A short, everyday word that is really two different sharing a spelling. The main one is the animal doctor — and from the picture of that doctor going over a horse before a sale comes the verb: to look something over carefully before you accept it. The soldier sense is a separate word that happens to look the same.
From the word’s history
Etymonline: the verb vet 'submit (an animal) to veterinary care' is 1891, from veterinarian; extended to medical exams of persons by 1898, and to the colloquial 'subject (something) to careful examination' by 1901. The soldier sense belongs to veteran (c. 1500, 'old experienced soldier', from Latin veteranus).
據 Etymonline：動詞 vet 一八九一年出現，原意是「送去給獸醫檢查（動物）」，直接來自 veterinarian；一八九八年擴到給人做健康檢查，一九〇一年再擴成口語的「把某件事仔細查一遍」。而「老兵」的 vet 屬於另一個字 veteran（約一五〇〇年，「有經驗的老兵」，來自拉丁文 veteranus「年久的、老練的」）。所以這兩組意思是兩個各自獨立的縮寫，長得一樣而已。
Etymonline — https://www.etymonline.com/word/vet ; https://www.etymonline.com/word/veteran
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原始詞典資料5 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。
vetnoun詞源 1/vɛt/
- 1
A veterinarian or veterinary surgeon.
- Colin Cameron, a vet who examined the dead animal, said there was "no doubt the kitten would have suffered unnecessarily" before dying.
vetnoun詞源 2/vɛt/
- 1
A veteran (a former soldier or other member of armed forces).
- “A former soldier, sir. A vet. Theyʼre all vets, a little shellshocked.”
vetverb詞源 3/vɛt/
- 1
To thoroughly check or investigate particularly with regard to providing formal approval.
- The FBI vets all nominees to the Federal bench.
- Sir Humphrey Appleby: Nevertheless we do not admit it (the existence of MI6). Not everyone round this table has been vetted (pun). / Jim Hacker: I thought that's something you do to cats (laugh track). / Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes indeed, but not ferrets, Minister (laugh track).
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
- vocational education and training
- video editing terminal
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。