核心畫面

You can think of manna as food found lying on the ground in the morning, in a place where there is nothing to eat and no way to grow anything. Nobody planted it, nobody paid for it, and it is there on exactly the day it is needed. Keep those three things together — needed, unearned, and already there — because the whole of the modern word is built on them.

manna 可以想成「早上醒來,地上就有食物」。那是一片什麼都長不出來的曠野,沒東西吃。沒有人種過它,也沒有人買它,更多收起manna 可以想成「早上醒來,地上就有食物」。那是一片什麼都長不出來的曠野,沒東西吃。沒有人種過它,也沒有人買它,而它就出現在最需要的那一天。把這三件事綁在一起記:最需要、沒付出、已經在那裡。今天這個字的每一個用法,都是從這個畫面長出來的。

From the word’s history

Through Middle English and Old English from Late Latin manna, from Ancient Greek manna, from Hebrew man — the word travelled into English along the route of Bible translation, and its shape barely changed.

這個字經由中古英語和古英語,從晚期拉丁文 manna 來,再往前是希臘文 μάννα,最早是希伯來文 מן(mān)。也就是說,它是沿著聖經翻譯的路線進入英文的,拼法幾乎沒變,所以字裡的故事一直沒被洗掉。

Wiktionary entry for manna (etymology section), kaikki extract 3f6f69a190036ae4:1134473491

Two branches

故事裡的那份食物

這一族就是畫面本身,也是另外兩個用法借東西的地方。

noun · C1

In the Bible, the food that God sent down for the Israelites to eat each morning while they were crossing the desert after leaving Egypt.

嗎哪(聖經中天降的食物)

天上掉下來的好處

把食物換成任何好事,但保留那三個條件:最需要、沒付出、剛好在那裡。

noun · C1

Something very good that arrives just when you badly need it, without your expecting it and without your having worked for it.

及時雨;天上掉下來的好事

原始詞典資料5 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。

Mannaname詞源 1

  • 1

    A surname from Italian.

Mannaname詞源 2

  • 1

    A surname from Bengali.

mannanoun/ˈmænə/

  • 1

    biblicallifestylereligionFood miraculously produced for the Israelites in the desert in the book of Exodus.

    • And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.
    • In the juriſdiction of Huquang there are ſeveral places where they gather up great store of Manna, which the Natives take for a Frozen Dew.
  • 2

    Any boon which comes into one's hands by good luck.

    • Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way / Of starved people.
    • The introduction of technical progress in this model can be made in a very simple manner if we assume that it is of the ‘disembodied’ type, that is, something like manna that falls from heaven on all capital goods, old and new. [emphasis in original]
  • 3

    The sugary sap of the manna gum tree which oozes out from holes drilled by insects and falls to the ground around the tree.

    • 1966, Bill Beatty, Tales of Old Australia, National Distributors, →ISBN, page 14, discussing old Australian foods The icing on the cake was made from manna, which was gathered under the manna gums. Manna mixed with milk made a splendid icing.

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