喜樂美語

One way to picture it: the very beginning of a life — a baby who cannot yet speak or look after itself, and depends completely on someone else. Everything else the word does is a stretch of that 'earliest stage' picture.

一個生命最開頭的那一段：懷裡的嬰兒，還不會說話、還不能照顧自己，一切都要靠別人。infant 抓住的其實是「還在最初階段、還很小、還要被照顧」這個位置。從這個畫面往外走，它可以指剛上學的小朋友、指專門為這個年紀做的東西，最後甚至跳出人的範圍，用來說一個剛起步的產業——就像一個還在學步的嬰兒。

From the word’s history

Latin īnfāns literally means 'not speaking' (in- 'not' + fāns 'speaking'), which is why the word marks the stage before speech and, by extension, any stage that has not yet found its own voice or feet.

拉丁文的 īnfāns 字面意思是「還不會說話的」（in- 「不」＋ fāns 「說話」）。這個字根正好解釋了現代的核心：infant 標的不只是年紀小，而是「還沒開口、還沒能自立」的那個階段——所以後來拿去形容一個剛起步、還沒站穩的產業，也就順理成章。

Wiktionary: infant (from Middle English infaunt, from Latin īnfantem, īnfāns 'not able to speak')

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 infants

原始詞典資料7 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。

infantnoun/ˈɪn.fənt/

  • 1

    A very young human being, from birth to somewhere between six months and two years of age after birth, needing almost constant care and attention.

  • 2

    lawA minor.

    • Thomas Humphrey Doleman died the 30th of August 1712, an infant, intestate and without issue; Lewis the next nephew died the 17th of April 1716, an infant about sixteen years old, having left his mother Mary Webb, ...
  • 3

    A student in an infant school or the first part of a primary school.

  • 4

    obsoleteA noble or aristocratic youth.

    • Retourned home, the royall Infant fell / Into her former fitt [...].

infantadj/ˈɪn.fənt/

  • 1

    Of or pertaining to the earlier half of primary school education.

    • Primary schooling in Ireland comprises two Infant years, which are equivalent to pre-school in other countries , and six grades or classes.
    • Clearly, from the attention given to it, HMI believed that history should be part of the infant curriculum.
  • 2

    small, being near its source.

    • Leaving Nantyglo, a small station at an altitude of 1,030 ft. with the platform on the eastern side, the train runs northwards over former G.W.R. metals, with the infant River Ebbw, a little more than a yard wide, on the west.

infantverb/ˈɪn.fənt/

  • 1

    obsoleteTo bear or bring forth (a child); to produce, in general.

    • This worthy motto, "No bishop, no king," is […] infanted out of the same fears.

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。