核心畫面

You can hold abuse as using or treating something the wrong way — not the way it's meant to be used, but in a way that wounds. The Latin behind it literally means 'to use away,' to use something up against its proper purpose. Picture power, a person, an animal, a thing — all meant to be handled with some care — being handled instead to hurt, to take advantage, to wear down. Both the noun (the ) and the verb (doing it) grow from this one bent picture: use turned harmful.

可以把 abuse 想成『把東西用錯了、待錯了』——不是照它該被對待的方式,而是用一種會傷人的方式去使用它。它的拉丁更多收起可以把 abuse 想成『把東西用錯了、待錯了』——不是照它該被對待的方式,而是用一種會傷人的方式去使用它。它的拉丁字根字面上是「用過頭、用偏掉」,把一樣東西硬拗到它本來該有的用途之外。畫面裡有權力、有人、有動物、有物品——本來都該被好好對待的——卻被拿來傷害、佔便宜、耗損。名詞(那種糟糕的對待)和動詞(做這件事)都從這個『歪掉』的畫面長出來:本來正當的使用,被扭成了傷害。

From the word’s history

abuse traces to Latin 'abusus,' the past participle of 'abuti' — 'ab' (off, away from) + 'uti' (to use) — literally 'to use away / use up,' which already carried the sense of misusing or misapplying. That 'use, but in the wrong direction' is exactly the modern core.

abuse 可以追到拉丁文 abusus,是 abuti 的過去分詞——由 ab(離開、偏離)加 uti(使用)組成,字面就是「用偏、用掉」,本來就帶著『用錯、誤用』的意思。這個『有在用,但方向歪了』正好就是現代的核心畫面,所以從『使用』到『濫用、虐待』這條線是有來歷的。

Etymonline, 'abuse' — from Latin abusus, pp. of abuti, from ab- 'off, away from' + uti 'to use' — https://www.etymonline.com/word/abuse

Four branches

用錯方式對待人或動物:虐待

核心畫面落在活生生的對象身上:本該被好好對待的人或動物,被反覆地殘忍對待。這是『把對待方式用歪』最沉重的一種。

treat cruelly · verb · B2

To treat a person or animal in a cruel or unkind way.

虐待

把權力或制度用歪:濫用

核心畫面換成抽象的東西:權力、職位、一套制度,本來有它正當的用途,卻被故意拿來圖自己的好處。一樣是『用偏』,只是用偏的是權,不是人。

misuse · verb · B2

To use something in a wrong way on purpose, especially for your own advantage.

濫用

把話拿來傷人:辱罵

這次被『用歪』的是語言:話本來是用來溝通的,生氣時卻被拿來當武器砸向別人。一樣是把一樣中性的東西扭成傷害的工具。

verbally attack · verb · B2

To attack someone with rude or cruel words.

辱罵

用到壞掉:糟蹋

把『用偏』推到極端:對一樣東西用得太狠、太糟,糟到開始把它弄壞。拉丁字根那層『用過頭、用到耗盡』的意味,在這一家最明顯。

damage your own body · verb · B2

To treat something, especially your own body, so badly that you damage it.

糟蹋;損害

原始詞典資料15 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,原文照列,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。

abusenoun詞源 1/əˈbjuːs/

  • 1

    Improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom.

    • human rights abuses
    • All abuse, whether physical, verbal, psychological or sexual, is bad.
  • 2

    Misuse; improper use; perversion.

    • Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty, as well as by the abuses of power.
    • Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?
  • 3

    obsoleteA delusion; an imposture; misrepresentation; deception.

    • Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
  • 4

    Coarse, insulting speech; abusive language; language that unjustly or angrily vilifies.

    • children hurling abuse at each other
    • The two parties, after exchanging a good deal of abuse, came to blows.
  • 5

    archaicCatachresis.

  • 6

    Physical maltreatment; injury; cruel treatment.

  • 7

    Violation; defilement; rape; forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another, often on a repeated basis.

abuseverb詞源 2/əˈbjuːz/

  • 1

    To put to a wrong use; to misapply; to use improperly; to use for a wrong purpose or end; to pervert

    • He abused his authority.
    • This principle (if we may so abuse the word) shot rapidly into popularity
  • 2

    To injure; to maltreat; to hurt; to treat with cruelty, especially repeatedly.

    • Blows with the fist should be given on the back of the woman, which she is sitting on the lap of the man, and she should give blows in return, abusing the man as if she were angry, and making the cooing and the weeping sounds.
    • And I would have things to say to this God at the judgement, storming at him, as Job stormed with the eloquence of the abused heart.
  • 3

    To attack with coarse language; to insult; to revile; malign; to speak in an offensive manner to or about someone; to disparage.

    • The […] tellers of news abused the general.
    • But ever and always curse him and abuse him.
  • 4

    To imbibe a drug for a purpose other than it was intended; to intentionally take more of a drug than was prescribed for recreational reasons; to take illegal drugs habitually.

  • 5

    archaicTo violate; defile; to rape; (reflexive) to masturbate.

    • Like Angels life was then mens happy cace; But later ages pride, like corn-fed ſteed, Abuſd her plenty, and fat ſwolne encreace To all licentious luſt, and gan exceed
    • This the Holy Scripture teaches, as expreſly as may be; Neither Fornicators, ſays St. Paul, nor Adulterers, nor the Abominable, ſhall inherit the Kingdom of God; cautioning alſo at the ſame time, that we don’t abuſe our ſelves, nor flatter our ſelves in this Reſpect.
  • 6

    obsoleteMisrepresent; adulterate.

    • Believe me, sir, he hath been abused, grossly abused to you.
  • 7

    obsoleteTo deceive; to trick; to impose on; misuse the confidence of.

    • 1651-2, Jeremy Taylor, "Sermon VI, The House of Feasting; or, The Epicures Measures", in The works of Jeremy Taylor, Volume 1, page 283 (1831), edited by Thomas Smart Hughes When Cyrus had espied Astyages and his fellows coming drunk from a banquet loaden with variety of follies and filthiness, their legs failing them, their eyes red and staring, cozened with a moist cloud and abused by a double object
  • 8

    obsoleteDisuse.

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。