核心畫面

A plain meeting room with bare walls: no decoration, no ceremony, nothing kept for pleasure. Everything that is only enjoyable has been stripped away, and what is left is thought to be purer for it. The word still carries that room wherever it goes.

puritan 可以想成一間空空的聚會所:牆上沒有裝飾,儀式也簡到不能再簡,凡是只為了享受而留的東西都被拿掉了,剩下更多收起puritan 可以想成一間空空的聚會所:牆上沒有裝飾,儀式也簡到不能再簡,凡是只為了享受而留的東西都被拿掉了,剩下來的被認為因此更純淨。這個字後來不管用在哪裡,身上都還帶著那間房間的樣子。大寫時指的是真的住在那個時代的人,小寫時則是把那間房間搬到別人身上,說他對享樂嚴格到讓人受不了。

From the word’s history

Our source says the name probably comes from purity plus the ending -an, because the group wanted to clean out of Church of England worship what they saw as Roman Catholic. The capitalised form came before the lowercase one.

來源資料寫的是:這個名稱「可能」來自 purity(純淨)加字尾 -an,因為這群人想把英國國教禮拜中他們認為屬於羅馬天主教的部分清掉。原文用的是 probably,所以這裡保留「可能」。資料也註明大寫的 Puritan 出現得比小寫的 puritan 早,這正好對上底下兩支的先後:先有那群人,才有拿他們來形容別人的用法。

Wiktionary entry Puritan, etymology field supplied in this batch packet (kaikki extract 3f6f69a190036ae4:948279834). The hedge probably is the source's own wording.

Two branches

歷史上的那群人

這一支就是核心畫面本身,而且是真實存在過的人和時代。

noun · B2

A member of a Protestant religious group in the 16th and 17th centuries who wanted church life and worship to be simpler and plainer.

清教徒(十六、十七世紀的新教團體成員)

把那間空房間搬到別人身上

把那群人最顯眼的一點——拿掉一切只為享樂的東西——借來說今天的人,語氣就從描述變成了批評。這是用法上的借用,不是在說這些人跟那個教派有關係。

noun · C1

Someone with very strict ideas about right and wrong, who thinks that enjoying yourself is unnecessary or even wrong.

清教徒式的人;把享樂看成不該的人