人聚在一起
把「散的變成聚的」用在人身上，就是最日常的那個意思。
gathering, social occasion · noun · C1
An occasion when a group of people come together, often to talk, eat, or spend time with each other.
聚會
核心畫面
A picture worth holding: things that were spread out all over the place being drawn in until they sit together in one spot. People from different homes in one room; facts from many sources in one file; loose cloth pulled in until it bunches.
原本散在各處的東西，被拉攏到一起。gather 這個動作的重點不是「移動」，而是「從分散變成集中」——散在各個家裡的…更多收起
原本散在各處的東西，被拉攏到一起。gather 這個動作的重點不是「移動」，而是「從分散變成集中」——散在各個家裡的人，最後坐在同一個客廳；散在各處的資料，最後進到同一份檔案；一塊平攤的布，被線抽緊之後皺在一小段裡。gathering 就是這個動作本身，或者這個動作做完之後留下的東西。名詞和動名詞兩條詞源路線其實指向同一個畫面，所以這裡合成一個記號來記。From the word’s history
From Old English gaderung ('gathering, assembly'), the verbal noun of gather; the participle route (Middle English gaderynge) gives the same picture from the action side.
古英語的 gaderung 就已經是「集會、聚集」的意思，是 gather 的名詞形；另一條路線 gaderynge 則是現在分詞來的，講的是「正在聚攏」這個動作。兩條路線的差別只在「結果」和「過程」，畫面完全同一個，所以現代英語裡它們自然合流成一個字。
Payload-supplied etymology notes (Old English gaderung; Middle English gaderynge)
Three branches
把資訊收攏起來
同一個動作，只是被聚攏的不是人而是資料——散在很多來源的事實被一筆一筆收進同一個地方。
collecting information · noun · C1
The work of collecting facts or information from many different places.
蒐集
布被抽緊的褶
把「聚攏」用在布料上：原本攤開很寬的一段布，被縫線拉緊之後擠進一小段裡，擠出來的皺褶就是 gathering。核心畫面在這裡幾乎是字面的，只是主角換成布。
cloth fold/gather · noun · C1
A fold, or several folds, sewn into cloth so that the cloth is pulled into a smaller space.
褶
原始詞典資料8 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。
gatheringnoun詞源 1/ˈɡæð.ə.ɹɪŋ/
- 1
A meeting or get-together; a party or social function.
- The dinner was a star-spangled gathering unequaled in history.
- I met her at a gathering of engineers and scientists.
- 2
A group of people or things.
- a gathering of Catholics
- 3
artsbookbindingcraftsA section, a group of bifolios, or sheets of paper, stacked together and folded in half.
- This gathering machine forms the backbone of a bookbinding operation.
- 4
A charitable contribution; a collection.
- 5
The collection of produce, items, goods, etc.; the practice of collecting food from nature.
- The Neolithic culture from 8000 to 6000 B.C., however, was a brilliant period of the revival of crafts, the transformation of gathering into gardening, the growth of a cross-cultural obsidian trade, and the rise of towns.
- 6
medicinesciencesA tumor or boil suppurated or maturated; an abscess.
gatheringadj詞源 2/ˈɡæð.ə.ɹɪŋ/
- 1
That gathers together.
- She was worried by the gathering stormclouds.
- On once more we swung, bumping uneasily along in the antique narrow-gauge coach, with gloomy woods and gathering night outside, shouts and songs (and quacks) inside—this was not at all the sort of train ordained by the logical strategists in Paris—then grinding to a stop at a mysterious halt which was no more than a nameboard in the pinewoods, without even a footpath leading to it, but nevertheless with a solitary passenger stolidly waiting.
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 Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。