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When you do something circumspectly, you do not rush in. You look around first, think about what could go wrong, and only then act, so as to stay out of trouble. The heart of the word is that careful thinking, not speed: a person can move quickly and still act circumspectly, if the risks have already been weighed. It is a rather formal, grown-up word. You will meet it in news, essays, and talk about money, law, or . A parent at the table is far more likely to say “Be careful” or “Think before you do that.” Cautiously is close, though actually cautiously can also mean “slowly, because you are worried,” while circumspectly points at the looking-round: you have chosen your steps on purpose so nobody — and no accident — can easily hurt you.
謹慎地、小心翼翼地
組成circumspect + -ly. Circumspect is “looking around before you act”; -ly turns it into an adverb (how you do it). Circum- is “around,” and -spect is “look.”
同家族的字
- circumspectthe adjective this adverb is built from
- circumspectionthe noun: the habit of thinking carefully before you act
原始詞典資料1 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。
circumspectlyadv/ˈsɝː.kəm.spekt.l/
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In a circumspect manner; with consideration for all that is pertinent.
- But at the moment when everything was going so well, there came one of those unforeseeable chances that reduce even the most circumspectly arranged plots to the significance of a mere toss-up.
- Coverage of Mr. Carter’s many Monitor Breakfasts reveals a man ready to shake things up, in his own way. At the 1974 gathering, when he publicly revealed his presidential aspirations, he said he would ask for the power to use wage and price controls to address the struggling economy – “but I would use it circumspectly,” he added.
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。