喜樂美語

核心畫面

Picture a single classroom hundreds of years ago, full of boys chanting Latin endings. In those days grammar meant Latin grammar, and that is exactly what the school was for, so the name simply said what went on inside. The lessons changed over the centuries, but the name stayed, and British and American English then carried it off in different directions.

可以想成幾百年前的一間教室，裡面的男孩整天在背拉丁文的字尾。那時候 grammar 指的就是拉丁文法，學校也真的只做…更多收起可以想成幾百年前的一間教室，裡面的男孩整天在背拉丁文的字尾。那時候 grammar 指的就是拉丁文法，學校也真的只做這件事，所以名字等於在說裡面在教什麼。後來上課的內容一路改變，名字卻留在原地——英式英語和美式英語就從這裡各自把它帶去了不同的地方。

From the word’s history

The phrase came into English from Middle English gramere scole, a school for the grammar of a European language, especially Latin and Greek.

這個說法承自中古英文的 gramere scole，指的是教歐洲語言文法（尤其是拉丁文和希臘文）的學校。所以「文法」不是後來附加的聯想，它本來就是這種學校的全部內容。

Wiktionary entry 'grammar school', etymology_text supplied in packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:965053956)

Two branches

從教拉丁文法的老學校，變成英國的學術中學

同一條線往下走：學校還在，名字沒變，教的東西從拉丁文法換成一般的學術科目。

noun · B2

In earlier centuries, a school where boys were taught the grammar of Latin and Greek. This is the meaning the name first had, and it is mostly met now in history books and in old school names.

（舊時）拉丁文法學校

美國：名字被拿去指小學

美式英語沿用了同一個招牌，但掛在另一個階段：不是給大孩子的學術中學，而是小孩最早念的那幾年。這是名字傳過大西洋以後的分岔，不是新的意思長在舊的上面。

noun · B1

In American English, an older name for an elementary school — the school children go to from about six to eleven or twelve years old.

（美，舊說法）小學

原始詞典資料3 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。

grammar schoolnoun

  • 1

    archaicA school that teaches its pupils the grammar system of a European language, especially Latin and Greek.

  • 2

    A secondary school that stresses academic over practical or vocational education, until recent times open to those pupils who had passed the 11-plus examination.

    • The largest building at one end, now used as a church hall, was originally the village's one-roomed grammar school, also endowed by the Lumleys.
    • It is a world where grammar school is the only way up, but at the cost of subjugation to educational tyranny and eventual estrangement from the family that was once so "proud" of your achievements.
  • 3

    rareregionalElementary school.

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。