Hold this picture: something harmful arrives and reaches you — but it simply does not take. Everyone around gets hit; it lands on you and nothing happens.

有害的東西確實找上門了,也真的碰到你了——但它就是「吃不下去」。旁邊的人一個個中招,同樣的東西落在你身上卻沒有作用。注意這裡的重點不是躲開,是碰到了卻不受影響,就像雨打在防水布上一樣。這個「打得到但傷不到」的感覺,是 immune 全部用法共通的底。

From the word’s history

Latin immunis = in- ('not') + munus ('a duty, a public service or tax owed to the community'), so it first meant 'exempt from public duty' — free from a burden others must bear. The medical sense came much later, borrowing that same shape: the disease is a burden everyone owes, and you are let off.

拉丁文 immunis 是 in-(不)加上 munus(該向公家盡的義務、要繳的稅賦),原意是「免除公共義務的」——別人都得扛的擔子,你不必扛。醫學上的「免疫」是很久以後才借用這個形狀的:把疾病想成大家都得承受的一份負擔,而你被放行了。有趣的是現代英文裡最日常的意思(免疫)反而是後來的,最古老的意思(豁免)今天聽起來卻最像專業術語。同一個 munus 也留在 common、municipal、remunerate 這些字裡。

Wiktionary, entry "immune" (Latin immūnis < in- + mūnus 'duty, service, tax')

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。

immuneadj/ɪˈmjuːn/

  • 1

    Exempt; not subject to.

    • As a diplomat, you are immune from prosecution.
    • He had always been remarkably immune from such little ailments, and had only once in his life been ill, of a vicious pneumonia long ago at school. He hadn't the faintest idea what to with a cold in the head, he just took quinine and continued to blow his nose.
  • 2

    medicinesciencesProtected by inoculation, or due to innate resistance to pathogens.

    • I am immune to chicken pox.
  • 3

    Not vulnerable.

    • Alas, he was immune to my charms.
    • [...] most of the original electrical signalling equipment has had to be replaced by apparatus immune to 50-cycle currents.
  • 4

    medicinesciencesOf or pertaining to immunity.

    • immune system
    • We examined the patient's immune response.

immunenoun/ɪˈmjuːn/

  • 1

    epidemiologymedicinesciencesA person who is not susceptible to infection by a particular disease

    • Susceptibles effectively exposed to cases become cases in the next time period; cases recovering from the infection accumulate as immunes.

immuneverb/ɪˈmjuːn/

  • 1

    rareTo make immune.

    • In the seventies those who met me did not know / Of the vision / That immuned me from the chillings of mis-prision […]
    • The utilization of such milk will, however, necessitate an adaptable milk preservation method, through which the immuning agents will not be destroyed or diminished.

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。