- 1擱置、暫緩（片語 in abeyance＝暫緩中、先擱著；法律／公文也常說「中止」或「暫緩施行」）
When a custom, a rule, a title, or a system is in abeyance, people are not using it at the moment. It has not been thrown away. It is more like a tool left in a drawer: still there, just not in anyone's hands right now. You will hear it with laws, club rules, and talks between countries — held in abeyance, left in abeyance. It is a formal word; friends almost never say it about everyday things. Though actually, the word began in law. If a piece of land had no owner yet, the right to it was in abeyance: hanging open, waiting. Later, English used that same picture for any rule or habit that is sleeping. One more real-life bit: we nearly always say the whole phrase in abeyance. An abeyance by itself is rare.
組成From Anglo-Norman abeiance (“legal expectation”), from Old French abeance (“desire”), from a (“to”) + baër (“to gape”). The old picture is of someone gaping after a thing they want; English law used it for a right still waiting; then the word widened to anything sitting unused.
原始詞典資料3 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。
abeyancenoun/əˈbeɪ.ən(t)s/
- 1
lawExpectancy; a condition when an ownership of real property is undetermined; lapse in succession of ownership of estate, or title.
- The proceeds of the estate shall be held in abeyance in an escrow account until the minor reaches age twenty-one.
- Yet sometimes the fee may be in abeyance, that is (as the word signifies) in expectation, remembrance, and contemplation in law; there being no person in esse, in whom it can vest and abide […]
- 2
Suspension; temporary suppression; dormant condition.
- Without a plausible explanation for what might have provoked an ice age, the whole theory fell into abeyance.
- [...] Prosser was instrumental in the decision in 2010 to recommence publication of an annual health and safety report, following a period when it had fallen into abeyance.
- 3
Expectancy of a noble or armigeral title, its right in existence but its exercise suspended.
- The broad pennant of a commodore first class has been in abeyance since 1958, together with the rank.
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。