- 1
People say matronly when they mean a woman looks like a middle-aged, married, respectable woman — and, though they often will not say this part out loud, that she is rather and no longer young. Dictionaries are honest about this: it is a soft way of not saying fat and older. It comes from matron, an older married woman, often one in charge (a hospital matron, a dorm matron). Add -ly and you get in the manner of a matron. Though actually, this is not a kind word, even when it pretends to be polite. Motherly is warm: it means caring. Matronly is about the body and the age, the solid dress, the no-nonsense figure. A student who wants to praise a woman's kindness should not reach for matronly. A student describing a character in a book may need it, because writers use it a lot. Older speakers use it more. Younger ones may just say she looks like someone's mum, or they avoid it because they can hear the sting.
委婉形容女子體態發福、已不年輕。台灣年輕人較常說「歐巴桑」或「發福」；這個英文詞表面客氣，其實常不友善。
組成matron + -ly.
同家族的字
- matronthe noun this is built from: an older married woman, often in charge
原始詞典資料4 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。
matronlyadj/ˈmeɪtɹənli/
- 1
In the capacity of a matron; serving as a housekeeper or head nurse.
- The door opened, but it was to admit a middle-aged matronly lady with good-humour and domestic capability proclaimed by every detail of her smiling face and easy manner.
- 2
Exuding the authority, wisdom, power, and intelligence of an experienced woman.
- c. 1977, Janeane Garofalo, a skit the matronly upper arms girls know about life and love and losing
- 3
Having the appearance of a mature woman, often of larger physical stature and somewhat unkempt or dowdy.
- 27 April 2009, LA Times https://web.archive.org/web/20090427074230/http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2009/04/susan-boyle-gets-a-makeover-is-she-going-hollywood-already.html Gone is her matronly gray frizzy hair and those bushy brows, frumpy frock and old lady pearls.
matronlyadv/ˈmeɪtɹənli/
- 1
In the manner of a matron.
- The mother dressed matronly, in a bonnet and in black, always sat between her two big daughters, firm, directing, and repressed.
- She was the same height and weight as Mother and had the same hairdo and dressed matronly like her. It was scary. She looked so much like Mother.
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。