喜樂美語

核心畫面

You can picture the working parts inside a machine — the gears, springs, and levers that fit together and move so one job gets done, like the little train of wheels inside a watch that pushes the hands round.

可以想成機器內部那組會動的零件：齒輪、彈簧、桿子彼此咬合、一起運轉，把某一件事做出來——就像手錶裡那一串小輪子，一環…更多收起可以想成機器內部那組會動的零件：齒輪、彈簧、桿子彼此咬合、一起運轉，把某一件事做出來——就像手錶裡那一串小輪子，一環推一環，把指針轉起來。

From the word’s history

Mechanism comes (via Modern Latin mechanismus) from Greek mekhane 'machine, device, contrivance.' At its root it names a made device that does work — which is exactly the physical core, and every later sense borrows that 'inner works that make it go' picture.

mechanism 經由現代拉丁文 mechanismus，來自希臘文 mekhane「機器、裝置、器械」。字根指的就是「一件會做事的裝置」——正好是它的實體核心；後面每個引申義，都是借用「裡面那組讓它運轉的機件」這個畫面。

etymonline.com/word/mechanism

Two branches

機件（實體）

最實體、最原始的一支：真的看得到摸得到的機器零件。

mechanism (machine parts) · noun · C1

The set of moving parts inside a machine that does one particular job.

機械裝置；機件

抽象的運作機制

把「一組咬合運轉、專做一件事的機件」搬到看不見的地方：制度、身體、事情的運作，都被想成一台內部有零件在動的機器。

mechanism (system/process) · noun · C1

A planned system or way of doing things that is set up to reach a goal or deal with a problem.

機制；辦法

原始詞典資料6 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。

mechanismnoun/ˈmɛk.ə.nɪ.zəm/

  • 1

    Any mechanical means for the conversion or control of motion, or the transmission or control of power.

  • 2

    Any combination of cams, gears, links, belts, chains and logical mechanical elements.

    • A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place.
  • 3

    A group of entities, such as objects, that interact together.

    • A site that carried [sexually explicit] material, but that gated it off from children through credit cards or other mechanisms to verify the age of the user, would have an acceptable defense under the act.
    • Whatever the mechanism, attempts to starve the beast through revenue shortages somehow seem to make the beast all the more voracious.
  • 4

    A mental, physical, or chemical process.

  • 5

    Any process of, or system designed to manage useful energy conversion.

  • 6

    human-sciencesphilosophysciencesThe theory that all natural phenomena can be explained by physical causes.

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。