喜樂美語

核心畫面

One way to picture this word: a sentence steps aside for a moment. Two curved walls go up, some extra words stand inside them, and the main line of the sentence walks past and carries on as if nothing had been added. Everything parenthesis means sits somewhere in that picture — the walls, the words inside, and the little step aside itself.

parenthesis 可以想成這樣一個畫面：句子講到一半，有一段話被請到旁邊去講。左右兩道彎彎的牆把它圍起來，主句…更多收起parenthesis 可以想成這樣一個畫面：句子講到一半，有一段話被請到旁邊去講。左右兩道彎彎的牆把它圍起來，主句從旁邊走過去，繼續往前。這個畫面同時裝下了這個字的幾個用法：那兩道牆是符號，牆裡面那段話也叫 parenthesis，而「走到旁邊去一下」這個動作本身，就是離題。所以看到這個字時，先問自己：這裡指的是牆、是牆裡的東西，還是那個往旁邊踏一步的動作。

From the word’s history

Late Latin parenthesis, from Ancient Greek parenthesis meaning an insertion; by its parts, par- (beside) + en- (in) + thesis (a putting). So the oldest meaning is a putting-in beside — which is exactly what the marks and the inserted words both do.

這個字借自晚期拉丁文 parenthesis，再往上是希臘文 parénthesis，意思是「插入」。拆成部件是 par-（在旁邊）＋ en-（進去）＋ thesis（放置），字面就是「放進來、擺在旁邊」。這條線索正好對上今天的核心畫面：不管是符號還是被圍起來的那段話，做的都是同一件事——把東西放進句子旁邊。

Wiktionary entry for parenthesis, etymology_text supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:403066231:69936)

Two branches

圍住補充內容的符號

這一族就是畫面裡那兩道牆本身：看得見、印得出來的符號。

noun · B2

One of the two curved marks ( and ) that go around extra words in a piece of writing, so the reader can see that part was dropped in. The marks come as a pair, and the same marks are used in maths to hold together the part you work out first.

圓括號、小括號

被圍起來、踏到旁邊的那段內容

這一族看的不是牆，而是牆裡面的東西，以及「往旁邊踏一步再走回來」這個動作。範圍從一個詞、一句話，一路放大到一段離題、甚至人生中的一段時光。

noun · C1

A word, phrase or whole sentence dropped into the middle of a sentence to add information or explain something. The sentence around it is already complete, and the added part is usually fenced off with brackets, commas or dashes.

插入語、補充的那段話

原始詞典資料4 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。

parenthesisnoun/pəˈɹɛn.θə.sɪs/

  • 1

    A clause, phrase or word which is inserted (usually for explanation or amplification) into a passage which is already grammatically complete, and usually marked off with brackets, commas or dashes.

    • How expressive this little parenthesis: "Sakuntalâ makes a chiding gesture with her finger"!
  • 2

    Either of a pair of brackets, especially (mainly US) round brackets, ( and ) (used to enclose parenthetical material in a text).

    • There be five manner of points and divisions most used among cunning men; the which if they be well used, make the sentence very light and easy to be understood, both to the reader and hearer: and they be these, virgil,—come,—parenthesis,—plain point,—interrogative[…] it is a slender stroke leaning forward, betokening a little short rest, without any perfectness yet of sentence.
    • Whoever introduced the several points, it seems that a full-point, a point called come, answering to our colon-point, a point called virgil answering to our comma-point, the parenthesis-points and interrogative-point, were used at the close of the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth century.
  • 3

    A digression; the use of such digressions.

    • Mr. Trevanion was one of those talkers, who are too much engrossed with their own subject matter to have much attention to bestow elsewhere; with them silence is attention. Ethel's wandering eye, and lip, tremulous with its effort to speak, would never have attracted his notice. To his utter astonishment, she interrupted a parenthesis, as brilliant as the rocket which it depicted, by saying,— "Mr. Trevanion, I do not know what you will think of my boldness, but I must speak to you."
    • Ryan Bingham (George Clooney): I thought I was a part of your life. Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga): I thought we signed up for the same thing[…] I thought our relationship was perfectly clear. You are an escape. You're a break from our normal lives. You're a parenthesis. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney): I'm a parenthesis?
  • 4

    human-scienceslogicmathematicsSuch brackets as used to clarify expressions by grouping those terms affected by a common operator, or to enclose the components of a vector or the elements of a matrix.

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。