核心畫面

One way to hold it: a small stand-in for something bigger. The thing itself is not here, so a small visible object is put in its place — and the whole question with a token is always whether the real thing is behind it.

一個小東西被拿來「代表」一個比它大得多的東西。真正的那個東西不在現場——感謝、愛、一筆錢、一份誠意、一個群體的多元—更多收起一個小東西被拿來「代表」一個比它大得多的東西。真正的那個東西不在現場——感謝、愛、一筆錢、一份誠意、一個群體的多元——所以先擺一個看得見的小物件在那裡替它站著。這個字最有意思的地方就在這裡:小東西代表大東西,本來是好用的;但它也可能被拿來充場面,代表的東西其實根本不在後面。整個 token 的意思網,就在「真的代表」和「只是擺著好看」之間展開。

From the word’s history

Old English tācn meant 'sign, symbol', from a root meaning 'to show'. The word has always been about something put where you can see it so that it points to something else.

古英語的 tācn 就是「記號、象徵」,字根的意思是「顯示、指出」(跟 teach、show 同源)。這說明 token 從一開始就不是「東西本身」,而是「擺出來指向別的東西的那個記號」——現代所有的用法,都還壓在這個「代替、指向」的動作上。

Wiktionary, entry "token" (Old English tācn, Proto-Germanic *taikną, PIE *deyḱ- 'to show')

Three branches

代表心意的象徵

核心本身:拿得出來的小東西,站在一份看不見的心意或事實前面。

symbol of a feeling · noun · C1

Something that stands for a feeling, fact, or event, such as thanks or love.

象徵

代替錢用的憑證

同樣是小東西代表大東西,只是這次代表的是錢或一次使用權;它本身不值錢,值錢的是它能換到什麼。

coin-like token for a machine · noun · C1

A small round piece of metal that you put into some machines instead of money.

代幣

只做樣子的形容詞

當 token 走到形容詞,重心整個翻過來:從「小東西代表真的東西」變成「小東西被拿來擋著,後面沒有真的東西」。

symbolic, not substantial · adjective · C1

Used about an action or change that is small and not very important, usually done only so someone can look as if they are solving a problem.

做樣子

原始詞典資料35 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。

tokennoun/ˈtəʊkən/

  • 1

    Something serving as an expression of something else.

    • According to the Bible, the rainbow is a token of God's covenant with Noah.
  • 2

    A keepsake.

    • Please accept this bustier as a token of our time together.
  • 3

    A piece of stamped metal or plastic, etc., used as a form of currency; a voucher that can be exchanged for goods or services.

    • Subway tokens are being replaced by magnetic cards.
    • A book token is the easiest option for a Christmas gift.
  • 4

    A small physical object, often designed to give the appearance of a common thing, used to represent a person or character in a board game or other situation.

    • Everyone pick a token (hat, wheelbarrow, thimble, etc.) and place it on the Start square.
  • 5

    A minor attempt for appearance's sake, or to minimally comply with a requirement; a formality.

    • His apology was no more than a token.
  • 6

    A minor attempt for appearance's sake, or to minimally comply with a requirement; a formality.

    • New York Philharmonic has a token of one Negro. The Pittsburgh Symphony ranks high with three tokens. Cleveland has one, and other major symphony orchestras such as Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago still say, "Get back!"
    • Five women were tokens on both counts. Comparing racial tokens to nontokens, tokens reported significantly less favorable interpersonal interactions with their White male colleagues.
  • 7

    obsoleteEvidence, proof; a confirming detail; physical trace, mark, footprint.

  • 8

    Support for a belief; grounds for an opinion.

另外 21 個記錄的用法
  • 9

    An extraordinary event serving as evidence of supernatural power.

  • 10

    An object or disclosure to attest or authenticate the bearer or an instruction.

  • 11

    A seal guaranteeing the quality of an item.

  • 12

    Something given or shown as a symbol or guarantee of authority or right; a sign of authenticity, of power, good faith.

    • Say, by this token, I desire his company.
    • And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
  • 13

    A tally.

  • 14

    human-sciencesphilosophysciencesA particular thing to which a concept applies.

  • 15

    computingengineeringmathematicsAn atomic piece of data, such as a word, for which a meaning may be inferred during parsing.

    • For each lexeme, the scanner creates a small data package known as a token and passes this data package on to the parser.
  • 16

    computingengineeringmathematicsAn atomic piece of data, such as a word, for which a meaning may be inferred during parsing.

    • […]One judge cited expert testimony that showed that Llama could reproduce no more than 50 tokens from the plaintiffs’ books, though research has since been published that proves otherwise.
    • At some tech companies, including Meta and OpenAI, employees compete on internal leaderboards that show how many tokens — the atomic unit of A.I. use, roughly equivalent to a word fragment — each worker consumes, two people familiar with those companies’ practices said.
  • 17

    computingengineeringmathematicsA conceptual object that can be possessed by a computer, process, etc. in order to regulate a turn-taking system such as a token ring network.

