- 1a/əˈlɪmpiən/godlike and aloof高高在上的；超然冷靜的
正式Behaving like a god: very calm, high above other people, and not troubled by ordinary daily worries. It often carries the feeling that the person keeps a cool distance and looks down on what is happening below.
這個 Olympian 形容一個人像神一樣。畫面是站在雲上往下看人間。裡面同時有兩層：一層是很冷靜，事情鬧翻天也不動搖。另一層是距離很遠，遠到好像不太在乎。所以語氣可能是佩服，也可能是帶點涼意。要看整句往哪邊走。這個字偏書面、偏正式，常接在 calm、detachment、distance、majesty 前面。
示範例句 · Example
The manager watched the whole argument with Olympian calm and said nothing.
中文翻譯那位主管以奧林帕斯般的冷靜看完了整場爭論，而且什麼都沒說。
Two things usually come together here: the calm, and the distance. The person does not get pulled into the noise, and they also do not seem to feel it. So the word can sound admiring (nothing shakes them) or cool (they are too far away to care), and the sentence around it decides which. It is a formal, written word, common before nouns like calm, detachment, distance and majesty.
常見搭配
Olympian calm
如神般的鎮定
a deep calm that nothing seems to shake
She took the bad news with Olympian calm.
Olympian detachment
超然、不涉入的態度
the state of staying far away from something and not letting it touch you
He viewed the whole argument with Olympian detachment.
Olympian distance
刻意保持的高遠距離
a cool, deliberate distance from other people
The Olympian distance he kept made people stop asking him for help.
Olympian majesty
神一般的威儀
a grand, godlike air
He carried his head with a kind of Olympian majesty.
- 2n/əˈlɪmpiən/Olympic athlete奧運選手
Someone who is taking part in the Olympic Games, or who has taken part in them before. News reports use this word most, often when they name an athlete for the first time.
「Olympian」指參加過奧運的選手。重點在有沒有去比，不在有沒有拿牌。沒有得名的人一樣是 Olympian。這個身分是跟一輩子的。二十年前比過的人，現在還是這樣被稱呼。新聞報導特別常用這個字來介紹一個人。首字母要大寫，跟 Olympic Games 一樣。中文通常就譯成「奧運選手」。
The word says nothing about how well the person did. A person who won no medal at all is still an Olympian; going to the Games is enough. Because of that, people keep the name for life. Someone who competed twenty years ago is still called an Olympian today. It is written with a capital letter, like Olympic Games.
常見搭配
a former Olympian
前奧運選手
someone who took part in the Games in the past
A former Olympian now runs the club near the park.
a two-time Olympian
兩度參加奧運的選手
someone who has been to the Games twice
She is a two-time Olympian and hopes to go again.
become an Olympian
成為奧運選手
to qualify for and take part in the Games
He trained for six years to become an Olympian.
fellow Olympians
同為奧運選手的夥伴
the other athletes who are also at the Games
She shared a room with two fellow Olympians.
意思相近
Olympic athletecompetitorGames competitor
- 3a/əˈlɪmpiən/of Mount Olympus and its gods奧林帕斯（眾神）的
Relating to Mount Olympus and to the gods of ancient Greece who were said to live on its top.
這個 Olympian 是「跟奧林帕斯山有關的」。希臘神話說眾神住在那座山頂。所以它也就指那一群神。用法很單純，多半放在名詞前面。像 Olympian gods、Olympian mythology。歷史課、博物館說明牌、神話故事書裡最常見。它不用來評價一個人，那是另一個意思。
This is the plain, factual use: it points at the mountain and at the family of gods in the old stories. You meet it in history lessons, museum labels and books about myths, usually before a noun — Olympian gods, Olympian mythology, the Olympian temple. It carries no judgement about a person; that is the other adjective.
常見搭配
the Olympian gods
奧林帕斯眾神
the main gods of Greek myth, said to live on Mount Olympus
The Olympian gods each had their own temple.
Olympian mythology
奧林帕斯神話
the body of stories about these gods
Olympian mythology fills a whole shelf in the library.
the Olympian pantheon
奧林帕斯神系
the full group of these gods taken together
Hades is sometimes counted in the Olympian pantheon and sometimes not.