圈子裡那位熟悉的女性
這一組把 old girl 用在「人」身上:一個大家都認得、講起來語氣會自動放軟的女性。差別只在說話的方向——是在背後談她,還是當著她的面叫她。
noun · B2
An old woman, spoken about in a friendly, familiar way. The source marks this use as spoken, and it is chiefly British.
老太太
You can think of 'old girl' as a warm label rather than a description. Someone puts 'old' in front of 'girl' the way you put a hand on a friend's shoulder: the words stop measuring the person and start showing that she is already inside the speaker's circle. Which circle it is decides what the phrase means — a street, a family, or a school.
Two branches
圈子裡那位熟悉的女性
這一組把 old girl 用在「人」身上:一個大家都認得、講起來語氣會自動放軟的女性。差別只在說話的方向——是在背後談她,還是當著她的面叫她。
noun · B2
An old woman, spoken about in a friendly, familiar way. The source marks this use as spoken, and it is chiefly British.
老太太
同一所學校出來的女生
圈子換成了學校。這裡的 old 換了一份工作:不是「年紀大」,而是「以前的」,跟 old school、old job 的 old 同一類。這是一種幫助理解的看法,不是在說歷史上誰先誰後。
noun · B2
A woman who used to be a student at a particular school. The sources mark this as chiefly British, and it is most often said about private schools.
校友(女)