喜樂美語

One way to picture currency: something that keeps flowing from hand to hand and is taken as good wherever it lands. Coins and notes do it with value; words and ideas do it with meaning. In both cases the point is not what the thing is made of, but that people all along the line accept it.

可以想成 currency 是「一路傳下去、每一手都收」的東西：鈔票和硬幣傳的是價值，說法和想法傳的是意義。重點都不在那樣東西本身是什麼做的，而在於這條線上的人都願意收——收了才流得動。

From the word’s history

From Latin currere 'to run'. When currency entered English in the 1650s it meant 'condition of flowing'; the sense 'money as a medium of exchange' only arrived around 1729, and the sense 'continuity in public knowledge' around 1722. So circulation is the older idea, and money is one thing that circulates.

字根來自拉丁文 currere「跑」。currency 在 1650 年代進入英文時指的是「流動的狀態」，1722 年前後才有「在眾人之間持續流傳」的意思，1729 年前後才有「當作交易媒介的錢」。也就是說「流通」是比較早的概念，錢只是眾多會流通的東西之一。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com/word/currency)

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

複數 currencies

意思相反

obscurity

原始詞典資料5 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。

currencynoun/ˈkʌɹ.ən.si/

  • 1

    Money or other items used to facilitate transactions.

    • Wampum was used as a currency by Amerindians.
    • Money managers who play down currencies tend to argue that outguessing foreign exchange markets in the short term is perilous, and that, over the long haul, shifts in currency values tend to offset one another.
  • 2

    Paper money.

    • Spangler went through his pockets, coming out with a handful of small coins, one piece of currency and a hard-boiled egg.
    • Two years on, and while the Sultan of Slowjamastan has instigated more than a few bizarre laws (he’s outlawed the wearing of Crocs, for example), the Republic also has all the trappings of a fledgling nation-state. It issues its own passports, flies its own flag, prints its own currency (“the duble”), and has a national anthem that’s played on state occasions.
  • 3

    The state of being current; general acceptance, recognition or use.

    • The jargon’s currency.
    • Fear of punishment has no currency with me as long as I remain convinced of the larger value of what I have done.
  • 4

    obsoleteCurrent value; general estimation; the rate at which anything is generally valued.

    • He […] takes greatness of kingdoms according to their bulk and currency, and not after intrinsic value.
    • The bare name of Englishman […] too often gave a transient currency to the worthless and ungrateful.
  • 5

    obsoleteFluency; readiness of utterance.

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。