核心畫面

One way to hold this word: think of a cloud of steam instead of a box. A box has edges your finger can trace, and you can say exactly what is inside it and what is outside. Steam has none of that. You can see it is there, and you still cannot draw a line around it. Everything nebulous does — to a shape in fog, to an idea in a meeting, to a patch of light in a telescope — is that same missing edge.

可以想成一團蒸氣,而不是一個盒子。盒子有邊,手指描得出來,也講得出什麼在裡面、什麼在外面。蒸氣兩樣都沒有。你看得出它更多收起可以想成一團蒸氣,而不是一個盒子。盒子有邊,手指描得出來,也講得出什麼在裡面、什麼在外面。蒸氣兩樣都沒有。你看得出它在那裡,卻圈不出它的界線。nebulous 的每個用法都在講這件事:霧裡的形體、會議上的想法、望遠鏡裡的一團亮光,共同點都是「少了那條邊」。

From the word’s history

Latin nebula meant mist or cloud, and nebulosus meant full of mist; English took the word through Middle French. The modern core image is still that mist.

拉丁文 nebula 是霧、雲,nebulosus 是「滿是霧的」,經由中古法文進入英文。今天的核心畫面其實還是那團霧,沒有走遠。

Wiktionary entry for nebulous, etymology_text supplied in this packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:821444863)

Two branches

看得見、卻描不出邊的東西

這一組最靠近核心畫面,因為它講的就是眼睛真的看到的那團霧。

adjective · C1

Used about a shape, figure or light that has no clear edges, so it looks soft and cloudy and you cannot say exactly where it begins or ends.

輪廓模糊的

還沒長出形狀的想法

把霧的畫面搬到腦袋裡:想法也可能只是一團看得出在那裡、卻圈不出範圍的東西。

adjective · C1

Used about an idea, plan, answer or feeling that has no clear shape yet: you can tell roughly what it is about, but not exactly what it means or where it stops.

模糊不清的