喜樂美語

One way to picture it: a door that has no handle on either side. It is not that you have not pushed hard enough — the pushing itself leads nowhere, because there is nothing there that can open. `impossibility` is the name for that closedness itself.

一扇沒有把手的門。重點不是你力氣不夠、還沒用力推——而是這扇門本身就沒有可以開的地方，再怎麼推也只是推在牆上。impossibility 這個字指的就是「這件事打不開」這個狀態本身；它是抽象名詞，講的是那份「做不到」，而不是講哪一件事做不到。

From the word’s history

From Latin impossibilitās, built on impossibilis (im- 'not' + possibilis 'able to be done'), which comes from posse 'to be able'. So the word literally names the absence of the can: not-able-ness.

來自拉丁文 impossibilitās，底層是 impossibilis：im-（不）＋ possibilis（做得到的），而 possibilis 又來自 posse（能夠、有能力）。所以這個字從字面上就是在替「沒有那個『能』」命名——不是「難」，是「能力這件事根本不存在」。這也解釋了為什麼中文常常要用「不可能」而不是「很難」來翻它。

Wiktionary, 'impossibility' / 'impossible' (from Middle French impossibilité, from Latin impossibilitās; im- + possibilitās, ultimately from posse 'to be able')

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

容易混在一起的字在訂閱裡。容易混在一起的字需要訂閱帳號。

同家族的字

複數 impossibilities

意思相近

hopelessnessno-gotoo muchfutilitynon-starter

用法接近

inabilitylimitask too muchdifficultybarrierunreasonable demand

意思相反

possibilityreasonable requestchance

原始詞典資料3 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。

impossibilitynoun/ɪmˌpɒsɪˈbɪliti/

  • 1

    Something that is impossible.

    • Meeting the deadline is an impossibility; there is no way we can be ready in time.
    • God commands not impossibilities; and all the Ecclesiastical glue, that Liturgy, or Laymen can compound, is not able to soder up two such incongruous natures into the one flesh of a true beseeming Mariage.
  • 2

    The quality of being impossible.

    • 1548, Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke, London: Richard Grafton, Henry VIII, year 15, After long reasonyng, there wer certain appoynted, to declare the impossibilite of this demaunde to the Cardinal,
    • [L]et the mutinous winds / Strike the proud cedars ’gainst the fiery sun; / Murdering impossibility, to make / What cannot be, slight work.
  • 3

    obsoleteThe state of being unable to do something.

    • Here by this petition whan we say, Leade vs not into temptation, we learne to know our own impossibilitie and infirmitie, namely that we bee not able of our owne selues to with∣stand this great and mightye enemye the deuill.
    • […] out of their own torment, they [the damned] see the felicitie of the saints; togither with their impossibility of attayning it.

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。