Picture one thing standing in for another and pointing at it: a black armband pointing at grief, a nod pointing at agreement. That pointing is the word. Sometimes the pointer is a thing, sometimes a person doing it on purpose, and in one older use the question becomes whether a thing points at anything at all — that is, whether it matters.

可以想成:一樣東西代替另一樣東西,指向它——黑色臂章指向哀悼,點個頭指向同意。這個「指向」就是這個字。有時候指的是一個東西,有時候是一個人刻意做出來的動作;還有一種比較舊的用法,問的是這件事到底有沒有指向什麼——也就是「要不要緊」。

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

原始詞典資料5 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。

signifyverb/ˈsɪɡnɪfaɪ/

  • 1

    To create a sign out of something.

  • 2

    To give (something) a meaning or an importance.

  • 3

    To show one’s intentions with a sign etc.; to indicate, announce, or portend.

    • I’ll to the king; and signify to him / That thus I have resign’d my charge to you.
    • For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.
  • 4

    To mean; to betoken.

    • Life’s […] a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.
    • Mrs Varden was a lady of what is commonly called an uncertain temper—a phrase which being interpreted signifies a temper tolerably certain to make everybody more or less uncomfortable.
  • 5

    To make a difference; to matter (in negative or interrogative expressions).

    • To be but in the company of those we love, satisfies us: it does not signify whether we speak to ’em or not, whether we think on them or on indifferent things. To be near ’em is all.
    • VVell ſays I, and are you thus eaſy? ay, ſays ſhe, I can’t help myſelf, vvhat ſignifyes being ſad? If I am hang’d there’s an End of me, ſays ſhe, and avvay ſhe turns Dancing, and Sings as ſhe goes, […]

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。