喜樂美語
  1. 1nC2/səˈvɪljən/ · /sɪˈvɪliən/平民／老百姓

    A person who is not a member of the army, navy, air force, or the police.

    示範例句 · Example

    The soldiers helped the civilians leave the flooded town.

    逐字士兵們幫助平民離開淹水的城鎮。

    「civilian」指「不是軍人也不是警察的一般人」。可以想成社會上分成兩群：穿制服、負責打仗或維安的人，和其他所有普通人——civilian 就是後者。新聞裡常用來跟士兵（soldiers）對比。

    常見搭配

    • civilian clothes

      便服（相對於制服）

      ordinary clothes rather than a uniform

      The officer was in civilian clothes.

    • the civilian population

      平民百姓

      the ordinary people of a place, not the military

      Aid was sent to help the civilian population.

    • a civilian job

      非軍職的工作

      a job outside the army or police

      She returned to a civilian job after the army.

    意思相近

    non-combatantordinary citizen

    意思相反

    soldierservicemancombatantthe military

core核心畫面

Picture everyone who is not in uniform — not a soldier, not a police officer. A civilian is just an ordinary member of the public, defined by what they are not: not part of the armed forces.

可以想成沒穿制服的那一群人：不是軍人、不是警察，就是一般在過日子的老百姓。這個字有意思的地方在於，它是用「不是什麼」來定義的——不站在軍隊或警察那一邊。

From the word’s history

civilian goes back to Latin civis 'citizen' via civilis 'belonging to civil (citizen) life'. The word carries the idea of ordinary civil life — the life of the townsperson — set against military life.

civilian 追到拉丁文 civis（公民、市民），經由 civilis（屬於公民生活的）而來。字根裡帶的是「一般市民過的日子」，正好和軍旅生活相對——所以 civilian 指的就是過著平常公民生活、不在軍中的人。

etymonline.com/word/civilian

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。

複數 civilians

意思相近

non-combatantordinary citizen

意思相反

soldierservicemancombatantthe military

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。

civiliannoun/sɪˈvɪl.jən/

  • 1

    A person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the armed forces.

    • An army never can be commanded or controlled by civilians.
    • Three civilians were apprehended by the soldiers and taken away in a military vehicle.
  • 2

    informalA person who does not belong to a particular group or engage in a particular activity, an outsider.

    • I have this vision one day that I'll walk amongst you a regular civilian.
    • The bathroom was for employees only, so civilians weren't allowed to use it.
  • 3

    One skilled in civil law.

    • Ancient civilians and writers upon government.
  • 4

    A student of civil law at a university or college.

    • although he kept his name in the college books, and changed his commoner gown to that of a civilian, yet he had now, I believe, no thoughts of proceeding to any degree; and seldom resided in college any more
  • 5

    slangA person not affiliated with a gang.

  • 6

    An employee of the civil service.

civilianadj/sɪˈvɪl.jən/

  • 1

    Not related to the military, police or other governmental professions.

    • The three detainees were actually army defectors wearing civilian clothing.
    • He worked as a civilian journalist for ten years before being employed by the public broadcaster.

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。