核心畫面

Think of someone who does not want to guess, so they set something up, try it once, and watch what happens. That is the whole picture: do it, then see. In a laboratory this is an experiment and the word describes the method. Away from the laboratory the same picture shrinks down to a school trying a new for one term, or to a hand pressing a sore ankle to find out whether it still hurts. Every use keeps the same two beats — a try, and an answer that only comes from having tried.

可以想成一個不想用猜的人:他把東西架起來,實際做一次,然後看會發生什麼。整個字的畫面就是這兩拍——先做,再看結果。在更多收起可以想成一個不想用猜的人:他把東西架起來,實際做一次,然後看會發生什麼。整個字的畫面就是這兩拍——先做,再看結果。在實驗室裡,這叫做實驗,所以這個字是在說「方法是實驗」。離開實驗室,同樣的畫面縮小成學校先試辦一學期的新課表,或是一隻手輕輕按一下痛過的腳踝。三個用法規模差很多,但那兩拍都在。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary derives the word as experimental + -ly, on the noun experiment. So the adverb has never meant anything but in the manner of an experiment; the differences between its uses are differences of scale, not of meaning.

Wiktionary 把這個字拆成 experimental + -ly,底下是名詞 experiment。所以這個副詞從頭到尾只有一個意思:照實驗的方式去做。三個用法之間的差別,是規模大小的差別,不是意思換掉了。

Wiktionary, entry 'experimentally' (kaikki extract, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:882643151): 'From experimental + -ly.'

Two branches

答案是動手做出來的

這一族就是核心畫面的原始場景:真的架了實驗,真的量了數據。

r · B2

By doing an experiment, or in a way that has to do with experiments — used to say how a result, a number or a fact was produced or checked.

以實驗方式

先試一次,再看要不要繼續

把核心畫面裡的「做一次看結果」從實驗室搬到日常:架的不是儀器,是一個新做法或一個小動作,但一樣要等結果出來才算數。

r · B2

In a way that tries out a new idea or method on a small scale first, to see whether it works, before it is used everywhere.

試辦地/試行地