喜樂美語

A workable picture: someone who knows exactly how a thing works, and keeps that knowing to themselves. The know-how is real skill — it is the hiding that decides whether we admire it or distrust it. Picture a fox: not stronger than the dogs, just better at knowing where the gap in the fence is, and not telling.

一個人清清楚楚知道事情怎麼運作，而且不打算讓你知道他知道。這裡有兩層，缺一不可——底層是真本事（他真的懂門道），上層是藏起來（他不攤開來說）。想像一隻狐狸：牠沒有比獵犬強壯，牠只是知道籬笆哪裡有個縫，而且不會告訴任何人。這就是為什麼 cunning 幾乎總是帶著涼意：那個「懂」是真的，令人不安的是他把它用在哪裡。也因為底層是「懂門道」，這個字偶爾會轉回純粹的讚美——當被誇的不是人而是一件做得極巧的東西時。

From the word’s history

From Old English cunnan, "to know how to, be able to" — the same root that gives us can. Cunning originally meant simply skilled or knowledgeable, with no dishonesty at all; the modern sneaky flavour is a later narrowing of "knowing how" toward "knowing more than you let on".

這個字來自古英語 cunnan「知道怎麼做、有能力做」——就是今天 can 的同一個根。所以 cunning 本來完全是褒義的，意思只是「內行、有本事」，一點不誠實的味道都沒有。現在那層陰影是後來才長出來的：從「知道怎麼做」慢慢窄化成「知道的比他讓你看到的多」。知道這件事很有用，因為它解釋了為什麼「精巧的裝置」和「狡猾的人」會是同一個字——它們共用的是最底下那個「懂門道」。

Wiktionary, "cunning" (present participle of Old English cunnan "to know how to, be able to"; cf. can)

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

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。

同家族的字

  • 副詞cunningly

比較級 more cunning最高級 most cunning

原始詞典資料10 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。

Cunningname

  • 1

    A surname.

cunningadj詞源 1/ˈkʌnɪŋ/

  • 1

    Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.

    • They are resolved to be cunning; let others run the hazard of being sincere.
  • 2

    obsoleteSkillful, artful.

    • Esau was a cunning hunter.
    • a cunning workman
  • 3

    obsoleteWrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious.

    • cunning work
    • Over them Arachne high did lift / Her cunning web.
  • 4

    datedCute, appealing.

    • everybody gives something to the cunning little boy; his eyes are large and soft, and he wears a pointed hat, and tight breeches, and jacket
    • “I shan't mind that at all, I like the little house 'cause it's got a garden, and there's a cunning room with a three-cornered closet in it that I always wanted.[…]”

cunningnoun詞源 2/ˈkʌnɪŋ/

  • 1

    Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.

    • indeed at this very moment he's slipped away with the utmost cunning into a form that's most perplexing to investigate.
  • 2

    Practical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit; art or magic.

    • Caliban: As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.
  • 3

    The disposition to employ one's skill in an artful manner; craftiness; guile; artifice; skill of being cunning, sly, conniving, or deceitful.

  • 4

    The natural wit or instincts of an animal.

    • the cunning of the fox or hare
  • 5

    obsoleteKnowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).

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。