喜樂美語

核心畫面

Picture the side of your neck: a wide vein running just under the skin, carrying blood down from your head, with no bone over it anywhere. That one spot is both vital and unprotected, and every use of jugular starts there — the medical uses stay at the neck, and the famous expression borrows the spot as a picture of a weak point.

可以想成脖子側面那條又粗又淺的血管：它把血從頭送回心臟，位置就在皮膚底下，上面沒有骨頭擋著。這個地方同時「很要命」又…更多收起可以想成脖子側面那條又粗又淺的血管：它把血從頭送回心臟，位置就在皮膚底下，上面沒有骨頭擋著。這個地方同時「很要命」又「很沒防備」。jugular 的每個用法都是從這個位置出發：醫學上的用法留在脖子上，而那句有名的說法則把這個位置借去當「要害」的畫面。

From the word’s history

jugular was borrowed in the late 16th century from Late Latin jugularis, from jugulum, the collarbone and the hollow of the throat, plus -ar ('relating to'). So the word began as 'of the throat'.

jugular 是十六世紀末從後期拉丁文 jugularis 借來的，來自 jugulum（鎖骨、喉嚨凹下去的那一帶）加上 -ar（跟…有關的）。所以它一開始的意思就是「喉嚨那邊的」，今天的用法都還站在這個位置上。

Wiktionary etymology supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:551877501): "Late 16th century borrowing from Late Latin jugulāris, from jugulum ... + -āris."

From the picture

要害

從位置借到比喻：既然那條血管最要命又最沒有保護，「衝著它去」自然就成了「打在最痛、最沒防備的地方」。

noun · C1

To go for the jugular is to attack someone at their weakest point, as hard as you can, so that they cannot recover — almost always with words, in an argument, an interview, or a competition.

攻擊要害

Also in this word

noun · C1

The jugular vein is the large vein on each side of your neck that carries blood from your head back down to your heart.

頸靜脈

原始詞典資料6 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。

jugularadj/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.jʊl.ə/

  • 1

    anatomymedicinesciencesRelating to, or located near, the neck or throat.

  • 2

    anatomymedicinesciencesRelating to, or located near, the neck or throat.

  • 3

    biologynatural-scienceszoologyHaving ventral fins attached under the throat.

  • 4

    Relating to juggling.

jugularnoun/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.jʊl.ə/

  • 1

    rareAny critical vulnerability.

    • It was vicious; he went for the jugular.
    • One of Lionel's old Salthill friends with whom he exchanged perhaps a dozen words a year, and with whom he sometimes played squash, and tennis, both men killers on the court, seeking the jugular […].

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：

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。