喜樂美語

核心畫面

Picture a metal seal pressed hard into warm wax: you push it in, lift it away, and the wax now carries the shape. The seal is gone; the mark stays. One way to hold the whole word is that single action - pressing a shape into something soft enough to keep it. English then takes one step further: the soft thing that keeps the mark can be wax, or metal, or a person's mind.

可以想成一枚金屬印章用力壓進溫熱的蠟裡：壓下去、拿開，蠟上就留著那個形狀。印章走了，痕跡還在。整個字都像從這一個動作…更多收起可以想成一枚金屬印章用力壓進溫熱的蠟裡：壓下去、拿開，蠟上就留著那個形狀。印章走了，痕跡還在。整個字都像從這一個動作長出來——把形狀壓進一樣夠軟、留得住的東西裡。英文再往前走一步：那個留得住痕跡的東西，可以是蠟、是金屬，也可以是一個人的心。

From the word’s history

From Latin imprimere 'press into or upon, stamp', from in- 'into, upon' + premere 'to press'; it came into English in the late 14th century as impressen, via Old French empresser. Etymonline notes that the mental sense - 'have a strong effect on the mind or heart, stamp deeply in the mind' - stood beside the literal one from the very beginning, so the pressing picture is not a later add-on.

impress 來自拉丁文 imprimere（in-「進去、在上面」+ premere「壓」），字面就是「壓進去、蓋上印」，十四世紀末經古法文 empresser 進入英文。有意思的是，「在心裡壓下深刻痕跡」這層意思從一開始就跟「在物體上壓出印」並存，不是後來才附加的比喻。知道這一點，就比較容易看出 impress the judges（讓評審印象深刻）跟 impress a pattern on metal（在金屬上壓花紋）其實是同一個動作，只是被壓的東西不同。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entry 'impress (v.)'

From the picture

壓在人的心裡

把那個留得住痕跡的東西，從蠟或金屬換成一個人的心思。動作完全一樣：壓下去、抽開，痕跡留在對方身上。英文說 a deep impression（很深的印象），用的就是同一個畫面——那件事在你心裡壓得有多重。

make someone admire · verb · B2

To make someone feel admiration and respect because of how good, interesting, or skillful something or someone is.

使印象深刻；使欽佩

Also in this word

press a mark into · verb · B2

To press a mark, pattern, or design onto a surface, especially by pushing something into it.

壓印；蓋印

原始詞典資料15 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。

impressverb/ɪmˈpɹɛs/

  • 1

    To affect (someone) strongly and often favourably.

    • You impressed me with your command of Urdu.
    • Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.
  • 2

    To make an impression, to be impressive.

    • Henderson impressed in his first game as captain.
    • Manchester United's Tom Cleverley impressed on his first competitive start and Lampard demonstrated his continued worth at international level in a performance that was little more than a stroll once England swiftly exerted their obvious authority.
  • 3

    To produce a vivid impression of (something).

    • That first view of the Eiger impressed itself on my mind.
  • 4

    To mark or stamp (something) using pressure.

    • We impressed our footprints in the wet cement.
  • 5

    To produce (a mark, stamp, image, etc.); to imprint (a mark or figure upon something).

  • 6

    To fix deeply in the mind; to present forcibly to the attention, etc.; to imprint; to inculcate.

    • impress the motives and methods of persuasion upon our own hearts, till we feel the force and power of them.
  • 7

    To compel (someone) to serve in a military force.

    • The press gang used to impress people into the Navy.
  • 8

    To seize or confiscate (property) by force.

    • The liner was impressed as a troop carrier.
    • the second £5,000 imprest for the service of the sick and wounded prisoners

impressnoun/ˈɪmpɹɛs/

  • 1

    The act of impressing.

  • 2

    An impression; an impressed image or copy of something.

    • This weak impress of love is as a figure / Trenched in ice.
    • We know that you were pressed for money, that you took an impress of the keys which your brother held […]
  • 3

    A stamp or seal used to make an impression.

  • 4

    An impression on the mind, imagination etc.

    • Such admonitions, in the English of the Authorized Version, left an indelible impress on imaginations nurtured on the Bible […]
  • 5

    Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp.

    • we have God surveying the works of the creation, and leaving this general impress or character upon them
    • As he himself [Sir Nigel Gresley] would doubtless have wished, he died in harness; only a few weeks previously he had been present at the first public view of his latest design, the Bantam Cock, which, like most of his products, bore all over it the impress of his personality.
  • 6

    A heraldic device; an impresa.

    • It commonly occurred that Knights who , on entering the Lists , wished to conceal their identity , would assume a Device with an allusive Motto , which was designated an IMPRESS
    • To describe […] emblazon'd Shields, / Impreses quaint.
  • 7

    The act of impressing, or taking by force for the public service; compulsion to serve; also, that which is impressed.

    • Why such impress of shipwrights?

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。