- 1星塵；童話裡的魔法金粉。引申指那種說不出來的「明星光環、夢幻魅力」。
Stardust, in ordinary use, is an imaginary magic powder — the fine glittering dust that a fairy to make something wonderful happen. It does not exist; it belongs to children's stories, song lyrics, and dreams. Uncountable, so no plural.
From there it moved into a figurative use, which is really where you meet it most. A person or a place can be said to have stardust about them: a special glamour, a magic that cannot be explained or bought. 'The new signing brought some stardust to the team' means he brought excitement, star quality, a sense that anything could happen. Sports writing loves this use. So do reviews of concerts and films.
There is also a plain scientific use — real dust made of matter from stars, which is where the atoms in our bodies came from. Scientists genuinely say 'we are made of stardust', and it is true, but they are borrowing the poetry of the word on purpose.
From the word’s history
star + dust.
star（星）＋dust（塵），太空中的星塵。
組成star + dust. Two ordinary words joined; the magic is entirely in putting them together.
原始詞典資料6 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。
stardustnoun/ˈstɑːdʌst/
- 1
Small fragments of dustlike material found in space; specifically, a type of cosmic dust that formed from cooling gases ejected from presolar stars, which was then incorporated into the cloud from which the Solar System condensed.
- We are all made of stardust.
- Presolar grains were isolated in primitive meteorites only 15 years ago. These grains of stardust formed in the atmospheres of evolved stars and in nova and supernova ejecta.
- 2
datedinformalA distant cluster of stars resembling a cloud of dust, especially if the individual stars of which cannot be resolved with a telescope.
- 3
archaicSmall fragments in the Earth's atmosphere or on its surface originating from meteorites; meteor dust.
- 4
Something imaginary or lacking substance.
- His [Sickert's] paint has a tangible quality; it is made not of air and star-dust but of oil and earth.
- 5
An imaginary magic dust or powder that, when in one's eyes, supposedly causes one to view a person or thing favourably, even though this might not actually be warranted.
- My sister’s eyes were full of stardust – she’d spend hours lazily planning her future life when she would make her big break in the movies.
- 6
An imaginary magic dust or powder supposedly able to give one charisma or other positive qualities; hence, charisma or glamour, especially that possessed by a celebrity.
- Why would experienced deal makers want rock stars and actors to advise them? Why would entrepreneurs seek their money? There is a certain cachet with all that stardust, of course, and perhaps some free publicity.
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。