- 1遲鈍、無精打采的狀態；（動物）蟄伏、休眠狀態。偏書面語，日常講 lethargy 或直接說 feel sluggish 比較自然。
*Torpor* is the state of being slow, heavy, and hardly moving — the noun that goes with **. It is not sleep. A person in torpor may have their eyes open; they simply cannot get themselves to move or think at normal speed.
In biology it has a precise meaning, and I would teach that first because it makes the word concrete. When a hummingbird or a bat enters torpor, its body temperature falls, its heart rate drops sharply, and it stays almost still, burning far less energy than usual. It is a survival trick for a cold night or a time when there is no food. Hibernation is like a long torpor lasting a season; torpor itself can last only a few hours.
From there the word spreads outward in writing. A country can sink into political torpor, an economy can be shaken out of its torpor, a hot village can lie in torpor all afternoon. The picture is always the same: something alive that has slowed nearly to a stop, and could in principle be woken up.
Register matters here. *Torpor* is formal and literary. Nobody says "sorry, I'm in a bit of a torpor" over lunch — they say they feel sluggish or can't wake up. You will meet the word in essays, novels, and science writing, and that is where you should use it.
A useful pairing for students: torpor is close to ** (heaviness, no energy, often from illness) and to *apathy* (not caring). Torpor leans towards the body and towards a slowdown that something outside caused; apathy leans towards the mind and the will.
組成From Latin torpor "numbness, stiffness", from the verb torpeō "to be numb". The Latin ending -or forms nouns for a state or condition — the same ending inside horror, terror, and tremor.
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，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。
torpornoun/ˈtɔːpə(ɹ)/
- 1
A state of being inactive or stuporous.
- 2
A state of apathy or lethargy.
- She knew that she was the cause of her husband's utter ruin; and she strung herself to bear the consequences. The reproaches which agony extorted; or worse, cureless, uncomplaining depression, when his mind was sunk in a torpor, not the less painful because it was silent and moveless.
- 3
biologynatural-sciencesA state similar to hibernation characterised by energy-conserving, very deep sleep.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。