- 1現存的、尚存的（多指古物、文獻、物種還在；不是口語的「存在」）
When something is extant, it is still here — not lost, not destroyed, not died out — even though it is very old, or even though many things like it have already gone. We use it most about old books, buildings, laws, and kinds of plants or animals that have managed to last. An extant manuscript is one we can still read; an extant species is one that has not died out. Scholars, lawyers, and careful writers like this word. Everyday talk more often says still around or still with us. Though actually, extant is not a fancy way to say existing. A living cat exists, but we would not call it extant unless we were setting it against cats that have vanished. The word points at survival from the past, not at being alive in a general way.
From the word’s history
From Latin extāns, present participle of extō 'to stand out, exist', from ex- + stō 'stand'; first attested 1545.
借自拉丁文 extāns：ex-「出」+ stō「站」，原指突出、存在。
組成From Latin extantem, extāns, the present participle of extō (“to stand out, exist, be extant”), from ex- (“out”) + stō (“stand”). First attested in 1545.
原始詞典資料3 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。
extantadj/ˈɛk.stənt/
- 1
Still in existence; not having disappeared.
- extant manuscripts of the Old Testament
- During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant[…]
- 2
Still alive; not extinct.
- birds are the only extant dinosaurs
- I reckon that this one Duke of Weimar did more for the Culture of his Nation than all the English Dukes and Duces now extant, or that were extant since Henry the Eighth gave them the Church Lands to eat, have done for theirs![…]
- 3
obsoleteStanding out, or above the rest.
- [W]hereas in ſmall fragments or plates, the Ice, though it ſink not to the bottom of the water, will oftentimes ſink so low in it, as ſcarce to leave any part evidently extant above the ſurface of the water, in vaſt quantities of Ice, that extancy is ſometimes ſo conſpicuous, that Navigators in their Voyages to Iſland, Greenland, and other frozen Regions, complain of meeting with lumps, or rather floating rocks of Ice, as high as their main Maſts.
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。