Picture an old meat market at closing time. A row of wooden benches, stalls pushed out of line, buckets and scraps where someone left them, and nobody in charge of putting any of it back. That working market was what the word named first, and the state of it at the end of the day is what the word still carries. When English calls a meeting or a bedroom a shambles, that market is the picture being borrowed.
From the word’s history
The supplied source traces it from Middle English schamels, the plural of schamel, from Old English sceamol meaning bench or stool, and back to Latin scamnum, a bench. The route runs bench, then butcher's stall, then the whole meat market, then any scene in that state.
本批資料所附的來源說明：來自中古英文 schamels（schamel 的複數），再往前是古英文 sċeamol（長凳、矮凳），源頭是拉丁文 scamnum（板凳）。路線是：板凳 → 肉攤 → 整個肉市 → 任何一個亂成那樣的場面。
Wiktionary entry supplied in this packet: etymology_text on 'shambles' (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:850173424)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
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。
shamblesnoun/ˈʃæmbəlz/
- 1
A scene of great disorder or ruin.
- Considering my life's in shambles right now, couldn't you at least take the blame?
- 2
A great mess or clutter.
- This bedroom is a shambles.
- 3
A scene of bloodshed, carnage or devastation.
- 4
A slaughterhouse.
- 5
archaicA butcher's shop.
- Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake.
- As to our City of Dublin, Shambles may be appointed for this purpoſe, in the moſt convenient parts of it, and Butchers vve may be aſſured vvill not be vvanting, […]
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
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。