喜樂美語

Everything that works has a line: a person, a horse, an engine, a knee that is still healing. Up to that line, work builds the thing; past it, work starts taking something away. Overwork can be thought of as the part that lies past the line. The verb is the crossing — done to yourself, or done to you by someone who keeps adding. The noun is the crossed-over amount itself, and it is usually named afterwards, once the damage has shown up.

「overwork」可以想成一條線。人、馬、引擎、還沒好的膝蓋，都有一個撐得住的上限。線以內，工作把你練起來。線以外，工作開始把你磨掉。這個字講的就是超出去的那一段。動詞是越線的動作——可能是自己硬撐，也可能是別人一直加。名詞則是超出去的那個量本身，通常要等到人病倒了，才被叫出名字。

From the word’s history

The word is simply over- plus work, and Middle English already had overwerken. Time has hidden nothing: the modern meaning is still exactly what the two parts say, work carried past the point where it should have stopped.

這個字就是 over-（超過）加上 work（工作），中古英語已經有 overwerken 這個形式。它沒有走遠，今天的意思還是兩個零件加起來的字面：工作做過了該停的地方。名詞另有一條更老的線（古英語 oferweorc，指「上層建物、墓上的構造」），那個意思今天一般人已經用不到。

Wiktionary entry supplied in this packet — source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1221467008 (verb: 'From Middle English overwerken … equivalent to over- + work') and kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1221474443 (noun: 'From Middle English overwerc, from Old English oferweorc … superstructure, tomb').

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容易混在一起的字在訂閱裡。容易混在一起的字需要訂閱帳號。

同家族的字

過去式 overworked / overwrought過去分詞 overworked / overwrought-ing overworking三單 overworks

意思相近

overexertexhaustionovertaxstrainoverdo itburnoutpush too harddrudgeryburn out

意思相反

restrelaxleisureunderworktime off

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。

overworkverb詞源 1/ˌəʊvəˈwɜːk/

  • 1

    To make (someone or something) work too hard.

    • to overwork a horse
    • For some years locomotives and coaches have been overworked and undermaintained to a degree without precedent in British railway history, and the leeway in maintenance now to be made up is very great.
  • 2

    To work too hard.

  • 3

    To fill too full of work; to crowd with labour.

    • My days with toil are overwrought.
  • 4

    To decorate all over.

overworknoun詞源 2/ˈəʊvəˌwɜːk/

  • 1

    A superstructure.

  • 2

    Excessive work.

    • Various disordered conditions consequent upon overwork, which are characteristic of modern civilisation.
    • He says that more men are killed by overwork than the importance of this world justifies. He maintains that overwork slew Pansay who died under his hands about three years ago.

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。