核心畫面

Picture the baseball park itself: a big fenced space, the field in the middle, seats all around it. Everything inside the fence counts as in the park, and a ball that clears the fence is gone. Notice how loose that inside is — a ball can land near the middle, or way out by the back wall, and it is still in. That looseness is what American English borrowed when it started talking about numbers: a guess that lands anywhere inside the fence is close enough to keep working with.

可以想成一座棒球場:一圈圍牆,中間是球場,四周是看台。只要還在圍牆裡面就算「在場內」,飛出去就沒了。要注意的是,這個更多收起可以想成一座棒球場:一圈圍牆,中間是球場,四周是看台。只要還在圍牆裡面就算「在場內」,飛出去就沒了。要注意的是,這個「在裡面」很寬鬆——球落在中間,或落在最後面的牆邊,都一樣算在裡面。美式英文後來把這份寬鬆借去講數字:一個估計只要落在那圈圍牆裡,就算夠接近,可以繼續談下去。

From the picture

數字落在範圍裡

把圍牆搬到數字上:真正的價錢或數量在中間,你的估計只要沒飛出牆外,就算「在裡面」。所以這兩個說法談的都不是準確,而是夠不夠接近、能不能拿來繼續談。

noun · B2

Close to the amount, price or number that you want or have in mind — near enough to work with, even though it is not exact.

差不多、八九不離十

Also in this word

noun · B1

A large outdoor place where baseball is played, with the marked field in the middle and rows of seats around it for the people watching. The source marks this use as American English.

棒球場