喜樂美語

核心畫面

Think of a thing sitting inside a frame: you can't really read the thing until you see what surrounds it — the time, place, people, and events woven around it. 'Context' is that surrounding weave that lets a fact make sense.

可以想成：任何一句話、一件事，都不是孤零零地存在，它周圍永遠纏著一圈東西——發生的時間、地點、前因後果、當時的人和情…更多收起可以想成：任何一句話、一件事，都不是孤零零地存在，它周圍永遠纏著一圈東西——發生的時間、地點、前因後果、當時的人和情況。context 就是這一圈「繞在四周、把事情襯托出意思」的背景。少了它，同一句話可能完全變調。

From the word’s history

From Latin 'contexere' = to weave together (con- 'together' + texere 'to weave', the same root as 'textile' and 'text'). The core picture is literally threads woven around a point.

源自拉丁文 contexere，意思是「織在一起」（con-「一起」+ texere「編織」，和 textile 布料、text 文本同源）。所以 context 的核心畫面，可以想成把一根根線「圍著某個點織起來」——周圍那一圈交織的東西，正好就是它的「背景／上下文」。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), s.v. 'context'

原始詞典資料8 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。

contextnoun/ˈkɒn.tɛkst/

  • 1

    The surroundings, circumstances, environment, background or settings that determine, specify, or clarify the meaning of an event or other occurrence.

    • —In what context did your attack on him happen? —We had a pretty tense relationship at the time, and when he insulted me I snapped.
    • The display and result must be placed in the context that was it was against a side that looked every bit their Fifa world ranking of 141 - but England completed the job with efficiency to record their biggest away win in 19 years.
  • 2

    human-scienceslinguisticssciencesThe text in which a word or passage appears and which helps ascertain its meaning.

    • Without context, I can't tell if dish refers to a plate, or to the food served thereon.
  • 3

    archaeologyhistoryhuman-sciencesThe surroundings and environment in which an artifact is found and which may provide important clues about the artifact's function and/or cultural meaning.

  • 4

    biologymycologynatural-sciencesThe trama or flesh of a mushroom.

  • 5

    human-scienceslogicmathematicsFor a formula: a finite set of variables, which set contains all the free variables in the given formula.

  • 6

    computingengineeringmathematicsThe data (register contents, program counter value, etc.) needed to switch to another thread of execution.

contextverb/ˈkɒn.tɛkst/

  • 1

    obsoleteTo knit or bind together; to unite closely.

    • The whole worlds frame, which is contexted onely by commerce and contracts.
    • If the Subiect bee Historie, or contexted Fable, then I hold it better put in Prose, or Blanks: for ordinarie discourse neuer shewes so well in Meeter

contextadj/ˈkɒn.tɛkst/

  • 1

    obsoleteKnit or woven together; close; firm.

    • 1541?, Robert Copland (translator?), Guydon's Questionary Chirurgical, translation of 1533, Guy de Chauliac, La questionaire des cirugiens at barbiers The skynne is composed & context and woven with thredes and vaynes.
    • And though he could describe how such a string may be context, yet our Explication will have this advantage in point of probability above his, ...

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。