- 1慷慨、大方
Generosity is the name for a generous heart, or for generous behaviour: giving more than you have to, or thinking well of people. People use it for money and gifts, of course — thanking someone for their generosity when they pay, share food, or help you move house. Though actually, it is not only about money. A teacher who gives you extra time, a friend who does not keep score, a stranger who lets you go first — that is generosity too. It can even mean a kind of largeness in how you judge others: you give them the kinder reading of what they did. The word feels a little more formal than generous. In everyday talk people often just say someone is generous, and save generosity for writing, speeches, or when they want to name the quality itself. You can show generosity, thank someone for it, or speak of an act of generosity. It is almost always a compliment. When people talk about “the generosity of the land” or “the generosity of the data,” they are stretching it: they mean there is a lot, more than enough. That stretch is real, but it is the side meaning, not the centre.
From the word’s history
From Middle English generosite, from Latin generōsitās; generous + -ity.
源自拉丁文 generōsitās，就是 generous 加 -ity。
組成generous + -ity (the ending that turns a describing word into the name of a quality). From Middle English generosite, from Latin generōsitās.
同家族的字
- generousthe adjective this noun is built from
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，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。
generositynoun/ˌd͡ʒɛn.əˈɹɒs.ɪ.ti/
- 1
The trait of being willing to donate money, resources, or time.
- We have mentioned generosity as an outstanding virtue required in Sioux life.
- Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
- 2
A desire to give or share without expecting payment; charity; an eager willingness to demonstrate openness and empathy or to provide a charitable outlook on something; a desire to share either emotionally or in resources, time, etc.
- 3
A generous act.
- May the generosities of the founders of these halls, be rewarded by the fair and holy characters which shall be here formed[…].
- Givens took the proffered hand. He held it for a time while he allowed the generosity of his nature to overcome his grief at the loss of Bill…
- 4
The trait of being abundant, more than adequate.
- He ate everything, despite the generosity of the portions.
- 5
archaicGood breeding; nobility of stock.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。