- 1
To assuage a feeling is to make it less sharp — not to delete it, just to take the sting down. People assuage guilt, fear, anger, or grief; they also assuage hunger or thirst, which is a slightly older, more physical use of the same idea: you sweeten the discomfort.
To assuage a feeling is to make it less sharpassuage 一種感覺,就是讓它不再那麼尖銳——not to delete it不是把它消除掉, just to take the sting down只是把那股刺痛感降下來。People assuage guilt, fear, anger, or grief你可以 assuage 罪惡感、恐懼、憤怒或悲傷;they also assuage hunger or thirst也可以 assuage 飢餓或口渴, which is a slightly older, more physical use of the same idea這是同一個概念比較古老、比較偏身體感受的用法:you sweeten the discomfort也就是把不舒服的感覺沖淡一點。
It is a formal, verb. In a café you would say calm down, ease, or make it better; in a novel or a careful essay, assuage sounds right.
It is a formal, bookish verb這是個正式、書面的動詞。In a café you would say calm down, ease, or make it better在咖啡廳聊天你會說 calm down、ease 或 make it better;in a novel or a careful essay, assuage sounds right在小說或講究的文章裡,用 assuage 才對味。
You assuage something in someone (her fears, his doubts), or a feeling of your own.
You assuage something in someone (her fears, his doubts), or a feeling of your own你可以 assuage 某人心裡的某種感覺(her fears 她的恐懼、his doubts 他的疑慮),或是自己的某種感覺。
It does not usually mean you fixed the real problem — only that the unpleasant feeling is not pressing so hard. A kind word can assuage worry without changing the facts. That gap between “feels better” and “is better” is part of how the word is really used.
It does not usually mean you fixed the real problem這通常不代表你解決了真正的問題——only that the unpleasant feeling is not pressing so hard只是那股不舒服的感覺沒那麼逼人了。A kind word can assuage worry without changing the facts一句好話可以 assuage 憂慮,卻不會改變事實。That gap between "feels better" and "is better" is part of how the word is really used「感覺變好」和「真的變好」之間的這個落差,正是這個字實際使用時的一部分意義。
組成From Middle English aswagen, from Old French asuagier (“to calm”), from a spoken Latin form *assuāviō (“to sweeten, to calm”), built from Latin ad- (“toward”) + suāvis (“sweet”) + a verb ending. The old picture is “to make it sweeter.”
同家族的字
- suaveboth go back to Latin suāvis, “sweet”
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。
assuageverb/əˈsweɪd͡ʒ/
- 1
To lessen the intensity of, to mitigate or relieve (hunger, emotion, pain, etc.).
- Refreshing winds the summer's heat assuage.
- to assuage the sorrows of a desolate old man
- 2
To pacify or soothe (someone).
- 3
obsoleteTo calm down, become less violent (of passion, hunger etc.); to subside, to abate.
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。