核心畫面

One way to hold it: the moment when feeling takes the wheel and the person no longer steers. There is a lot of energy and a lot of motion, but nobody is in control of it — that mix of heat and lost control is what frenzy names.

「情緒接手了方向盤」:能量很大、動作很多,但沒有人在控制它。frenzy 不只是「很激動」或「很忙」,它多了一層——更多收起「情緒接手了方向盤」:能量很大、動作很多,但沒有人在控制它。frenzy 不只是「很激動」或「很忙」,它多了一層——那股力量已經蓋過了理智,人被自己的情緒推著跑。這個字的希臘字源本來指腦部發炎引起的精神錯亂,所以底下一直帶著「腦子不在自己手上」的味道。

From the word’s history

From Ancient Greek phrenîtis, an inflammation of the brain causing delirium (the same family as frantic). The original word named a medical madness; modern English keeps the loss of control but drops the illness.

經古法文 frenesie、拉丁文 phrenesis,回到古希臘 φρενῖτις——「腦部發炎」造成的譫妄,跟 frantic 同源。原本是個病名,指人真的失去神智;現代英文把「生病」拿掉,留下了「控制不住自己」這一半。這解釋了為什麼 frenzy 聽起來總比 excitement 更失序一點。

Wiktionary(frenzy 詞源條目,見本題提供的 attested origins)

Two branches

一個人失控

最貼近字源的一支:情緒衝過頭,人管不住自己的行為。

frenzy (uncontrolled excitement) · noun · C2

A state of great worry or excitement in which you cannot control what you do.

狂熱

一群人搶著動

同樣是「能量壓過控制」,只是主角從個人換成一群人或一段時間;場面的失序取代了心裡的失序。

frenzy (rush of activity) · noun · C2

A time when people do a lot of things very quickly.

狂潮

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。

frenzynoun/ˈfɹɛnzi/

  • 1

    A state of wild activity or panic.

    • international media frenzy
    • She went into a cleaning frenzy to prepare for the unexpected guests.
  • 2

    A violent agitation of the mind approaching madness; rage.

    • The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling.
    • All else is towering frenzy and distraction.

frenzyadj/ˈfɹɛnzi/

  • 1

    obsoleteMad; frantic.

    • They thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his head.

frenzyverb/ˈfɹɛnzi/

  • 1

    To render frantic.

    • Both goaded on to strife by frenzying hate.
    • Then there is the absorbing, not to say frenzying, interest, which attends our important elections.
  • 2

    rareTo exhibit a frenzy, such as a feeding frenzy.

    • The fresh smell of salt air, the sound of the crashing swell, the soothing immersion in the water, the sight of dolphins playing and fish frenzying beneath my board.

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