核心畫面

You can picture rakish as a man who is not tidy and looks all the better for it: the collar open, the hair not combed flat, the hat pushed to one side, and no sign at all that he minds. Under that picture sits an older one — the man who really does live loosely — and the word still carries a little of it.

rakish 可以想成一個不整齊、卻因此更好看的男人:領子敞著、頭髮沒梳平、帽子往旁邊一推,而且看得出他一點也不在意更多收起rakish 可以想成一個不整齊、卻因此更好看的男人:領子敞著、頭髮沒梳平、帽子往旁邊一推,而且看得出他一點也不在意。這個畫面底下還壓著一個比較舊的畫面——一個生活真的放浪的男人。所以就算今天只是誇一個人有型,這個字多半還帶著一絲「他不太守規矩」的味道。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary gives rakish as rake plus -ish, where rake means a man habituated to immoral conduct. So the word began as 'having something of the rake about him', which explains why the stylish sense still carries a faint edge of disrepute.

Wiktionary 記的是 rake 加 -ish,而這裡的 rake 指「習於放浪行徑的男人」。所以這個字一開始就是「帶著那個浪子味」,也就解釋了為什麼今天用來誇人有型時,還隱隱有一點不安分的邊。

Wiktionary entry for 'rakish' (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1190653807:12898): 'From rake ("man habituated to immoral conduct") + -ish.'

Two branches

歪一點、鬆一點的瀟灑

這一組是今天最常用的:那個浪子的形象只留下外表的部分,變成一種好看的隨性。

adjective · C2

Looking stylish, confident and relaxed in a slightly untidy or daring way. It is used about a man, or about the clothes, hair or manner that give him that look, and it often carries a hint that he does not quite follow the rules.

瀟灑不羈

那個浪子本人

這一支離字源最近:不是「看起來像浪子」,而是真的過著那種日子。來源字典標為 old-fashioned,Wiktionary 標為 dated。

adjective · C2

Used about a man who lives in a wild way: having many sexual relationships, spending his money carelessly, and drinking heavily. This use is old-fashioned and is now met mostly in older novels, films and newspapers.

放蕩的