A workable picture: killing done in bulk and as a procedure — not one fight, one blow, one death, but a set-up where killing is what happens, over and over, to things that are not fighting back. The butcher's yard is the plain version; everything else in the word is that scene moved somewhere it does not belong.
From the word’s history
From Middle English slaughter, from Old Norse *slahtr (later sláttr), from Proto-Germanic *slahtrą, built on *slahaną 'to strike, slay' — the same root as English slay, with a noun-forming ending (compare laughter from laugh). So the word starts as 'the striking-down' as a thing that happens, which is exactly why it names an event or a practice rather than a single blow.
來自古諾斯語 *slahtr，往上追到原始日耳曼語 *slahaną「擊、殺」——也就是英文 slay 的同一個根，後面加了個把動詞變成名詞的字尾（跟 laugh 變成 laughter 是同一種構詞）。這一點很說明問題：這個字從一開始就不是「砍一下」這個動作，而是「砍殺這件事」作為一個整體、一種持續發生的狀況。所以它天生就帶著規模感，中文用「屠」而不是「殺」來對它，抓的正是這一層。
Wiktionary, entry 'slaughter' (Middle English slaughter < Old Norse *slahtr < Proto-Germanic *slahtrą < *slahaną, equivalent to slay + -ter as in laughter)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料11 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。
Slaughtername詞源 1
- 1
A surname.
- 2
A town in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States, from the surname.
Slaughtername詞源 2
- 1
Used in the placenames of the Slaughters, Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter.
slaughternoun/ˈslɔːtə/
- 1
The killing of animals, generally for food.
- 2
A massacre; the killing of a large number of people.
- 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VI, 1773, The First Six Books of Milton's Paradise Lost, Edinburgh, page 416, For ſin, on war and mutual ſlaughter bent.
- […] I ſee Th’ Inſulting Tyrant prancing o’er the Field Strow’d with Rome’s Citizens, and drench’d in Slaughter, His Horſe’s Hoofs wet with Patrician Blood.
- 3
rareA mass destruction of non-living things.
- There was a massive slaughter of W.R. steam power at the conclusion of the summer timetable. In all, 169 locomotives were condemned.
- 4
A rout or decisive defeat.
- 5
A group of iguanas.
slaughterverb/ˈslɔːtə/
- 1
To butcher animals, generally for food.
- 2
To massacre people in large numbers.
- Hurriedly he snatched up others, one or two at a time, until he had slaughtered thirty of Hrothgar's doughtiest earls.
- 3
To kill someone or something, especially in a particularly brutal manner.
- Therefore cheere vp your mindes, prepare to fight, He that can take or ſlaughter Tamburlaine, Shall rule the Prouince of Albania.
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。