喜樂美語

核心畫面

You can think of it as a wide pull of the mouth that bares the teeth. Today it usually means delight, but the old root was about baring teeth in general — which is why the same face can also mean 'I am enduring this'.

嘴角向兩邊大大拉開、牙齒露出來的那個表情。這個字和一般的 smile 差在「露齒」和「幅度」——smile 可以只是…更多收起嘴角向兩邊大大拉開、牙齒露出來的那個表情。這個字和一般的 smile 差在「露齒」和「幅度」——smile 可以只是嘴角一動，grin 是整張臉都咧開。它的古老字根其實只管「把牙露出來」這個動作本身，跟開心無關（同源的還有 groan 呻吟）。所以同一張露齒的臉，可以是笑得合不攏嘴，也可以是咬著牙撐過去——現代英語裡開心的用法是主流，但那個「牙齒外露」的舊底子還留在慣用語裡。

From the word’s history

The Old English root grennian meant to bare the teeth, not to be pleased — it is related to groan. The pleasure reading came later; the neutral 'teeth showing' base is what still lets grin and bear it work.

古英語的 grennian 指的是「露出牙齒」這個動作，本身不含高興的意思，還和 groan（呻吟）同源。「開心」是後來才長上去的一層。知道這點，grin and bear it 就不再是例外了——那不是勉強微笑，而是這個字最原始的樣子：牙關咬著、牙齒露著，只是這次不是因為快樂。

Wiktionary (etymology supplied in the payload): Old English grennian, Proto-Germanic *granjōną, related to groan

One branch

咧開嘴、露出牙

三個意思共用同一張露齒的臉：兩個是這張臉表示開心，一個回到字根那個中性的「牙齒露出來」。

smile widely · verb · C2

To smile widely, often showing your teeth, usually because you are happy or think something is funny.

咧嘴笑

原始詞典資料6 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。

grinnoun詞源 1/ɡɹɪn/

  • 1

    A smile in which the lips are parted to reveal the teeth.

    • When the ceremony was finished a wide grin broke across his face, and it was that grin she saw, relieved and happy all at once.
    • When my son appeared at the door the next day with his schoolbag on his back, the Professor broke into a wide grin and opened his arms to embrace him.

grinverb詞源 1/ɡɹɪn/

  • 1

    To smile, parting the lips so as to show the teeth.

    • Why do you grin? Did I say something funny?
    • ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’
  • 2

    To express by grinning.

    • She grinned pleasure at his embarrassment.
    • Grinned horrible a ghastly smile.
  • 3

    datedTo show the teeth, like a snarling dog.

    • The pangs of death do make him grin.
    • They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
  • 4

    To grin as part of producing a particular facial expression, such as a smile or sneer.

    • He grinned a broad smile when I told him the result.
    • He grinned a cruel sneer when I begged him to stop.

grinnoun詞源 2/ɡɹɪn/

  • 1

    obsoleteA snare; a gin.

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。