核心畫面

Picture a rounded thing with a thin hard shell, and a life quietly growing inside it. The shell keeps the world out until the right moment, then it breaks. Almost everything English does with this word comes from one of that object's features: the life inside, the thin shell that breaks easily, the fact that you cannot see in from outside, and the plain oval shape.

可以想成 egg 是一顆圓圓的、殼很薄的東西,裡面有一個生命正在悄悄長大。殼把外面的世界擋在外頭,時間到了才打開。英更多收起可以想成 egg 是一顆圓圓的、殼很薄的東西,裡面有一個生命正在悄悄長大。殼把外面的世界擋在外頭,時間到了才打開。英文拿 egg 造出來的各種說法,幾乎都是抓住這顆蛋的某一個特點:裡面有生命、殼一碰就破、從外面看不見裡面、還有那個圓圓的形狀。

Four branches

會孵出生命的蛋

這一組是核心畫面本身:一個把新生命包起來、等它長好的容器。差別只在尺寸——一顆看得見的蛋,或一個看不見的細胞。

egg (animal) · noun · A1

A round object with a hard shell that a female bird, snake, fish, or insect makes, with a baby animal growing inside it.

蛋、卵

當食物的蛋

同一顆蛋,只是我們不等牠孵出來。日常對話裡出現的 egg 大多是這一個。

egg (food) · noun · A1

An egg from a chicken that people cook and eat as food.

蛋的形狀

這一組只借形狀,不管裡面有沒有生命,也不管能不能吃。

egg-shaped object · noun · A1

An object that has the same rounded oval shape as an egg.

蛋形物

拿蛋來比喻的說法

蛋有幾個很鮮明的特點:薄殼一摔就破、破了會糊一片、從外面看不出裡面好不好、形狀又剛好像個零。英文的慣用語各自抓住其中一個特點,所以這幾句話彼此不太像,共同點是都從真的蛋長出來。

have egg on your face · noun · A1

If someone has egg on their face, they have been made to look foolish by something that went wrong, often in front of other people.

出糗、丟臉

原始詞典資料32 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。

Eggname

  • 1

    A surname.

  • 2

    informalautomotivetransportvehiclesA Koenigsegg car.

  • 3

    The character Solas from the Dragon Age franchise (referring to his baldness).

    • Heh, i don't think she was that cunning to begin with, but romancing the Egg has rubbed off on her ;D.
    • I'm a big fan of the Egg because he's so complex and intriguing.
  • 4

    A market town in Bregenz district, Vorarlberg, Austria.

  • 5

    A municipality in Uster district, Zürich canton, Switzerland.

eggnoun詞源 1/ɛɡ/

  • 1

    biologynatural-scienceszoologyAn approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, often housing an embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.

    • The Eſtrich (whoſe fethers are fayrer thẽ yᵉ wynges of the ſparow hauke) whẽ he hath layd his egges vpon the grounde, he bredeth them in the duſt, and forgetteth them: ſo that they might be troden with feete, or broken with ſomme wilde beaſt.
    • [T]hinke him as a Serpents egge, / VVhich hatch'd, vvould as his kinde grovv mischieuous; / And kill him in the ſhell.
  • 2

    biologynatural-scienceszoologyAn approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, often housing an embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.

    • We made a big omelette with three eggs for breakfast.
    • I should determine the minimal amount of egg required to make good mayonnaise.
  • 3

    biologynatural-scienceszoologyAn approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, often housing an embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.

  • 4

    biologycytologymedicineSynonym of ovum (“the female gamete of an animal”); an egg cell.

    • In the Fall into the division of labor, [Claude] Lévi-Strauss sees the great hunters trading women to create the exogamous bonds of one hunting band with another. The egg is, but the sperm does. The tiny sperm may be furious in its activity, but its highway to the egg is paved by the alkaline trail set down by the Great Mother.
    • Although they serve the same function across the plant, animal and fungal kingdoms, sperm and eggs vary wildly in their structure and biochemistry, even among closely related species. […] Many genes that determine sperm and egg structure and biochemistry are rapidly evolving, constantly changing the chemical environment necessary for the sperm to bind to the egg.
  • 5

    A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).

    • His ſtomacke vvas queaſie (for comming there Coacht) / The jogging had caus’d ſome crudities riſe; / To help it he call’d for a Puritan poacht, / That uſed to turne up the egg’s of his eyes.
    • There vvas taken a great Glaſs-bubble, vvith a long neck; (ſuch as Chymiſts are vvont to call a Philoſophical Egg) vvhich being fill'd vvith common VVater till the Liquor reach'd about a ſpan above the bubble, and a piece of Paper being there paſted on, vvas put unſtop'd into the Receiver, […]
  • 6

    A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).

