核心畫面

One way to hold this word: guts are the heavy, solid things inside a body. Gutsy can be thought of as having plenty of that inside — a person with something solid in them that does not give way when things get hard, and a thing (a soup, a voice, a song) with something solid in it that you feel straight away instead of tasting or hearing something thin and smooth.

可以想成:guts 是身體裡那團厚實的東西。gutsy 就是「裡面有料」——用在人身上,是心裡有一股不會軟掉的勁,事更多收起可以想成:guts 是身體裡那團厚實的東西。gutsy 就是「裡面有料」——用在人身上,是心裡有一股不會軟掉的勁,事情再難也還撐著;用在東西上,是味道或聲音裡有一團厚實的東西,一入口、一入耳就撞到你,而不是薄薄的、滑過去的。兩邊共用的畫面,是「裡面那股東西很紮實」。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary gives the form as guts + -y. The bodily word guts had already come to stand for courage in everyday speech, so the adjective reads as full of that inner stuff.

Wiktionary 記的組成是 guts + -y。guts 原本是內臟,口語裡早就拿來指膽量,所以加上 -y 之後,整個字讀起來就是「裡面裝著那股東西的」。

Wiktionary entry for gutsy, etymology_text supplied in packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1059201859:11171)

Two branches

人身上的那股勁

把「裡面很紮實」放在人身上,就是遇到難事也不塌下來的那股膽量。

adjective · B2

Brave and determined, especially when the thing being done is hard, frightening, or likely to fail. It is used about a person, or about the way someone acts, plays, speaks, or performs.

有膽量的

東西裡的那股厚實

同一個「裡面有料」的畫面挪到食物、音樂、嗓音上,就變成味道厚、聲音厚。

adjective · B2

Strong, full and interesting in taste, sound or style — said about things like food, drink, music or a singing voice that hit you with plenty of flavour or power instead of being soft and smooth.

濃烈有勁的