Something has gone crooked and a correction is the move that straightens it back. Picture a red pen: the wrong word crossed out, the right word written above it. That written-in word is a correction. The same picture works on a number in a report, a name in a news story — and, in older English, on a person whose behaviour was thought crooked.
From the word’s history
From Latin corrigere 'to put straight, to reform' — com- (intensive) + regere 'to lead straight, rule'. Etymonline records that by the late 14th century correction already carried both 'rectification of faults' and 'chastisement by restraints or punishments', and that the verb correct first meant 'to set someone right by punishing for a fault'. So the everyday 更正 sense and the old-fashioned 懲治 sense are one picture applied to two things.
拉丁文 corrigere 是「扳直、使回正」——com-（加強語氣）+ regere「引導成直線、統治」。Etymonline 記載，correction 在十四世紀末就同時有「改正錯誤」和「用約束或處罰來矯正」兩個意思，而動詞 correct 最早的意思就是「用處罰把某人導回正途」。這條線索讓兩個看起來無關的用法接上了：今天的「更正」扳直的是紙上的字，舊時的「懲治」扳直的是一個人的行為。
Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entries 'correction' and 'correct'.
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原始詞典資料6 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。
correctionnoun/kəˈɹɛkʃən/
- 1
The act of correcting.
- 2
A substitution for an error or mistake.
- 3
Punishment that is intended to rehabilitate an offender.
- As the facts of the case were investigated, it became apparent that before us was the story of a man whom the entire machinery of law enforcement and correction had conspired against from the beginning to the end.
- 4
An amount or quantity of something added or subtracted so as to correct.
- 5
A decline in a stock market price after a period of rises. Often operationally defined as a market value drop of 10% or more on some specific stock market index.
- 6
governmentmilitarypoliticsa station's indication that previous information was incorrect and will continue with correct information from the last correct transmitted
- I have four T-80 tanks at grid Three-niner-niner-four-eight-eight, Correction: Grid Three niner-niner-four-eight-five. How copy? Over.
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。