核心畫面

Picture a whole line of ships moving out of harbour under one command — many vessels, one owner, one purpose. That group-under-one-hand picture is the noun, and it stretches easily from ships to any company's row of vehicles. The adjective spelled the same way ('swift') is a different word that happens to look identical.

可以想成:一整排船同時駛出港口,隸屬同一個指揮、同一個目的。這種「很多艘,一隻手在管」的畫面比較像名詞的 fleet更多收起可以想成:一整排船同時駛出港口,隸屬同一個指揮、同一個目的。這種「很多艘,一隻手在管」的畫面比較像名詞的 fleet,而且很容易從船延伸到一家公司底下的一整排車。至於拼法一模一樣的形容詞(迅捷的),其實是另一個字,只是長得一樣。

From the word’s history

The noun is from Old English fleot 'ship, floating vessel', from fleotan 'to float'. The adjective 'swift' is a separate arrival, from or cognate with Old Norse fliotr, appearing in English around the 1520s. Both trace back to the same distant Indo-European root for 'flow', but they reached English by different routes.

名詞的 fleet 來自古英語 fleot(船、浮在水上的東西),源自動詞 fleotan(漂浮)。形容詞「迅捷的」則是另一條路進來的,跟古諾斯語 fliotr(快)同源,約 1520 年代才出現在英文裡。兩者最遠都可以追到同一個表示「流動」的印歐字根,但抵達英文的路徑不同——所以現在看到同樣的拼法,其實是兩個字。

Etymonline, https://www.etymonline.com/word/fleet

From the picture

跑得很快

這一支跟船無關,是另一個來源的字,只是拼法碰巧相同;不必勉強從艦隊的畫面去理解它。

fast-moving · adjective · C1

Able to move very fast; quick, especially when running.

快速的 / 迅捷的

Also in this word

group of ships · noun · C1

A large group of ships that sail together, or all the ships in a country's navy.

艦隊 / 船隊

group of vehicles · noun · C1

A group of vehicles such as buses, taxis, or trucks that are owned or controlled by one company.

車隊

原始詞典資料30 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。

Fleetname/fliːt/

  • 1

    A river (the River Fleet) in London, England, now buried underground, that flowed under the Eastern end of the present Fleet Street.

    • This is hard-core London, and just before Farringdon station you will be able to glimpse the vast steel pipe that carries what was the Fleet River and is now the Fleet sewer over your head. The Fleet looks safely contained now, although you never know. It surprises me that no terrorist has made common cause with the surly and embittered Fleet, which, in Peter Ackroyd's words became 'a river of death' as it sidled through the meanest streets of London en route to the Thames.
  • 2

    A former prison (the Fleet Prison) in London, which originally stood near the stream.

  • 3

    A river, the Water of Fleet, in Dumfries and Galloway council area, Scotland.

  • 4

    A river in Highland council area, Scotland, which flows into Loch Fleet.

  • 5

    A town and civil parish with a town council in Hart district, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU8054).

  • 6

    A village and civil parish in South Holland district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF3823).

  • 7

    A hamlet in Alberta, Canada.

  • 8

    A surname.

fleetnoun詞源 1/ˈfliːt/

  • 1

    A group of vessels or vehicles.

    • He did discourse to us of the Dutch fleete being abroad, eighty-five of them still, and are now at the Texell, he believes, in expectation of our Eastland ships coming home with masts and hempe, and our loaden Hambrough ships going to Hambrough.
    • It was planning to use an '807' for one day only as part of a shakedown test, ahead of the fleet's formal entry to service which is currently planned for November.
  • 2

    Any group of associated items.

    • This is especially true in distributed printing environments, where a fleet of printers is shared by users on a network.
  • 3

    A large, coordinated group of people.

    • And after the past few days, in which a fleet of Republicans and the president himself have utilized Jews as human shields for racist rhetoric, the Jews are tired, tired, tired of being used as defenses against naked racism, tired of being used to justify conditions at detention camps. Just plain tired.
  • 4

    A large, coordinated group of people.

  • 5

    nauticaltransportA number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.

    • Despite the line proving to be a useful strategic route for men and supplies to the British naval fleets stationed at Scapa Flow in both world wars, the Duke's legacy looked to have passed into history when it was listed for closure in the infamous Beeching report.
  • 6

    nauticaltransportAny command of vessels exceeding a squadron in size, or a rear admiral's command, composed of five sail-of-the-line, with any number of smaller vessels.

  • 7

    The individual waves in corrugated fiberboard.

fleetnoun詞源 2/ˈfliːt/

  • 1

    dialectalAn arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek.

    • a certain Flete [...] through which little Boats used to come to the aforesaid Town
    • Together wove we nets to entrap the fish In floods and sedgy fleets.
  • 2

    nauticaltransportA location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.

fleetverb詞源 3/ˈfliːt/

  • 1

    obsoleteTo float.

    • Legions of Spirits fleeting in the aire, Direct our Bullets and our weapons pointes […]
    • Antony: Our force by land / Hath nobly held; our sever'd navy too, / Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like.
  • 2

    To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of.

    • Long were to tell the troublous stormes, that tosse The private state, and make the life unsweet Who swelling sayles in Caspian sea doth crosse, And in frayle wood on Adrian gulf doth fleet
  • 3

    To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy.

    • They say he is already in the Forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England. They say many young gentlemen flock to him every day and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world.
    • And so through this dark world they fleet / Divided, till in death they meet.
  • 4

    To flee, to escape, to speed away.

    • Gratiano:O, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog! And for thy life let justice be accused. Thou almost makest me waver in my faith, To hold opinion with Pythagoras, That souls of animals infuse themselves Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter, Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet, And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam, Infused itself in thee; for thy desires Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous.
    • At these reproaches she fainted away; and when at length she revived, full of the profoundest grief, she declared to him that she must now depart from him, and, in obedience to a decree of destiny, fleet about the earth in pain and suffering, as a spectre, until the day of doom[.]
  • 5

    To evanesce, disappear, die out.

    • Portia:How all other passions fleet to air, As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair, And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy! O love, be moderate; allay thy ecstasy; In measure rain thy joy; scant this excess! I feel too much thy blessing; make it less, For fear I surfeit!
  • 6

    nauticaltransportTo move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.

    • To fleet tackle when pennant block is used, the keeper, with a strap and heaver, racks both parts of hawser together near pennant block, and the tackle is then overhauled and hooked by the men assigned to those duties.
  • 7

    nauticaltransportTo move or change in position.

    • We got the long "stick" [...] down and "fleeted" aft, where it was secured.
  • 8

    obsoletenauticaltransportTo shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long.

另外 2 個記錄的用法
  • 9

    To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.

  • 10

    To take the cream from; to skim.

fleetadj詞源 3/ˈfliːt/

  • 1

    literarySwift in motion; light and quick in going from place to place.

    • In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong.
    • […]it was not till the afternoon that they came out on the high-road, their first high-road; and there disaster, fleet and unforeseen, sprang out on them — disaster momentous indeed to their expedition[…]
  • 2

    Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil.

    • fleet Soil, and that 'tis mixed with a great quantity of Earth, Marle, Mud or Clay, &c.

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 WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。