Picture the moment the ground drops out. You hear the news — the flight is cancelled, the results came back wrong — and for a second you have no move left. It is not sharp fear and not simple sadness; it is the heavy, sinking mix of shock and disappointment that leaves you unsure what to do next.
From the word’s history
Traced back through Old French esmaier 'to frighten' to a Vulgar Latin *exmagare — roughly 'to take someone's strength away, to make them unable'. That loss of power is still audible in the modern word: dismay is not just feeling bad, it is being knocked out of action.
往回追是古法文 esmaier「使驚恐」，再往上是通俗拉丁文 *exmagare，字面接近「把某人的力氣抽走、讓他做不了事」。那個「力氣被抽掉」的感覺其實還留在現代這個字裡：dismay 不只是心情不好，而是被打得使不上力、暫時失去行動能力——這正好解釋了為什麼它比 disappointment 重，也比它更帶一點無措。
Wiktionary 'dismay' etymology (Middle English dismayen < Anglo-Norman *desmaiier, alteration of Old French esmaier 'to frighten' < Vulgar Latin *exmagare < ex- + *magare).
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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。
dismayverb/dɪsˈmeɪ/
- 1
To cause to feel apprehension; great sadness, or fear; to deprive of energy.
- Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.
- What words be these? What fears do you dismay?
- 2
To render lifeless; to subdue; to disquiet.
- Do not dismay yourself for this.
- 3
To take dismay or fright; to be filled with dismay.
- Dismay not, princes, at this accident,
dismaynoun/dɪsˈmeɪ/
- 1
A sudden or complete loss of courage and firmness in the face of trouble or danger; overwhelming and disabling terror; a sinking of the spirits
- He looked in dismay at the destruction of the town caused by the hurricane.
- Come on: in this there can be no dismay; My ships come home a month before the day.
- 2
Condition fitted to dismay; ruin.
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。