You can think of calibrate as the row of little marks up the side of a measuring . Somebody had to decide where each line went. Once the lines are there, the can be trusted — and every later use of the word is about keeping that trust: checking the lines against something known, or, with people, getting the amount exactly right.
calibrate 可以想成量杯側面那一排小刻度。那些線不是自己長出來的。有人得先決定每一條畫在哪裡。線畫好了，這個杯子才值得相信。這個字後來的每一個用法，講的都是在維持那份「可以相信」。有時候是拿標準件回頭對一次，把跑掉的調回來。有時候根本沒有儀器，是一個人在拿捏自己說話的分寸。共同的地方是：動作不大，但一定要剛剛好。
From the word’s history
From calibre + -ate. Calibre is the measured width inside a tube, so the word starts out tied to getting a size exactly right.
這個字來自 calibre 加上 -ate。calibre 本來指管子內部的口徑，也就是量出來的尺寸。所以 calibrate 從一開始就跟「把尺寸弄準」綁在一起，這也是它每個意思共有的重點。
Wiktionary etymology supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:758986146:18263): from calibre + -ate.
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。