- 11. 幽靈、鬼魂(文學用語，日常說 ghost)。2. 令人不安的隱憂、揮之不去的陰影，如「戰爭的陰影」。specter 是美式拼法，英式寫 spectre。
Specter is how Americans spell 'spectre'. British and most other writers use 'spectre'; the meaning is identical, only the last two letters swap. It has two lives. The first is literal: a ghost — but a particular flavour of ghost, one that appears silently and you. It is a literary word. In a novel or a poem you meet a specter drifting through a dark house; in normal conversation people say 'ghost'. If you say 'I saw a specter' to a friend, it sounds like you are joking or being dramatic. The second life is the one you will actually read in newspapers, and it is more useful. A specter is a possibility that hangs over a situation — something bad that has not happened but keeps threatening to. 'The specter of unemployment', 'the specter of war', 'raise the specter of another crisis'. The image is that the bad thing is haunting people, like a ghost, even though it is not real yet. Two phrases carry most of this use: 'the specter of X' and 'raise the specter of X'. This is formal, written English — journalism, essays, speeches. Knowing this second use is worth much more to a student than knowing the ghost meaning.
組成From French spectre, from Latin spectrum, meaning 'an appearance, a thing that shows itself'. The same Latin word gave English 'spectrum' — the two words are twins that grew apart.
同家族的字
- spectrumthe same Latin word spectrum, borrowed a second time with a different meaning
- spectaclesomething shown to be looked at; from the same Latin root for seeing
- spectacularamazing to look at; same root
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，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。
specternoun/ˈspɛktɚ/
- 1
A ghostly apparition, a phantom.
- A specter haunted the cemetery at the old Vasquez manor.
- Nevertheleſſe, they which ſhould ſee thoſe Iſles thus to moove in this manner, not knowing before that the ſame were naturall: they would entertaine many and diverſe apprehenſions in their fantaſie, & would imagine that they ſawe a thing very ſtrange and prodigious, and ſuch as did very neere approach to the nature of ſome Specter [translating spectre] and viſion.
- 2
A threatening mental image; an unpleasant prospect
- The specter of an election-vote recount is this year's political bogeyman.
- A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies.
- 3
biologyentomologynatural-sciencesAny of certain species of dragonfly of the genus Boyeria, family Aeshnidae.
- 4
biologyentomologynatural-sciencesAny of various species of Asian danaid butterflies of the genus Idea, family Nymphalidae.
- The large and handsome spectre-butterfly, Hestia durvillei; the pale-winged peacock butterfly, Drusilla catops; and the most brilliant and wonderful of the clear-winged moths, Cocytia durvillei, were especially interesting, as well, as several little "blues," equalling in brilliancy and beauty anything the butterfly world can produce.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。