喜樂美語

核心畫面

One way to hold this word is to picture a heavy block of wood. Tie that block to an animal's leg and it cannot walk. Drop it into a pipe and the water stops. Put it under your foot with a strap over the toes and you are wearing it. The two meanings you meet today sit at the two ends of that picture: something stiff and heavy that stops movement, and a shoe made of exactly that.

可以想成一塊笨重的木頭。綁在動物腿上，牠就走不動。掉進管子裡，水就過不去。墊在腳底、上面加一條帶子，那就是一雙鞋。今…更多收起可以想成一塊笨重的木頭。綁在動物腿上，牠就走不動。掉進管子裡，水就過不去。墊在腳底、上面加一條帶子，那就是一雙鞋。今天你會遇到的兩個意思，正好站在這個畫面的兩端：一邊是「硬硬的東西卡住，動不了」，一邊是「用這種硬東西做的鞋」。動詞和鞋子看起來毫無關係，放回這塊木頭上就對得起來了。

From the word’s history

The source says the origin is not certain, but perhaps from a Middle English clog, a weight or block of wood tied to an animal's leg to stop it moving. If that is right, the blocking sense and the wooden shoe both come straight out of one lump of wood.

來源沒有定論。資料上說，可能來自中古英文的 clog：一塊綁在動物腿上、讓牠走不動的重物或木頭。如果是這樣，「堵住」和「木底鞋」就都是從同一塊木頭長出來的。這條線索是有保留的推測，不是定案。

Wiktionary, entry 'clog' (evidence packet etymology_text: 'Unknown; perhaps from Middle English clog ("weight attached to the leg of an animal to impede movement")…')

Two branches

塞住，流不動

這一族拿的是木頭「卡住、動不了」的那一面。本來會流動的東西——水、車、空氣——被填滿的通道擋下來。

verb · B2

To fill a pipe, road, or other narrow way with so much stuff that things can no longer move through it properly. It works the other way round too: the pipe or the road itself can clog, or clog up, when the stuff builds up inside it.

堵塞

木底鞋

這一族拿的是木頭本身，不是它擋住什麼。同樣一塊硬木，換個位置——墊到腳底下——就成了鞋。鞋底不會彎，這一點正是它跟其他鞋最大的差別。

noun · B2

A shoe with a thick, stiff sole, often made of wood. The top usually covers the front of your foot only, so the back of your foot is open and the shoe stays on by itself.

木底鞋

原始詞典資料10 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。

clognoun/klɒɡ/

  • 1

    A type of shoe with an inflexible, often wooden sole sometimes with an open heel.

    • Dutch people rarely wear clogs these days.
    • […] as to the poor—just look at them when they come crowding about the church-doors on the occasion of a marriage or a funeral, clattering in clogs; […]
  • 2

    A blockage.

    • The plumber cleared the clog from the drain.
  • 3

    A shoe of any type.

    • I let him in this morning. He lost one of his clogs.
  • 4

    A weight, such as a log or block of wood, attached to a person or animal to hinder motion.

    • Yet as a Dog committed close / For some offence, by chance breaks loose, / And quits his Clog; but all in vain, / He still draws after him his Chain.
    • A clog of lead was round my feet / A band of pain across my brow;
  • 5

    That which hinders or impedes motion; an encumbrance, restraint, or impediment of any kind.

    • The grand Conſpirator, Abbot of Weſtminster, / With clog of Conſcience, and ſowre Melancholly / Hath yeelded up his body to the graue;
    • All the ancient, honest, juridical principles and institutions of England, are so many clogs to check and retard the headlong course of violence and oppression.

clogverb/klɒɡ/

  • 1

    To block or slow passage through (often with 'up').

    • Around 25 million pounds of used Mardi Gras beads are thrown away every year. Several years ago, in 2018, 46 tons of them clogged New Orleans' storm drains after heavy flooding.
    • Hair is clogging the drainpipe.
  • 2

    To encumber or load, especially with something that impedes motion; to hamper.

    • The wings of winds were clogged with ice and snow.
  • 3

    To burden; to trammel; to embarrass; to perplex.

    • The commodities […]are clogged with impositions.
    • You'll rue the time / That clogs me with this answer.
  • 4

    lawTo enforce a mortgage lender right that prevents a borrower from exercising a right to redeem.

    • 1973, Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Doerr, 123 N.J. Super. 530, 544, 303 A.2d 898. For centuries it has been the rule that a mortgagor’s equity of redemption cannot be clogged and that he cannot, as a part of the original mortgage transaction, cut off or surrender his right to redeem. Any agreement which does so is void and unenforceable as against public policy.
  • 5

    To perform a clog dance.

    • And in a burst of Celtic drums and fiddles, a bosomy colleen with a jaunty green hat and suit jacket riverdanced onto the stage, clogging with a surprising degree of expertise, barely restrained breasts jiggling.

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。