喜樂美語

From the word’s history

From Old English fēowertiġ; four + -ty.

源自古英文 fēowertiġ，就是 four 加上 -ty，「四個十」。

Wiktionary

Start with the plain count: forty things, forty years, forty dollars. One exact number on the line. Then notice what English does when it makes that number plural — the forties. The moment you say the forties, the single point opens into a band: not 40 exactly, but the whole stretch from 40 to 49. That one trick explains the rest of the word. Whatever is being counted — years of a century, years of a life, degrees on a — the forties marks the ten-wide strip that begins at 40.

先從最單純的數數開始：四十個東西、四十年、四十塊錢，數線上一個明確的點。接著看英文把這個數字變成複數以後發生了什麼事——the forties。一講成複數，那個點就攤開成一段：不再是剛好 40，而是 40 到 49 的一整段。這個小動作就解釋了 forty 其他的用法。不管數的是一個世紀裡的年份、一個人活過的歲數，還是溫度計上的度數，the forties 標的都是從 40 開始、寬十格的那一條帶子。

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。

同家族的字

  • 形容詞fortieth

forties

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。

fortynum詞源 1/ˈfɔːti/

  • 1

    The cardinal number occurring after thirty-nine and before forty-one, represented in Roman numerals as XL and in Arabic numerals as 40.

    • 'Tis forty years this very day, Since you and I, old girl, were married.

fortynoun詞源 1/ˈfɔːti/

  • 1

    slangA bottle (of beer) containing forty fluid ounces.

    • It's on, wrap my lips around the forty / And when it comes to getting another stogie […] Grab your forty, let's get keyed

fortyadj詞源 2/ˈfɔːti/

  • 1

    Resembling or characteristic of a fort.

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。