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An ultimatum is a final demand: do this thing, by this time, or I will do something bad to you. Three parts have to be there, or it is not really an ultimatum — a demand, a deadline, and a stated punishment. "Clean your room" is a demand. "Clean your room by six or no phone this weekend" is an ultimatum. The word carries the feeling that talking is over. You give an ultimatum when you have stopped asking and started telling, so it usually comes at the end of a long argument, not the start of one. It belongs first to serious, public situations — one country to another before a war, a union to a company before a strike, a company to a supplier before it walks away. But people also use it for private life, and there it is often about relationships: someone says "marry me this year or I'm leaving", and friends will call that an ultimatum. Notice that the word is not neutral, even though it looks like a plain noun. When we say someone "issued an ultimatum", we are usually a little critical — it sounds heavy-handed, like they are using pressure instead of persuasion. Someone giving one rarely calls it that themselves; they say "I told him how it is". The common verbs are give, issue, and deliver (issue and deliver are more formal, more newspaper-like), and the common answer verbs are accept, reject, ignore, and defy. The plural is usually ultimatums; ultimata exists, is Latin, and sounds either learned or a bit show-off — don't worry about using it.
From the word’s history
From Latin ultimātus 'last, final', from ultimus 'last'.
源自拉丁文 ultimātus「最後的」，指談判中最後的條件。
組成From Latin ultimatus, "the last one, the final one", from ultimus, "furthest, last". So an ultimatum is literally "the last thing said" — after this, no more words, only action. The -um ending is just the Latin noun ending, which is why the fancy plural is ultimata.
同家族的字
- ultimatesame Latin ultimus, "last, furthest" — the ultimate goal is the final one
- ultimatelysame root; "in the end, finally"
原始詞典資料2 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。
ultimatumnoun/ˌʌl.tɪˈmeɪ.təm/
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diplomacygovernmentpoliticsA final statement of terms or conditions made by one party to another, especially one that expresses a threat of reprisal or war if the terms are not met before some specified date and time.
- . . . But he was directed to present a memorial, urging many reasons for the restitution of the captures made before the war, to represent in its full force, the benefit that would arise, both to France and England, from the total desertion of the war in Germany, and if England should refuse the conditions, now offered as an ultimatum, to wait for farther instructions. The ultimatum arrived in London August 8. M. Buffy soon after wrote to Mr. Pitt, and in his answer, dated August 15, says, that, as to the stile of the ultimatum and letter, the king his master adheres both to the form and substance of them, he laments that peace appears by the proposals and conduct of France to be far distant, and retorts some charges and elusion and delay. M. Buffy, and Mr. Pitt however, had a conference on the two ultimatums jointly, and on the 30th of August an answer to the French ultimatum was delivered, in which the French propositions are agreed to, except in the following particulars. . .
- 1913 U.S. Naval War College: International Law Topics and Discussions An ultimatum may be issued containing a demand for satisfaction. Such an ultimatum is usually formulated in diplomatic terms, which would not make it too difficult for the state to which it is dispatched to find a way to adjust the difficulties. The ultimatum usually fixes the time within which an answer must be made. The United States required that Spain reply to its demand for withdrawal of Spanish forces from Cuba within three days; i. e., by April 23. War was declared on April 25. An ultimatum in itself does not necessarily involve a declaration of war unless the failure to comply with the demands carries with it a conditional declaration of war. The British demands upon Venezuela in 1902 required an immediate satisfaction of certain claims, and concluded: “ This communication must be regarded in the light of ultimatum.” The failure of Venezuela to satisfy these claims did not lead to an immediate war, but to an attempt to establish a pacific blockade which subsequently took the form of a true blockade. Whatever the preliminary negotiations or evidences of strained relations which might have received consideration prior to 1907, among those states now parties to the convention relative to the opening of hostilities, it is now necessary that there be a previous and explicit warning. This previous and explicit warning may take the form of a reasoned declaration of war or of an ultimatum with a conditional declaration of war. The reasoned declaration of war was regarded by many as necessary or at least very desirable because the opposing belligerent should be given a formal statement of the grounds of the war and the neutrals should not suffer such great changes in their ordinary rights and obligations without knowledge of the reasons. If instead of the reasoned declaration of war, the ultimatum with conditional declaration was employed, the reasons for the breaking off of peaceful relations would be stated in the ultimatum.
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dateddiplomacygovernmentpoliticsAn intended final statement of terms or conditions made by one party to another in a negotiation.
- 1724 William Wynne: The Life of Sir Leoline Jenkins, Judge of the High-Court of Admiralty . . . Thirdly, That they, the Dutch, 5 or 6 Weeks after they had received these Letters, (of 12th of July) call'd for an Ultimatum, so they termed the dernier mot, from us; and that we gave our Ultimatum to the Mediators first by Word of Mouth in August, then on the 5th of September, N. S. in writing.
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。