喜樂美語

One way to hold this word: a stream that was quiet yesterday, and today is brown, loud and brim-full after the rain. Everything arrives at once, hard and fast, and then it falls back. Whatever spate is doing in a sentence, that rising water is usually the picture underneath.

spate 的核心畫面可以想成一條河。昨天還安安靜靜。今天下過大雨，水一下子滿到河岸邊。水色變濁，聲音變大，整條河用力往前衝。重點是「一次全部湧上來」。而且來得快，退得也快。這個水的畫面，在 spate 的每一種用法底下都還看得到。

From the word’s history

Middle English spate / spait meant a flood, and the Scots word spate (a torrent, a heavy downpour) shaped the English use. The further origin is uncertain; it may be connected to spatter.

中古英語的 spate／spait 就是「洪水」，英語的用法又受蘇格蘭語 spate（急流、豪雨）影響。更早的來源不確定，可能跟 spatter（濺開）同源。所以這個字從一開始就是水的字，「一下子湧上來」是它帶著走的老畫面。

Wiktionary 'spate' etymology (kaikki extract, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:666174357:27290)

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

複數 spates

意思相反

lowlulldrought

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。

spatenoun/speɪt/

  • 1

    A (sudden) flood or inundation of water; specifically, a flood in or overflow of a river or other watercourse due to heavy rain or melting snow; (uncountable, archaic) flooding, inundation.

    • Thys Lepidium that Pliny & Paul [of Aegina] deſcribe⸝ groweth plentuouſly about the water ſyde that rynneth thorow Morpeth in Northumberland⸝ in ſuche places as great heapes of ſtones are caſten together wyth the myght of a great ſpat or flood.
    • Arous'd by bluſtering vvinds an' ſpotting thovves, / In mony a torrent dovvn the ſnavv-broo rovves; / VVhile craſhing ice, borne on the roaring ſpeat, / Svveeps dams, an' mills, an' brigs, a' to the gate; […]
  • 2

    A sudden heavy downpour of rain.

    • Doun comes a jaw o' droukin' rain / Upon their honours— / God sends a spate outower the plain, / Or mebbe thun'ers.
  • 3

    A sudden increase or rush of something; a flood, an outburst, an outpouring.

    • Thy rural loves are nature's ſel; / Nae bombaſt ſpates o' nonſenſe ſwell; / Nae ſnap conceits, but that ſweet ſpell / O' witchin love, […]
    • Here is a fine spate of work—a day diddled away, and nothing to show for it!

spateverb/speɪt/

  • 1

    archaicTo (suddenly) flood or inundate (a river or other watercourse) with water.

    • [H]e paused in a reverie of wilderment and wonder when he could not discern the old fishing-places—they were deeply and darkly flooded for many yards on every side of the spated stream.
    • A few of the very best angling streams in the Highlands are almost perennial in their flow; the Halladale, on the contrary, is subject to spating.
  • 2

    archaicTo (suddenly) rain heavily; to pour.

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。