喜樂美語

核心畫面

Think of one big wave of people who were all 'brought forth' into the world at about the same time, and who move through life side by side — the children together, then the parents together, then the together. The word grows out of the idea of 'bringing forth / producing', so a generation is really one batch that was produced at the same moment in time.

可以想成一整批「同時被帶到世上」的人：他們差不多在同一個時期出生，然後一起長大、一起變老——小孩是一批、爸媽是一批、…更多收起可以想成一整批「同時被帶到世上」的人：他們差不多在同一個時期出生，然後一起長大、一起變老——小孩是一批、爸媽是一批、爺爺奶奶又是一批。這個字底層的畫面比較像「生出來、製造出來」，所以一個 generation 其實就是「在同一個時間點被生產出來的一整批」。

From the word’s history

From Latin generare 'to bring forth, beget, produce' (from genus 'kind, race'). The act of bringing-forth is the seed: those brought forth together are one generation; the producing itself survives in 'power generation'.

源自拉丁文 generare「生出、孕育、製造」（出自 genus「種類、血統」）。「帶出來、生出來」這個動作是種子：同時被生出來的一批人就是一個 generation；而「生產」這個動作本身則保留在「發電（power generation）」裡。

etymonline.com/word/generation

Two branches

同期出生的一批人

這些意思都從同一個畫面長出來：一批在差不多時間「被生出來」的東西，彼此處在同一個階段。

an age cohort · noun · B1

All the people in a society who are about the same age.

世代／一代人

生產／產生

回到字根最原始的動作：generare「生出、製造」。前面講的是「被生出來的一批東西」，這一家講的是「生出」這個動作本身。

generation (producing, e.g. power) · noun · B1

The act of making or producing something, especially power, heat, or new ideas.

產生／發電

原始詞典資料12 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。

generationnoun/ˌd͡ʒɛnəˈɹeɪʃən/

  • 1

    The act of creating something or bringing something into being; production, creation.

    • The generation of peat, when not completely under water, is confined to moist situations […]
  • 2

    The act of creating a living creature or organism; procreation.

    • So all things else, that nourish vitall blood, / Soone as with fury thou doest them inspire, / In generation seek to quench their inward fire.
    • Generation by Copulation (certainly) extendeth not to Plants.
  • 3

    dialectalRace, family; breed.

    • Thy Mothers of my generation: what's she, if I be a Dogge?
  • 4

    A single step or stage in the succession of natural descent; a rank or degree in genealogy, the members of a family from the same parents, considered as a single unit.

    • This is the book of the generations of Adam - Genesis 5:1
    • Ye shall remain there [in Babylon] many years, and for a long season, namely, seven generations - Baruch 6:3
  • 5

    obsoleteDescendants, progeny; offspring.

  • 6

    The average amount of time needed for children to grow up and have children of their own, generally considered to be a period of around thirty years, used as a measure of time.

    • Before the independence of India the books of Dr P. K. Yadav presented a fundamental challenge to the accepted ideas of race relations that, two generations later, will be true of the writings of the radical writers of the 1970s.
  • 7

    A set stage in the development of computing or of a specific technology.

    • The first-generation iPhone was released in June 2007 and was an instant blockbuster success.
  • 8

    geometrymathematicssciencesThe formation or production of any geometrical magnitude, as a line, a surface, a solid, by the motion, in accordance with a mathematical law, of a point or a magnitude, by the motion of a point, of a surface by a line, a sphere by a semicircle, etc.

    • the generation of a line or curve
另外 4 個記錄的用法
  • 9

    A group of people born in a specific range of years and whose members can relate culturally to one another.

    • Generation X grew up in the eighties, whereas the generation known as the millennials grew up in the nineties.
  • 10

    A version of a form of pop culture which differs from later or earlier versions.

    • People sometimes dispute which generation of Star Trek is best, including the original and The Next Generation.
  • 11

    broadcastingmediatelevisionA copy of a recording made from an earlier copy.

    • With one-inch C format or half-inch Betacam used in the component mode, quality loss through additional generations is not such a problem. In this situation, it would be usual to make the necessary alterations while re-recording onto a third generation master […]
    • Each generation away from the original or master produces increased degradation in the image quality.
  • 12

    cellular-automatacomputingengineeringA single iteration of a cellular automaton rule on a pattern.

    • It runs for 17331 generations before stabilizing as 136 blinkers, 109 blocks, 65 beehives, 18 loaves, 18 boats, 7 ships, 4 tubs, 3 ponds, 2 toads, and 40 gliders.
    • The glider is fast--it moves 2 cells every 3 generations. There is also a spinning thing (sixty degrees every 21 generations)

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。