喜樂美語

核心畫面

A wide open animal mouth, and behind it the dark throat going down. Things go in that way and do not come back. The word keeps pointing at that one place — the opening food passes through, and the bag inside the body where it ends up.

maw 可以想成一張張開的動物大口，還有後面那條往下的黑喉嚨。東西從那裡進去，就不會再出來。這個字一直指著同一個地方…更多收起maw 可以想成一張張開的動物大口，還有後面那條往下的黑喉嚨。東西從那裡進去，就不會再出來。這個字一直指著同一個地方：食物通過的那個入口，還有它最後掉進去的那個袋子。

From the word’s history

From Old English maga, meaning stomach, related to German Magen. The word first named the bag inside the body; the mouth and throat are the way in to it.

Wiktionary 記錄 maw 來自古英語 maga（胃），跟德文 Magen、荷蘭文 maag 同源。所以這個字最早指的是身體裡裝食物的那個袋子。今天最常見的「大口」意思，其實是從袋子往前移到入口：先有要裝東西的地方，才有吞下去的那張嘴。

Wiktionary, packet source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:620359601:24905 — etymology_text: From Middle English mawe, from Old English maga (stomach; maw), from Proto-Germanic *magô (belly; stomach).

Three branches

張開的口與後面的喉嚨

核心畫面本身：看得見的那張口。

noun · C2

The mouth and throat of an animal, especially a large one that looks dangerous and hungry.

（動物的）血盆大口

吞進去就不見了

把那張口從動物身上搬到不是動物的東西上：一個計畫、一場戰爭、一座城市，也可以有一張吃不飽的嘴。

noun · C2

Something that takes in money, people, or things and uses them all up, as if it were swallowing them and could never be filled.

吞噬一切的無底洞

魚身體裡的那個袋子

回到這個字更早的那一層：maw 本來指的是動物身體裡裝東西的袋子，不是外面那張口。

noun · C1

The dried swim bladder of a large fish, sold and cooked as food, especially in Chinese cooking; in English it is nearly always called fish maw.

魚肚；花膠（乾魚鰾）

原始詞典資料11 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。

Mawname

  • 1

    A surname.

mawnoun詞源 1/mɔː/

  • 1

    archaicThe stomach, especially of an animal.

    • So Death shall be deceav'd his glut, and with us two / Be forc'd to satisfie his Rav'nous Maw.
  • 2

    The upper digestive tract (where food enters the body), especially the mouth and jaws of a fearsome and ravenous creature; craw.

    • To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw
    • “I saw the opening maw of hell, With endless pains and sorrows there; Which none but they that feel can tell— Oh, I was plunging to despair.
  • 3

    derogatoryslangThe mouth.

    • Shut your maw!
    • She fumbled with her bag, and produced from its little maw a scented handkerchief.
  • 4

    Any large, insatiable or perilous opening.

    • Adam requires a touch of feminine lace and a whisper of diaphanous silk, not a direct vision of the gaping maw of the human vulva.
    • One two! I was born in a cross-fire hurricane. And I howled at the maw in the drivin' rain. But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas. But it's all right. I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash. It's a gas, gas, gas.
  • 5

    obsoleteAppetite; inclination.

    • Unless you had more maw to do me good.
  • 6

    The swim bladder of a fish, especially when used as food in Chinese cuisine.

    • fish maw: The buoyancy bladder of a fish similar in appearance to the mammalian lung. The maw of the conger pike is used in Chinese cooking and is usually sold in dried form which needs reconstituting for about 3 hours and treating with[…]
    • Fish maw is the commercial term for the dried swim bladders of large fish like sturgeon. Fish maw has no fishy taste and absorbs the flavors of other ingredients.

mawnoun詞源 2/mɔː/

  • 1

    dialectalMother.

mawnoun詞源 3/mɔː/

  • 1

    A gull.

  • 2

    slangA person from a rural area of the Isle of Lewis, i.e. outwith Stornoway; a country bumpkin.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：

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。