核心畫面

Picture a hand going into a bag of something and coming out again, while the person keeps talking. No table, no plate, no set amount, and nobody has decided when it ends. That easy, eating is what the word is built on. From there it goes two ways: the doing of it, and the stuff being eaten. The word is friendly all the way through, so wherever it turns up, the setting is relaxed.

nosh 的核心畫面可以想成:一隻手伸進袋子裡拿東西,拿出來吃,嘴巴還在講話。沒有餐桌、沒有盤子、沒有算份量,也沒有更多收起nosh 的核心畫面可以想成:一隻手伸進袋子裡拿東西,拿出來吃,嘴巴還在講話。沒有餐桌、沒有盤子、沒有算份量,也沒有人說什麼時候算吃完。整個字就是從這種「隨便吃一點」長出來的。接著它往兩邊走:一邊是這個動作,一邊是被吃的東西。不管走到哪一邊,語氣都是輕鬆的,所以它出現的場合一定很隨性。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary traces nosh to Yiddish nashn, to nibble, and further back to Middle High German naschen with the same sense. Nibbling is exactly the picture the modern word still carries.

Wiktionary 記的來源是意第緒語 נאַשן(nashn,小口吃、吃零嘴),再往前是中古高地德語的 naschen(nibble)。「小口啃一點」正好就是這個字今天還帶著的畫面,所以核心放在「吃」這個動作上。

Wiktionary (kaikki) nosh entries, etymology 1: From Yiddish nashn, from Middle High German naschen (nibble). (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1394993945:3638)

Two branches

吃這個動作

這一家就是核心畫面本身:那個一邊聊一邊吃、沒在算份量的動作。

verb · C1

To eat, especially to eat a snack or to eat away happily at something. It is informal, and it is often followed by on: to nosh on something.

吃(點心)、邊聊邊吃

被吃的那些東西

名詞這一家可以想成是從動作滑到對象:本來講「隨便吃一點」,後來連「那一點東西」也叫同一個名字。英式和美式各往不同方向滑了一段,所以兩邊的範圍和文法都不一樣。

noun · C1

Food. This is an informal British word for food in general, used most often about food that is there to be eaten now.

吃的、食物