人的嬰兒期
這是核心畫面本身：字面上的、屬於人的那段最初時期。
babyhood · noun · C2
The period of a child's life when they are still a baby, before they can walk or talk.
嬰兒期
核心畫面
One way to picture it: the very first stretch of a life, when the thing is so new it cannot yet stand on its own — a baby who has not learned to walk or speak, entirely at the start of everything it will become.
一個生命最開頭的那一小段——還不會走、還不會說話的嬰兒。它已經存在了，但幾乎什麼都還做不到，所有能力都還在前面等著長…更多收起
一個生命最開頭的那一小段——還不會走、還不會說話的嬰兒。它已經存在了，但幾乎什麼都還做不到，所有能力都還在前面等著長出來。這個畫面的重點不是「小」，而是「才剛開始，還沒展開」。From the word’s history
From Latin īnfantia, literally the state of being īnfāns — 'not speaking' (in- 'not' + fārī 'to speak'). The word originally names the stage before speech, which is exactly the stage before a thing can express what it will become.
拉丁文 īnfantia 來自 īnfāns，字面是「不說話的」(in- 不 + fārī 說話)。這個字原本標記的就是「還不會開口」的那一段，正好對上核心畫面裡「已經在了，但還說不出、做不到」的階段。
Wiktionary: infancy < Middle English infancie < Latin īnfantia, from īnfāns (in- + fārī 'to speak')
Two branches
事物的萌芽期
把嬰兒的畫面整個搬到不是人的東西上：一門科學、一種機器、一種做事方法，也可以處在「才剛出生、還站不穩」的階段。
early stage (of something new) · noun · C2
The time when something new, such as a science, a machine, or a way of working, is only just starting to be developed.
萌芽期
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。
infancynoun/ˈɪnfənsi/
- 1
The earliest period of childhood (crawling rather than walking).
- 2
The state of being an infant.
- 3
An early stage in the development of anything.
- Space tourism is still in its infancy.
- It was in November, 1932, in an endeavour to reduce working costs, that the first diesel railcar was introduced, and it was a far-sighted move on the part of Mr. D. N. McClure, for diesel propulsion on railways was then more or less in its infancy.
- 4
lawThe state of being a minor.
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。