- 1精靈般的；小巧玲瓏的（多形容外貌）
If someone looks elfin, they look small, light, and a little — like the elves in pictures. It is almost always about a face, a body, or a smile, not about magic.
If someone looks elfin如果有人看起來 elfin（精靈般的），they它 look small, light, and a little otherworldly看起來嬌小、輕盈，還帶點不像凡間的感覺——like the elves in pictures就像圖畫裡的精靈一樣。It它 is almost always about a face, a body, or a smile幾乎都是在講一張臉、一個身形或一個微笑，not about magic而不是在講魔法。
A child with a tiny frame and bright eyes might be called elfin; so might an adult who is delicate and quick. It is a kind, slightly word.
A child with a tiny frame and bright eyes一個身形嬌小、眼睛明亮的小孩 might be called elfin可能會被說是 elfin；so might an adult who is delicate and quick一個纖細、動作輕快的大人也可能被這樣說。It它 is a kind, slightly bookish word是個親切、帶點書面味的詞。
You will meet it in careful descriptions more than in everyday chat. It does not mean the person is an elf, and it does not mean “naughty” or “evil”, even though old elves were sometimes both.
You你 will meet it in careful descriptions比較會在講究的描寫裡遇到它 more than in everyday chat而不是日常閒聊中。It它 does not mean the person is an elf不代表這個人是精靈，and it也它 does not mean "naughty" or "evil"也不代表「調皮」或「邪惡」，even though old folklore elves were sometimes both即使古老傳說裡的精靈有時候確實兩者都是。
Though actually, writers also stretch it to a place or a mood that feels fairy-small and slightly strange.
Though actually不過事實上，writers作家們 also stretch it to a place or a mood也會把它延伸用在一個地方或一種氛圍上 that feels fairy-small and slightly strange那種感覺像精靈一樣小巧又帶點怪異的。
core核心畫面
組成elf + -in. In Old English, elfen / ælfen was the feminine — a female elf, nymph, or spirit. Later writers, especially Spenser, treated it as if it were simply elf with an adjective ending, which is how we use it now for a look.
同家族的字
- elfthe creature the look is named after
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。
elfinnoun詞源 1/ˈɛlfɪn/
- 1
An elf; an inhabitant of fairy-land.
- It was quite an expedition that Ida met, a kind of elfin's rout it looked in the moonlight, children and animals and a fairy-like presence with a face like a moon-lily, all scampering and squealing and whoofing and miauling in a merry game they were making of their progress.
- 2
A little urchin or child.
- 3
Any of the butterflies in the subgenus Incisalia of the North American lycaenid genus Callophrys.
elfinadj詞源 2/ˈɛlfɪn/
- 1
Of or relating to elves.
- The Elf-bolt is associated with many rustic fancies not yet altogether eradicated from the popular mind. It occupied no unimportant part among the paraphernalia of Scottish witches of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and the occurrence of any sudden disease amongst cattle was ascribed until a comparatively recent period, to their having been shot by the fairies with Elfin arrows.
- If Burd Ellen had gone “widishins" round the church, she would, I think, have used the best homoeopathic specific against the Elf-King's power; for "to go widishins" was the chief element in elfin practices, and if mortals wished to resist or unspell elf-craft, they, too, had "to go widershins," or they had to repeat the Paternoster backwards, which came to the same thing, or do something else contrariwise.
- 2
Resembling an elf or elves, especially in tiny size or features.
- She was one of those elfin, rather precocious little girls, quick coloured, with dark hair, naturally curling dusky hair that was sometimes astray over her eyes, and eyes that were sometimes impishly dark, and sometimes a clear brown yellow.
- Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.
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。