  • 18

    computingengineeringmathematicsA meaningless placeholder used as a substitute for sensitive data.

  • 19

    businesscomputingcryptocurrenciesA digital asset that is created and managed on an existing blockchain using a smart contract.

    • non-fungible token
    • The NFT rush in 2021 saw sale after sale of the novel digital assets hit staggering sums. A collection of images by the visual artist Beeple sold for $69m, the main token for the “play to earn” video game Axie Infinity hit a total value of $9.75bn and Coca-Cola raised more than $575,000 from selling items such as a customised jacket to be worn in the metaverse.
  • 20

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsA lexeme; a basic, grammatically indivisible unit of a language such as a keyword, operator or identifier.

  • 21

    human-scienceslinguisticssciencesA single example of a certain word in a text or corpus.

    • However, note the token ontology, ranked the 15ᵗʰ most frequent token in our ontology corpus, occurs 1940 times out of 336,311 tokens, but ontology only occurs 52 times in the BNC – the ratio of two relative frequencies is 10895.
  • 22

    medicinesciencesA characteristic sign of a disease or of a bodily disorder, a symptom; a sign of a bodily condition, recovery, or health.

  • 23

    obsoletemedicinesciencesA livid spot upon the body, indicating, or supposed to indicate, the approach of death.

    • Like the fearful tokens of the plague, Are mere fore-runners of their ends.
  • 24

    mediaprintingpublishingTen and a half quires, or, commonly, 250 sheets, of paper printed on both sides; also, in some cases, the same number of sheets printed on one side, or half the number printed on both sides.

  • 25

    businessminingA bit of leather having a peculiar mark designating a particular miner. Each hewer sent one of these with each corf or tub he had hewn.

    • But the coal-owner refuses to pay for a corf or tub simply on the ground that it contains too little weight, or that it contains “softs” instead of all “hards,”—a refusal technically known by its symbol as “hanging the motties," or by a bolder metaphor as “hanging the hutches,”—the “motties,” or tokens peculliar to the collier who sends up the corf. being hung up, if satisfactory, on the proper “motty-board peg,” if not so, on the “death-board peg;” and it is asserted that “at some collieries as many as 60 or 70 each day, worth to the collier from 6d. to 8. each, are taken from them in this manner.”
    • But worse still was the practice of defrauding them of their earnings, for as their “tokens” were put on to the outside of the tubs it often happened that hundreds were taken off and thrown away; so that they often found, to their exceeding chagrin, when they came to bank, that after having put up with all the abuse and ill-treatment in the mine they had got little or nothing for working all day.
  • 26

    businessminingA thin bed of coal indicating the existence of a thicker seam at no great distance.

  • 27

    rail-transportrailwaystransportA physical object used for exchange between drivers and signalmen on single track lines.

    • Although splitting a single-line section into two might seem a simple solution, Williams adds that creating another location where drivers have to get out of the cab and walk to a cabinet to exchange tokens before a train can proceed will further slow down the service: "There must be a better option in the 21st century than putting in an additional token machine."
  • 28

    businessmanufacturingtextilesIn a loom, a colored signal to show the weaver which shuttle to use.

  • 29

    ChristianityProtestantismA piece of metal given beforehand to each person in the congregation who is permitted to partake of the Lord's Supper.

tokenadj/ˈtəʊkən/

  • 1

    Done as an indication or a pledge.

  • 2

    Perfunctory or merely symbolic; done or existing for appearance's sake, or to minimally comply with a requirement.

    • a token gesture
    • He made a token tap on the brake pedal at the stop sign.
  • 3

    Included in minimal numbers in order to create an impression or illusion of diversity, especially ethnic or gender diversity.

    • He was hired as the company's token black person.
    • The television show was primarily directed toward a black audience, but it did have a few token white people as performers.

tokenverb/ˈtəʊkən/

  • 1

    To betoken, indicate, portend, designate, denote

    • dorrẹ̅, dōrī adj. & n. […] Golden or reddish-yellow […] (a. 1398) *Trev. Barth. 59b/a: ʒelouʒ colour [of urine] […] tokeneþ febleness of hete […] dorrey & citrine & liʒt red tokeneþ mene.
    • The instinct revolted against the inevitable punishment to come, already tokened by those big holes now met in walls and crossings.
  • 2

    To betroth

  • 3

    human-sciencesphilosophysciencesTo symbolize, instantiate

    • In which sense does ‘∀p ~(p & ~p)’ cause the tokening of the belief in the subject?

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。