You can picture a long line of things and then the very last one, with nothing beyond it. Standing at that far end gives the word its flavour: the final step, the final say, and the version nobody can top.
From the word’s history
From Late Latin ultimatus, from ultimus 'last, final, farthest, most distant', on a root meaning 'beyond'. The English adjective appears around the 1650s, the noun by the 1680s.
來自晚期拉丁文 ultimatus，源頭是 ultimus「最後的、最遠的」，再往前的字根意思是「超出、之外」。形容詞約 1650 年代進入英文，名詞用法 1680 年代出現。所以它畫的是位置——排在最尾端、再過去就沒有了；今天的「最終」和「極致」都是從這個位置長出來的。
Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/ultimate
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料12 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。
ultimateadj/ˈʌltɪmət/
- 1
Final; last in a series.
- […] they [the sounds of an echo] next strike the ultimate secondary object, then the penultimate and antepenultimate; […]
- 2
Last in a word or other utterance.
- 3
Being the greatest possible; maximum; most extreme.
- the ultimate pleasure
- the ultimate disappointment
- 4
Being the most distant or extreme; farthest.
- 5
That will happen at some time; eventual.
- 6
Last in a train of progression or consequences; tended toward by all that precedes; arrived at, as the last result; final.
- those ultimate truths and those universal laws of thought which we cannot rationally contradict
- 7
Incapable of further analysis; incapable of further division or separation; constituent; elemental.
- an ultimate constituent of matter
ultimatenoun/ˈʌltɪmət/
- 1
The most basic or fundamental of a set of things
- 2
The final or most distant point; the conclusion
- 3
The greatest extremity; the maximum
ultimateverb/ˈʌltɪmət/
- 1
archaicTo finish; to complete.
- These measures have been carried forward with a zeal and unanimity that warrant the hope we entertain, of ultimating the plans in respect to our Temple, before the next meeting of the Maryland Association.
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。