喜樂美語

You can picture standing in front of something far bigger than yourself — a rolling in, a mountain face, a silence in a room — and being stopped in your tracks, unable to say whether what you feel is fear or admiration. The word still shows its parts, awe + -ful, 'full of awe': it names sheer weight, more than it names good or bad. Once that weight got attached mostly to unpleasant things, awful came to mean 'terrible'; and once the weight alone was what speakers wanted, it turned into a way of saying 'very'.

可以想成一個人站在遠大於自己的東西面前——雷雨壓過來、一面高山、一場說不出話的場面——整個人被震住，說不清那是怕還是佩服。這個字的形狀還看得出來是 awe（敬畏）+ -ful（充滿），描述的比較像「份量重到滿出來」，本身不分好壞。後來這份量最常掛在壞事上，awful 就變成「糟透了」；再後來說話的人只想借那份量，它就退成一個表示「非常」的程度詞。

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

原始詞典資料10 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。

awfuladj/ˈɔːfʊl/

  • 1

    Very bad.

    • The smell of my socks is awful.
    • We saw such an awful film last night that we left the theater before the end.
  • 2

    Exceedingly great; usually applied intensively.

    • I have learnt an awful amount today.
    • Shepard: You seem to know an awful lot about me. Geth: Extranet data sources. Insecure broadcasts. All organic data sent out is received. We watch you.
  • 3

    datedCausing fear or horror; appalling, terrible.

    • There was an air of gravity and importance about the garb of the person, and something indescribably odd, I might say awful, in the perfect, stonelike stillness of the figure, that effectually checked the testy comment which had at once risen to the lips of the irritated artist.
    • At our old pastimes in the hall ⁠We gambol’d, making vain pretence ⁠Of gladness, with an awful sense Of one mute Shadow watching all.
  • 4

    archaicAwe-inspiring; filling with profound reverence or respect; profoundly impressive.

    • As I am seen could I but gaze on Thee / Awful in majesty and royal might
    • God ought not to be commixed in our actions, but with awful reverence, and an attention full of honour and respect.
  • 5

    archaicStruck or filled with awe or reverence.

    • She spoke about Mr. Pendennis (a worthy little gentleman enough, but there are others as good as he) with an awful reverence, as if he had been the Pope of Rome on his throne, and she a cardinal kneeling at his feet, and giving him incense.
  • 6

    obsoleteTerror-stricken.

  • 7

    Prone to a particular temptation.

    • "It's her imagination, that's what it is," Millie said. "She's awful for imagining things, Wilfred agreed with me."
    • Tommy was just an awful man for the paper - couldn't get enough of the stuff! He'd have had the very Yellow Pages down him!

awfuladv/ˈɔːfʊl/

  • 1

    Awfully; dreadfully; terribly.

    • The race was run, and the dog ran "awful".
  • 2

    Very, extremely.

    • That's an awful big house.
    • She seemed awful nice when I met her yesterday.

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。