身體送出的訊號，再擴到問題送出的訊號
兩個意思是同一個畫面的兩次使用：先用在生病的身體上，再用在生病的社會或組織上。
sign of illness · noun · B2
something wrong with your body or your mind, such as pain, a cough, or a fever, which shows that you have a particular illness.
症狀
核心畫面
A symptom is the part of an illness you can actually see or feel — the cough, the fever, the — while the illness itself stays hidden inside. It is the tip that shows above the surface, and it points to something larger underneath.
「露出水面的那一角」。真正的病藏在身體裡，你看不到它；你能感覺到的是咳嗽、發燒、這裡痛那裡痛。這些就是 sympto…更多收起
「露出水面的那一角」。真正的病藏在身體裡，你看不到它；你能感覺到的是咳嗽、發燒、這裡痛那裡痛。這些就是 symptom——不是病本身，而是病送上來的訊號。所以一個關鍵是：symptom 永遠指向別的東西。它自己不重要，重要的是它後面那個看不見的東西。也因為這樣，醫生問診時追的是「這個訊號從哪來」，而不是只把訊號按掉。One branch
原始詞典資料2 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。
symptomnoun/ˈsɪm(p)təm/
- 1
medicinesciencesA perceived change in some function, sensation or appearance of a person that indicates a disease or disorder, such as fever, headache or rash; strictly, a symptom is felt or experienced by the patient, while a sign can be detected by an observer.
- The doctor told that his coughing and sneezing was the symptom of standing for too long in the rain.
- Swollen breasts, morning sickness, and a missed period are classic symptoms of pregnancy.
- 2
A signal; anything that indicates, or is characteristic of, the presence of something else, especially of something undesirable.
- Lying, hiding one's true feelings, and having affairs are typical symptoms of a doomed marriage.
- "Nay, nay," exclaimed Lord Norbourne, "I cannot go quite so far as that. I have, thanks to your hospitality, laid in a stock of health enough for the ensuing winter: but as to the general benevolence of which you talk, I confess I find no symptoms: if I did, they would alarm me more than those of the gout."
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。