喜樂美語

核心畫面

Think of a lion's roar, then let it run on and on instead of stopping. Roaring can be pictured as something big going at full power, with the noise coming off it: wind against a window, a river after rain, an engine on a hill, a stadium full of people, a fire pulling air into itself. Nothing is holding back, and you can hear that. Once English had that picture, it stopped needing the actual noise. A stall that sells out in an hour, a show everyone is still talking about, a night out that went as far as it could go — these get called roaring too, because full power is the part that carried over.

「roaring」可以想成獅子吼那一聲，然後把它拉長，不讓它停下來。畫面比較像：有個很大的東西正開到最大，而且你聽得…更多收起「roaring」可以想成獅子吼那一聲，然後把它拉長，不讓它停下來。畫面比較像：有個很大的東西正開到最大，而且你聽得出來它沒有收力。窗外的強風、下過雨的溪、上坡的引擎、滿場的人、吸著空氣越燒越旺的火，都在這個畫面裡。有了這個畫面以後，英文就不一定要真的有聲音了。一小時賣光的攤子、大家還在討論的表演、玩到最盡興的一晚，也可以說是 roaring。因為留下來的重點是「全開」，不是「吵」。

From the word’s history

Roaring is roar plus -ing, the verb form used as a describing word: the thing that is roaring.

「roaring」就是 roar 加上 -ing，把動詞變成形容詞：正在吼的那個。所以聲音是它的起點，其他意思都是從這裡走出去的。

Wiktionary (local kaikki extract, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1140719345), etymology_text: 'By surface analysis, roar + -ing.'

Four branches

真的聽得到的吼聲

這一家最貼近原本的畫面：聲音又低又大，而且一直沒停。

adjective · B2

Making a deep, very loud sound that keeps going and does not stop, like strong wind, fast water, a big engine, or a shouting crowd. In this meaning the word goes in front of the noun it describes.

轟隆作響的

燒得像在吼的火

火燒旺時會把空氣吸進去，發出低低的呼呼聲；英文聽到那個聲音，就把吼借給火。

adjective · B1

A roaring fire is a fire burning with big flames and a lot of heat, strong enough that you can hear it as well as feel it.

熊熊燃燒的火

旺到藏不住

很吵通常代表很旺；英文把「聽得見」換成「看得見的成績」，聲音就變成了結果。

adjective · B2

If something is a roaring success, it goes extremely well and everyone can see it — a show, a shop, a party or a plan that people talk about afterwards.

大獲成功

拿來把音量開到最大

吼本來就是聲音開到最大；英文乾脆拿它去把後面那個字也開到最大。

adjective · C1

Used in front of another word to make it stronger, meaning completely or as much as possible. It is informal and now turns up mainly in a few set pairs, such as a roaring good time.

超級…、…得不得了

原始詞典資料5 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。

roaringadj/ˈɹɔːɹɪŋ/

  • 1

    informalIntensive; extreme.

    • “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”
  • 2

    Very successful; lively.

    • The ice-cream sellers did a roaring trade in the midday heat.
    • But finally we came to a river with hundreds of boats upon it, and there was a magnificent bridge, and on the other bank was a roaring city, and through the fog the rain came down thick as the tears of the angels. "That 's London," said I.

roaringnoun/ˈɹɔːɹɪŋ/

  • 1

    A loud, deep, prolonged sound, as of a large beast; a roar.

    • […] those wild eyes that watch the wave In roarings round the coral reef.
  • 2

    An affection of the windpipe of a horse, causing a loud, peculiar noise in breathing under exertion.

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 Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。