核心畫面

One way to picture it: two things that cannot be pulled apart — try to separate them and you find there is no seam to pull along.

兩樣東西已經黏合成一體,你伸手想把它們拉開,卻找不到那條可以下手的縫。separable 是「拉得開的」,前面加上 更多收起兩樣東西已經黏合成一體,你伸手想把它們拉開,卻找不到那條可以下手的縫。separable 是「拉得開的」,前面加上 in- 這個否定的小零件,整個詞就變成「拉不開」。至於拉不開的是實體、是概念,還是兩個人之間的關係,就看用在哪裡。

From the word’s history

From Latin īnsēparābilis: in- (not) + separabilis (able to be separated), itself from separare, to pull apart.

來自拉丁文 īnsēparābilis,拆開就是 in-(不)+ separabilis(分得開的),而 separare 本身就是「把…拉開、分開」。所以這個字從造出來的第一天起,講的就是「分不開」這件事——現代英文用它形容感情好到黏在一起的兩個人,其實還是同一個畫面,只是把「拉不開」從物體搬到了關係上。

Latin īnsēparābilis (in- + separabilis), as given in the entry's origin note

One branch

分不開(實體或概念)

這一家就是核心畫面本身:拉不開。

unable to separate (ideas) · adjective · C2

Not able to be pulled apart, or not able to be thought about as two separate things.

密不可分

原始詞典資料2 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。

inseparableadj/inˈsɛ.p(ə).ɹə.bl/

  • 1

    Unable to be separated; bound together permanently.

    • People of unalterable ideas still insisted upon calling him "Sergeant" when they met him, which was in some degree owing to his having still retained the well-shaped moustache of his military days, and the soldierly bearing inseparable from his form.
    • In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […] and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.

inseparablenoun/inˈsɛ.p(ə).ɹə.bl/

  • 1

    Something that cannot be separated from something else.

    • Jayanta does so in answering an opponent who declares that the very idea of a relation between two inseparables is self-contradictory. How can inseparability and relation be reconciled?

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。