喜樂美語

核心畫面

You can picture substance as the real stuff that stands under things — actual material you can touch and weigh, as opposed to empty appearance or mere talk. From that one image everything grows: real matter, real facts, real content, real weight, even a person of real standing.

可以想成：substance 是「站在底下撐著的真材實料」——你摸得到、秤得出重量的實在東西，跟空洞的外表或空談相對…更多收起可以想成：substance 是「站在底下撐著的真材實料」——你摸得到、秤得出重量的實在東西，跟空洞的外表或空談相對。整個字都從這個畫面長出來：真的物質、真的根據、真的內容、真的份量，甚至一個真的有地位的人。

From the word’s history

From Latin substantia, from substare 'to stand under, be present' (sub- 'under' + stare 'to stand') — literally 'that which stands underneath and supports'. This underlying-real-stuff image is exactly what unifies the physical and the abstract senses.

源自拉丁文 substantia，來自 substare「站在底下、支撐」（sub-「在下」＋ stare「站」），字面是「站在底下撐住的東西」。正是這個「底下的真材實料」的畫面，把具體的物質和抽象的份量、內涵全串了起來。

etymonline.com/word/substance; Wiktionary 'substantia'

Three branches

實體物質

最字面的一支：真的站在那裡、摸得到的材料本身。

substance (material) · noun · B2

A type of material — a solid, liquid, or gas that you can see, touch, or measure.

物質

真正的內容（相對於空談）

把「底下的真材實料」搬到言談上：一段話有沒有 substance，就是問它底下有沒有真的根據和真的內容，還是只有漂亮的空殼。

basis in fact · noun · B2

The quality of being true and based on real facts, not just talk.

真實根據

份量與地位

真材實料是有重量的：有 substance 的東西或人，底下有分量撐著，站得穩、值得認真看待，而不是輕飄飄的。

weight, significance · noun · B2

The quality of being important, serious, and worth paying attention to.

份量

原始詞典資料8 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。

substancenoun/ˈsʌbstəns/

  • 1

    Physical matter; material.

    • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
    • His wasted hands were stretched out, and worked with a quick and convulsive motion, as if catching some small substances which kept eluding their grasp;...
  • 2

    Physical matter; material.

  • 3

    The essential part of anything; the most vital part.

    • Heroic virtue did his actions guide, / And he the substance, not the appearance, chose.
    • 1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth This edition is the same in substance with the Latin.
  • 4

    Substantiality; solidity; firmness.

    • Some textile fabrics have little substance.
  • 5

    Material possessions; estate; property; resources.

    • a man of substance
    • And there wasted his substance with riotous living.
  • 6

    Drugs (illegal narcotics)

    • substance abuse
  • 7

    human-scienceslifestylephilosophyOusia, essence; underlying reality or hypostasis in the philosophical sense.

substanceverb/ˈsʌbstəns/

  • 1

    rareTo give substance to; to make real or substantial.

    • If life were nothing but what gets phrased and substanced, the world might as well be rolled up and laid away again in darkness.
    • The calm ruminating / Reverie, substancing / Intellect into emotion, / Is shelter enough for love / Unhumiliated by faith.

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。