You can picture labour as hard effort poured out from the body — sweat, strain, work done with hands and back. Almost everything the word does grows from that single image: the effort itself, the people who supply it, the body's hardest effort of all (giving birth), and effort that drags because it is so heavy.
From the word’s history
From Latin labor 'toil, exertion, trouble, hardship' — effort that costs you something. The English word keeps that weight: not light work, but work that strains.
源自拉丁文 labor「勞苦、費力、艱辛」——讓你付出代價的力氣。英文這個字保留了那份沉重：不是輕鬆的活，而是會讓人吃力的活。
Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), 'labor (n.)'
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原始詞典資料16 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。
labournoun詞源 1/ˈleɪ.bə/
- 1
An effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.
- […]So I ſet myſelf to enlarge my Cave and Works farther into the Earth; for it was a looſe ſandy Rock, which yielded eaſily to the Labour I beſtowed on it[…]
- 2
That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
- Being a labour of so great difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for.
- 3
Workers in general; the working class, the workforce; sometimes specifically the labour movement, organised labour.
- In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.
- 4
A political party or force aiming or claiming to represent the interests of labour.
- 5
medicineobstetricssciencesThe act or process of a mother giving birth.
- Near-synonyms: childbirth, parturition
- Paul Doherty came to the rescue when his wife Georgina went into labour early just minutes from their local hospital.
- 6
The time period during which a mother gives birth.
- 7
nauticaltransportThe pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.
- 8
historicalA traditional unit of area in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to 177.1 acres or 71.67 ha.
- the establishment of a new settlement are entitled to five sitios of grazing land, and five labors (equal to 23,025 acres)
另外 1 個記錄的用法
- 9
rareA group of moles.
- Hidden from its broader surrounding, a labor of moles can toil with the materiality of its existence — Earth — but must always heed barriers to their subterranean sphere.
- According to the local authority, the development site is home to a labour of moles which have now started appearing in the neighbouring cemetery with scores of molehills now visible across the grounds.
labourverb詞源 2/ˈleɪ.bə/
- 1
To toil, to work.
- Standing on the mountain above Caerphilly, one may reflect upon the gap where once stood Llanbradach Viaduct, and look near at hand upon the restored ruins of Caerphilly Castle; man labours to rebuild the mediaeval whilst he ruthlessly scraps the modern.
- "Crab" 2-6-0 No 42802 labours up to Beattock Summit with a northbound freight from Carlisle in August 1960.
- 2
To belabour, to emphasise or expand upon (a point in a debate, etc).
- I think we've all got the idea. There's no need to labour the point.
- It is needless to labor a point which is so well known. Everyone understands and appreciates the joy of finding that the long darkness is giving way, that the Sun is growing in strength, and that the days are winning a victory over the nights.
- 3
To be oppressed with difficulties or disease; to do one's work under conditions which make it especially hard or wearisome; to move slowly, as against opposition, or under a burden.
- the stone that labours up the hill
- The line too labours, and the words move slow.
- 4
To suffer the pangs of childbirth.
- 5
nauticaltransportTo pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.
- the ship laboured so much, and took in so much water in her upper works, that we could neither eat, nor sleep dry
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
- the Labour Party
- Labor
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。