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An oaf is a , slow, or foolish person, almost always a man when people use the word. It is the sort who knocks the table and then says the wrong thing. It is an insult, though sometimes a soft one, the way you might call a friend a big oaf when they have been , not cruel. It is informal, and a little old; you would not put it in a school report. Stories often picture an oaf as large, but the word is about the , blunt manner, not about size as a fact. Though actually, it probably comes from Old Norse álfr, “elf”. In old belief a dull or child might be explained as a changeling left by elves. So oaf and elf are, surprisingly, from the same root. Most people who say oaf are not thinking of elves at all.
笨蛋、蠢漢(口語罵人,帶笨手笨腳、粗線條;有時是半開玩笑)
原始詞典資料3 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。
oafnoun/əʊf/
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derogatoryA person, especially a large male, who is clumsy or a simpleton.
- Ouch! You dropped that box on my feet, you lumbering oaf!
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derogatorydatedAn ill-mannered person; a boor.
- I hope you haven't been thinking me an awful oaf for not writing to thank you for so many jolly games after I left Tapsfield?
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obsoleteAn elf's child; a changeling left by fairies or goblins, hence, a deformed or foolish child.
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。