喜樂美語
  1. 1nA2/səˈmestər/ · /səˈmestə/學期

    One of the two or three periods that a school or university year is divided into, especially in the US.

    示範例句 · Example

    Fall semester starts on the twenty-eighth of August.

    逐字秋季學期在八月二十八日開始。

    「semester」是英文裡講「學期」最常用的詞——學年裡的一大段上課時間，美國高中和大學特別常這樣說。How can we think of semester? 核心畫面可以想成「把學年切成兩大塊（有時三塊）的其中一塊」：fall / spring semester、this / next / last semester 都指向同一個畫面。跟 term（英國常一年三學期）、quarter（一年四塊）容易搞混。

    常見搭配

    • fall / autumn semester

      秋季學期；上學期（美式）

      the semester that starts in late summer or autumn

      Fall semester begins in late August at many US schools.

    • spring semester

      春季學期；下學期（美式）

      the semester that starts after winter break

      In the spring semester Mei studies art and science.

    • this / next / last semester

      這／下／上學期

      the present, following, or previous semester

      Last semester Leo improved his English a lot.

    • the end of the semester

      學期末

      the final days or weeks of a semester

      We clean our lockers at the end of the semester.

    • a semester abroad

      一學期的國外就讀／交換

      a period of study in another country lasting one semester

      Aisha spent a semester abroad in Japan.

    • during the semester

      在學期當中

      while a semester is going on

      During the semester we have quizzes almost every Friday.

    意思相近

    term

    用法接近

    quartertermschool yearacademic year

core核心畫面

Picture the school year cut into two big blocks (three, at some places). Each block is a whole small life of its own: it opens, you pick your courses, you work through them, you sit the final exams, and it closes with grades. Then the next block starts from zero. A `semester` is one of those blocks.

可以想成把一整個學年切成兩大塊（有些學校切成三塊）。每一塊自己就是一段完整的過程：開學、選課、一路上完、期末考，然後結算成績收尾；下一塊再從頭來過。semester 指的就是這樣一塊。

From the word’s history

Semester came into English in 1827 meaning 'a period of six months', borrowed from German university life, from Latin semestris (as in cursus semestris, 'course of six months'), which is sex 'six' + mensis 'month'. Twelve months cut in two gives six — so the word was born meaning 'half a year', which is exactly why a school year holds two of them.

semester 1827 年進入英文，當時的意思是「六個月的一段時間」，是從德國的大學制度借過來的，再往上是拉丁文 semestris（cursus semestris，「六個月的課程」），由 sex（六）加 mensis（月）組成。十二個月切成兩半就是六個月——所以這個字天生的意思就是「一年的一半」，這也正好解釋了為什麼一學年裝得下兩個 semester。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entry 'semester': 1827, 'period or term of six months', from Latin semestris (cursus semestris 'course of six months'), from assimilated form of sex 'six' + mensis 'month'; adopted in the US on the German university model.

複數 semesters

意思相近

term

用法接近

quartertermschool yearacademic year

原始詞典資料2 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。

semesternoun/sɪˈmɛstə/

  • 1

    Half of a school year (US) or academic year such as autumn or spring semester.

    • I will graduate at the end of the spring semester.
  • 2

    A period or term of six months.

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。