One way to picture it: something is already moving along a set path — a river, a road full of cars — and you step in and turn it aside, so it keeps moving but goes somewhere else now.
From the word’s history
Latin di- "apart, aside" + vertere "to turn" — literally "to turn aside"; the same vertere gives English verse, reverse and convert.
來自拉丁文 di-（分開、岔向一邊）加上 vertere（轉），字面就是「把它轉到旁邊去」。同一個 vertere 也造出了 reverse（倒轉）、convert（轉換）、verse。知道這個之後，divert 的每一個用法讀起來都會變得很直觀：不管轉的是水、是錢、是電話、還是別人的注意力，動作都是同一個——把一條正在進行中的流，撥向另一邊。
Wiktionary: divert (from Middle English diverten, Old French divertir, Latin divertere: di- + vertere)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料4 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。
divertverb/daɪˈvɜːt/
- 1
To turn aside from a course.
- The workers diverted the stream away from the road.
- Many of the remaining trains have been retimed and where possible freight trains have also been diverted to alternative routes.
- 2
To distract.
- Don't let him divert your attention; keep your eye on the ball.
- that crude apple that diverted Eve
- 3
To entertain or amuse (by diverting the attention)
- We are amused by a tale, diverted by a comedy.
- But somehow, despite wooden, unfunny dialogue, rigid characterization, and the dreadful mindless meaninglessness of it all, Good News manages to divert us for its three hours.
- 4
obsoleteTo turn aside; to digress.
- I diverted to see one of the prince's palaces.
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。