喜樂美語

核心畫面

A face set hard and — jaw tight, no give in it — the look someone wears when things are bad and they are not going to it.

一張繃緊、笑不出來的臉。事情不好，這個人也不打算把話說軟：嘴抿著、眉壓著、聲音沉下去，整個人像上了鎖。grim 的所…更多收起一張繃緊、笑不出來的臉。事情不好，這個人也不打算把話說軟：嘴抿著、眉壓著、聲音沉下去，整個人像上了鎖。grim 的所有用法都繞著這個「硬起來、沒有一點鬆」的感覺走——有時候是人的臉硬，有時候是消息、天氣、地方硬得讓人不舒服。

From the word’s history

Old English grimm meant fierce, savage, angry — from a Proto-Indo-European root *gher-/*ghrem- for a rumbling, growling, thunderous noise. The word starts as a growl and cools over centuries into the tight-faced, unsmiling hardness it names today.

古英語 grimm 原本是「兇猛、狂暴、盛怒」，再往上追到印歐語根 *gʰrem-，意思是低沉的轟隆、咆哮聲。也就是說這個字最早是一種聲音——野獸低吼、雷聲滾動。這個吼聲後來慢慢冷卻、收進臉裡：不再是吼出來的暴怒，而是抿著嘴、不出聲的那種硬。知道這條路，就比較容易理解為什麼 grim 從來不是單純的「壞」，它一直帶著一股壓著的、不肯放鬆的勁道。

Wiktionary, "grim" (English adjective): Middle English grim < Old English grimm < Proto-Germanic *grimmaz < PIE *gʰrem- ("to resound, thunder, grumble, roar")

Three branches

繃緊的臉、繃緊的消息

這一家最貼近核心：先是人臉上的硬，再往外借給那個讓人硬起來的消息或處境。

looking very serious · adjective · C2

Looking or sounding very serious, often with a tight face or voice, because something is hard or worrying.

凝重

身體上的難受（英式口語）

把那股「沒有一點鬆」的感覺收進自己身體裡：不是外面的世界硬，是你這個人今天整個垮著。

feeling ill or unwell · adjective · C2

Feeling ill, tired, and not well in your body. Used especially in British informal speech.

難受

只活在片語裡：like grim death

這一支不是 grim 這個字自己的意思，而是一個固定片語裡的殘留：把「死神」擬人化成一個絕不鬆手的形象。

hold on like grim death · adjective · C2

Used in hang on / hold on like grim death: to hold something very tightly because you are afraid of letting go.

死命抓住

原始詞典資料10 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。

Grimname/ɡɹɪm/

  • 1

    An English surname

grimadj詞源 1/ɡɹɪm/

  • 1

    Dismal and gloomy, cold and forbidding.

    • Life was grim in many northern industrial towns.
    • Developments were markedly different in the Soviet zone, but ultimately ended in perhaps an even grimmer dead end: that of SED leader Walter Ulbricht’s thoroughly Stalinized German Democratic Republic (GDR).
  • 2

    Rigid and unrelenting.

    • His grim determination enabled him to win.
  • 3

    Ghastly or sinister.

    • A grim castle overshadowed the village.
    • There was, I thought, a trace of very profound and very genuine irony in the timbre—not the flashy, meaninglessly jaunty pseudo-irony of the callow "sophisticate," which Derby had habitually affected, but something grim, basic, pervasive and potentially evil.
  • 4

    Disgusting; gross.

    • – Wanna see the dead rat I found in my fridge? – Mate, that is grim!
    • Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; […]
  • 5

    obsoleteFierce, cruel, furious.

    • The LORDE shall be grymme vpon them, and destroye all the goddes in the londe. And all the Iles of the Heithen shal worshipe him, euery man in his place.
    • The first people we saw were two grim and stout Salvages upon Cape Charles, with long poles like Javelings, headed with bone, they boldly demanded what we were, and what we would[…]

grimverb詞源 1/ɡɹɪm/

  • 1

    rareTo make grim; to give a stern or forbidding aspect to.

grimnoun詞源 1/ɡɹɪm/

  • 1

    datedslangA promiscuous woman.

    • You got a new girl and she looks choong (Choong) But you didn't know your girl was a grim […] Your girl she's a grim, I wouldn't have no grim as my ting

grimnoun詞源 2/ɡɹɪm/

  • 1

    obsoleteAnger, wrath.

  • 2

    obsoleteA specter, ghost, haunting spirit.

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。