歸誰管的那一攤
同一條界線,這次不畫在地上,而是畫在工作和知識上:線裡面的事情歸這個人管、他也最懂。拉丁文的 provincia 本來就同時指「一塊地」和「一份被交付的職責」,所以這一族不是後來硬接上去的比喻,而是這個字從頭就帶著的另一半。
area of expertise · noun · C2
A subject that someone knows a lot about, or an area of work that only they deal with.
專長領域 / 職責範圍
Picture a country cut into big pieces on a map, each piece with its own name, its own capital town and its own local government - Ontario in Canada, Gyeonggi in Korea. One way to hold the word is that piece: a marked-off area that someone has been put in charge of. Once you can see the boundary and the person answerable for what is inside it, the other uses follow.
From Latin provincia, which in Latin meant both 'territory outside Italy under Roman rule' (Sicily was the first) and 'a public office; a public duty' - the charge a magistrate was given. Etymonline notes the origin of provincia itself is uncertain (the common pro- + vincere 'to conquer' story does not fit the earliest Latin uses). The word entered Middle English in the mid-14th century via Old French as 'country, territory, administrative division', and the figurative sense 'one's particular business or expertise' appears in English by the 1620s.
拉丁文的 provincia 一開始就同時裝著兩件事:一是「羅馬統治下、義大利以外的一塊地」(西西里是最早的一個),二是「一個公職、一份被交付的職責」——也就是行政長官被派去管的那一攤。這個字十四世紀中經古法文進入英文時先用地理義,「某人專門負責的那一塊」則到十七世紀初(1620 年代)才在英文裡出現。知道這一層,就看得懂為什麼 That is not my province(那不歸我管)跟「省」是同一個字:管一塊土地和管一攤事,在這個字裡本來就是同一個畫面。要提醒的是,provincia 更早的來源學界並不確定,常聽到的 pro-(在前)+ vincere(征服)這個說法跟最早的拉丁用法對不太起來。
Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entry 'province'
From the picture
歸誰管的那一攤
同一條界線,這次不畫在地上,而是畫在工作和知識上:線裡面的事情歸這個人管、他也最懂。拉丁文的 provincia 本來就同時指「一塊地」和「一份被交付的職責」,所以這一族不是後來硬接上去的比喻,而是這個字從頭就帶著的另一半。
area of expertise · noun · C2
A subject that someone knows a lot about, or an area of work that only they deal with.
專長領域 / 職責範圍
administrative region · noun · C2
One of the large areas a country is divided into, with its own local government.
省
the provinces (away from capital) · noun · C2
The parts of a country that are away from the capital city.
外地 / 地方
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。
Provincename
A surname.
provincenoun/ˈpɹɒv.ɪns/
A region of the earth or of a continent; a district or country.
An administrative subdivision of certain countries, including Canada and China.
historicalAn area outside Italy which is administered by a Roman governor or prefect.
ChristianityAn area under the jurisdiction of an archbishop, typically comprising a number of adjacent dioceses.
CatholicismChristianityRoman-CatholicismAn area under the jurisdiction of a provincial within a monastic order.
The parts of a country outside its national capital.
geographygeologynatural-sciencesA major region defined by common geologic attributes and history.
An area of activity, responsibility or knowledge; the proper concern of a particular person or concept.
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。