喜樂美語

核心畫面

You can hold minus as a single gesture: taking something away. Start with an amount, then remove a piece of it — ten minus three. Everything else in the word grows out of that gesture: the written sign − that records it, the idea of being short of something that should be there, the side of a situation that from it (the disadvantage), and numbers that have fallen below zero, as if you kept past the bottom.

可以把 minus 想成一個「拿走」的手勢：先有一個數量，再從裡面抽掉一塊——ten minus three 就是從…更多收起可以把 minus 想成一個「拿走」的手勢：先有一個數量，再從裡面抽掉一塊——ten minus three 就是從十裡面拿走三。整個字的用法都是從這個手勢長出來的：把它記在紙上就是減號 −；把它用在人事物上，就是「本來該有的東西少了」；用在評價上，就是一件事裡扣分的那一面；再往下拿，數字掉到零以下，就成了零下、負數。

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。

Minusname

  • 1

    A surname.

minusprep/ˈmaɪ.nəs/

  • 1

    mathematicssciencesMade less or reduced by (followed by an expression of number or quantity).

    • Seven minus two is five.
  • 2

    informalWithout; deprived of.

    • I walked out minus my coat.

minusnoun/ˈmaɪ.nəs/

  • 1

    mathematicssciencesThe minus sign (−).

    • On the third day a Master Barnard brings me up a slate full of plusses, minusses, x, y, z’s, and other letters of the alphabet, in a most amiable algebraical confusion.
  • 2

    mathematicssciencesA negative quantity.

  • 3

    A downside or disadvantage.

    • He valued Roderick’s friendship with the highest value he put on anything nowadays. Over the years they had assessed each other’s plusses and minusses and settled for the difference.
    • As with LCR tout court the question is less to do with the plusses and minusses of the individual ideologies in themselves than in their relationship with their opposite numbers, in this case of Reason with Emotion.

minusadj/ˈmaɪ.nəs/

  • 1

    Being a negative quantity; pertaining to a deficit or reduction.

    • a minus number
  • 2

    That is below zero by (a specified amount) on a scale.

    • minus seven degrees
    • Arriving during late spring in the satellite's southern hemisphere, Voyager found the coldest body in the solar system, minus 235°C (-391°F).
  • 3

    obsoleteWorse off than before; out of pocket.

    • The races being finished, we left Epsom for London, Mordaunt's natural vile temper not being at all improved by being three hundred pounds minus by the week's speculation […] .
  • 4

    Ranking just below (a designated rating).

    • He got a grade of B minus for his essay.

minusverb/ˈmaɪ.nəs/

  • 1

    To subtract.

    • For example, in solving the following equation, x + 4 = 9, the child using the negating mechanism will reason, "minussing 4" undoes "plussing 4" therefore, if x + 4 = 9 then x = 5 and will not see any point in using any intermediate steps.
    • (The terms positive and negative feedback are now part of everyday language where the meanings are reversed: in cybernetic systems, positive feedback is undesirable for it indicates that the discrepancy is “plussing,” rather than “minussing” to zero.)

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。