喜樂美語

核心畫面

Picture a sheet of bee wax cut in half and held close to your eye. It is nothing but small six-sided rooms, wall against wall, with only a thin skin of wax between them. It weighs almost nothing and it is surprisingly hard to crush, and not one scrap of space has been wasted. Every use of this word is that cut face: the real wax sheet in the hive, a panel built in cells so it stays light and stiff, a with passages running all through it, a sweet full of trapped bubbles that snaps when you bite it, and a wooden porch that termites have turned into the same thing. Meet the word anywhere and start with that picture: many small holes, packed tight.

可以想成把一片蜂蠟切開，貼著眼睛看。滿滿都是六角形的小格子，一格挨著一格，中間只隔一層薄薄的蠟。它幾乎沒有重量，卻意…更多收起可以想成把一片蜂蠟切開，貼著眼睛看。滿滿都是六角形的小格子，一格挨著一格，中間只隔一層薄薄的蠟。它幾乎沒有重量，卻意外地壓不扁，而且沒有一點空間被浪費。honeycomb 的每個用法都在這張切面圖裡：蜂箱裡真正的那片蠟、做成一格一格的輕又硬的板材、山壁底下密密麻麻的通道、氣泡被困住、一咬就喀一聲的脆糖，還有被白蟻蛀成同一副樣子的木頭門廊。在任何地方遇到這個字，先想那張切面：洞很多，排得很密。

From the word’s history

Old English huniġcamb, from huniġ (honey) plus camb (comb). The Oxford English Dictionary's suggestion is that the wax plates hanging side by side from the roof of the hive looked like the teeth of a comb.

古英文寫作 huniġcamb，由 huniġ（蜂蜜）加 camb（梳子）組成。牛津英語詞典的說法是：一片片蠟板並排垂在蜂箱頂下，看起來像梳子的齒。這條線索正好對上今天的核心畫面——排得整整齊齊、一格接一格。

Wiktionary entry for honeycomb, etymology_text supplied in the evidence packet, citing the Oxford English Dictionary (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:393816526)

From the picture

長得像那張切面的東西

這一組完全靠外觀連回核心：只要是小空間很多、排得很密，人就借蜂巢這個名字來叫它。甜味留在蜂蜜那邊，形狀被借走了。

noun · B2

Something built or arranged in that same pattern — many small cells, holes or spaces packed tightly together. It is used of panels and materials, and of places full of little rooms or passages.

蜂巢狀結構／蜂巢圖案

Also in this word

noun · B1

The wax structure bees build inside their nest. It is made of many small six-sided cells packed side by side, where honey and pollen are stored and young bees are raised. People eat it too, with the honey still in it.

蜂巢（蜂蠟巢片）

原始詞典資料17 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。

honeycombnoun/ˈhʌnikəʊm/

  • 1

    A substance made by bees (clade Anthophila) primarily from beeswax which has hexagonal cells to hold their larvae, and for storing pollen and honey to feed the larvae and themselves when other food is scarce; it is also eaten by humans as part of comb-honey; (countable) a single sheet made up of two layers of this substance.

    • Pleaſant words are [as] an honycombe, ſweete to the ſoule, and health to the bones.
    • So vvee read that God manifeſted by the Lots vvhich Saul cauſed to be dravvn [1 Sam[uel] 14.43.] the fault that Jonathan had committed, in eating a honey-comb, contrary to the oath taken by the people.
  • 2

    Something resembling honeycomb (noun sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.

    • The wood porch was a honeycomb of termite tunnels before we replaced it.
    • [There is in Thomas Jefferson] evidence of a mind, soured, yet seeking for popularity, and eaten to a honeycomb with ambition, yet weak, confused, uninformed, and ignorant.
  • 3

    geometrymathematicssciencesSomething resembling honeycomb (noun sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.

  • 4

    engineeringnatural-sciencesphysical-sciencesSomething resembling honeycomb (noun sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.

  • 5

    archaicengineeringnatural-sciencesphysical-sciencesSomething resembling honeycomb (noun sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.

  • 6

    aeronauticsaerospaceaviationSomething resembling honeycomb (noun sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.

  • 7

    Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; hence, something desirable or pleasant.

    • [F]or he [Jesus Christ] vvas the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and from him being crucified for our ſinnes, and ſlaine for our redemption, vve receive our honey and our honey-combe, that is to ſay, peace vvith God the Father.
    • Yes, Frank, what I have is my own, if labour in getting, and care in augmenting, can make a right of property; and no drone shall feed on my honeycomb.
  • 8

    archaicSomething resembling honeycomb in sweetness; hence, something desirable or pleasant.

    • Adievv; / My honey-combe hovv ſvveet thou art, […]
    • Svveet Hony-Comb, don't be ſo VVaſpiſh: […]
另外 1 個記錄的用法
  • 9

    Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; hence, something desirable or pleasant.

    • honeycomb toffee

honeycombverb/ˈhʌnikəʊm/

  • 1

    To riddle (something) with small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb (noun sense 1); also, to cause (something) to become hollow or weakened in this way.

    • The ordinary tourist who visits the Boulak museum and the Necropolis of Sakkara, and then runs up to the First or the Second Cataract, is apt to think that the subject must be wellnigh exhausted; and is scarcely conscious of the fact that the banks of the Nile from Cairo to Thebes, between which he glides so rapidly in a Cook's steamer, or, more tranquilly, journeys in a dahabeeya, are strewn with the mounds of ancient cities, especially on the eastern shore, and that its cliffs are honeycombed with tombs.
  • 2

    To bore cavities or tunnels inside (something).

    • Termites will honeycomb a porch made of untreated pine.
    • [M]any of the pillars of the temple of Serapis at Puteoli vvere penetrated by theſe animals. […] [T]he pholas muſt have pierced into them ſince they vvere erected; for no vvorkmen vvould have laboured a pillar into form, if it had been honey-combed by vvorms in the quarry.
  • 3

    To decorate (something) with a honeycomb pattern.

  • 4

    To make way deeply into (something) so as to weaken it; to undermine.

  • 5

    architectureTo ornament (a ceiling) with honeycomb work (see noun sense 2.4).

  • 6

    archaicTo become riddled with small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb; also, to become hollow or weakened in this way.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：

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。