- 1務實的
If you are pragmatic, you look at the real problem in front of you and choose what will actually work. You do not to a big idea, a party line, or a perfect plan when the facts say it will not help. A pragmatic person asks, “What can we do now?” more than “What should the world look like?” Teachers, bosses, and news writers use this word a lot; it sounds grown-up and a bit cool-headed, not slang. Though actually, people often say pragmatic when they only mean practical. Those two sit close, but they are not the same. Practical is about tools and getting a job done. Pragmatic is about putting a theory or an ideal on the shelf because the situation will not wait. In it can even sound a little cold, as if someone has their beliefs for a result that works today.
From the word’s history
From Middle French pragmatique, from Late Latin pragmaticus, from Ancient Greek pragmatikós 'versed in affairs', from prâgma 'a thing done'.
源自希臘文 πραγματικός「熟悉事務的」，來自 πρᾶγμα「事情」。
組成From Greek pragma “a thing done, a fact” (from prassō “to do”) → Greek pragmatikós “versed in affairs” → Latin pragmaticus → French pragmatique → English. The same Greek “to do” also gave English practical.
同家族的字
- practicalsame Greek root “to do”
- pragmaticallythe adverb: in this practical, not-ideal way
- pragmatismthe noun for this way of dealing with problems
- pragmatista person who thinks and acts this way
原始詞典資料7 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。
pragmaticadj/pɹæɡˈmætɪk/
- 1
Practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory.
- The sturdy furniture in the student lounge was pragmatic, but unattractive.
- Nor indeed are these restrictions pragmatic in nature: i.e. the ill-formedness of the heed-sentences in (60) is entirely different in kind from the oddity of sentences like: (61) !That man will eat any car which thinks heʼs stupid which is purely pragmatic (i.e. lies in the fact that (61) describes the kind of bizarre situation which just doesnʼt happen in the world we are familiar with, where cars donʼt think, and people donʼt eat cars).
- 2
Philosophical; dealing with causes, reasons, and effects, rather than with details and circumstances; said of literature.
- Polybius’s pragmatic history is simply the history of affairs, as distinguished from the descriptive and often poetical character which much history before his time had.
- […]such objects belonged to the domain of the comic poet, and of the lighter kinds of poetry. For the more serious kinds, for pragmatic poetry, to use an excellent expression of Polybius, they were more difficult and severe in the range of subjects which they permitted.
- 3
human-scienceslinguisticssciencesRelating to the field of pragmatics.
- 4
obsoleteInterfering in the affairs of others; officious; meddlesome.
pragmaticnoun/pɹæɡˈmætɪk/
- 1
A man of business.
- 2
A busybody.
- 3
A public decree.
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。