核心畫面

Picture someone taking a handful of something light and it apart into the air. The pieces move away from each other, get thinner and thinner, and after a while there is nothing left to look at. Everything this word does can be watched in that one movement: fog over a field, anger cooling after a talk, savings leaking away month by month, heat leaving a hot machine into the room. Nothing is snatched away in one grab. It spreads out until this place no longer holds it.

可以想成有人抓了一把很輕的東西,往空中一撒。碎片彼此散開,越飄越薄,過一會兒就什麼都看不到了。dissipate 的更多收起可以想成有人抓了一把很輕的東西,往空中一撒。碎片彼此散開,越飄越薄,過一會兒就什麼都看不到了。dissipate 的每個用法都在這個動作裡:田野上的霧慢慢變淡、談過之後火氣退掉、存款一個月一個月漏光、機器的熱往房間裡散出去。沒有人一把搶走什麼。是它自己往外散,散到這個地方再也留不住。

From the word’s history

Latin dissipō, from dis- (apart) plus supō (to throw): literally to throw something apart in all directions. The scattering in the modern word is the same movement.

拉丁文 dissipō 由 dis-(分開)加 supō(拋、扔)組成,字面就是「往四面八方扔開」。今天這個字的核心畫面,還是那個「扔散」的動作。

Wiktionary entry for dissipate, etymology_text supplied in the evidence packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:858351516)

From the picture

把有價值的東西散光

一樣是往外散,只是散掉的換成錢、時間、力氣或優勢。因為原本值錢,這個用法就多了一點惋惜的味道。

verb · C1

To waste something valuable that you already have — money, time, energy, talent or an advantage — by letting it go bit by bit until none of it is left.

揮霍/耗盡

Also in this word

verb · C1

To slowly become less and less until nothing is left, or to make something do this. It fits things that spread out as they fade — smoke, fog, heat, smells, noise — and feelings such as anger, fear or tension.

消散/逐漸散去

verb · C1

In science and engineering: to get rid of energy, usually heat, by letting it spread out into the air or into the material around it, so it is no longer held in one place.

散熱/耗散

原始詞典資料6 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。

dissipateverb/ˈdɪsɪpeɪt/

  • 1

    To drive away, disperse.

    • August 1773, James Cook, journal entry I soon dissipated his fears.
    • The extreme tendency of civilization is to dissipate all intellectual energy.
  • 2

    To use up or waste; squander.

    • The vast wealth […] was in three years dissipated.
    • So much for the effort and ingenuity of Montmartre. All the catering to vice and waste was on an utterly childish scale, and he suddenly realized the meaning of the word "dissipate"—to dissipate into thin air; to make nothing out of something.
  • 3

    To vanish by dispersion.

  • 4

    natural-sciencesphysical-sciencesphysicsTo cause energy to be lost through its conversion to heat.

    • The traction motors serve as generators when dynamic braking is used, the generated output being dissipated in fan-cooled resistance banks mounted in a removable roof section.
    • Regenerative braking is retained. Like rheostatic braking, this uses the traction motors to provide a braking effort, but the current developed is fed back into the overhead catenary rather than dissipated through resistance banks.
  • 5

    datedTo be dissolute in conduct.

dissipateadj/ˈdɪsɪpeɪt/

  • 1

    obsoletedissipated

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。