The root inside this word is death. One way to hold it: something in a person is being put to death. In the old religious use it is the body's appetites; in the everyday use it is the person's pride. In both, what dies is not the person but the part of them that wanted something — which is why the word is so much heavier than .
From the word’s history
From Anglo-Norman mortifier and Late Latin mortificō, to cause death, built on Latin mors, death, plus -ficō, to make. So the word literally says to put to death, and both modern uses are that action with a different thing dying.
這個字來自古法語系的 mortifier 和晚期拉丁文 mortificō，意思是「造成死亡」，由拉丁文 mors（死）加上 -ficō（使成為…）組成。所以字面就是「把…弄死」。今天的兩個用法都是同一個動作，只是死掉的東西不一樣。
Wiktionary entry for mortify (packet source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1228270086), etymology_text: from Anglo-Norman mortifier, Middle French mortifier, from Late Latin mortificō (cause death), from Latin mors (death) + -ficō (-fy).
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原始詞典資料12 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。
mortifyverb/ˈmɔːtɪfaɪ/
- 1
To discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on.
- Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body.
- With fasting mortify'd, worn out with tears.
- 2
To injure the dignity of; to embarrass; to humiliate.
- I was so mortified I could have died right there; instead I fainted, but I swore I'd never let that happen to me again.
- Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.
- 3
obsoleteTo kill.
- The second Spring after transplanting, purge them of all superfluous shoots and scions, reserving only the most towardly for the future stem; this to be done yearly, as long as they continue in the nursery; and if of the principal stem so left, the frost mortifie any part, cut it off [...]
- 4
obsoleteTo reduce the potency of; to nullify; to deaden, neutralize.
- Soothly, the gode werkes, that he dide biforn that he fil in sinne, been al mortified and astoned and dulled by the ofte sinning.
- Quicksilver is mortified with turpentine.
- 5
To affect with vexation or chagrin.
- He seemed to enjoy mortifying them with news of every fresh hell loosed in the capital.
- 22 September 1651 (date in diary), 1818 (first published), John Evelyn, John Evelyn's Diary the news of the fatal battle of Worcester, which exceedingly mortified our expectations
- 6
To scare.
- Near-synonym: petrify
- Please don't mortify your mother by telling her what a stupidly dangerous thing you did last night.
- 7
obsoleteTo humble; to depress.
- 8
historicalTo grant in mortmain.
- the schoolmasters of Ayr were paid out of the mills mortified by Queen Mary
另外 4 個記錄的用法
- 9
To lose vitality.
- [...] Tis a pure ill-natur'd ſatisfaction to ſee one that was a beauty unfortunately move with the ſame languor, and ſoftneſs of behaviour, that once was charming in her—To ſee, I ſay, her mortify that us'd to kill [...]
- 10
archaicTo kill off (living tissue etc.); to make necrotic.
- Servius the Grammarian being troubled with the gowt, found no better meanes to be rid of it, than to apply poison to mortifie [translating tuer] his legs.
- 11
archaicTo gangrene.
- For the inducing of putrefaction, it were good to try it with flesh or fish exposed to the moonbeams; and again exposed to the air when the moon shineth not, for the like time: to see whether will corrupt sooner: and try it also with capon, or some other fowl, laid abroad, to see whether it will mortify and become tender sooner; try it also with dead flies, or dead worms, having a little water cast upon them, to see whether will putrefy sooner.
- 12
To be subdued.
- Trying to be kind and honest will require all his thoughts; a mortified appetite is never a wise companion; in so far as he has had to mortify an appetite, he will still be the worse man; and of such an one a great deal of cheerfulness will be required in judging life, and a great deal of humility in judging others.
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。