指向一段時間的後半
登入就可以看這一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
in the later years · r
Towards the end of a period of time; during the last part of a stretch of time that is now finished.
到後期、最後那幾年
Take any stretch of time and cut it in two. Latterly points at the back half. That is all the word does — 'latter' already means the later of two things, and -ly turns it into a place on a timeline. Everything else depends on where the stretch stops. If it stopped in the past, the back half is the closing years of a career or a life. If it runs right up to today, the back half is now, and the word reads as 'recently'.
「latterly」可以想成：把一段時間切成前後兩半，然後伸手指著後面那一半。latter 本來就是「兩個之中後面那個」，加上 -ly 就成了時間軸上的一個位置。剩下的差別只看那段時間停在哪裡。已經收在過去，指到的就是一段生涯或一生的尾聲。一路延伸到今天，指到的就是眼前這陣子，讀起來自然變成「近來」。兩個意思其實是同一根手指，指在同一個位置上。
From the word’s history
From latter + -ly, as the source states. The 'later of two' meaning of latter is still doing all the work in both senses.
來源記載這個字就是 latter 加上 -ly。latter 的「兩者中後面那個」直到今天都還撐著這個字的兩個意思，沒有變過。
Wiktionary, "latterly"
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