- 1（立場、政策的）大轉彎、一百八十度大轉變
A volte-face is when someone turns completely around in what they think or what they plan to do — not a small adjustment, but the opposite of what they said before. A government promises no new tax, then announces a new tax: that is a volte-face. The word is formal and rather literary; you meet it in newspapers and serious writing, especially British writing, far more than in conversation. In speech people usually say U-turn, or a complete change of heart, or the "he flip-flopped." It is countable — "a stunning volte-face", "a series of volte-faces" — and it is usually paired with words showing surprise: a sudden, dramatic, volte-face. Because it is borrowed from French, some speakers keep a French-ish pronunciation (roughly "volt-FASS"), and others say "VOLT-fayss"; both are heard, and the is normally kept.
組成From French volte-face, literally "turn face": volte means a turn (the same root as the Italian riding term volta), and face means face. So: to turn your face right around.
同家族的字
- revolvesame Latin root volvere, to turn or roll
- revolutionliterally a turning around, from the same root
- facethe second half of the word, borrowed unchanged
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。
volte-facenoun/vɒltˈfæs/
- 1
A reversal of attitude, policy, or principle.
- Psychoanalysis has sprung many surprises on us, performed more than one volte face before our indignant eyes.
- Then, on July 15, 1971, came Nixon's sudden announcement that Kissinger had just made a secret trip to Peking and that he himself had accepted Chou En-lai's invitation to visit the Chinese mainland sometime before May, 1972. This was instantly interpreted in chancelleries all over the world as a sign that the United States was about to execute a volte-face in its China policy.
- 2
communicationsjournalismliteratureA dramatic change in mood or tone.
- Shakespeare often used volte-faces in the rhyming couplets at the end of his sonnets.
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。