喜樂美語

核心畫面

Picture one object: a long flat board, thin enough to bend, with the front end curled up like the nose of a boat. Nothing narrow underneath, so the whole rides on the snow and the curl climbs over soft drifts instead of digging in. Everything else in this word comes off that board — what you carry on it, what you do on it, and even, by a long way round, what you wear while you do it.

可以想成一個東西：一塊長長的薄板，前端像船頭一樣往上捲起來。底下沒有細細的滑刀，所以整個板面壓在雪上滑。前端捲起來的…更多收起可以想成一個東西：一塊長長的薄板，前端像船頭一樣往上捲起來。底下沒有細細的滑刀，所以整個板面壓在雪上滑。前端捲起來的地方會爬過鬆軟的雪堆，而不是插進去。這個字後面的每一種用法，都可以從這塊板子看出來。看你把什麼放上去。看你在上面做什麼。連那頂毛線帽，繞一圈也回得到這裡。

From the word’s history

The packet's source entry traces the word to French tabaganne, from an Algonquian word — probably Mi'kmaq tepaqan or Abenaki dabogan — with the noun recorded from 1829 and the verb from 1846. The board is the thing the word was borrowed for, which is why the object sense sits at the centre.

packet 裡的來源說明寫著：這個字來自法語 tabaganne，再往上是阿爾岡昆語族的詞，可能是 Mi'kmaq 的 tepaqan 或 Abenaki 的 dabôgan；名詞一八二九年、動詞一八四六年開始有紀錄。英文一開始借的就是那塊板子這個東西，所以把名詞放在中心最說得通。

Wiktionary etymology field supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1016882092)

Three branches

那塊板子本身

這一組就是核心那個東西，只是用途不同：一邊是拿來玩，一邊是拿來載東西。板子沒變，變的是上面放什麼。

noun · B2

A long, flat sled with the front end curved upward, used for sliding down snowy hills. It has nothing narrow underneath, so the whole board slides on the snow, and it is often pulled along by a rope.

平底雪橇

在板子上做的動作

英文常常直接把一個東西拿來當動詞用。這裡就是：名詞是那塊板子，動詞是坐上去滑下坡。

verb · B2

To ride down a snowy hill on a toboggan, or on anything flat that will slide.

坐雪橇滑下坡

滑雪橇時戴的那頂帽子

這一支不是從板子的畫面比喻過去的，而是詞組被磨短的結果，所以它跟雪橇的關係只留在歷史裡，不在說話的當下。

noun · C1

In the southern United States, a warm knitted hat that you pull down over your head and ears. Other English speakers call the same hat a beanie, a knit cap or a woolly hat.

毛線帽（美南用法）

原始詞典資料7 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。

toboggannoun/təˈbɒɡ.ən/

  • 1

    A long sled without runners, with the front end curled upwards, which may be pulled across snow by a cord or used to coast down hills.

    • Toboggan has not yet found its Way into the dictionaries, and there are other ways of spelling it.
    • Nothing could be more exciting and exhilarating than a slide, on sleigh or toboggan, from the lofty summit of the ice-mound or cone down to its base.
  • 2

    A similar sled of wood, pulled by dogs, possibly with steel runners, made to transport cargo.

    • The old toboggan has been laid aside, and sleighs or waggons dash along the streets.
    • These animals are harnessed by a padded collar to a light flat sleigh, of skins stretched across a frame of thin wood, called a toboggan.
  • 3

    Something which, once it starts going (figuratively) downhill, is unstoppable until it reaches the bottom.

    • McGinnity began to hit the toboggan in 1906, after he had pitched his arm off the previous year. Last season his efforts at times were painful.
    • If we were to hit the toboggan of a depression, wages would drop.
  • 4

    A knit cap, designed to provide warmth in cold weather.

    • Suppose we wish to make a pointed cap, such as used to be known as a toboggan cap, from yarn or worsted.
    • Sissy bounded back in dressed in a heavy sweater and toboggan.

tobogganverb/təˈbɒɡ.ən/

  • 1

    To slide down a hill on a toboggan or other object.

    • Mr. Macaulay, the landlord, insisted upon trying to "toboggan" us down the mountain on the saddle cloth of one of the horses, an attempt that ended of course in disaster, for the surface was much too small for the three of us, and the snow too soft for the purpose.
    • The aspect of this patient was greatly changed for the better; she was able to skate, toboggan, and mount 500 feet of Maloja Pass without fatigue.
  • 2

    To go downhill unstoppably until one reaches the bottom.

    • A depression in one nation can become the slide on which our civilization would toboggan into economic collapse.
    • I can't win, can I? You think I'm posh and my folks think I'm tobogganing down-market faster than the royal family.
  • 3

    aeronauticsaerospaceaviationTo fly sharply downward so as to build up speed to facilitate in-flight refueling of a faster aircraft.

    • Aircraft returning to refuel at about three o'clock have tobogganed down to their spats in the mud whilst early in the morning one could bounce a crowbar on the frozen ground.
    • How did a piston engine tanker refuel a faster jet bomber? It "tobogganed" - the refueling connection would be made high up and then the bomber and tanker flew "downhill" together enabling the tanker to pick up more speed.

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。