One way to picture it: the good quality that is actually in something — the strength it really has — whether that is a person's moral goodness or a tool's one clear advantage.
From the word’s history
From Latin virtus "manliness, bravery, worth, excellence", from vir "man" — originally the strength or power that made someone effective, only later narrowing toward moral goodness. The same vir gives virile.
來自拉丁文 virtus，原意是「力量、勇氣、價值、卓越」，字根 vir 是「男人」（virile 也從這裡來）。羅馬人講 virtus 時，指的是一個人身上那股讓他真正有用、能成事的力量，而不只是道德上的乖巧。這個「內在的力」的老意思很值得記住，因為它解釋了為什麼今天 virtue 既能指人的美德，也能指一把刀、一個方案的優點——那都是「這東西身上真有的一股好」。
Wiktionary: virtue (Middle English vertu ← Anglo-Norman vertu ← Latin virtus, from vir)
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原始詞典資料11 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。
Virtuename
- 1
A surname.
virtuenoun/ˈvɜːt͡ʃuː/
- 1
The idea of all that is good or excellent (in every sense of those terms) in a human being, collectively instantiated by a varying number of human traits known as "the virtues", the enumeration of which vary by the many virtue systems which have developed within different cultures, religions, and historical periods.
- 2
Accordance with moral principles; conformity of behaviour or thought with the strictures of morality; good moral conduct.
- Without virtue, there is no freedom.
- There are a set of religious, or rather moral, writers, who teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery, in this world.
- 3
An attribute of a personality (a "personality trait") which predisposes a person to behaviors resulting in human goodness; an admirable quality.
- The commission of acts by a person which he or she believes to be wrong can cause a diminishment of one or more of the virtues which subsist in the person's personality; in this way such actions may be viewed as significant life events.
- Some men are modest, and seem to take pains to hide their virtues; and, from a natural distance and reserve in their tempers, scarce suffer their good qualities to be known […].
- 4
A particular manifestation of moral excellence in a person.
- 5
Specifically, each of several qualities held to be particularly important, including the four cardinal virtues, the three theological virtues, or the seven virtues opposed to the seven deadly sins.
- Better to be excluded from society than to deny the virtue of citizenship.
- The divine virtues of truth and equity are the only bands of friendship, the only supports of society.
- 6
An inherently advantageous or excellent quality of something or someone; a favourable point, an advantage.
- There were divers other plants, which I had no notion of or understanding about, that might, perhaps, have virtues of their own, which I could not find out.
- One virtue of the present coalition government's attack on access to education could be to reopen the questions raised so pertinently by Robinson in the 1960s […].
- 7
ChristianityA creature embodying divine power, specifically one of the orders of heavenly beings, traditionally ranked above angels and archangels, and below seraphim and cherubim.
- Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers; / For in possession such, not only of right, / I call ye, and declare ye now […].
- 8
Specifically, moral conduct in sexual behaviour, especially of women; chastity.
- though she did not suppose Lydia to be deliberately engaging in an elopement without the intention of marriage, she had no difficulty in believing that neither her virtue nor her understanding would preserve her from falling an easy prey.
另外 2 個記錄的用法
- 9
obsoleteThe inherent power of a god, or other supernatural being.
- 10
The inherent power or efficacy of something (now only in phrases).
- There was a virtue in the wave; His limbs, that, stiff with toil, Dragg’d heavy, from the copious draught receiv’d Lightness and supple strength.
- Here are the glasses, Meg. But I am afraid that the virtue has gone from them, and now they are only glass. Perhaps they were meant to help once and only on Camazotz.
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。