- 1武斷的；任意的（數學、科學裡的 arbitrary 是「任意的」，沒有罵人的意思）
When something is arbitrary, someone decided it, but not because of a good reason, a fair rule, or a plan. They just chose. A teacher who punishes one child and not another, with no reason you can see, is being arbitrary — and it feels unfair. A rule can be arbitrary too: “Why this number? Because I said so.” People also use it in a cooler way. In maths or science, an “arbitrary number” just means “pick any number; it does not matter which.” That use is not about being mean. Though actually, the older idea is about a judge: if the judge may do whatever they like, the result is arbitrary. Today the complaining sense is the usual one, and the word feels a bit formal. Everyday talk more often says “that’s not fair” or “that’s random,” but random is chance; arbitrary is someone’s choice with no good reason.
組成From Latin arbiter (a witness, listener, or judge) plus -ary (of that kind). It first meant “up to the judge” — decided by a person’s will, not by a fixed rule.
同家族的字
- arbiterthe Latin source word; still English for the person who has the last say
- arbitratesame Latin arbiter, a judge or umpire
- arbitrationsame Latin arbiter
- arbitratorsame Latin arbiter
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，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。
arbitraryadj/ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/
- 1
Based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random.
- Benjamin Franklin's designation of "positive" and "negative" to different charges was arbitrary.
- The decision to use 18 years as the legal age of adulthood was arbitrary, as both age 17 and 19 were reasonable alternatives.
- 2
Determined by impulse rather than reason; often connoting heavy-handedness.
- 1937/1938, Albert Einstein, letter to Max Born The Russian trials were Stalin's purges, with which he attempted to consolidate his power. Like most people in the West, I believed these show trials to be the arbitrary acts of a cruel dictator.
- The bromide conforms to everything sanctioned by the majority, and may be depended upon to be trite, banal, and arbitrary.
- 3
mathematicssciencesAny, out of all that are possible.
- The equation is true for an arbitrary value of x.
- 4
Determined by independent arbiter.
- 5
human-scienceslinguisticssciencesNot representative or symbolic; not iconic.
arbitrarynoun/ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/
- 1
Anything arbitrary, such as an arithmetical value or a fee.
- And in this long chain of consistence, a chain stretching from the long dead to the far unborn, the notion of the arbitrary could only survive as the notion of a pre-established arbitrary.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。