喜樂美語

核心畫面

You can think of trifle as something that does not weigh anything. Put it on the scale and the needle hardly moves: too small to argue about, too cheap to count, too light to take seriously. Everything the word does comes from that weightlessness. As a noun it names the little nothing itself. As a measure it names an amount so small it barely registers. As a verb it describes a person handling something that does weigh a great deal — a promise, a rule, another person's feelings — as though it were one of those things.

trifle 的核心畫面可以想成「放到秤上，指針幾乎不動的東西」。小到不值得吵、便宜到不用算、輕到不必當真。這個字所…更多收起trifle 的核心畫面可以想成「放到秤上，指針幾乎不動的東西」。小到不值得吵、便宜到不用算、輕到不必當真。這個字所有的用法，都是從這種「沒有重量」長出來的。當名詞，它指的就是那個沒份量的小東西；當作量，它指少到幾乎看不出來的一點點；當動詞，它講的是有人明明拿著很有份量的東西——一個承諾、一條規定、別人的感情——卻把它當成那種輕飄飄的小玩意兒在對待。

From the word’s history

Recorded as coming through Middle English trifle from Old French trufle, a byform of trufe / truffe meaning mockery or deception. Something offered as a joke, or as a fake, has nothing solid in it — which sits comfortably next to the modern picture of a thing with no weight.

來源記載為中古英文 trifle，來自古法文 trufle（嘲弄），是 trufe／truffe（欺騙）的變體。可以想成：拿出來唬人的、開玩笑的東西，裡面本來就沒有實料。這條線跟今天「沒有份量的東西」的畫面接得很順。

Wiktionary entry for 'trifle' as supplied in this evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1009811189): "From Middle English trifle... from Old French trufle (mockery), a byform of trufe, truffe (deception), of uncertain origin."

Two branches

沒份量的小東西、一點點

這一群直接就是核心畫面本身：秤上幾乎沒有重量的東西，以及少到幾乎不算數的量。

noun · C1

A thing that is not important and not worth much, so it is not worth spending time, money or worry on. Often used in the plural: trifles.

小事、不值錢的東西

英式甜點 trifle

一種想法是：這道甜點的名字帶著「輕巧、玩心重、不正經」的味道，跟核心畫面接得上。這是幫助記憶的聯想，不是確定的來源；學習時最好把它當成同拼字的另一個東西，看場合分辨。

noun · B2

A cold sweet dish, popular in Britain, made in layers in a bowl: sponge cake at the bottom, then fruit and jelly, then custard, with whipped cream on top.

英式千層甜點（水果蛋糕奶油甜點）

原始詞典資料11 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。

triflenoun/ˈtɹaɪfəl/

  • 1

    cookingfoodlifestyleAn English dessert made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly and whipped cream.

    • It is interesting to watch the surface joviality on screen while racism is layered between courses like soggy trifles.
  • 2

    Anything that is of little importance or worth.

    • Trifles light as air / Are to the jealous confirmation strong / As proofs of holy writ.
    • Olde Chaucer doth of Topas tell, / Mad Rablais of Pantagruell, / A latter third of Dowsabell, / With such poore trifles playing:
  • 3

    Anything that is of little importance or worth.

    • A trifle, some eight-penny matter.
    • He told her of horses which he had bought for a trifle and sold for incredible sums […]
  • 4

    A very small amount (of something).

    • This Line leaves out […] Poplar and Black-vvall, vvhich are indeed contiguous, a Trifle of Ground excepted, and very populous.
    • There was a good deal of rustling and whispering behind the curtain, a trifle of lamp smoke, and an occasional giggle from Amy […]
  • 5

    A particular kind of pewter.

  • 6

    Utensils made from this particular kind of pewter.

trifleverb/ˈtɹaɪfəl/

  • 1

    To deal with something as if it were of little importance or worth.

    • You must not trifle with her affections.
    • […] Do not believe / That, from the sense of all civility, / I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
  • 2

    To act, speak, or otherwise behave with jest.

    • […] playing and trifling are completely banished out of my mind […]
    • But he was terribly roused too and bound to go on; he wasn’t just trifling but intended something.
  • 3

    To inconsequentially toy with something.

    • Mr. Micawber, leaning back in his chair, trifled with his eye-glass and cast his eyes up at the ceiling […]
    • She sat in a café, trifling with her coffee spoon.
  • 4

    To squander or waste.

    • We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence.
    • For an honest and sober man will rather make that woman his wife, whom he seeth employed continually about her business, than one who makes it her business to trifle away her own and others time.
  • 5

    obsoleteTo make a trifle of, to make trivial.

    • […] but this sore night / Hath trifled former knowings.

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。