核心畫面

One way to hold this word: a flock of geese standing on wet grass, all cackling at the same time. Nothing is lined up, nobody is taking turns, and the noise arrives as one blur of sound. Everything gaggle does seems to grow out of that scene - the birds themselves, the call they make, and any bunch of people who crowd together and talk over one another.

gaggle 的畫面可以想成一群鵝站在濕草地上,同時嘎嘎叫。沒有隊形,也沒有人輪流開口,聲音糊成一片。這個字的幾種用更多收起gaggle 的畫面可以想成一群鵝站在濕草地上,同時嘎嘎叫。沒有隊形,也沒有人輪流開口,聲音糊成一片。這個字的幾種用法,都像是從這個場景長出來的:那群鳥本身、牠們發出的叫聲,還有任何擠在一起、你一句我一句的人。先記住那份「一團、同時出聲」的感覺,後面幾個意思就都連得起來。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary traces the word to Middle English gagelen, to cackle like a goose, and lists Icelandic gagl and Norwegian Nynorsk gagl for a goose or gosling. The sound came first, and the name for the noisy group followed it.

Wiktionary 記載這個字來自中古英語 gagelen(像鵝一樣嘎嘎叫),並列出冰島語 gagl、新挪威語 gagl 指小鵝或野雁。也就是說,先有叫聲,才有「一群一起叫的鵝」這個名字。所以吵是這個字本來就帶著的東西,不是後來才加上去的。

Wiktionary / kaikki entry for gaggle (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:259922052:11874)

Two branches

鵝,和牠們的叫聲

這一組就是核心畫面本身,還沒有比喻。一邊是那群鳥,一邊是牠們發出的聲音。兩者本來就是同一件事的兩面。

noun · C1

A group of geese, used especially when the birds are together on the ground or on the water rather than in the air.

一群鵝

擠在一起、同時出聲的人

把鵝群的畫面整個搬到人身上。人數、吵鬧、沒有秩序一起被帶過來,說話的人通常還帶一點好笑的口氣。這是一種教學上的連結,不是說這些用法在歷史上一條一條分出來的。

noun · C1

A noisy, untidy group of people who are together in one place and all making a sound at once. It is almost always used in the frame 'a gaggle of' plus a plural word for people.

一群(吵鬧的人)