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An accomplice is a person who helps someone do something wrong, usually a crime. They may not hold the bag or break the door, but they knew, they drove, they watched. The word lives in news, police talk, and court English. It is heavier than and colder than friend. We almost always use it for bad acts. You would not call a kind an accomplice for helping with homework. Though actually the old idea inside it is ‘folded together with’ — a partner in the same fold. English later stuck an a on the front, helped along by the look of accomplish, which is a different family.
共犯、幫兇
組成From a complice: Middle English complice, from Old French complice (‘partner in a plot’), from Latin complicāre (‘to fold together’). The article a became part of the word, through the influence of accomplish. First attested in 1550.
同家族的字
- complicitythe state of sharing in the wrong act; same Latin root complicāre
- complicatefrom the same Latin ‘fold together’, though everyday use has moved to ‘make more tangled’
原始詞典資料2 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。
accomplicenoun/əˈkɒm.plɪs/
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criminologyhuman-scienceslawAn associate in the commission of a crime; a participator in an offense, whether a principal or an accessory.
- Childleſs Arturius, vaſtly rich before, / Thus by his Loſſes multiplies his Store: / Suſpected for Accomplice to the Fire, / That burnt his Palace but to build it higher.
- And thou, the curs’d Accomplice of her Treaſon, / Declare thy Meſſage, and expect thy Doom.
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rareA cooperator.
- Succeſſe vnto our valiant Generall, / And happineſſe to his accomplices.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。