喜樂美語

核心畫面

Think of a dry cloth dropped into water. At first it takes water in fast. Then it slows. Then there is a moment when it stops: the cloth is holding all the water it can, and anything more just runs off. Saturate is the verb for reaching that moment. Every use keeps it, and only the container changes. Sometimes the container really is a cloth, a carpet, or the ground after days of rain. Sometimes it is a day, a city or a television schedule, and what fills it is or music instead of water. Sometimes it is a market, and what fills it is products nobody needs any more of. And sometimes it is a glass of water taking in salt, or a colour holding as much of itself as it can.

可以想成：一塊乾布掉進水裡。一開始吸得很快。然後慢下來。然後有一個瞬間，它停了——布已經吸到不能再吸，再多的水只會流…更多收起可以想成：一塊乾布掉進水裡。一開始吸得很快。然後慢下來。然後有一個瞬間，它停了——布已經吸到不能再吸，再多的水只會流掉。saturate 講的就是「到達那個瞬間」。所有用法都留著這個畫面，換掉的只是那個容器。有時候容器真的是布、地毯，或連下三天雨的土地。有時候容器是一天、一座城市、一整排電視節目，裝進去的變成廣告或音樂。有時候容器是一個市場，裝進去的是多到沒人再需要的商品。有時候容器是一杯水，裝進去的是鹽；或者是一個顏色，裝滿的是它自己。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary traces saturate to Latin saturō, 'to fill, satisfy, quench', from satur, 'full', arriving in English through Middle English saturat(e), 'satiated, satisfied'. The oldest idea is being full to the point of wanting no more, which is exactly the moment the modern word names.

依 Wiktionary 的說法，saturate 借自拉丁文 saturō「填滿、使滿足」，再往前是 satur「飽的」，中途經過中古英語的 saturat(e)「吃飽的、滿足的」。最早的意思就是「飽到不想再要了」，正好就是今天這個字在講的那個瞬間。

Wiktionary (kaikki extract) entry 'saturate', source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:662246889:20993

Three branches

液體整個滲透

這一組就是核心畫面本身，容器是真的東西，裝進去的是真的水。

verb · B2

To make something completely wet, so that the liquid soaks all the way through it and it cannot take in any more.

浸透；濕透

塞到再也塞不下

把濕布換成一段生活、一座城市或一個市場，把水換成廣告、資訊或商品，畫面完全一樣：到了那個點，再加也沒用。

verb · B2

To put so much of something into a place, a piece of work, or people's daily life that there is no room to add any more.

充斥；灌爆

科學上的「接滿了」

科學把「吸到不能再吸」這個日常畫面收成一個明確的量：到某個點就是上限，這一組都是在講那個上限。

verb · C1

In chemistry, to mix as much of a solid or gas into a liquid as that liquid can hold, so that no more will dissolve.

使（溶液）飽和

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。

saturateverb/ˈsatjʊɹeɪt/

  • 1

    To cause to become completely permeated with, or soaked (especially with a liquid).

    • Rain saturated their clothes.
    • After walking home in the driving rain, his clothes were saturated.
  • 2

    To fill thoroughly or to excess.

    • Modern television is saturated with violence.
  • 3

    chemistrynatural-sciencesphysical-sciencesTo satisfy the affinity of; to cause a substance to become inert by chemical combination with all that it can hold.

    • One can saturate phosphorus with chlorine.
  • 4

    engineeringnatural-sciencesopticsTo render pure, or of a colour free from white light.

saturatenoun/ˈsatjʊɹət/

  • 1

    chemistrynatural-sciencesphysical-sciencesSomething saturated, especially a saturated fat.

    • Through formation of a double bond, stearic acid (18:0), a saturate, is converted to acid (18:1), a monounsaturate.
    • We estimate from Table 4 that the average deuterium content in the saturate is approximately 1.1 when palladium is the catalyst, 1.6 when platinum is the catalyst, and 1.7 when rhodium is the catalyst. If there were only deuterium on the surface, the saturate would average 2 deuteriums.

saturateadj/ˈsatjʊɹət/

  • 1

    Saturated, wet, soaked.

    • The innocent are gay—the lark is gay, / That dries his feathers, saturate with dew, / Beneath the rosy cloud, while yet the beams / Of dayspring overshoot his humble nest.
  • 2

    Saturated, wet, soaked.

    • There she lay, […] Wax-white, seraphic, saturate with the sun O' the morning that now flooded from the front And filled the window with a light like blood.
  • 3

    biologyentomologynatural-sciencesVery intense.

    • saturate green
  • 4

    obsoleteSatisfied, satiated.

  • 5

    obsoleteComplete, perfect.

  • 6

    obsoletechemistrynatural-sciencesphysical-sciencesSaturated.

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。