喜樂美語

核心畫面

Picture the thing that makes a person a person and not an animal or a machine: feeling pain, caring what happens to others, making art, getting things wrong. English packs that whole quality into one noun, and then uses it in three directions — everyone who has this quality (all people), the warmest part of it (kindness), and the school subjects that study what people have made with it (the humanities).

可以想成 humanity 指的是「讓一個人成為人、而不是動物或機器的那個東西」：會痛、會在意別人怎麼樣、會做出東西…更多收起可以想成 humanity 指的是「讓一個人成為人、而不是動物或機器的那個東西」：會痛、會在意別人怎麼樣、會做出東西來、也會犯錯。英文把這整個特質裝進一個名詞裡，然後往三個方向用：所有擁有這個特質的人（全人類）、這個特質裡最溫暖的那一面（仁慈），以及研究人用這個特質做出了什麼的那些科目（人文學科）。

Three branches

身為人的那個特質

這一組是核心本身，以及它最被珍惜的那一面。英文常把「人性」和「善待別人」放在同一個字裡，等於在說：會對別人好，本來就是身為人的一部分。

being human · noun · C1

The quality of being a human being, not an animal or a machine.

人性

擁有這個特質的所有人

從「這個特質」跳到「所有具備這個特質的人」，也就是把全世界的人當成一個整體來講。這是日常最常遇到的 humanity。

humankind · noun · C1

All the people in the world, thought of together as one big group.

全人類

研究人的那些科目

再往外一步：如果人有一個特質叫「人性」，那研究這個特質留下的痕跡——歷史、文學、藝術、哲學——就叫 the humanities。跟研究自然的科學剛好分成兩邊。

the humanities (subjects) · noun · C1

Subjects such as history, literature, and art that you study, rather than science or maths.

人文學科

原始詞典資料4 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。

humanitynoun/hjuˈmænɪti/

  • 1

    Humankind; human beings as a group.

    • Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.
    • At last the concourse is relatively clear of humanity and the task of clearing up can begin.
  • 2

    The human condition or nature.

  • 3

    The quality of being benevolent; humane traits of character; humane qualities or aspects.

    • Think of that; by that sweet girl that old man had a child: hold ye then there can be any utter, hopeless harm in Ahab? No, no, my lad; stricken, blasted, if he be, Ahab has his humanities!
    • Killing Animals Humanely. Humanity requires that animals be killed in the quickest and least painful manner. The following circular has been sent by our American Humane Education Society very widely through the country.
  • 4

    Any academic subject belonging to the humanities.

    • Philosophy is a humanity while psychology is a science.

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。