核心畫面

One way to hold invocation: someone says a name out loud so that whatever carries that name will come and act. The thing called on was already there — a god, a rule, a piece of code — and it was doing nothing until it was named. The word points at that moment of calling, not at the thing itself. So a law can sit in a book for ten years and change nothing; its invocation is the day somebody says its name in a room where it matters. The same holds for a god asked for rain, and for a function that has waited in a file all morning.

可以想成:有人把一個名字喊出來,於是那個名字底下的東西就過來做事。被叫的那樣東西本來就在——可能是神明,可能是一條規更多收起可以想成:有人把一個名字喊出來,於是那個名字底下的東西就過來做事。被叫的那樣東西本來就在——可能是神明,可能是一條規定,也可能是一段程式——只是在被叫到之前,它什麼都沒做。這個字指的是「喊出來的那一刻」,不是被喊的東西本身。所以一條法律可以在書裡躺十年都不影響任何人;它的 invocation 是有人在關鍵的場合把它的名字說出口的那一天。求雨的神明是這樣,等了一早上的程式也是這樣。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary traces invocation through Middle English invocacioun and Old French invocacion to Latin invocatio, and notes it is equivalent to invoke plus -ation — that is, the noun for the act of invoking.

Wiktionary 把 invocation 一路追到拉丁文 invocatio,經過古法文 invocacion 和中古英文 invocacioun,並指出它等於 invoke 加 -ation,也就是「呼求這個動作」的名詞。所以它從頭到尾指的都是「叫出來的那個動作」。

Wiktionary, 'invocation' (noun), supplied in evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:650100058)

Two branches

呼求一個力量

這一支最貼近核心畫面:被叫的是一個有意志的力量,而叫它的人是在請求。

noun · C1

The act of calling on a god or a powerful spirit for help or protection, or the words used to do it.

祈求、呼求(神明)

把寫好的東西叫出來執行

同一個「喊名字、它就動起來」的畫面,只是被喊的不再是神明,而是人寫下來的條文或程式碼。

noun · C1

The act of formally using a law, a rule, a right or a special power, so that it takes effect in a particular case.

援引、動用(法律或權利)