喜樂美語

核心畫面

Picture a small town that is really built along one road. The bank is on it, the bus stops on it, the fruit shop and the place are on it. If you want to buy something, meet someone, or post a letter, you walk down that one road. Everything else in the town hangs off it.

可以想成一個小鎮其實只靠一條路活著。銀行在那條路上，公車停在那條路上，水果店和麵店也在那條路上。要買東西、要辦事、要…更多收起可以想成一個小鎮其實只靠一條路活著。銀行在那條路上，公車停在那條路上，水果店和麵店也在那條路上。要買東西、要辦事、要碰到人，就往那條路走。鎮上其他的巷子都掛在它旁邊。這個畫面裡有三樣東西：路本身、路的名字，還有走在路上的人。main street 的幾個意思，就是從這三樣東西分出去的。

From the word’s history

The source says the street-name use comes from proprialization of the ordinary noun (the description became the name), and that the everyday-people use comes from metonymy (the street standing for the people on it).

來源說明，路名的用法是普通名詞被叫成專有名詞：一條路被描述久了，描述就變成名字。而「老百姓」的用法是轉喻，用街來指街上的人。兩條線都從同一個畫面出發，只是一條停在路上，一條走到人身上。

Wiktionary entry for Main Street, etymology note (kaikki snapshot kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1638291118:6676)

Two branches

那條路本身

這一組還停在字面上：一條鎮上最重要的路。差別只在寫成小寫的描述，還是寫成大寫的名字。

noun · B1

Main Street is the name that very many small towns and cities give to their central street, the one with most of the shops and businesses on it. It is common in the United States, and is also found in Canada, Ireland and parts of Scotland.

大街（美國小鎮的路名）

街上的人

鏡頭從路面往上抬，看到的不再是柏油，而是開店的人和上班的人。來源把這一步記成轉喻：街代表街上的人。

noun · C1

In American English, Main Street means ordinary people taken as one group: people with regular jobs and people who run small shops, especially when you are talking about what they worry about, want, or believe.

（美國）一般老百姓

原始詞典資料3 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。

Main Streetname

  • 1

    The proper name of the main street of any of many villages, towns, or small cities, especially in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and some parts of Scotland.

    • Near-synonym: High Street (esp. UK)
  • 2

    Everyday working-class people and small business owners, especially with regard to their concerns, social views, etc.

    • Near-synonyms: High Street (UK); precariat, proletariat, working class, middle class
    • Main Street will never accept such fashions.

main streetnoun

  • 1

    The principal street, or one of the several principal streets, of a town.

    • Invercargill in New Zealand has two main streets, Dee Street and Tay Street.
    • "The Chengtu revolutionaries were fantastically colourful in the Szechwanese manner—they costumed themselves as heroes of the stage and their energies were chiefly occupied in tying ropes across the main streets so that when Imperial officials rode by in their litters they would have to get down and crawl under, losing face.

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。