好到極點
同一個「超出刻度」的畫面,只是往開心的方向翻過去:東西好得超出預期,也會讓人倒抽一口氣。這是今天最常聽到的用法。
extremely good · adjective · B1
Extremely good, in a way that makes you feel excited or pleased.
棒極了;極好的
Think of terrific as a size word before it is a praise word: whatever it touches is off the normal scale — a terrific bang, a terrific speed, a terrific headache. The reaction it describes is the small you make when something is far bigger than you expected. Praise is what happens when that turns friendly.
From Latin terrificus 'causing terror or fear, frightful' (terrere 'to fill with fear' + facere 'to make'). English used it for 'terrifying' from the 1660s; the weakened sense 'very great, severe, excessive' (a terrific headache) is recorded by 1809, and the inverted colloquial sense 'excellent' by 1888 — the same softening that happened to awful and terrible.
源自拉丁文 terrificus「令人恐懼的」(terrere 使人害怕 + facere 使成為),1660 年代進英文時就是「可怕的」。到 1809 年語氣轉弱,變成「非常大、非常劇烈」(a terrific headache);1888 年再翻轉成口語的「棒極了」。這條線也解釋了為什麼 terrific 和 terrible、terror 長得像卻走到相反的方向——awful 也走過同一段路。
Etymonline, entry 'terrific' (etymonline.com/word/terrific)
From the picture
好到極點
同一個「超出刻度」的畫面,只是往開心的方向翻過去:東西好得超出預期,也會讓人倒抽一口氣。這是今天最常聽到的用法。
extremely good · adjective · B1
Extremely good, in a way that makes you feel excited or pleased.
棒極了;極好的
very great in size · adjective · B1
Very large in size or degree — much bigger, louder, faster, or stronger than usual.
極大的;非常大的
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。
terrificadj
archaicCausing terror; terrifying.
Very strong or intense; excessive, tremendous.
Extremely good; excellent, amazing.
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。