核心畫面

You can picture 'panic' as fear hitting so suddenly that the thinking part of you goes offline — the mind blanks, the body just reacts, and sensible action becomes hard. Every use is some version of that switch flipping.

可以把 panic 想成『恐懼一下子撞上來,理智瞬間斷線』:腦一片空白、身體只剩下反射動作,想好好想、好好做事都變得更多收起可以把 panic 想成『恐懼一下子撞上來,理智瞬間斷線』:腦一片空白、身體只剩下反射動作,想好好想、好好做事都變得很難。這個字的每一種用法,都是這個開關被彈掉的某種版本。

From the word’s history

From Greek panikos, 'of Pan' — the god Pan was blamed for the sudden, causeless terror that could seize people alone in wild places. That is exactly the modern feel: fear that arrives all at once, without you reasoning your way into it.

來自希臘文 panikos(『屬於牧神 Pan 的』)——古人把人在荒野獨處時那種突如其來、沒來由的恐懼,歸給牧神 Pan。這正是現代的感覺:恐懼是一下子冒出來的,不是你慢慢推理出來的。

etymonline.com/word/panic (Online Etymology Dictionary)

From the picture

一群人的集體恐慌

把一個人的恐懼放大到一群人身上:很多人同時慌了,一窩蜂做出沒想清楚的決定,像金融市場的恐慌性拋售。

mass panic · noun · B2

A situation where many people suddenly become very worried and make fast decisions without thinking carefully.

恐慌(局面)

手忙腳亂、趕工的慌

把『慌』從『害怕』淡化成『匆匆忙忙』:不一定真的害怕,而是事情多、時間緊,大家忙得團團轉的那種慌。這是口語、略帶調侃的用法。

rush, time pressure · noun · B2

A situation where you have a lot to do and very little time to do it in.

手忙腳亂

Also in this word

sudden fear · noun · B2

A sudden strong feeling of fear that makes it hard to think clearly or act sensibly.

恐慌/驚慌

become frightened · verb · B2

To suddenly feel so frightened that you can't think clearly, or to make someone feel this way.

驚慌/慌了

原始詞典資料16 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。

Panicadj

  • 1

    archaichuman-sciencesmysticismmythologySynonym of Pandean (“pertaining to the Greek god Pan”).

panicadj詞源 1/ˈpænɪk/

  • 1

    Of fear, fright, etc: overwhelming or sudden.

    • All things were there in a diſordered confuſion, and in a confuſed furie, vntill ſuch time as by prayers and ſacrifices they had appeaſed the wrath of their Gods. They call it to this day, the P[a]nike terror.
    • So long as Epaminondas was captaine general of the Thebans, there was never ſeene in his campe any of theſe ſudden fooliſh frights, without any certeine cauſe, which they call Panique Terrores.
  • 2

    Pertaining to or resulting from overwhelming fear or fright.

    • [H]e perceived how that many women followed his ſouldiers, ſome being their wives, and ſome wanting nothing to make them ſo but marriage, […] The King coming to a great river, after his men and the wagons were paſſed over, cauſed the bridge to be broken down, hoping ſo to be rid of theſe feminine impediments; but they on a ſudden liſt up a panick ſhrick which pierced the skies, and the ſouldiers hearts on the other ſide of the river, who inſtantly vowed not to ſtirre a foot farther, except with baggage, and that the women might be fetch'd over, which was done accordingly.
    • No Dangers threatned, but they ſmil'd to meet The pannick French-men trembling at their Feet.

panicnoun詞源 1/ˈpænɪk/

  • 1

    Overwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare.

    • She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.
    • There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control.
  • 2

    businesseconomicsfinanceA rapid reduction in asset prices due to broad efforts to raise cash in anticipation of such prices continuing to decline.

    • "I thought you inherited your money." "I did, old sport," he said automatically, "but I lost most of it in the big panic—the panic of the war."
    • "There is sort of a panic going on, and that is not what ought to be," [Chris] Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, said at a press conference in Washington today. "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were never bottom feeders in the residential mortgage market."
  • 3

    A highly amusing or entertaining performer, performance, or show; a riot, a scream.

panicverb詞源 1/ˈpænɪk/

  • 1

    To cause (someone) to feel panic (“overwhelming fear or fright”); also, to frighten (someone) into acting hastily.

    • He told us he'd almost stepped on Ellen's body that night—dead and stiffening. Then I'd come round the corner and hailed him, and that panicked him.
  • 2

    computingengineeringmathematicsTo cause (a computer system) to crash.

    • If your new driver has an error that panics the system when you load the driver, then the system will panic again when it tries to reboot after the panic. The system will continue the cycle of panic, reboot, and panic as it attempts to reload the faulty driver every time it reboots after panic.
  • 3

    To highly amuse, entertain, or impress (an audience watching a performance or show).

  • 4

    To feel panic, or overwhelming fear or fright; to freak out, to lose one's head.

    • I don't want you to be hopeful, I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day and then I want you to act.
  • 5

    computingengineeringmathematicsOf a computer system: to crash.

panicnoun詞源 2/ˈpænɪk/

  • 1

    Foxtail millet or Italian millet (Setaria italica), the second-most widely grown species of millet.

  • 2

    A plant of the genus Panicum, or of similar plants of other genera (especially Echinochloa and Setaria) formerly included within Panicum; panicgrass or panic grass.

    • [folio 76, recto] Panicum […] hathe no name in Engliſh yet⸝ but it may well be called panick after yͤ Latin. Panik hath leues lyke vnto a rede when it commeth firſt furth. […] [folio 76, verso] Dioſcorides writeth yͭ Panic hathe the ſame vertue yͭ Milleth hathe⸝ but that it noriſheth & byndeth leſſe. Galene ſayeth yͭ panic is of the kynde of pulſes⸝ and in lykenes lyke vnto millet⸝ and alſo in vertue of ſmall noriſhmẽt⸝ and dry.
    • There be ſundrie ſorts of Panick, although of the ancients there hathe beene ſet downe but two, that is to ſay, the wilde or fielde Panick, and the garden or manured Panick: […]
  • 3

    The edible grain obtained from one of the above plants.

    • Pannick ſtoppeth the laske as Millet doth, being boiled (as Plinie reporteth) in Goates milk and drunke twiſe in a day. Bread made of Pannick nouriſheth little, and is cold and dry, verie brittle, hauing in it neither clammineſſe, nor fatneſſe; and therefore it drieth a moiſt belly.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形:

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。