核心畫面

You can think of disagreeable as two things that will not sit together. Inside the word is agree: what is agreeable goes along with you, and what is disagreeable pushes back. Put your hand near it and something in you moves away — a smell, a taste, a task, a remark. Nothing here has to be dramatic. The word marks the small, steady friction that makes you want to be somewhere else.

disagreeable 的核心畫面可以想成兩樣東西擺在一起,就是合不來。字裡面藏著 agree:agreeable更多收起disagreeable 的核心畫面可以想成兩樣東西擺在一起,就是合不來。字裡面藏著 agree:agreeable 是「跟你合得上」,加了 dis- 就變成「合不上、會頂回來」。靠近它,你身體裡有一部分會想退開。那可能是一股氣味、一種口感、一件差事,或一句話。它不一定嚴重。這個字標記的是那種小小的、持續的摩擦,讓你想換個地方待著。

From the word’s history

The packet's Wiktionary etymology derives the word from Middle English disagreable, from Middle French desagreable, from Old French desagraable, and notes that by surface analysis it is simply dis- + agreeable — so the 'does not go together' picture is in the word's own parts.

依照本次提供的維基詞典字源,這個字繼承自中古英文 disagreable,再往前是中古法文 desagreable、古法文 desagraable;從表面結構看就是 dis- 加 agreeable。所以「合不來」這個畫面不是後來想出來的比喻,它本來就寫在這個字的零件裡。

Wiktionary etymology supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1023634750)

Two branches

跟你的感覺合不來的事物

這一族是核心畫面直接落在事物上:工作、氣味、口感、天氣、對話,只要讓你想避開就算。

adjective · B2

Not enjoyable or pleasant at all — used about a job, a smell, a taste, the weather, or a situation that you do not like and would rather get away from.

令人不快的、不舒服的

合不來的那個人

同樣的摩擦,換成發生在人身上。這次「頂回來」的不是味道或工作,而是一個人的態度。

adjective · B2

Used about a person: unfriendly and easily annoyed, so that they are rude or hard to be around.

難相處的、脾氣壞的