One way to hold this word: something is still standing, still switched on, still meeting every week — and it is not doing the thing it exists to do. Not smashed, not absent. Present and failing. That picture works for a heating system that runs cold, and it works just as well for a family that still eats together and still leaves everything .
可以想成：東西還在，也還在動，但它該做的事沒有做到。不是碎掉，也不是不見了，而是「人還在、功能不在」。暖氣還在運轉卻不會熱，網站打得開卻訂不了位——這是最容易看見的版本。同一個畫面搬到人身上也成立：一家人照樣一起吃飯，但沒有人說真話，問題年年都在。dys- 是「壞掉、不順」，function 是「運作」，這個字就站在那個沒有兌現的功能上。
From the word’s history
dys- (from Greek, meaning bad or wrong) + function (from Latin functio, a performing or working) + -al. The word says, literally, that the working of a thing has gone wrong.
dys- 來自希臘文，表示壞掉、不順；function 來自拉丁文 fūnctiō，指運作、功能；再加上形容詞字尾 -al。字面上就是「運作出了問題的」。
Wiktionary etymology tree supplied in this packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:459376688:23484)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。