- 1祝禱、祝福禱告（基督教禮拜結束時牧師所作的祝福）。日常口語通常說 blessing 就好。
A benediction is a blessing spoken aloud — a short prayer asking God to protect and help someone. In Christian churches it is a fixed part of the service: the priest raises a hand at the end and speaks the benediction, and then everyone goes home. That closing position matters, because it gives the word a second life: people say "a benediction" for anything that gives a gathering a peaceful ending. It is a formal, written, religious word. The everyday English word is blessing, and blessing works in every sentence where benediction works. Choose benediction when you want the weight of church language. Outside religion, writers stretch it — sunlight falling on a field, a grandmother's hand on your head, may be called a benediction. That use is poetic, and you should recognise it in reading before you try it in writing. students meet a related idea in temple culture, but be careful: a benediction is words spoken over people, not a written charm or an amulet.
組成bene ("well") + dict ("speak") + -ion (the ending that makes it a noun). So: the speaking-well over someone. It reached English through Middle English benediccion from Church Latin benedictio. It is a doublet of benison — the same Latin word arrived twice by different roads, once through French and once straight from Latin, and English kept both.
同家族的字
- benefitsame bene- ("well"): something good done for you
- benevolentsame bene-: wishing others well
- dictatesame dict- ("speak"): to say words for someone to write down
- contradictsame dict-: to speak against what someone said
- maledictionthe exact opposite — mal- ("badly") + dict-: a curse
原始詞典資料4 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。
benedictionnoun/ˌbɛnəˈdɪkʃən/
- 1
A short invocation for help, blessing and guidance from God, said on behalf of another person or persons (sometimes at the end of a church worship service).
- to pronounce / give / say the benediction
- the nuptial benediction
- 2
In the Anglican church, the ceremony used to institute an abbot, analogous to the consecration of a bishop.
- What Consecration is to a Bishop, that Benediction is to an Abbot; but in a different way: For a Bishop is not properly such till Consecration; but an Abbot being elected and confirm’d, is properly such before Benediction.
- 3
A Roman Catholic rite by which bells, banners, candles, etc., are blessed with holy water and formally dedicated to God.
- [He] later liked to attend benediction in the chapel at Brideshead and see the ladies of the family with their necks arched in devotion under their black lace mantillas; [...]
- 4
Help, good fortune or reward from God or another supernatural source.
- […] they throng who should buy first, as if my trinkets had been hallowed and brought a benediction to the buyer:
- Homeward serenely she walked with God’s benediction upon her.
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。