喜樂美語

核心畫面

Think of someone pleasant taking your arm and walking you along. You go willingly, because the walking feels good — a warm voice, a kind smile, a lovely photograph. What you may not notice is that they are choosing the direction. That is why one word can end in three different places: you stay and look longer, you agree to something you had not planned, or a whole afternoon quietly disappears. The old word guile, meaning clever trickery, is sitting inside beguile, so the pleasure and the small loss of your own steering tend to arrive together.

beguile 的畫面可以想成：有個人輕輕挽住你的手臂，帶著你往前走。你是自願跟著的，因為走起來很舒服——溫暖的聲音…更多收起beguile 的畫面可以想成：有個人輕輕挽住你的手臂，帶著你往前走。你是自願跟著的，因為走起來很舒服——溫暖的聲音、好看的笑容、漂亮的照片。你比較不會注意到的是，方向是對方在選。這也就是為什麼同一個字會走到三個地方：你多看了一會兒；你答應了本來沒打算答應的事；或者一整個下午安靜地不見了。beguile 裡面就住著 guile（手腕、詭計）這個字，所以「舒服」跟「方向盤稍微不在自己手上」，常常是一起來的。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary traces beguile to Middle English begilen, formed from be- plus guile. The parts still show through: to work guile on someone. Modern English keeps mostly the pleasant half of that, and the older half explains why a thing that beguiles you is never quite guaranteed to be honest.

Wiktionary 把 beguile 追到中古英文 begilen：be-（使、加在身上）加上 guile（手腕、詭計），字面就是「對一個人使出手腕」。今天用得最多的是好聽的那一半，但另一半還在底下，這正好解釋了為什麼讓你著迷的東西，不一定是老實的。

Wiktionary entry for beguile, packet etymology_text (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1057148994:19590)

Three branches

魅力把人留住

這一支最貼近核心畫面本身：對方挽著你的手臂，但沒有把你帶到哪裡去。結果只是你多看了一會兒、多聽了一會兒，離不開。

verb · C2

To interest and attract someone so strongly that they want to keep looking, listening, or staying. The charm feels good, so the person rarely stops to ask whether it is honest.

迷住

哄著人去做一件事

同一個人還是挽著你的手臂，只是這次走到了門口，而且你簽了字。核心畫面裡「方向由對方決定」的那一半，在這裡整個浮出來。

verb · C2

To use charm, warm words or a pretty picture to get someone to do something, so that they agree before they have seen the whole truth.

哄騙…去做

哄著時間走掉

這一支把手臂挽在時間身上。被帶走的不是人的腳步，而是一段等待——注意力被接走的時候，時間也跟著溜掉了。

verb · C2

To make a stretch of time feel shorter and more pleasant by filling it with something enjoyable. The object is usually the time itself — the hours, the journey, the long afternoon.

消磨（時光）

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。

beguileverb/bɪˈɡaɪl/

  • 1

    To deceive or delude (using guile).

    • And as wililye as thoſe ſhrewes that beguyle hym haue holpe hym to inuolue and intryke the matter: I ſhall vſe ſo playn and open a way therin, that euery man ſhall well ſee the trouth.
    • I know, sir, I am no flatterer: he that beguiled you, in a plain accent, was a plain knave.
  • 2

    To charm, delight or captivate.

    • 1864 November 21, Abraham Lincoln (signed) or John Hay, letter to Mrs. Bixby in Boston I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming.
    • I will never touch The Orb, even though its mysterious glow seduces and beguiles.
  • 3

    To cause (time) to seem to pass quickly, by way of pleasant diversion.

    • We beguiled the hours away.
    • They beguiled the time by backbiting and intriguing against each other in a foolish kind of way.

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。