核心畫面

One way to hold scratchy is to picture a dragged lightly across something. Nothing is cut and nothing breaks — but a thin rough line is left, and the place it touched keeps complaining afterwards. Every use of the word is that same small rough drag, landing somewhere different: on your skin, inside your throat, in your ear, on the paper, or on your patience.

scratchy 可以想成指甲輕輕刮過一樣東西。沒有割破,也沒有壞掉,卻留下一道細細粗粗的痕跡,而且被刮到的地方會一更多收起scratchy 可以想成指甲輕輕刮過一樣東西。沒有割破,也沒有壞掉,卻留下一道細細粗粗的痕跡,而且被刮到的地方會一直有感覺。這個字的每一種用法,都是同一個小小的「刮過去」,只是落在不同地方:落在皮膚上、落在喉嚨裡、落在耳朵裡、落在紙上,或是落在你的耐性上。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary gives the word straight: scratch + -y. The -y ending turns a thing you do into what something is like, so scratchy is literally what tends to scratch, or what feels as if it has been scratched.

Wiktionary 直接記下這個組合:scratch(抓、刮)加上形容詞字尾 -y。-y 把一個動作變成一種性質,所以 scratchy 字面上就是「會刮人的」「像被刮過的」。

Wiktionary entry for scratchy, etymology_text: From scratch + -y (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:662668555)

Four branches

刮到身體

這一支是核心畫面最直接的樣子:那道刮過去的感覺,落在你身上。

adjective · B1

Rough against the skin, in the slightly itchy way that cheap wool, dry grass or a stiff label feels, so that wearing or touching it makes you want to scratch.

刺刺的、扎人的

刮到耳朵

把那道粗糙的痕跡從皮膚搬到聲音裡:聽起來不平滑,還混著不該有的小雜音。

adjective · B2

A scratchy voice, recording or radio signal sounds rough and uneven rather than smooth and clear, with small crackles or a thin rubbing noise in it.

沙啞刺耳的、有雜音的

看得見的刮痕

這一支最接近字面:刮出來的痕跡是用眼睛看的。

adjective · C1

Made up of, or covered with, thin uneven lines that look as if they were scratched onto the surface — used about handwriting, quick drawings, and worn surfaces.

潦草的、有刮痕的

刮到脾氣

最後一步把那個磨人的感覺放到心情上:被磨久了的人,小事就會被弄毛。

adjective · B2

Slightly bad-tempered and easily annoyed, in the mild way people get when they are tired, hungry or have waited too long.

煩躁的、easily 火大的