- 1
An altercation is a short, noisy argument: voices go up, people snap at each other, and it is over fairly fast. It is usually words, not hitting — though actually, it can sit right on the edge of a fight. The word sounds rather formal. You meet it in news reports, police notes, and careful writing more than in everyday chat, where people just say they argued or they had a row. It is stronger than a calm disagreement, and smaller than a long war of words. Two people in a shop, on the street, or after a meeting can have an altercation; a quiet talk at a table is not one.
口角（較文；口語多說「吵架」）
組成Borrowed from Latin altercātiō, a noun for a quarrel. It does not split in a useful way in English.
原始詞典資料3 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。
altercationnoun/ˌɔːltəˈkeɪʃn̩/
- 1
An angry or heated dispute.
- to get into an altercation over (something)
- The shooting resulted from an altercation between two armed intoxicated men.
- 2
historicallawAn act of posing questions to, and obtaining answers from, a witness in a court of law.
- The vvhole of this proceſs is denominated the pleading; in the ſeveral ſtages of vvhich it muſt be carefully obſerved, not to depart or vary from the title or defence, vvhich the party has once inſiſted on. For this (vvhich is called a departure in pleading) might occaſion endleſs altercation.
- 3
Angry or heated disputation.
- VVee ſeldome find one peece of Scripture ſo preciſely and plainely expounded by another, as in this Prophecie, to haue aftervvards beene the Subiect of altercation.
- The greateſt of my trouble is, that I am forced to deal vvith a vvriting vvhich is filled vvith […] ſo many angry vvords, and ſo many hiſtoricall untruths, that, as I knovv my very mentioning the later vvill be ill taken, ſo I knovv not hovv to deal vvith the former. For if I ſhould pleaſe my ſelf in overpaſſing them, I knovv ſome vvill ſay his Book is unanſvvered, vvho take the ſtrength of it to lie in ſuch vvords: And if I anſvver it, as I ſhall but vveary a Judicious Reader, vvho looks for Arguments, and loathes altercation, ſo I ſhall be forced to ſpeak according to the matter; […]
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。