核心畫面

You can picture 'rent' as money handed over regularly in return for the use of something that belongs to someone else — you don't own it, but for a fee you get to live in it or use it for a while. (A quite separate, unrelated 'rent' means a tear or rip; that one comes from 'rend'.)

可以想成定期把錢交出去,換來「暫時使用別人東西」的權利——那東西不是你的,但付了錢你就能住進去或用一陣子。(另外還有更多收起可以想成定期把錢交出去,換來「暫時使用別人東西」的權利——那東西不是你的,但付了錢你就能住進去或用一陣子。(另外還有一個完全不相干、同樣拼作 rent 的字,意思是「撕裂、破洞」,那個來自 rend,屬於另一條字源。)

From the word’s history

The payment sense is from Old French rente 'payment due, income', from Vulgar Latin rendita / Latin reddita 'given back, paid', past participle of reddere 'to give back'. So rent is at root 'what is given back regularly in return for use'.

「租金」這一支來自古法文 rente(該付的款、收入),源自拉丁文 reddita(交還、付出),是 reddere(交還)的過去分詞。所以 rent 的根意就是「為了使用而定期交出去的那筆錢」。

etymonline.com/word/rent; en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rente

Four branches

付錢使用(承租的一方)

站在「用的人」這一邊:我付錢,換來住進去或用一陣子的權利。這是 rent 最核心的動作——花錢買使用權,而不是買下所有權。

rent, pay to use · verb · A2

To pay money regularly so you can live in or use something that belongs to someone else.

租/承租

收錢出借(出租的一方)

同一筆交易翻到「東西的主人」這一邊:我把自己的東西給你用,向你收那筆錢。方向相反,畫面同一個——使用權換金錢,只是這次錢流進我口袋。

rent out · verb · A2

To let someone live in or use something you own, and get money from them for it.

出租

租金這筆錢(名詞)

把焦點從「動作」移到「那筆錢本身」:定期為了使用而交出去的金額,就叫 rent。這正是字源 reddita「交出去的款」最字面的樣子。

rent, housing payment · noun · A2

The money you pay regularly to use a room or house someone else owns.

租金

撕裂、破洞(另一條字源:rend)

這一支和「付錢」的 rent 只是剛好同形,意思毫不相干。它來自古英文 rendan(用力撕裂),畫面是布被使勁扯開、留下一道大裂口。

torn apart (past tense of rend) · verb · A2

The past tense and past participle of 'rend', which means to tear something apart with force.

rend 的過去式(撕裂)

原始詞典資料15 筆記錄

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。

Rentname

  • 1

    A surname.

rentnoun詞源 1/ˈɹɛnt/

  • 1

    A payment made by a tenant at intervals in order to lease a property.

    • I am asking £300 a week rent.
    • This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.
  • 2

    A similar payment for the use of a product, equipment or a service.

  • 3

    economicssciencesA profit from possession of a valuable right, as a restricted license to engage in a trade or business.

    • A New York city taxicab license earns more than $10,000 a year in rent.
  • 4

    An object for which rent is charged or paid.

  • 5

    obsoleteIncome; revenue.

    • So bought an annual rent or two, / And liv'd, just as you see I do.
  • 6

    video-gamesAn amount of virtual currency paid by a player to preserve their character, inventory, etc. between gameplay sessions in a multi-user dungeon.

rentverb詞源 1/ˈɹɛnt/

  • 1

    To take a lease of premises in exchange for rent.

    • I rented a house from my friend's parents for a year.
  • 2

    informalTo grant a lease in return for rent.

    • We rented our house to our son's friend for a year.
  • 3

    To obtain or have temporary possession of an object (e.g. a movie) in exchange for money.

    • In Pärnu the beach is closed, but the Neptun cooperative still runs its beachfront shop, renting surfboards and beach chairs.
  • 4

    informalTo be leased or let for rent.

    • The house rents for five hundred dollars a month.

rentnoun詞源 2/ˈɹɛnt/

  • 1

    A tear or rip in some surface.

    • [O]ne streak of copper-coloured light made a narrow rent between sea and sky.
    • The brown paint on the door was so old that the naked wood showed between the rents.
  • 2

    A division or schism.

    • [T]he White House was considering sending Vice President Humphrey to Cairo to patch up the many rents in U.S.—Egyptian relations.

rentadj詞源 2/ˈɹɛnt/

  • 1

    That has been torn or rent; ripped; torn.

    • Indeed, we could clearly make out the arch and stony banks of this second cave, and, from their rent and jagged appearance, discovered that, like the first long passage down which we had passed through the cliff before we reached the quivering spur, it had to all appearance been torn in the bowels of the rock by the terrific force of some explosive gas.
    • Cleopatra is rent by a struggle between her newly-acquired dignity as a queen, and a strong impulse to put out her tongue at him.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形:

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。