1. 1來之不易

    Something hard-won is yours only after a lot of effort and difficulty — not luck, not a gift. A hard-won victory, hard-won freedom, hard-won respect: the speaker wants you to feel the cost. It is a little formal and a little emotional; you meet it in news, speeches, and careful writing more than in chat. It goes before a noun. Won here is the past of win: you won it, but it was hard. Though actually, people use it for things you cannot really “win” like a game — trust, peace, a place at university — when those things took a long fight. It is not a hard one (a difficult thing). The and the spelling won are the whole point.

    「hard-won」指某樣東西是經過大量努力和困難才得到的,不是靠運氣,也不是別人送的。說的人想讓你感受那份代價。它放在名詞前面,形式是「hard-won + 名詞」,例如「a hard-won victory」(來之不易的勝利)。

    這個字語氣有點正式,又帶一點感情,多出現在新聞、演講和用心寫的文章裡,日常聊天比較少用。這裡的「won」是「win」的過去式:你贏了,但過程很辛苦。有時也用在不像比賽的東西上,例如信任、和平,或大學的一個名額,只要是經過長期爭取才得到的,都可以這樣說。它不是說事情本身很難,重點在得來的過程。

From the word’s history

From hard 'with much effort' + won 'obtained'.

由 hard(費力地)加 won(得到)組成,費了很大力氣才得到。

Wiktionary

組成hard (as in “with a lot of effort”) + won (past of win: obtained).

同家族的字

  • winwon is the past of win — you got it after a struggle

原始詞典資料1 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。

hard-wonadj/hɑːd ˈwʌn/

  • 1

    Having been obtained with effort, despite difficulty and hardship.

    • The Earle of London yéeldes his Charge and Cittie to the Foe, / Through which diſloyall preſedent did other Citties ſoe: / And then with hard-won Tribute hence the Conquerour did goe.
    • [S]hould any hostile force approach our shores, or land upon them, they will find a people—not secure, and quiet, and at ease—but resolved and ready to defend our Queen and our country, our hard-won wealth, and our harder-won freedom, our wives and our daughters, our old men and our little children, our hearths and o[u]r altars—to our last ship, our last town, and our last man.

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。