喜樂美語

Picture a cutting a small mark into a stone wall. The spot is chosen because it will not move, and its exact height is written down. From then on, anyone who needs to know how high or how far something is comes back to that mark and measures from it. Two things make the mark useful, and they are worth separating: it is fixed, and it is agreed on. Every later use of benchmark keeps both. The mark itself disappears — it becomes a sales figure, an exam result, a test program — but the job never changes. Somebody puts a point on the wall, and after that, everything else is described by where it stands next to it.

可以想成一個測量員在石牆上刻下一道小小的記號。那個位置是特意選的，因為它不會動；它的確切高度會被記下來。從此以後，誰要知道某個東西多高、多遠，就回到這道記號，從這裡起算。讓這道記號有用的有兩件事，值得分開來看：一是它固定，二是大家都認它。benchmark 後來的每一個用法，這兩件事都還在。只是那道記號本身不見了，變成一個銷售數字、一個考試成績、一個測試程式。但工作沒有變：有人在牆上釘下一個點，之後所有東西都用「站在離它多遠的地方」來描述。

From the word’s history

The supplied Wiktionary entry dates the word to about 1842 and analyses it as bench + mark: a mark cut into stone by land surveyors so that a bench — a bracket in their jargon — could be mounted to hold measuring equipment. The figurative standard-for-judging sense appears about 1884.

所附的維基詞典把這個字定在大約一八四二年，拆成 bench ＋ mark：測量員在石頭上刻一道記號，用來架設 bench（他們行話裡的一種托架），好把儀器固定上去。「拿來評斷的標準」這個引申用法大約在一八八四年出現。這條線索正好說明今天的用法為什麼都圍著「一個不會動的起算點」打轉。

Wiktionary entry supplied in this evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1006550966): "From bench + mark. First use appears c. 1842. Originally a mark cut into a stone by land surveyors to secure a bench ... The figurative sense first appears c. 1884."

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

n複數 benchmarks

v過去式 benchmarked過去分詞 benchmarked-ing benchmarking三單 benchmarks

意思相近

datumstandardmeasure againstperformance testsurvey markyardstickcomparespeed testreference pointcriterionevaluatestress test+7

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。

benchmarknoun/ˈbɛn(t)ʃmɑːk/

  • 1

    A standard by which something is evaluated or measured.

    • Near-synonym: criterion
    • Is the pope Catholic? Forgive the posing of a question that is usually rhetorical, the absolute benchmark of certainty, and traditionally regarded as even more settled than the one pertaining to the lavatorial arrangements of bears.
  • 2

    A surveyor's mark made on some stationary object and shown on a map; used as a reference point.

    • Near-synonym: datum
  • 3

    computingengineeringmathematicsA computer program that is executed to assess the performance of the runtime environment.

benchmarkverb/ˈbɛn(t)ʃmɑːk/

  • 1

    To measure the performance or quality of (an item) relative to another similar item in an impartial scientific manner.

  • 2

    To measure the performance or quality of (an item) relative to another similar item in an impartial scientific manner.

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。