- 1間諜活動；諜報
Espionage is the work of spies: secretly finding out information that is not yours, and giving it to someone who wants it — a country, or sometimes a rival company. When companies do it, people say industrial espionage. It is a formal noun with a French feel. You commit espionage or work in espionage; you do not say “I espionage.” The person is a spy; espionage is the activity. English took the word from French espionnage, “spying,” and at the root it meets English spy. In news and law it is a serious crime; in films it is adventure.
From the word’s history
Recorded since 1793, from French espionnage, from espionner 'to spy', from espion 'spy'; related to spy.
1793 年借自法文 espionnage，來自 espion「間諜」。
組成From French espionnage, from espionner (“to spy”), from espion (“spy”). The older Germanic root is the same one behind English spy. In French the s had gone silent; later the sound was brought back, and English followed that modern form.
同家族的字
- spysame old root meaning “to watch in secret”; spy is the common English cousin
原始詞典資料1 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，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。
espionagenoun/ˈɛs.pi.əˌnɑːʒ/
- 1
The act or process of learning secret information through clandestine means.
- So intolerable did Heavy Benson's espionage become, that Raynham would have grown depopulated of its womankind had not Adrian interfered, who pointed out to the Baronet what a fearful arm his butler was wielding.
- The results of this investigation to date indicate that there is probable cause to believe that, beginning in 1985 and continuing to the present, ROBERT PHILIP HANSSEN (hereinafter “HANSSEN”), a United States citizen, has conspired […] to commit espionage against the United States on behalf of a foreign government, specifically the Soviet Union or Russia, and has in fact engaged in such espionage.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。