喜樂美語

核心畫面

One way to hold this word: a shop counter, with the thing sitting on it. You walk up, the other person hands it across, and that is the whole transaction. Nothing had to be approved first, and no one stood in the middle. Both uses of the word turn on that missing step — no doctor's paper, no official exchange list.

可以想成店裡那道櫃臺，東西就放在上面。你走過去，對方直接遞給你，事情就結束了。中間沒有人幫你把關，也不需要先拿到誰的…更多收起可以想成店裡那道櫃臺，東西就放在上面。你走過去，對方直接遞給你，事情就結束了。中間沒有人幫你把關，也不需要先拿到誰的許可。這個字的兩個用法都在講同一件缺席的事：一個是沒有醫生的處方，一個是沒有交易所的名單。所以它描述的不是東西本身，而是「你怎麼拿到它」。

From the word’s history

The source entry records this adjective as the attributive form of the phrase 'over the counter', which keeps the shop-counter picture visible inside it.

來源資料記載這個形容詞是片語 over the counter 移到名詞前面的形式。也就是說，「櫃臺」這個畫面一直留在字裡面，沒有被磨掉。

Wiktionary (kaikki extract) kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1105455334:11896 — 'An attributive form of over the counter.'

From the picture

金融：不經過交易所

同一道櫃臺，只是這次兩邊隔著櫃臺談的是股票或外匯。少掉的那一步從「醫生的處方」換成「交易所的掛牌名單」。

adjective · C1

Used about shares, currencies, or other financial products that are bought and sold directly between two sides, or through a private broker, rather than on an official stock exchange.

場外交易的；店頭市場的

Also in this word

adjective · B2

Used about medicine or other treatments that you are allowed to buy in a shop or pharmacy without a written order from a doctor.

非處方的；成藥的

原始詞典資料2 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。

over-the-counteradj

  • 1

    medicinepharmacologysciencesOf medicine and other treatments, legal for sale or distribution without the requirement of a prescription.

    • over-the-counter drug, over-the-counter medicine
    • The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the oral contraceptive Opill for over-the-counter use, making it the first nonprescription birth control pill in the United States, but it will be months before it’s available.
  • 2

    businessfinanceInvolving direct interaction between two parties without an intermediary, and denoting any market where items such as stocks or currency are bought and sold by direct arrangement between counterparties, or through a private broker, rather than on a public stock exchange or other exchange.

    • over-the-counter trade, over-the-counter market
    • This is "commencement week" in "over-the-counter insurance" circles, the Whitman, Mass., savings bank having opened the ball with four applications made for $300 each by three prominent business men […]

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。