核心畫面

Think of one tiny thing that has landed on a much bigger surface. It is small enough that you have to look closely, and there are usually several of them, scattered rather than joined up. That is the picture inside fleck. Sometimes the tiny thing is colour, and you see it but cannot pick it up — grey in dark hair, green in brown eyes. Sometimes it is real material, and you can brush it off — , paint, dust. The verb is the same picture with someone or something doing it: rain flecks a window, clouds fleck the sky. And when the surface is a person's voice or a plan instead of a wall, the tiny thing becomes a tiny amount: a fleck of hope, a fleck of humour.

可以想成:一個很小的東西,落在一個大很多的表面上。小到要靠近才看得見,而且通常不只一個,是散開的、沒有連成一片。這就更多收起可以想成:一個很小的東西,落在一個大很多的表面上。小到要靠近才看得見,而且通常不只一個,是散開的、沒有連成一片。這就是 fleck 裡面的畫面。有時候落上去的是顏色,你看得到卻拿不起來,像黑髮裡的灰、棕眼裡的綠。有時候落上去的是真的碎屑,手一撥就掉,像木屑、顏料、橡皮擦屑。動詞就是同一個畫面加上動作:雨點打在窗上、雲散在天上。如果那個「表面」換成一個人的語氣或一個計畫,那顆小東西就變成一點點的量——一絲希望、一點好笑。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary traces fleck to Middle English (seen in flekked, 'spotted'), from Old Norse flekkr, 'spot', and Proto-Germanic *flekka-, with Dutch vlek and German Fleck as cousins. The oldest recorded meaning is already 'spot', which is the picture the modern senses still share.

依 Wiktionary 的說法,fleck 來自中古英語(在 flekked「有斑點的」裡看得到),再往前是古北歐語的 flekkr,意思就是「斑點」;荷蘭文 vlek、德文 Fleck 是同一家人。最早記下來的意思就已經是「斑點」,今天的各種用法都還帶著這個畫面。

Wiktionary (kaikki extract) entry 'fleck', source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:642318791:13436

Two branches

落在表面上的小色點

這一組最貼近核心畫面:小點就在表面上,看得到,但撥不掉,因為它本來就是那個東西的一部分。

noun · B2

A small mark or spot of colour on a surface, usually one of several scattered across it, and usually a different colour from the surface itself.

斑點;小色點

一小塊、一點點

一樣是「落在表面上的一小塊」,只是這一組的小東西是拿得起來的實體,或者乾脆是抽象的量。

noun · B2

A very small piece or flake of something, such as dust, paint, sawdust or food, especially one of many lying on a surface.

小碎片;一小點

原始詞典資料6 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。

Fleckname

  • 1

    A surname.

flecknoun/flɛk/

  • 1

    A flake.

    • two flecks of Lard cut with your knife
  • 2

    A lock, as of wool.

    • With teeth they smooth their work, as on it slips, And flecks of wool stick to their wither'd lips
    • A single fleck of wool from his sock got caught on a splintery floorboard and that was enough to convict him.
  • 3

    A small spot or streak; a speckle.

    • So fret not, like an idle girl, / That life is dash'd with flecks of sin. / Abide: thy wealth is gathered in, / When Time hath sunder'd shell from pearl.
  • 4

    A small amount.

    • a fleck of hope
    • a fleck of imagination

fleckverb/flɛk/

  • 1

    To mark (something) with small spots.

    • So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
    • It was a perfect June day, with only a few light clouds flecking a pure blue sky.

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。