- 1不情願、不願意（做某事）
If you are loath to do something, you really do not want to do it. You are unwilling; you hang back. The shape is almost always be loath to + verb: “I am loath to admit it.” It is a little formal, a little written — you will hear it from careful speakers and in books more than in playground talk, where people just say “I don’t want to”. It is not as hot as hate; it is , sometimes polite, sometimes stubborn. Though actually, the old word once sat closer to “hateful”, and you can still feel a shadow of that: loath often means “I would rather not, and it sits badly with me.” Do not mix it up with the verb (to hate). They are family, but they do different jobs. Loath is nearly always this adjective. The th is the quiet one, as in both, not the buzzing one in breathe.
組成From Middle English lōth, from Old English lāð / lāþ “evil, hateful”, or from Old Norse leið / leiðr “uncomfortable, tired”, from a Germanic word for “hostile, hated”, ultimately from a very old root meaning “to do something hateful”. Dutch leed and French laid (“ugly”) are distant cousins.
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，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。
loathadj詞源 1/ləʊθ/
- 1
Averse, disinclined; reluctant, unwilling. Always followed by a verbal phrase.
- I was loath to return to the office without the Henderson file.
- Then ſaid Faint-heart, Deliver thy Purſe; but he making no haſte to do it (for he was loth to loſe his Money,) Miſtrust ran up to him, and thruſting his hand into his Pocket, pull'd out thence a bag of Silver.
- 2
obsoleteAngry, hostile.
- 3
obsoleteLoathsome, unpleasant.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。