信賴(朝外)
把核心的「信賴感」朝外放:相信某個人、某樣東西、或某件事一定會發生、會成。
trust · noun · B2
Trust that a person or a thing is good and can be relied on.
信任、信心
Picture a firm feeling of trust — you lean your weight on someone or something and feel sure it will hold. The Latin root con-fidere means 'to trust fully'. From that one feeling of trust, the word branches in two directions: trust pointed OUTWARD (you trust a person, a thing, an outcome) and trust pointed INWARD (you trust yourself). A second, narrower branch comes from trust between two people: things told 'in trust', kept secret.
English confidence comes from Latin confidentia, from confidere 'to have full trust', con- (intensive) + fidere 'to trust' — the same fid- root as in faith, fidelity. The modern core 'a feeling of trust' sits right on that root, and 'self-confidence' is simply that trust turned toward oneself.
英文 confidence 來自拉丁文 confidentia,源於 confidere「完全信賴」:con-(加強語氣)+ fidere「信賴」——和 faith(信仰)、fidelity(忠誠)是同一個 fid-(信)字根。現代的核心義「信賴的感覺」就直接坐在這個字根上,而「自信」不過是把這份信賴轉向自己。
Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), 'confidence' / 'confide'; Latin fidere 'to trust'.
Three branches
信賴(朝外)
把核心的「信賴感」朝外放:相信某個人、某樣東西、或某件事一定會發生、會成。
trust · noun · B2
Trust that a person or a thing is good and can be relied on.
信任、信心
自信(朝內)
把同一份「信賴感」轉向自己:相信自己做得到、應付得來——對象從別人變成你本人。
self-confidence · noun · B2
The feeling that you can do things well and deal with situations.
自信
私下信賴、保密
這一族來自人與人之間的信賴:因為信得過你,才把話只說給你聽、託你保密。於是 confidence 從「信賴感」延伸到「被信賴而託付的私密話」本身。
in confidence · noun · B2
When you tell someone something in confidence, you tell it on the understanding that they will keep it secret.
保密、私下(告訴)
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。
confidencenoun/ˈkɒn.fɪ.dəns/
Self-assurance.
A feeling of certainty; firm trust or belief; faith.
Information held in secret; a piece of information shared but to thence be kept in secret.
datedBoldness; presumption.
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。