- 1小妖精（俏皮、不太聽話、很會用巧思達到目的的年輕女孩；比「狐狸精」輕，常是半罵半誇）
A minx is an attractive young woman who does not show much respect, and who is very good at getting what she wants — not by shouting, but by being clever. She may tease, smile, push a little, and somehow people let her have her way. When someone calls a girl a minx, they are often half telling her off and half smiling: she has been too sharp, and it worked. The word feels a little old now. You meet it more in books and in teasing talk than in ordinary conversation. Though actually, older English could use it more , closer to calling a woman badly behaved, so if you say it about a real person you do not know well, it can land less kindly than you meant.
組成The origin of the noun is uncertain. It may be an old pet form related to minikin (once “a young person, especially a young woman”) plus an -s ending used in nicknames, or it may come from old Dutch or Low German words for a woman, a long way from the same old root as man. Nobody has settled this.
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，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。
minxnoun詞源 1/mɪŋks/
- 1
A flirtatious, impudent, or pert young woman.
- In an other corner, Mistris Minx, a marchants wife, that will eate no cherries, forsooth, but when they are at twentie shillings a pound, that lookes as simperingly as if she were besmeard, and iets it as gingerly as if she were dancing the canaries, […]
- How Huſſie! was there ever ſuch a provoking Minx?
- 2
derogatorydatedA promiscuous woman; also, a mistress (“the other woman in an extramarital relationship”) or a prostitute.
- Well, yet at length the houre came that flattered him with grace, / Who all too haſtie hide him ſelfe to his appointed place. / Arrived there, a pretie minx (directed wel before) / Unto a lodging brought this lord, and locked faſt the dore. / When he was ſafe, awaye ſhe went, for joy Alberto hopt, / But ſee, a chaunge! too late he ſpyde he was in priſon popt. / The windowes made of yron barres, the walles of ſtone and clay, / A bed he found, but farre unfit he thought for Venus play.
- [W]hat did you meane by that ſame handkercher, you gaue mee euen now? […] this is ſome minxes token, and I muſt take out the worke; there, giue it the hobby horſe, whereſoeuer you had it, I'le take out no worke on't.
- 3
obsoleteA pet dog.
- And of doggues there ben diuerſe ſortes mo then one: For ther be hariers, or buckhoundes, there by ſpanyels made to the hawke, or for taking of foule, ther be ſhepeherdes curres, there are tye dogges or maſtifes for keepinge of houſes, there ben litle minxes, or pupees that ladies keepe in their chaumbers for eſpecial iewels to playe withall. And ſo, to one demaunding what maner a dogge he, for his part was, he feactely aunſwered and ſaied: when I am hungry I am a litle mynxe ful of play, and when my bealy is full, a maſtife.
minxverb詞源 1/mɪŋks/
- 1
Used transitively when followed by it: to behave like a minx, that is, in a flirtatious and impudent manner.
- [He] knows the dress of every girl he meets— / In fact could cut you out the very plan, / Each article could name, and tell you every shade, / Whether adorning minxing miss or ancient maid!
- Alison might have, if she hadn't minxed herself out of a job.
- 2
To make (someone) like a minx; (intransitive) to become like a minx.
- Whether you're sipping fine bubbly from a crystal flute while having your nails minxed, or soaking in a heavenly milk bath, a visit to Miss Fox is your ticket to forget your worries and simply indulge.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。