The word is made of two pieces you already know: brain and storm. A storm is fast, it comes all at once, and it does not arrive in an line. Put that weather inside someone's head and you have the picture the whole word runs on — a lot of thinking arriving at speed. What the storm produces depends on which use you meet: a board full of ideas, one bright flash, or a few minutes when nothing works properly at all.
From the word’s history
Two routes meet in this one spelling. The idea-producing sense was devised in the twentieth century by the advertising executive Alex F. Osborn as a name for a group method, built on the image of using the brain to storm a problem — storm as an attack, not just as weather. The British 'moment of confusion' sense belongs with the older two-word brain storm, a disturbance inside the brain. Same shape, different histories.
同一個拼法底下其實有兩條路。「一起想點子」那條是二十世紀廣告人 Alex F. Osborn 為一套團體方法取的名字，畫面是「用腦去猛攻一個問題」——這裡的 storm 是攻城，不只是天氣。英式的「腦筋短路」那條，跟舊的兩個字寫法 brain storm 同源，指腦子裡颳起的一陣亂流。長得一樣，來歷不同。
Wiktionary entry for 'brainstorm' (kaikki extract supplied in this evidence packet; source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1038829553:8891)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料7 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。
brainstormverb/ˈbɹeɪnstɔːm/
- 1
To investigate something, or solve a problem using brainstorming.
- Meanwihle at Winterfell, another overdone scheme designed mainly to surprise the audience. In the black of her chambers, Sansa brainstorms with Littlefinger what Arya could want. “After she murders you, what does she become?” he asks. To which Sansa does everything but gasp and spit-take, widening her eyes and saying like she’s just realizing it for the first time, “Lady of Winterfell.”
- On another occasion, when trying to brainstorm things I could do to make myself feel better despite all the pandemic restrictions, Woebot suggested I “try doing something nice for someone in your life,” like make a calming tea for my housemate or check in with a loved one.
- 2
To participate in a brainstorming session.
- 3
To think up (ideas); especially, to do so creatively.
- I need you to brainstorm some suggestions for next week's activity schedule.
brainstormnoun/ˈbɹeɪnstɔːm/
- 1
A sudden thought, particularly one that solves a long-standing problem.
- I had been working on the problem for weeks, and then I had a brainstorm and saw that the solution was easy.
- 2
A session of brainstorming, investigating a problem to try to find solutions.
- 3
An unexpected mental error.
- 2005 October 5, "Iguchi hit ruins Red Sox's night", BBC Online, 5 October A terrible fielding error from Tony Graffanino proved costly. … Aaron Rowand collected an RBI double to get them off the mark before Graffanino's brainstorm. Juan Uribe hit a roller to the second baseman, who let the potential inning-ending double-play ball roll under his glove, leaving runners at first and third bases.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
- brain storm
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。