喜樂美語

Picture the moment after someone lets go. A door with a spring closes on its own; nobody is pushing it. Something set up beforehand is now running the next step, so the human hand is out of the picture — not because the person is absent, but because their choosing is no longer part of it. Every use of `automatic` is that same missing hand: in a machine, in a rule, in a habit.

automatic 可以想成「手放開之後」的那一刻。裝了彈簧的門自己關上，沒有人推它；事情之所以繼續走下去，是因為有人事先把它裝好了，所以現在這一步不需要有人再決定一次。人不見得不在場，只是他的「選擇」已經不參與了。機器、規定、習慣，這個字用在哪裡都是同一隻消失的手。

From the word’s history

From Greek automatos, autos "self" plus a root meaning "thinking, animated" — literally acting of itself. English took the adjective in 1812 for things "self-acting"; the machinery sense follows in 1850, and the nouns are recent: automatic weapon 1902, car with automatic transmission 1949.

automatic 來自希臘文 automatos：autos 是「自己」，後半的字根有「會動、有心思」的意思，合起來就是「自己動起來」。英文 1812 年借來當形容詞，指「自己會動的」；1850 年才專指機器，名詞用法更晚——自動武器 1902 年，自排車 1949 年。所以「不用人動手」一直是這個字的中心，後面的意思只是換了場景。

Online Etymology Dictionary, entry "automatic" (etymonline.com/word/automatic)

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

同家族的字

複數 automatics

意思相近

self-operatingcertaininstinctiveautomatic weaponmechanicalguaranteedreflexmachine gunautomatedinevitableunconsciousautomatic car+2

原始詞典資料9 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。

automaticadj/ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/

  • 1

    Capable of operating without external control or intervention.

    • The automatic clothes washer was a great labor-saving device.
    • "But you know of the automatic card-player?" […] Carrados had heard more than once casual allusions to a wonderful mechanical contrivance that played cards with discrimination.
  • 2

    Done out of habit or without conscious thought.

    • The reaction was automatic: flight!
    • Absent-minded doodling is a form of automatic art.
  • 3

    Necessary, inevitable, prescribed by logic, law, etc.

    • Spitting at another player means an automatic red card.
  • 4

    Firing continuously as long as the trigger is pressed until ammunition is exhausted.

    • Fully automatic weapons cannot be legally owned by private citizens in the US, except in very special circumstances, as by private security companies.
  • 5

    An autoloader; a semi-automatic or self-loading pistol, as opposed to a revolver or other manually actuated handgun, which fires one shot per pull of the trigger; distinct from machine guns.

    • The US Army adopted John Browning's M1911 pistol as its sidearm, chambered in .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol).
    • From a little hand-bag he extracted his automatic pistol, which he put upon the mantelpiece.
  • 6

    computingengineeringmathematicsAutomatically added to and removed from the stack during the course of function calls.

    • Automatic variables are created on the stack. They are valid only from the point where they are declared to the end of the function.
  • 7

    mathematicssciencesHaving one or more finite-state automata.

automaticnoun/ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/

  • 1

    A car with an automatic transmission; the transmission itself.

    • I never learned to drive a stick. I can only drive an automatic.
  • 2

    A semi-automatic pistol.

    • The G-men raiding the speakeasy were equipped with .45 automatics, while the local policemen were carrying revolvers and shotguns.
    • "I told him that if my automatic was not a spook-stopper, nothin' else would serve."

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。