  • 7

    architectureA thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).

  • 8

    hobbieslifestylesportsA thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).

另外 12 個記錄的用法
  • 9

    datedgovernmentmilitarypoliticsA thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).

  • 10

    cellular-automatacomputingengineeringA thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).

  • 11

    golfhobbieslifestyleA thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).

    • But Olga continued to work through her large bucket of balls. Ninety percent of them came to rest in exactly the same spot—dead center, between 150 and 175 yards. So tightly bunched were her balls out there it looked like someone had overturned a bucket of eggs.
  • 12

    datedinformalSenses relating to people.

    • a bad egg    a good egg    a tough egg    Cheerio, old egg!
    • 'Good egg!' quoth Moorshed, and brought his hand down on the wide shoulders with the smack of a beaver's tail.
  • 13

    derogatoryslurrareSenses relating to people.

  • 14

    derogatorydatedSenses relating to people.

  • 15

    Senses relating to people.

    • That fits, though, she thought. Wear the same outfit day after day, your brain gets numb to how it looks or feels—Wendy shut the album. No. […] She hated analyzing the whys of [not-out] trans girls. She had always hated it, and she hated how easy it had become; the bottomless hole of egg mode.
    • So I remember being told, in the very early part of my transition, that I had been, until now, an egg, and—as powerfully rooted in a belief in latency as I found myself[.]
  • 16

    Senses relating to people.

    • to crack someone's egg
  • 17

    derogatorySenses relating to people.

    • Shut up, you egg!
  • 18

    derogatoryobsoleteSenses relating to people.

    • VVhat you Egge? / Yong fry of Treachery?
  • 19

    archaicSomething regarded as containing a (usually bad) thing at an early stage.

    • [S]oe Power of Warre / From the firſt Egge of Libertie, out-Creepes / A fatall Serpent; […]
    • In ſhort, the Rebellion had been Cruſh'd in the Egg; and One Seaſonable Act of Rigour, had Sav'd the King, the Monarchy, the Church, and the Three Kingdoms.
  • 20

    computingengineeringmathematicsOne of the blocks of data injected into a program's address space for use by certain forms of shellcode, such as "omelettes".

    • This approach would be altered for an optimal omelette based exploit. One would spray the heap with the omelette code solely, then load a single copy of the additional shellcode eggs into memory outside the target region for the spray.

eggverb詞源 1/ɛɡ/

  • 1

    To throw (especially rotten) eggs (noun sense 1.1.1) at (someone or something).

    • The angry demonstrators egged the riot police.
    • The students were caught egging the principal’s car as a prank.
  • 2

    To inadvertently or intentionally distort (the circular cross-section of something, such as tube) to an elliptical or oval shape.

    • After I cut the tubing, I found that I had slightly egged it in the vise.
  • 3

    cookingfoodlifestyleTo coat (a food ingredient) with or dip (a food ingredient) in beaten egg (noun sense 1.1.1) during the process of preparing a dish.

    • "Jemima, Jemima!—ve'll ha'e the viting biled instead of fried." "Ca'n't, marm," replied Jemima, "they be all hegged and crumbed, with their tails in their mouths."
    • Then mask another large piece with currant jelly, cover it as before, and after egging the edges, roll them over some coarse sugar, and put them immediately in the oven. Join the remaining pieces in the same manner, two and two, and after egging the edges as before, roll them alternately on pistachios and coarse sugar.
  • 4

    To collect the eggs (noun sense 1.1) of wild birds.

  • 5

    vulgardialectalTo conceive a child, especially recklessly.

    • I was out with my girlfriend in Birmingham, when some colorful local told us not to egg.

eggverb詞源 2/ɛɡ/

  • 1

    To encourage, incite, or urge (someone).

    • [Y]it haue vvee one thing in our ſelues and of our ſelues, (euen originall ſinne, concupiſcence or luſt) vvhich neuer ceaſeth too egge vs and allure vs from God, and too ſtaine vs vvith all kinde of vnclennes: […]
    • Hope like a ſpurre pricketh forvvard, feare like a bridle reſtraineth, hope eggeth onvvard vnto vertue, feare pulleth backe from vice, hope incites vs to obſerue the lavv, feare makes vs feare to trãſgreſſe the lavve.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形:

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