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Something unbidden arrives without anyone asking for it, inviting it, or expecting it. The old verb 'bid' here means to ask or command someone to do something, so unbidden is 'not asked for'. It splits into two uses that feel quite different. The first is about people and physical things: a guest who turns up unbidden was not invited; a dog that comes unbidden came without being called. This use sounds formal and a bit old-fashioned — in speech you would say 'without being asked' or 'uninvited'. The second use is the one you will meet far more in modern writing, and it is about what happens inside the mind. Thoughts, memories, tears, images come unbidden: they arrive on their own, and you did not summon them and cannot stop them. 'Her name came unbidden into his head.' 'Tears rose unbidden.' That is the heart of the word today — it names the strange feeling of your own mind acting without your permission, which is why writers love it. it usually sits after the verb, describing how something arrived, rather than in front of a noun. 'The memory came unbidden' is far more natural than 'an unbidden memory', although the second is possible and does get written. It has no comparative: nothing is 'more unbidden'.
未經邀請的、沒人開口要求的;(念頭、眼淚)不請自來的、自己冒出來的
組成un-(不、沒有)+ bidden(被要求的、被邀請的)。'Bidden' is the old past participle of 'bid'. That verb's original sense is to ask or to order — the sense still alive in 'Do as you are bidden' and in 'bid someone farewell'. It is not the auction 'bid'.
原始詞典資料1 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。
unbiddenadj/ʌnˈbɪd.ən/
- 1
not invited, requested or asked for
- The words of the spell rose unbidden in his throat. He opened his mouth as in a dream, shaping it around the first barbaric syllable.
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。