One way to picture observe: your eyes stay on something and you take in what it does — watching with attention, not just . Out of that come noticing a detail and saying what you noticed. The 'keep a rule, keep a holiday' senses look like a different word, but they are the older meaning of the same Latin root: to keep to something.
From the word’s history
From Latin observare 'watch over, note, heed, look to, attend to, guard, regard, comply with', from ob- 'in front of' + servare 'to watch, keep safe'. English took the 'keep to, carry out, follow (a rule or custom)' sense first, in the late 14c.; 'watch, perceive, notice' only appears around the 1560s, and 'say by way of remark' around 1600.
來自拉丁文 observare「看守、留意、遵照」，由 ob-（在…前面）加 servare（看守、保全）組成。英文最先收下的是「守著、照著做（規矩或習俗）」這一層，時間在 14 世紀晚期；「觀看、注意到」要到 1560 年代才出現，「把觀察說出來」約在 1600 年。所以「遵守」不是從「觀察」硬轉出來的，兩層意思在字根裡本來就並存。
Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com/word/observe)
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原始詞典資料5 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。
observeverb/əbˈzɜːv/
- 1
To notice or view, especially carefully or with attention to detail.
- From this vantage point we can observe the behavior of the animals in their natural habitat.
- She got up before dawn to observe the lunar eclipse.
- 2
To follow or obey the custom, practice, or rules (especially of a religion).
- Please observe all posted speed limits.
- Some of them have, in fact, given them a theoretical elaboration which for subtlety, refinement, and elegance need make no apologies to the older economics, and which remains faithful to older theorizing in at least one respect, that the tradition of unintelligibility to the layman is scrupulously observed.
- 3
To take note of and celebrate (a holiday or similar occurrence), to keep; to follow (a type of time or calendar reckoning).
- Ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread.
- On Sunday, most of Canada will observe daylight time and spring forward an hour in order to reflect the increasing sunlight.
- 4
To comment on something; to make an observation.
- The senator observed that the bill would be detrimental to his constituents.
- Again, I farther obſerve, that as man is a compound being, ſo this renders him capable of ſeveral diſtinct kinds of pleaſure [...]
observenoun/əbˈzɜːv/
- 1
archaicAn observation (remark, comment or judgement).
- “It sticks in my mind that he would take it very ill,” says Alan. “But the little man cried to me to run, and indeed I thought it was a good observe, and ran. The last that I saw they were all in a knot upon the beach, like folk that were not agreeing very well together.”
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。