喜樂美語

核心畫面

Picture the light going and a big day about to arrive. Eve is simply an old word for 'evening', and the famous use — Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve — is that same evening, the one that comes right before the day everyone is waiting for. So the word carries a feeling of waiting in the dark for something that starts tomorrow.

可以想成 eve 的畫面是天色暗下來、而一個大日子就要來了。這個字本來就是「傍晚」的老說法，而大家最熟的 Chris…更多收起可以想成 eve 的畫面是天色暗下來、而一個大日子就要來了。這個字本來就是「傍晚」的老說法，而大家最熟的 Christmas Eve、New Year's Eve，指的正是那個傍晚——大日子前面的最後一段暗光。所以整個字都帶著「在夜色裡等明天」的味道。

From the word’s history

Eve is a variant of Middle English even (Old English ǣfen) 'evening', after a pre-1200 loss of the final -n, which was mistaken for an inflection. The 'day before a festival' sense follows from medieval timekeeping: days ran from sunset to sunset, so the night before a holiday counted as part of that holiday — hence its 'eve'.

eve 是中古英文 even（古英文 ǣfen，「傍晚」）的變體，1200 年前字尾的 -n 被誤認成字尾變化而掉了。至於「節日前一天」這個意思，來自中世紀的算日子方式：一天是從日落算到日落，所以節日前一晚本來就算在那個節日裡面——那一晚就是它的 eve。這也是為什麼 Christmas Eve 是平安夜，而不是 12 月 24 日整天。

Wiktionary, entry 'eve' (en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eve)

One branch

天暗下來的那段時間

兩個意思其實是同一個「傍晚」，差別只在有沒有一個大日子在後面等著。有的話，這個傍晚就變成那個日子的前夕。

evening (poetic) · noun · C2

Evening — the time when the day is ending. Used mainly in poems and old stories.

傍晚

原始詞典資料12 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。

Evename詞源 1/iːv/

  • 1

    biblicallifestylereligionThe first woman and mother of the human race; Adam's wife.

    • And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
    • After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.
  • 2

    An unspecified primordial woman, from whom many or all people are descended.

    • The Seven Daughters of Eve; Mitochondrial Eve
  • 3

    A female given name from Hebrew.

    • "You were always a cynic," said Edith tolerantly. "I'm sure that Eve will want to have a baby - isn't that why we called her Eve?" "Of course not," said Herbert, as if the baby-cult had long been irritating him. "We called her Eve, or Evelyn, after your grandmother, who was going to leave, and did leave us some money."
  • 4

    An unincorporated community in Kentucky, United States.

  • 5

    An unincorporated community in Missouri, United States.

Evename詞源 2/iːv/

  • 1

    computingcryptographyengineeringA conventional name for an agent attempting to intercept a message sent by Alice that is intended for Bob.

Evename詞源 3/iːv/

  • 1

    An English surname.

evenoun/iːv/

  • 1

    The day or night before, usually used for holidays, such as Christmas Eve.

    • She died on the eve of her 100th birthday.
  • 2

    archaicEvening, night.

    • on a cold winter's eve.
    • I love to see the shaking twig / Dance till the shut of eve
  • 3

    The period of time when something is just about to happen or to be introduced

    • the eve of a scientific discovery

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 Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。