核心畫面

You can think of retry as pressing rewind on one attempt and running it again from the beginning. Something was tried, it came to nothing, and now the very same attempt goes through a second time. The word says nothing about doing it differently — if the method changed, the sentence has to add that. Everything else the word does is this one picture placed in a particular room: a machine's failed action, a court's unfinished case, or the single repeated attempt counted as a thing.

「retry」可以想成把一次嘗試倒帶,然後整個重跑一遍。事情試過了,沒有結果,於是同樣的嘗試再走一次。這個字本身不保更多收起「retry」可以想成把一次嘗試倒帶,然後整個重跑一遍。事情試過了,沒有結果,於是同樣的嘗試再走一次。這個字本身不保證你換了方法。真的換了方法,要另外講出來。它其他的用法,都可以想成同一個畫面被放進不同的房間:機器裡失敗的那個動作、法庭上沒結果的那個案子、或是把「重試的那一次」當成可以數的東西。

From the word’s history

Simply re- plus try, the two parts still visible in the word today.

就是 re- 加上 try 組成的,兩個零件到今天還看得清清楚楚,所以意思也可以直接從零件讀出來。

Wiktionary entry for retry, etymology_text supplied in this packet: English re- + English try.

Two branches

同一個嘗試再跑一遍

這一家人就是核心畫面本身,只是場合不同:一個是生活裡的任何嘗試,一個是機器上失敗的那個動作。

verb · B1

To try something again after the first attempt did not work.

再試一次

法庭上再審一次

這一支不是比喻,而是 try 本身在法律英文裡另有「審理」的意思;re- 加上去,自然就成了「再審理一次」。

verb · C1

To hold a new trial for a person or a court case that has already been tried once.

重審(案件或被告)