喜樂美語

核心畫面

Picture a box built out of wires or metal bars, with air and light coming through every gap. A bird sits inside; you can see it, hear it, even touch it through the bars — and it still cannot get out. That is the special feel of a cage: it is not a solid closed box that hides what is inside, it is an open-looking frame that only stops the body from leaving.

可以想成一個用鐵絲或欄杆圍成的箱子，每一道縫隙都透著光和空氣。一隻鳥站在裡面，你看得到牠、聽得到牠，手指伸過欄杆還碰…更多收起可以想成一個用鐵絲或欄杆圍成的箱子，每一道縫隙都透著光和空氣。一隻鳥站在裡面，你看得到牠、聽得到牠，手指伸過欄杆還碰得到牠——但牠就是出不來。cage 的味道就在這裡：它不是把東西藏起來的密閉箱子，而是一個看起來通透、卻剛好擋住身體離開的框架。所以人被關的地方也可以叫 cage，因為那種「看得見外面、卻走不出去」的感覺最貼切。

From the word’s history

From Old French cage 'cage, prison; retreat, hideout' (12c.), from Latin cavea 'hollow place, enclosure for animals, coop, hive, stall, dungeon, spectators' seats in the theater'. It is recorded in English around 1200 for a wire or reed box for birds and beasts, and by about 1300 was already also used for a jail or cell. The verb came later, in the 1570s, straight from the noun.

這個字經由古法文的 cage（籠子、監牢、藏身處）來自拉丁文的 cavea，原意是「中空的地方」，同時也用來指關動物的圈欄、雞舍、蜂箱、牲口棚、地牢，甚至劇場裡一圈一圈的觀眾席。也就是說，最早的重點是「一塊被圍出來的空腔」，裡面放什麼都行。英文大約 1200 年開始用它指關鳥獸的絲籠或竹籠，到 1300 年前後就已經同時拿來說牢房了——關動物和關人本來就是同一個畫面的兩面。動詞是後來 1570 年代才從名詞轉過去的。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entries 'cage (n.)' and 'cage (v.)'

From the picture

關進籠子（那個動作）

英文很常把一樣東西的名字直接拿來當動作用，cage 就是這樣：名詞是那個籠子，動詞就是「把牠弄進那個籠子裡」。畫面沒有換，只是從看著籠子，變成看著有人把門關上。

put in a cage · verb · B1

To put or keep a bird or animal in a cage.

關進籠子；關起來

Also in this word

animal cage · noun · B1

A box made of bars or wire for keeping a bird or animal in.

籠子

原始詞典資料21 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。

Cagename

  • 1

    A surname from French.

cagenoun/keɪd͡ʒ/

  • 1

    An enclosure made of spaced bars, normally to hold animals while providing some ventilation.

    • We keep a bird in a cage.
    • The tigers are in a cage to protect the public.
  • 2

    The passenger compartment of a lift.

  • 3

    The goal.

  • 4

    slangSynonym of automobile.

  • 5

    Something that hinders freedom.

    • Schwartz examines with dignity and tenderness the battles within and without of […] families, created and biological, and the cages and freedom they can provide.
    • My body is a cage / That keeps me from dancing with the one I love / But my mind holds the key
  • 6

    slangA prison or prison cell.

    • The 'out of the closet' lesbians and gay men here in the Iowa Cages are harassed and discriminated daily by oppressive pigs, believe me, I know, as a lesbian I've experienced it first hand and seen my fellow lesbian and gay friends oppressed to where I'm ready to explode.
  • 7

    athleticshobbieslifestyleThe area from which competitors throw a discus or hammer.

  • 8

    An outer framework of timber, enclosing something within it.

    • Cage, in carpentry, is an outer work of timber inclosing another within it. Thus the cage of a stair is the wooden inclosure that encircles it.
另外 6 個記錄的用法
  • 9

    engineeringnatural-sciencesphysical-sciencesA skeleton frame to limit the motion of a loose piece, such as a ball valve.

  • 10

    A wirework strainer, used in connection with pumps and pipes.

  • 11

    businessminingThe drum on which the rope is wound in a hoisting whim.

  • 12

    ball-gamesbaseballgamesThe protective wire mask at the front of a helmet.

  • 13

    graph-theorymathematicssciencesA regular graph that has as few vertices as possible for its girth.

  • 14

    In killer sudoku puzzles, a group of connecting cells that must contain a set of unique digits adding up to a certain total, in addition to the usual constraints of sudoku.

cageverb/keɪd͡ʒ/

  • 1

    To confine in a cage; to put into and keep in a cage.

    • And the row of human captors, ever leering, They who caged me, Know their power and gloat on my captivity.
    • Laying out the zoo on horseback, he went about making plans to combine his scrubby mesas and canyons with moats, and thereby eliminate caging many large animals—a revolutionary advance in American zoo design.
  • 2

    slangTo imprison.

    • The serial killer was caged for life.
  • 3

    To restrict someone's movement or creativity.

  • 4

    aeronauticsaerospaceaviationTo immobilize an artificial horizon.

    • To prevent damage to its gimbal mountings during extreme aerobatic maneuvers, the navball should be caged before the start of a display sequence.
  • 5

    To track individual responses to direct mail, either (advertising) to maintain and develop mailing lists or (politics) to identify people who are not eligible to vote because they do not reside at the registered addresses.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：

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。