what ails you.
    • What aileth thee, Hagar?
  • 2

    To be ill; to suffer; to be troubled.

    • When he ails ever so little […] he is so peevish.

ailnoun詞源 1/ˈeɪ̯l/

  • 1

    obsoleteAn ailment; trouble; illness.

ailadj詞源 2/ˈeɪ̯l/

  • 1

    obsoletePainful; troublesome.

ailnoun詞源 3/ˈeɪ̯l/

  • 1

    The awn of barley or other types of corn.

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。