核心畫面

One way to hold this word: something has been shut in too long, and you open it to the moving air. Windows go up, the quilt goes out on the balcony, the dog goes out of the door. Nothing is washed and nothing is fixed — the shut-in thing is simply let out where air can reach it. Every other use keeps that one move and changes what is shut in. An opinion nobody has said out loud. A program finished but never sent out. A machine built but never seen. Each of them gets an airing when it finally comes out into the open, and in each case the word describes the coming out, not the result.

可以想成:有樣東西被關太久了,你把它打開,讓流動的空氣碰到它。窗戶推開,棉被搬到陽台,狗牽出門。沒有洗,也沒有修,只更多收起可以想成:有樣東西被關太久了,你把它打開,讓流動的空氣碰到它。窗戶推開,棉被搬到陽台,狗牽出門。沒有洗,也沒有修,只是把悶著的東西放到空氣裡。其他幾個意思都保留了這個動作,只是換掉「被關住的東西」。一個沒人說出口的意見。一支拍好卻還沒播的節目。一台做好卻沒人看過的機器。它們被拿到外面的那一次,就是 an airing。這個字講的是「出來了」,不是「結果如何」。

From the word’s history

The supplied Wiktionary etymology gives the word as air (both the noun for what we breathe, and the verb meaning to bring something into contact with the air, to let fresh air into a place, to make an opinion public, to broadcast) plus the suffix -ing, which turns a verb into the name of the act. So the literal shape is the act of airing, and the same word air already carries the physical, the public and the broadcast uses before -ing is added.

封包裡的 Wiktionary 詞源說,airing 由 air 加上 -ing 組成。air 既是名詞「空氣」,也是動詞:讓東西碰到空氣、讓新鮮空氣進到某個地方、把意見公開、把節目播出去。-ing 的作用是把動詞變成「做這件事」的名稱。所以 airing 字面就是「讓空氣經過這個動作」。值得注意的是,公開和播出這兩層,在動詞 air 身上就已經有了,不是 airing 才長出來的。

Wiktionary entry 'airing' (noun), etymology_text supplied in this evidence packet (kaikki extract, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:699444728:22046)

Two branches

讓空氣真的流過去

這一族就是核心畫面本身,字面意思完整保留:打開、拿出去、讓空氣經過。

noun · B2

A time when you let fresh air move around or through something, usually to dry it or to take away a shut-in smell.

通風、透氣

從悶著的地方拿到大家面前

把核心動作從空氣搬到人群:原本是「讓空氣碰到它」,這裡變成「讓大家聽到、看到它」。

noun · B2

An occasion when an opinion, an idea or a complaint is finally said out loud in front of other people and talked about, instead of being kept quiet.

公開講出來、公開討論

原始詞典資料6 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。

airingnoun/ˈɛəɹɪŋ/

  • 1

    Exposure of something to the air, especially fresh or warm air for the purpose of ventilating or drying; (countable) an instance of this.

    • Hee'll ſend ſuch vvord, for ayring o' the houſe / As you ſhall haue ſufficient time, to quit it.
    • Ventilation. […] [A] vvinnovving, or airing in the vvind; […]
  • 2

    Exposure of something to the air, especially fresh or warm air for the purpose of ventilating or drying; (countable) an instance of this.

    • [R]yde out your Horſe euery night, two howers after Sunne ſette, ⁊ abide abroade with him three howres at the leaſt, not exceeding foote-pace, which we call night ayrings.
    • Touching ayring or vvalking of grey-hounds, vvhich is a great nouriſher and increaſer of vvinde, it muſt devvlie be done euerie morning before ſunne-riſe, and euery euening before ſunne ſet in […]
  • 3

    datedExposure of something to the air, especially fresh or warm air for the purpose of ventilating or drying; (countable) an instance of this.

    • According to this my vvarrant heere, I muſt this morning fetch my priſoner to ayring, hee had need bee hung out, leaſt his fleſh ſhould mould, for I am ſure, his clothes are muſtie already; […]
    • Hovv do you like / Your ayring? is it not a fauour?
  • 4

    An act of broadcasting a radio or television show; a broadcasting.

    • Seldom was he [Sanford Clark] seen, and almost never were his recordings given mass airings.
  • 5

    Public disclosure or discussion of a subject, or expression of an opinion; (countable) an instance of this.

    • airing of grievances
    • I really felt that I was justified in giving my irritability an airing by curious allusions to Janet; yet, though I made him wince, it was impossible to touch his conscience.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形:

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