Something heavy is put on you and you stay under it. Picture a person walking with a weight on their back that they did not choose and cannot put down — the pain of a burn, the years of an illness, the months after a business fails. Suffer never means you did something; it means something is on you and you are still standing under it.
From the word’s history
From Latin sufferre 'to carry or put under' — sub 'up, under' + ferre 'to carry, bear'. Etymonline records that the word came into English in the mid-13th century with both 'be made to undergo, endure, be subjected to' and 'allow to occur or continue, refrain from hindering'. The 'bear it' picture is what links today's 遭受 to the old tolerating sense that survives in not suffer fools gladly.
拉丁文 sufferre 是「扛在底下」——sub「在下面」+ ferre「扛、承載」。Etymonline 記載這個字在十三世紀中葉進入英文時，就同時帶著「被迫承受、經歷」和「容許某事發生、不去阻止」兩個意思。「扛在底下」這個畫面比較像把今天的「遭受」和那個舊的「容忍」串起來的線索——後者現在只剩 not suffer fools gladly 這類說法還留著。
Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entry 'suffer'.
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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。
sufferverb/ˈsʌfə/
- 1
To undergo hardship.
- Many artists suffer before becoming famous.
- 2
To feel pain.
- At least he didn't suffer when he died in the car crash.
- 3
To become worse.
- If you keep partying like this, your school-work will suffer.
- Our correspondent found that timekeeping had suffered following the substitution of Class 5 4-6-0s on these workings.
- 4
To endure, undergo.
- I've been suffering your insults for years.
- We hope you never have to suffer the same pain.
- 5
archaiclawTo allow.
- Thou shalt not suffer a witch to liue.
- But Iesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come vnto me: for of such is þe kingdome of heauen.
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。