喜樂美語

You can picture substance as the real stuff that stands under things — actual material you can touch and weigh, as opposed to empty appearance or mere talk. From that one image everything grows: real matter, real facts, real content, real weight, even a person of real standing.

可以想成：substance 是「站在底下撐著的真材實料」——你摸得到、秤得出重量的實在東西，跟空洞的外表或空談相對。整個字都從這個畫面長出來：真的物質、真的根據、真的內容、真的份量，甚至一個真的有地位的人。

From the word’s history

From Latin substantia, from substare 'to stand under, be present' (sub- 'under' + stare 'to stand') — literally 'that which stands underneath and supports'. This underlying-real-stuff image is exactly what unifies the physical and the abstract senses.

源自拉丁文 substantia，來自 substare「站在底下、支撐」（sub-「在下」＋ stare「站」），字面是「站在底下撐住的東西」。正是這個「底下的真材實料」的畫面，把具體的物質和抽象的份量、內涵全串了起來。

etymonline.com/word/substance; Wiktionary 'substantia'

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

同家族的字

複數 substances

意思相反

triviality

原始詞典資料8 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。

substancenoun/ˈsʌbstəns/

  • 1

    Physical matter; material.

    • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
    • His wasted hands were stretched out, and worked with a quick and convulsive motion, as if catching some small substances which kept eluding their grasp;...
  • 2

    Physical matter; material.

  • 3

    The essential part of anything; the most vital part.

    • Heroic virtue did his actions guide, / And he the substance, not the appearance, chose.
    • 1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth This edition is the same in substance with the Latin.
  • 4

    Substantiality; solidity; firmness.

    • Some textile fabrics have little substance.
  • 5

    Material possessions; estate; property; resources.

    • a man of substance
    • And there wasted his substance with riotous living.
  • 6

    Drugs (illegal narcotics)

    • substance abuse
  • 7

    human-scienceslifestylephilosophyOusia, essence; underlying reality or hypostasis in the philosophical sense.

substanceverb/ˈsʌbstəns/

  • 1

    rareTo give substance to; to make real or substantial.

    • If life were nothing but what gets phrased and substanced, the world might as well be rolled up and laid away again in darkness.
    • The calm ruminating / Reverie, substancing / Intellect into emotion, / Is shelter enough for love / Unhumiliated by faith.

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。