核心畫面

You can picture accursed as a mark that somebody laid on a thing on purpose: a curse spoken over a house, a family, a hill, so that from then on things go wrong there and keep going wrong. The whole word is the state left behind after that speaking.

accursed 可以想成「有人對它下過咒」留下的那個印記:有人對一棟房子、一個家族、一座山說了狠話,從此那裡事事不更多收起accursed 可以想成「有人對它下過咒」留下的那個印記:有人對一棟房子、一個家族、一座山說了狠話,從此那裡事事不順,而且一直不順。整個字就是那句咒語說完之後留下來的狀態。抓住這個畫面,現代那個罵東西的用法就很好懂了——說話的人是把這句古老的咒語搬過來用。

From the word’s history

From Middle English acursed, the past participle of acursen (to curse), from Old English acursian, built on curs (curse); first attested in the 13th century. The word is literally the finished act of cursing, frozen as a description.

來自中古英語 acursed,是動詞 acursen(詛咒)的過去分詞,再往前是古英語 ācursian,字根是 curs(curse)。十三世紀就有紀錄。所以這個字字面上就是「詛咒這個動作做完之後的狀態」,被凍成一個形容詞。

Wiktionary etymology supplied in the evidence packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:321225693): From Middle English acursed, from acursen, from Old English acursian, from curs; first attested in the 13th century.

Two branches

真的被下了咒

這一支就是核心畫面本身,也是這個字最早的用法。

adjective · C2

Under a curse: a person, family or place that has had a curse put on it, so that bad things keep happening to it. In religious writing it can also mean cut off and doomed to ruin.

被詛咒的

把咒語搬來罵東西

同一個畫面,但說話的人只是借用它。他不相信有咒語,他要的是那句話的力道。

adjective · C2

Used in front of a noun to show that something annoys you very much — you are speaking about it as though you would like to put a curse on it.

該死的;討人厭的