核心畫面

Picture someone standing beside you — and then picture them still standing there after things go wrong. Loyalty is that not-leaving. It is less about how much you like someone than about a tie that holds when it is tested and when time passes.

可以想成有人站在你旁邊,然後事情變糟了,他還是站在那裡沒有走。loyalty 講的就是那個「不走」——重點不在喜不喜更多收起可以想成有人站在你旁邊,然後事情變糟了,他還是站在那裡沒有走。loyalty 講的就是那個「不走」——重點不在喜不喜歡,而在這條關係經得起考驗、時間拉長之後也還在。

From the word’s history

Loyalty entered English c. 1400 from Old French loialte, leaute 'loyalty, fidelity; legitimacy; honesty; good quality', from loial, from Latin legalem, from lex 'law' — loyal and legal are the same word arriving by two routes. The root is a reminder that the word started out about keeping to what you are bound to, not only about warm feeling.

loyalty 約在 1400 年從古法文 loialte、leaute 借進英文,涵蓋「忠誠、守信、正當、好品質」;再往上是拉丁文 legalem,源頭是 lex——「法律」。也就是說 loyal 和 legal 其實是同一個字走了兩條路進英文。這段身世提醒了一件事:這個字最早不只在講感情,也在講「守住原本該守的關係」。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entries 'loyalty (n.)' and 'loyal (adj.)'

Two branches

撐得住的那種品質

這一層就是核心畫面本身:不走,而且是在最容易走的時候不走。

staying true · noun · B2

the quality of staying true to your friends, ideas, team, or country, even when it is hard.

忠誠;忠心

心裡向著誰的那份牽繫

同一份「不走」被拆成一條一條具體的線:對這個人一條、對那個團體一條。拆開之後就數得出來,也就可能互相拉扯。

feeling of support · noun · B2

a feeling of support for a person, group, or idea — often used in the plural as loyalties.

忠心;支持之情

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。

loyaltynoun/ˈlɔɪəlti/

  • 1

    The state of being loyal; fidelity.

    • brand loyalty
  • 2

    Faithfulness or devotion to some person, cause or nation.

    • He showed loyalty to his local football club after successive relegations.
    • Over the violence and the proud loyalties, over the sold-out-ness and the cruel indifference, there is light reclothing us in a kind of strange innocence.

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