You can picture the ocean as the one vast body of salt water spread over most of the Earth — water reaching past the horizon in every direction. From that image the word does two things: it names the big divided pieces of that water (the Pacific, the Atlantic), and it lends its sheer 'so much you can't measure it' feel to mean a huge amount of anything.

可以想成覆蓋地球大半、一望無際的鹹水——往四面望去都到不了盡頭。這個字從這個畫面做兩件事:替這片水切出來的幾大塊命名(太平洋、大西洋),以及借用它那種「多到量不完」的感覺,去形容任何東西的「一大堆」。

From the word’s history

From Greek Okeanos, the great river the ancient Greeks believed encircled the whole flat Earth — the all-surrounding water. The modern sense keeps that sense of water that wraps the world.

源自希臘文 Okeanos——古希臘人想像中環繞整個大地的那條大河,也就是「包圍一切的水」。現代的意思保留了這份「環抱世界的水」的感覺。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), 'ocean (n.)'

One branch

環抱大地的鹹水(本義與延伸)

登入就可以看這一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

vast salt water · noun · B1

The huge area of salt water that covers most of the Earth.

海洋

原始詞典資料8 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。

Oceanname

  • 1

    A female given name from English, of modern usage.

    • 'Ocean still isn't sleeping through the night.' I don't blame her. She's probably traumatised by her ridiculous name.
  • 2

    A township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, which originally extended to the ocean.

  • 3

    A township in Ocean County, New Jersey.

  • 4

    human-sciencesmysticismmythologyThe deity Oceanus.

    • But he must ever watch the northern Bear, Who from her frozen height with jealous eye Confronts the Dog and the Hunter in the south, And is alone not dipt in Ocean's stream.

oceannoun/ˈəʊ.ʃən/

  • 1

    One of the large bodies of water separating the continents.

  • 2

    Water belonging to an ocean.

    • The island is surrounded by ocean
  • 3

    An immense expanse; any vast space or quantity without apparent limits.

    • the boundless ocean of eternity
    • an ocean of difference
  • 4

    A blue colour, like that of the ocean (also called ocean blue).

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。