核心畫面

The one who acts — someone (or something) that does the work and makes things happen, often on behalf of another.

可以想成 agent 的核心畫面比較像「那個出手去做事、讓事情發生的角色」。常見的情況是:他不是為自己做,而是替別人更多收起可以想成 agent 的核心畫面比較像「那個出手去做事、讓事情發生的角色」。常見的情況是:他不是為自己做,而是替別人去辦、去談、去促成(代理人、經紀人、探員都是這樣);再往外延伸,連「讓變化發生的那個東西」也算——像一種促成反應的化學物質,或推動局勢改變的力量。共通點都是:它是「動手讓事情成真的那一方」。

From the word’s history

From Latin agere 'to do, to drive, to act' — an agent is literally 'the one doing/driving'.

源自拉丁文 agere,意思是「做、驅動、行動」;agent 字面上就是「正在做事、推動事情的那個」——這正好對上中文裡所有用法的共通核心:動手讓事情發生的一方。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), 'agent'

From the picture

讓變化發生的東西

把「動手做事的人」抽象成「動手做事的東西」:不是人在出力,而是某個物質或力量在推動、促成一個結果——核心還是「讓事情發生的那一方」,只是主角從人換成了非人的東西。

cause of change · noun · B2

Someone or something that causes a change or makes a situation different.

推動力

Also in this word

a business agent · noun · B2

A person or company whose job is to do business or make deals for someone else.

代理人

a talent agent · noun · B2

A person whose job is to find work for an actor, singer, writer, or sports player.

經紀人

a spy/secret agent · noun · B2

Someone who works secretly for a government to get information about other countries or groups.

探員

原始詞典資料11 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。

Agentname

  • 1

    A surname.

agentnoun/ˈeɪ̯d͡ʒənt/

  • 1

    One who exerts power, or has the power to act.

    • Seeing we are so wonderfully endowed with priceless gifts by our Heavenly Father, will he not require usury at our hands? He will. But he has made us agents to ourselves, which makes us responsible for the way in which we use the talents he has given us, for the manner we expend the gold and silver, the wheat and fine flour, the cattle upon a thousand hills, and the wine and oil, for they all belong to Him
  • 2

    lawOne who acts for, or in the place of, another (the principal), by that person's authority; someone entrusted to act on behalf of or in behalf of another, such as to transact business for them.

    • He worked as an agent for the government.
    • I see in him [Moby Dick] outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him.
  • 3

    A person who looks for work for another person and brokers a deal between the hiree and hirer.

    • Ronald Koeman has agreed a deal with Everton to become their new manager, his agent has reportedly told Dutch media. The agent Rob Jansen said, according to the popular Voetbal International website, that it was now down to Southampton and Everton to agree a compensation package for the Dutchman, who has a year remaining on his contract at St Mary’s.
  • 4

    Someone who works for an intelligence agency: whether an officer or employee thereof or anyone else who agrees to help their efforts (for ideology, for money, as blackmailee, or otherwise).

    • @Gary, are you a PAP agent? ... =) trying to incite rebellion and revolution on this site so that the govt will have an excuse to take down this site?
  • 5

    An active power or cause or substance; something (e.g. biological, chemical, thermal, etc.) that has the power to produce an effect.

    • So far seems to be the work of chemistry alone; at least we have no right to conclude that any other agent interferes; since hay, when it happens to imbibe moisture, exhibits nearly the same processes."
    • Agents are means-rational insofar as they effectively pursue the goals they currently have—but means-rationality (even under a narrow-scope interpretation) does not prohibit agents from changing their goals or dropping them entirely.
  • 6

    computingengineeringmathematicsIn the client-server model, the part of the system that performs information preparation and exchange on behalf of a client or server. Especially in the phrase “intelligent agent” it implies some kind of autonomous process which can communicate with other agents to perform some collective task on behalf of one or more humans.

  • 7

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsThe participant of a situation that carries out the action in this situation, e.g. "the boy" in the sentences "The boy kicked the ball" and "The ball was kicked by the boy".

    • Near-synonym: doer
    • A verb is typically described as active when its subject is the agent or actor. By contrast, a verb is said to be passive when the subject does not perform the action, but is the patient, target, or undergoer of the action.
  • 8

    gamblinggamesA cheat who is assisted by dishonest casino staff.

    • Nevada casinos are fleeced out of millions of dollars yearly by agents (cheats acting as players) in collusion with crooked Black Jack dealers and pit bosses.
另外 2 個記錄的用法
  • 9

    A law enforcement officer tasked with enforcing a specific field of law.

    • The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives officers are just simply referred to as "ATF agents".
    • In the Atlanta suburb of Lilburn, ICE agents arrested Walter Valladares, a 53-year-old undocumented immigrant from Honduras, according to family members who spoke with CNN.
  • 10

    A respectful term of address for an agent, especially a law enforcement agent.

    • Steve Haines (Robert Bogue): Agent Sanchez! Apprehend these suspects!

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