核心畫面

A ceremony you are watching from a distance: the long approach, the even proportions, the pace that nobody is allowed to rush. One way to hold the word is that it always says the same thing about scale and self-possession, and only changes whether you are looking at a thing, a movement, or a person.

可以想成你站在遠處看一場典禮:要走很長一段路才到、一切比例對稱、節奏慢到沒有人被允許催促。stately 講的一直是更多收起可以想成你站在遠處看一場典禮:要走很長一段路才到、一切比例對稱、節奏慢到沒有人被允許催促。stately 講的一直是同一件事——尺度夠大、姿態夠穩、不慌不忙。真正在變的只是你看的對象:看建築,它是氣派;看動作,它是隆重的慢;看人,它是鎮得住場面的威儀。

From the word’s history

From Middle English stately, analysable as state + the adjective suffix -ly. State here carries its older sense of ceremony and public grandeur.

來自中古英語 stately,拆開看是 state 加上形容詞字尾 -ly。這裡的 state 用的是它比較舊的意思:典禮、朝廷的排場。所以這個字的底色一直是「大典的規格」。

Wiktionary entry for stately, etymology 1 (packet etymology_text: "From Middle English staately... By surface analysis, state + -ly (adjectival suffix).")

From the picture

動起來有排場

典禮的畫面從靜止換成移動:一樣的分量,只是現在用速度表現出來。

adjective · C1

Moving slowly and with great dignity, in the way things move at a ceremony — unhurried on purpose, because the slowness is part of the effect.

莊重緩慢的

Also in this word

adjective · C1

Large, grand and impressive to look at — used about buildings, rooms, trees, ships and other things whose size and style make you stop and look.

宏偉的;氣派的

adjective · C1

Calm, dignified and worth respect — used about a person whose way of standing, moving and speaking makes them seem important.

端莊威儀的