核心畫面

You can picture two chairs, one above the other. The top chair belongs to a chancellor — an old, high title. The chair just below it belongs to the vice-chancellor. That is all the word itself says: one step down from the chancellor. What changes from place to place is how much the person in the top chair actually does. Where the chancellor only wears the robes and hands out the degrees, the person in the lower chair ends up carrying the whole job; where the chancellor really runs things, the lower chair is a genuine deputy with one area to look after. Reading this word well means asking, every time, what the chair above it is really doing.

可以想成兩張椅子,一張在上、一張在下。上面那張是 chancellor,一個很老、很高的頭銜。下面那張就是 vice更多收起可以想成兩張椅子,一張在上、一張在下。上面那張是 chancellor,一個很老、很高的頭銜。下面那張就是 vice-chancellor。這個字本身只說了一件事:比 chancellor 低一級。真正會變的,是坐在上面那張椅子的人到底做多少事。如果上面那位只是穿袍子、頒學位,下面那位就會把整份工作扛起來。如果上面那位真的在管,下面那位就是名副其實的副手,各管一塊。所以每次讀到這個字,先看上面那張椅子是空的還是有人在做事。

From the word’s history

The word is vice- plus chancellor: the prefix vice- marks someone standing one rank below, and chancellor is the older, higher title.

這個字是 vice- 加 chancellor 組成的。vice- 標示「低一級、代替」,chancellor 是比較老、比較高的職稱。所以字面就是「比 chancellor 低一級的人」,和上面那張椅子的畫面完全吻合。

Wiktionary, English entry 'vice-chancellor' (etymology_text: 'From vice- + chancellor.'), packet source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1587595661:7996

Two branches

大學裡的職稱

兩個意思都是大學裡的那張下位椅子,差別只在上面那位 chancellor 是不是真的在做事。

noun · C1

The person who runs a British university day by day and is responsible for the way it is organized and managed.

(英國大學)校長

法院裡的職稱

同一組上下椅子,換到法院裡:上面是 chancellor 法官,下面這位做同樣的審判工作。

noun · C2

In a court of chancery, a judge who ranks below the chancellor and hears cases in the chancellor's place.

(衡平法院)副法官