At root, state is about how something stands at a given moment — the way it is right now. From that one idea the word pulls in two directions a should keep apart: inward, it is the condition or situation a thing is in (its current state); outward, it became the name for the largest standing political body — the country or government that 'stands' as an organized unit. The verb 'state' is a third line: to put something into clear standing words, to declare .
From the word’s history
Both the 'condition' and 'country/government' senses descend from Latin status, 'a way of standing, condition'; the polity sense grew from the idea of the standing, established order of a country.
「狀態」和「國家／政府」這兩條線都來自拉丁文 status（站立的方式、狀態）；政治體的意思，是從一個國家「立著的、確立的秩序」這個想法長出來的。
Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), 'state' < Latin status
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料26 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。
Statenoun
- 1
A political entity that regulates society and the population within a definite territory.
- 2
The current governing political entity in which the speaker lives.
Statename
- 1
State University, as the shortened form of a public university name.
- State begins fouling and UCLA misses a couple of front-end free throws on one-and-ones.
- The Pack’s average seed in the mountain of NCAA tourney predictions out there is 10, and even the most optimistic takes on State’s situation have the team as an eight-seed.
statenoun/steɪt/
- 1
A condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
- a state of being
- a state of emergency
- 2
natural-sciencesphysical-sciencesphysicsA condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
- States in which the energy has definite values are called stationary states of a system; they are described by wave functions Ψₙ which are the eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonian operator, i.e. which satisfy the equation ĤΨₙ = EₙΨₙ, where Eₙ are the eigenvalues of the energy.
- 3
A condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
- absolute state
- in a state
- 4
computingengineeringmathematicsA condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
- In the fetch state, the address of the next instruction is placed on the address bus.
- 5
computingengineeringmathematicsA condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
- The state here includes a set containing all names seen so far.
- 6
computingengineeringmathematicsA condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
- A debugger can show the state of a program at any breakpoint.
- 7
sciencesA condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
- 8
obsoleteA condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
另外 12 個記錄的用法
- 9
High social standing or circumstance.
- in state
- The President's body will lie in state at the Capitol.
- 10
High social standing or circumstance.
- And leſned by that ſmall, God I beſeech him, / Thy honor, ſtate, and ſeate, is due to me.
- 11
High social standing or circumstance.
- Firſt, in princely behaviour and geſture, teaching him how he ſhould keep of a kind of ſtate, and yet, with a modeſt ſenſe of his misfortunes.
- Can this imperious lord forget to reign, / Quit all his ſtate, deſcend, and ſerve again ?
- 12
High social standing or circumstance.
- […]and from the dore / Of that Plutonia Hall, inviſible / Aſcended his high Throne, which under ſtate / Of richeſt texture ſpred, at th’ upper end / Was plac’t in regal luſtre.
- He invented a way of coming into a Room backwards, which he ſaid ſhew’d more Humility, and leſs Affectation ; where other People ſtood, he ſat ; when he went to Court, he us’d to kick away the State, and ſit down by his Prince, Cheek by Choul[…]
- 13
obsoleteHigh social standing or circumstance.
- We in the name of other Perſean ſtates, And commons of this mightie Monarchy, Preſent thee with the Emperiall Diadem.
- They who to States and Governours of the Commonwealth direct their Speech, High Court of Parlament, or wanting ſuch acceſſe in a private condition, write that which they foreſee may advance the publick good ; I ſuppoſe them as at the beginning of no meane endeavour, not a little alter’d and mov’d inwardly in their mindes[…]
- 14
obsoleteHigh social standing or circumstance.
- Their parties great, meanes good, the ſeaſon fit, / Their practice cloſe, their faith ſuſpected not, / Their ſtates far off, and they of wary wit : / Who, with large promiſes, ſo wooe the Scot / To aide their Cauſe, as he conſents to it ; / And glad was to diſturne that furious ſtreame / Of warre, on vs, that elſe had ſwallowed them.
- Your ’State, my Lord, again is yours.
- 15
A polity or community.
- Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.
- In the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, three of the Soviet Union's fifteen constituent republics, last year's most dangerous fantasies have been sanctioned by the government itself.
- 16
A polity or community.
- His alibi is that he was out of state the night of the murder.
- The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
- 17
obsoleteA polity or community.
- Well monarchies may own religion’s name, / But ſtates are atheiſts in their very frame.
- 18
anthropologyhuman-sciencessciencesA polity or community.
- 19
mathematicssciencesAn element of the range of the random variables that define a random process.
- 20
grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsThe lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs or predicates that do not change over time.
- […]distinctions among states of affairs are reflected to a striking degree in distinctions among Aktionsart types. That is, situations are expressed by state verbs or predicates, events by achievement verbs or predicates, and actions by activity verbs or predicates.
- The most basic Aktionsart distinction is between states and occurrences.
stateverb/steɪt/
- 1
To declare to be a fact.
- He stated that he was willing to help.
- Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
- 2
To make known.
- State your intentions.
stateadj/steɪt/
- 1
obsoleteStately.
- The ſhepheardes ſwayne you cannot well ken, / But it be by his pride, from other men: / They looken bigge as Bulles, that bene bate, / And bearen the cragge ſo ſtiffe and ſo ſtate, / As Cocke on his dunghill, crowing cranck.
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。