喜樂美語

You can picture better as one step higher on a quality ladder — comparing two things and pointing at the one that stands above the other: more useful, more pleasing, closer to good. Everything else (more healthy, more , to surpass) is this same 'higher on the scale' picture pointed at a different thing.

可以想成「在一道好壞的階梯上往上一階」——拿兩樣東西比一比,指向比較高的那一個:更有用、更討喜、更接近好。其餘的意思(身體更好、做得更好、勝過別人)都是同一張「在量尺上更高」的畫面,只是指向不同的東西。

From the word’s history

'Better' is the comparative of 'good' (Old English 'betera'), built from the same root as 'best' — it has always meant 'more good', one notch up the good-scale.

better 是 good 的比較級(古英語 betera),和 best 同源——它從一開始就是「更 good」,在好的量尺上高一格。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), 'better'

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

a比較級 better最高級 best

r比較級 better最高級 best

n複數 betters

v過去式 bettered過去分詞 bettered-ing bettering三單 betters

意思相近

superiormore skillfullythe superior onesurpassfinermore effectivelythe preferable onebeatpreferablemoreexceedimproved+25

意思相反

worsethe worse onematchinferiorlessfall short ofsickerdo worseworsenillharmsick+4

原始詞典資料12 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。

betteradj詞源 1/ˈbɛt.ə/

  • 1

    Greater in amount or quantity

    • “The air was still with the lonely thrill of 'now the hour is near' And the smell of sweat was better yet than the awful stench of fear.”
  • 2

    Greater or lesser (whichever is seen as more advantageous), in reference to value, distance, time, etc.

    • The top electric vehicles have a range of 300 kilometres or better.
    • Only one swimmer finished the race with a time better than two minutes.
  • 3

    Healed or recovered from an injury or illness.

    • We can't go to the zoo today because you're sick; let's go when you're all better.

betternoun詞源 1/ˈbɛt.ə/

  • 1

    An entity, usually animate, deemed superior to another; one who has a claim to precedence; a superior.

    • He quickly found Ali his better in the ring.
    • Their betters would hardly be found.

betterverb詞源 2/ˈbɛt.ə/

  • 1

    Had better.

    • It's getting late. You better get on home.
    • Nobody better hurt any of my kids.

betterverb詞源 3/ˈbɛt.ə/

  • 1

    To improve.

    • This government will better our society.
    • They tried to better themselves by attaining a good education.
  • 2

    To become better; to improve.

  • 3

    To surpass in excellence; to exceed; to excel; to improve on.

    • He summed the whole thing up in a way that I couldn't possibly better.
    • The works of nature do always aim at that which can not be bettered.
  • 4

    To give advantage to; to support; to advance the interest of.

    • Weapons more violent, when next we meet, / May serve to better us and worse our foes.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：

  • good and well
  • well
  • bettor

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。