喜樂美語

核心畫面

You can picture a line that everyone had agreed to leave alone — a rule, a border, a person's own space, the quiet around a grave — and someone walking straight through it. Two things are always in the picture: the line was supposed to hold, and it was crossed by force rather than by accident. That is why 'violate' sounds so much heavier than 'break': breaking a rule is about the rule, violating one is about the fact that something protected was pushed through.

可以想成有一條大家講好不要動的線——一條規定、一道邊界、一個人自己的空間、一座墳前的安靜——而有人就直直地穿了過去。…更多收起可以想成有一條大家講好不要動的線——一條規定、一道邊界、一個人自己的空間、一座墳前的安靜——而有人就直直地穿了過去。畫面裡永遠有兩樣東西：這條線本來應該守得住，以及它是被硬闖過去的，不是不小心碰到的。這就是為什麼 violate 聽起來比 break 重得多：break a rule 講的是那條規定，violate 講的是「有個受保護的東西被強行推開了」。

From the word’s history

English 'violate' appears in the early 15th century from Latin violatus, past participle of violare, 'to treat with violence, dishonour, outrage' — perhaps (the source hedges) an irregular derivative of vis, 'strength, force, power'. The earliest English uses already cover breaking oaths and desecrating sacred things, so the force-against-something-protected picture is there from the start, and it is the same family that gives English 'violence'.

violate 在十五世紀初進入英文，來自拉丁文 violatus（violare 的分詞），意思是「以暴力對待、使蒙羞、施加凌辱」；來源指出它「可能」（原文用了保留語氣）是 vis「力量、強力」的不規則衍生形。最早的英文用法就已經包含毀約和褻瀆聖物，可見「用力量壓過某個受保護的東西」這個畫面一開始就在。同一個字族也生出了 violence，所以這兩個字聽起來像親戚，並不是錯覺。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entry 'violate' — https://www.etymonline.com/word/violate

From the picture

闖進本來受保護的空間

被穿過去的線從「規定」換成「界線」——一個人周圍那圈看不見的界線，或一個地方周圍那圈該有的安靜。線的形式變了，但「本來該守住、卻被硬闖」的形狀完全一樣。

violate privacy/respect · verb · B2

To do something that hurts someone's personal space, privacy, or feeling of respect — so they feel deeply upset or unsafe.

侵犯；冒犯

文學舊用法（認得就好）

同一個「以力量壓過一個人」的老意思，用在最極端的情況上。這個用法留在舊文學裡，現代英文幾乎不再這樣說。

assault (archaic) · verb · C2

In old literary English, a rare word for forcing someone into sex against their will. Modern English almost never uses this sense — recognize it only.

（文學舊用法）凌辱

Also in this word

break a law/rule · verb · B2

To do something against a law, rule, agreement, or important principle.

違反；違背

原始詞典資料6 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。

violateverb詞源 1/ˈvaɪəˌleɪt/

  • 1

    To break or disregard (a rule or convention).

    • Drinking-and-driving violates the law.
    • Accessing unauthorized files violates security protocol.
  • 2

    To rape.

    • That Antonia whom you violated, was your Sister! That Elvira whom you murdered, gave you birth! Tremble, abandoned Hypocrite! Inhuman Parricide! Incestuous Ravisher!
    • Bulgarian soldiers in the meantime entered Turkish houses, violated the women and girls and stole everything they could lay their hands on.
  • 3

    slangTo cite (a person) for a parole violation.

    • If you don't have a job, you can't pay the money, then you get violated and have to go back to prison.
    • Estela: Well, they'd take me to jail, I'd violate, and I go to prison. And maybe I get violated for six months, eight months . . . maybe 30 days, 60 days . . . You know, whatever the parole officer recommended for me, I got.

violateadj詞源 2/ˈvaɪəˌleɪt/

  • 1

    archaicSubject to violation.

    • [I]t was declared and resolved to be an undouted ancient standing order, not to be violate, and so was entred and established upon the booke.
    • And now, O maids, behold our sanctuary / Is violate, our laws broken: […]
  • 2

    archaicSynonym of violated.

    • My Fathers blood, Agneſias languiſhing griefs, my violate marriage, and this late contempt, raiſed ſeveral paſſions, which like ſo many torrents, overthrew all obſtacles that withſtood the rapacity of their courſe, […]
    • And this Promiſe had never been accompliſhed, unleſs Jeſus, as the great promiſed Meſſiah, had taken off the Doom of the violate Law, […]
  • 3

    archaicobsoleteMorally impure.

    • The bruite of which her rare perfections ran, […] laſtly reſted in the princes eares, / Who […] / Inuades my caſtell when I was at reſt, / And bare my daughter thence with violate hands, / Vnto his pallace where ſhe doth remaine, […]
    • Naples is glad because her king has fallen / By my hand first; / Take home the lesson to thee, faithless warden, / The foremost and the worst, / Who makest of this lovely land, God’s garden, / A nation violate, corrupt, accurst.

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。