Picture a straight row of things where one piece sticks out past the others — you see it before you see anything else. Outstanding can be thought of as that sticking-out, used in two directions. Something can stick out because it is far better than the rest, or it can stick out because it has not been pulled in yet: a bill still poking out of the pile of settled ones, waiting to be paid.
From the word’s history
Outstanding is out- 'outward, forth' plus standing, and in the 1610s it meant literally 'projecting, prominent, detached' — sticking out from the main body. From that one picture two lines grew: 'unpaid, unsettled' (1797), a debt still standing outside the settled ones, and 'conspicuous, striking' (1830), which is where today's 'excellent' comes from.
outstanding 是 out-（向外）加上 standing（站著），1610 年代的意思很具體：從主體上「凸出來、突出、分離出來」。從這張圖長出兩條線：1797 年出現「未清償、未了結」——一筆帳還站在已結清的那堆之外；1830 年出現「顯眼、引人注目」，也就是今天「出色」的來源。
Etymonline, 'outstanding' (https://www.etymonline.com/word/outstanding)
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原始詞典資料6 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。
outstandingadj/ˌaʊtˈstæn.dɪŋ/
- 1
Prominent or noticeable; sovereign.
- 2
Exceptionally good; distinguished from others by its superiority.
- Charles S. Peirce, 1839 to 1914, was one of America's most outstanding intellects. Philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, he wrote profusely, the equivalent of almost 100,000 printed pages in all.
- The Gunners captain demonstrated his importance to the team by taking his tally to an outstanding 28 goals in 27 Premier League games as Chelsea slumped again after their shock defeat at QPR last week.
- 3
Projecting outwards.
- At a distance of about seven or eight miles to the northeastward of the landing, there is an outstanding group of mountains crowning a spur from the main chain of the Coast Range, whose highest point rises about eight thousand feet above the level of the sea;...
- 4
Unresolved; not settled or finished.
- I have several outstanding tasks on my to-do list.
- Are there any outstanding issues that need to be addressed?
- 5
Owed as a debt.
- You must pay any outstanding corporate card balance immediately.
- The distribution of the capital shall in the case of each loan be based on the capital amount outstanding at the date of the coming into force of the present Treaty.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
- outstand
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。