You can think of forty-five as a number that got used as a name. First it is just 45, a count. Then English points it at things that carry that measurement or that date — a record that turns forty-five times a minute, a gun that takes .45 bullets, a year whose last two digits stand for what happened in it. The number never changes; only the thing wearing it does.

forty-five 可以想成一個數字後來被拿去當名字用。最先它只是 45,一個數量。接著英文把這個數字貼到「身上帶著這個數字」的東西上:一分鐘轉四十五圈的唱片、用零點四五英吋子彈的槍、還有年份後兩位是四五的那一年。數字本身沒變,變的是被它指到的東西。看到這個字時,先問一句「這裡的四十五在量什麼」,通常就能認出是哪一個意思。

Two branches

用數字當東西的名字

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single record (a 45) · noun

A small round record with one song on each side, played on a record player. You can say a forty-five, or write it as a 45.

單曲黑膠唱片

用年份代稱一件史事

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the Forty-five · noun

A name for the Scottish rising of 1745, when Prince Charles Edward Stuart tried to bring the Stuart family back to the British throne. It ended when his army was defeated at Culloden.

一七四五年那場起事