Picture a game where the rules are on the wall and everyone can see them. Both sides play to those rules, and neither side goes looking for an advantage that is not written there. What matters in that picture is not the score — it is that the same rules covered both sides the whole way through. Everything this word does grows from that: honest dealing away from the field, and even a short spoken line that hands someone their due.

可以想成一場規則貼在牆上、大家都看得到的比賽。兩邊照著那些規則打,也沒有人去找規則以外的便宜。這個畫面裡真正要緊的不是比數,而是「同一套規則從頭到尾罩著兩邊」。這個字的所有用法都從這裡長出來:走出球場,就成了待人處事上的公道;再往口語走一步,甚至成了一句給人肯定的話。

Two branches

照同一套規則來

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playing by the rules · noun · C2

Playing a game by its rules, without cheating and without taking an advantage that the rules do not allow.

公平競賽

口語:給人一個公道的肯定

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fair play to someone · noun · C2

Said when you think someone was right to do what they did, or that they deserve some credit for it. Spoken, and used mostly in British and Irish English.

算他做得對