喜樂美語

核心畫面

Full of fear. The -ful can point in two directions: the person carrying the fear inside, or the thing so loaded with fear that it pours it into others.

一個裝滿了恐懼的容器。fear + -ful 就是「滿是恐懼的」——而有趣的地方在於，這個「滿」可以指向兩邊：可能是…更多收起一個裝滿了恐懼的容器。fear + -ful 就是「滿是恐懼的」——而有趣的地方在於，這個「滿」可以指向兩邊：可能是「人心裡裝滿了怕」（他很害怕），也可能是「東西身上帶著讓人害怕的份量」（它很可怕）。同一個字既能說受驚的那一方，也能說嚇人的那一方，要靠句子裡誰是主詞才分得出來。

From the word’s history

From Middle English ferful = fear + -ful 'full of'; the suffix historically allowed both 'having X' and 'causing X'.

從中古英語 ferful 來，就是 fear（恐懼）加上 -ful（充滿…的）。-ful 這個字尾在早期英語裡兩個方向都通：既可以是「懷有某種東西的」，也可以是「引起某種東西的」——這正是 fearful 為什麼一個字能同時說「害怕的」和「可怕的」。

Middle English ferful, fervol = fear + -ful, per the entry's own origin note

Three branches

心裡裝著怕

恐懼在人的內部：主詞是感覺到怕的那個人。

feeling afraid · adjective · C2

Feeling afraid that something bad might happen to you or to other people.

害怕

讓人害怕

同樣的「滿是恐懼」翻到外側：主詞不是感到怕的人，而是製造出恐懼的東西。

very frightening · adjective · C2

Very frightening; making people feel afraid when they see or hear it.

可怕的

糟到極點

從「可怕的」再走一步：恐懼的內容被掏空，只留下「程度誇張」這個殼，變成純粹的加強語氣。

extremely bad · adjective · C2

Extremely bad or severe, used to stress how serious a mess, noise, or problem is.

極糟的

原始詞典資料5 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。

fearfuladj/ˈfɪəfəl/

  • 1

    Frightening; causing fear.

    • Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me, But let them hear what fearful words I utter.
    • In the later Hebrew midrash Lilith is presented as the woman who knows how to recite the fearful name of God to work calamity; that this little girl cries out the fearful name of the sun god and thereby causes an earthquake would indicate that this girl is linked in the structure of the myth with Lilith.
  • 2

    Tending to fear; timid.

    • a fearful boy
  • 3

    datedTerrible; shockingly bad.

    • But every day after dinner, for an hour, we were all together, and then the Favourite and the rest of the Royal Hareem competed who should most beguile the leisure of the Serene Haroun reposing from the cares of State — which were generally, as in most affairs of State, of an arithmetical character, the Commander of the Faithful being a fearful boggler at a sum.
    • "What an awful infliction for you, Max. You were always such an impulsive, reckless sort of fellow—never quiet. You must miss such a fearful lot."
  • 4

    archaicFrightened; filled with terror.

    • kings ſhall crouch vnto our conquering ſwords, And hoſtes of Souldiers ſtand amazd at vs, When with their fearfull tongues they ſhall confeſſe Theſe are the men that al the world admires,
    • Those two great champions did attonce pursew / The fearefull damzell with incessant payns […]

fearfuladv/ˈfɪəfəl/

  • 1

    dialectalExtremely; fearfully.

    • “He is fearful handsome, as you know,” she said remorsefully, “you cannot imagine, Georgiana, the joy when I first fell in love with him.”
    • “It's a fearful strong charm needs dragon's blood,” he said plaintively.

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。