喜樂美語
  1. 1心酸的、令人鼻酸的

    If something is poignant, it makes a sad feeling rise up in you — not only "this is sad", but a sharp, tender kind of sad, often mixed with beauty or with love. A poignant moment might be a last goodbye, a child's drawing kept for years, or a song that reminds you of someone who is gone. Though actually the word started as "sharp", like something that pricks you; that is why the feeling is sudden and keen, not only gloomy. It is a little . People use it about stories, films, photos, and memories more than about everyday objects. It does not mean angry-sharp, and it does not mean strong-smelling — that cousin is pungent, a different word now, even though the two began as the same idea of something that pricks.

From the word’s history

From Old French poignant, present participle of poindre 'to prick', from Latin pungō; a doublet of pungent.

源自古法文 poindre「刺」，來自拉丁文 pungō「刺」。

Wiktionary

組成From Middle English poynaunt, borrowed from Anglo-Norman puignant / poynaunt, the "pricking" form of poindre ("to prick"), from Latin pungō ("prick"). Doublet of pungent: they started as one sharp, pricking idea and later split.

同家族的字

  • pungentan old doublet: same Latin 'prick' root, but pungent now means a sharp smell or taste
  • poignancythe noun: the sad, tender quality itself
  • poignantlythe adverb, from this word + -ly

原始詞典資料6 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，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。

poignantadj/ˈpɔɪ.njənt/

  • 1

    obsoleteSharp-pointed; keen.

    • His siluer shield, now idle maisterlesse; / His poynant speare, that many made to bleed [...].
  • 2

    Neat; eloquent; applicable; relevant.

    • A poignant reply will garner more credence than hours of blown smoke.
  • 3

    Evoking strong mental sensation, to the point of distress; emotionally moving.

    • Flipping through his high school yearbook evoked many a poignant memory of yesteryear.
    • The shabby chest of drawers was spread with a lace cover, and set out with a few gold-topped boxes and bottles, a rose-coloured pin-cushion, a glass tray strewn with tortoise-shell hair[-]pins—he shrank from the poignant intimacy of these trifles, and from the blank surface of the toilet-mirror above them.
  • 4

    Piquant, pungent.

  • 5

    Incisive; penetrating; piercing.

    • His comments were poignant and witty.
  • 6

    datedInducing sharp physical pain.

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。