喜樂美語

核心畫面

A rung can be pictured as one short bar laid across a gap — a single bar between the two long sides of a ladder, or between two chair legs. It is strong enough to take your weight, and it almost never comes alone: rungs sit in a row, one above another. So the word carries two things at once — a bar you can stand on, and a place in a series of places.

rung 可以想成「橫過去的那一根棍子」：梯子兩根長桿之間、或兩隻椅腳之間，橫著接住的那一根。它夠硬，可以承重，所以…更多收起rung 可以想成「橫過去的那一根棍子」：梯子兩根長桿之間、或兩隻椅腳之間，橫著接住的那一根。它夠硬，可以承重，所以腳踩得上去。而且它很少單獨出現，通常是一根一根排成一列，一根比一根高。所以這個字身上同時帶著兩件事：一根踩得住的橫木，以及「一整排裡的第幾個位置」。往上爬的畫面，就是從這裡長出來的。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary traces rung to Middle English rung, Old English hrung, Proto-Germanic *hrungō, with cognates German Runge and Dutch rong, both meaning a pole or stanchion. The old sense is simply a bar or staff, which is the plain object still at the centre of every modern use.

根據 Wiktionary，rung 來自中古英文 rung、古英文 hrung，再往上是原始日耳曼語 *hrungō；德文 Runge、荷蘭文 rong 都是同源字，意思是「支柱、桿子」。最早的意思就是一根棍子或橫桿。今天不管是梯子上的那一階、椅腳之間的橫木，還是「階層裡的一層」，中間都還留著這根棍子的影子。

Wiktionary via kaikki extract, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:206511402 (etymology_number 1): Middle English rung < Old English hrung < Proto-West Germanic *hrungu < Proto-Germanic *hrungō; cognate Dutch rong, German Runge, Gothic hrugga.

Two branches

橫過去的一根木條

這一族就是核心畫面本身：一根橫木，兩端接在別的東西上，中間空的地方被它撐住。差別只在它裝在哪裡。

noun · B2

One of the short bars that go across a ladder, set one above another, that you put your foot on when you climb up or down.

梯子的橫檔

一整排高低裡的某一層

把核心畫面整個搬去看不見的地方：公司、制度、社會被當成一把梯子，裡面的每一層就是一根橫檔。這是概念上的比喻，不是說這個意思在歷史上晚出或早出。

noun · B2

A particular level or position in an organization or system, thought of as one bar on a ladder that people can move up or down.

層級

原始詞典資料11 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。

Rungname

  • 1

    A surname.

rungnoun詞源 1/ˈɹʌŋ/

  • 1

    A crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round.

  • 2

    A crosspiece between legs of a chair.

    • One of its arms was a disabled flail which used to be wielded by Goodman Rigby, before his spouse worried him out of this troublesome world; the other, if I mistake not, was composed of the pudding stick and a broken rung of a chair, tied loosely together at the elbow.
  • 3

    A position in a hierarchy.

    • the lowest rung of the society
    • “I’m very proud that I’ve worked on every rung of the ladder,” Ashley says. “When you go to college, you don’t want to be a senior right away—you want to be a freshman.”
  • 4

    datednauticaltransportA floor timber in a ship.

  • 5

    datedOne of the stakes of a cart; a spar; a heavy staff.

  • 6

    datedengineeringnatural-sciencesphysical-sciencesOne of the radial handles projecting from the rim of a steering wheel.

  • 7

    datedengineeringnatural-sciencesphysical-sciencesOne of the pins or trundles of a lantern wheel.

rungadj詞源 2/ˈɹʌŋ/

  • 1

    Of a pig: having a ring through the nose.

    • […] he passed by his gate with a decided scowl on his furrowed brow, and grunting and growling like a newly rung pig.
    • A "rung" pig is comfortable as long as he confines his food hunt to the surface of the ground. Ringing a pig of ordinary size is easy, but special arrangements must be made for handling the big ones.

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。