One way to hold this word: think of a door with a line drawn on the frame, the kind families use to mark how tall a child is getting. Grown-up is what you say once the marks stop moving — the growing is finished, and the person is now on the adult side of the door. From that one picture the word reaches in two directions. It can point at the person who crossed over (a grown-up son; a grown-up who works at the stall), or it can point at everything that lives on the far side of the door: the way adults are expected to behave, and the things made for adults rather than for children. The child's-eye view never quite leaves the word, which is why it sounds warmer and more everyday than adult.
可以想成門框上那條量身高的線：每年畫一道，記錄小孩又長高了多少。grown-up 就是那些線不再往上跑的時候——長完了，人已經站到門的大人那一邊。從這一個畫面出發，字往兩個方向伸出去。一個方向指「過去的那個人」：長大的兒子、攤位上的大人。另一個方向指「門那一邊的所有東西」：大人該有的處事方式，還有給大人用的衣服、工作、菜單、談話。這個字始終保留著一點小孩的視角，所以聽起來比 adult 親切、口語，票價和表格上才會換成 adult。
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