A picture you can hold: a page of writing is put in front of someone, and the marks stay marks — the door that letters open for other people is closed for them.
From the word’s history
Latin littera means 'a letter of the alphabet'; illiteratus was built as in- ('not') + litteratus ('marked with letters, lettered, learned'), so the word literally names someone the letters have not reached.
拉丁文 littera 就是「字母」，litteratus 是「識得字母的、有學問的」，前面加上表示否定的 in-（拼成 il-）就成了 illiteratus。所以這個字從字面上就是「字母沒到他身上」，跟今天的核心畫面完全對得上——同一個 littera 也長出了 letter、literature、literal，看得出來這一家子都圍著「字」打轉。
Wiktionary, entry "illiterate" (from Middle English illiterat, borrowed from Latin illīterātus < in- + līterātus)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料6 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。
illiterateadj/ɪˈlɪtəɹət/
- 1
Unable to read and write.
- About half of the population in Ethiopia is illiterate.
- If publique Aſſemblies of Divines cannot agree upon a right vvay, private Conventicles of illeterate men, vvill ſoon finde a vvrong. Bivious demurres breed devious reſolutions. Paſſengers to heaven are in haſte, and vvill vvalk one vvay or other.
- 2
Having less than an expected standard of familiarity with language and literature, or having little formal education.
- Ignorant and ſuperſtitious wretches meaſure the actions of letterd and philoſophical men by the tattle of their nurſes or illiterate parents and companions, or by the faſhion of the country : and people of differing religions judge and condemn each other by their own tenents ; when both of them cannot be in the right, and it is well if either of them are.
- He's illiterate […] Seriously, how did he get into RI?
- 3
Not conforming to prescribed standards of speech or writing.
- Now (exc. in Nautical language, see b) it is only dialectal or an illiterate substitute for lie, its identity of form with the past tense of the latter no doubt accounting largely for the confusion.
- 4
Ignorant in a specified way or about a specified subject.
- technologically illiterate, economically illiterate, emotionally illiterate
illiteratenoun/ɪˈlɪtəɹət/
- 1
An illiterate person, one either not able to read and write or not knowing how.
- We might also provide education plus reading and writing services to adult illiterates.
- 2
A person ignorant about a given subject. (The relevant subject is usually named as a noun adjunct.)
- Their government is run by business illiterates.
- Sometimes a mathematical illiterate is called an innumerate.
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。