核心畫面

Picture the moon on the night after it is full. A thin slice of the bright part is missing. The next night a little more is gone, and the next night more again. Nothing is taken away in one go, and nothing breaks. The thing simply keeps getting less, on its own, night after night. That slow shrinking is what the word carries everywhere else it goes: a crowd , a fever dropping, a family's power over a century.

可以想成滿月隔天的月亮。亮的那一塊,缺了細細一條。第二天再缺一點,第三天又再缺一點。沒有人把它拿走,它也沒有壞掉。它更多收起可以想成滿月隔天的月亮。亮的那一塊,缺了細細一條。第二天再缺一點,第三天又再缺一點。沒有人把它拿走,它也沒有壞掉。它只是自己一天比一天少。這個「一份一份地少下去」的畫面,就跟著 wane 走到它所有的用法裡:人潮愈來愈稀、燒慢慢退、一個家族的權勢在一百年間淡去。也因為畫面裡有時間,wane 幾乎不能用在一瞬間的事上。

From the word’s history

The verb comes from Old English wanian, and the related noun wana meant 'defect, shortage'. The idea of something being short of what it was is already in the oldest form of the word, which is why the moon sense and the 'getting weaker' sense sit so close together.

動詞 wane 來自古英文 wanian,相關名詞 wana 的意思是「缺少、不足」。也就是說,「比原本少了一塊」這個想法,在這個字最早的形狀裡就已經有了。所以月亮的虧缺和力量的減弱,並不是兩件事,而是同一個舊概念的兩種場合。

Wiktionary etymology sections supplied in this evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:672943914 and :672957506)

From the picture

力量、熱度、光線慢慢變少

把月亮那個畫面搬到摸不到的東西上:興趣、支持、影響力、天光、一整個季節,都可以像月亮一樣一份一份地少掉。這是概念上的延伸,不是在說歷史上先有月亮才有這些用法。

verb · C1

If something such as power, influence, support, interest, or a feeling wanes, it slowly becomes weaker or less important over a period of time.

逐漸減弱

Also in this word

verb · C1

When the moon wanes, the bright part you can see gets a little smaller each night, during the weeks after the full moon.

月亮虧缺

原始詞典資料12 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。

wanenoun詞源 1/weɪn/

  • 1

    A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.

    • In the morning, one might say, his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o’clock, meridian—his dinner hour—it blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals; and continued blazing—but, as it were, with a gradual wane—till six o’clock, P.M., or thereabouts; […].
    • 1913, Michael Ott, The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Wenzel Anton Kaunitz", His influence which was on the wane during the reign of Joseph II grew still less during the reign of Leopold II (1790-2).
  • 2

    The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes progressively smaller as visible from Earth.

    • Some French peasants also prefer to sow in the wane.
    • It was very dark, for although the sky was clear the moon was now well in the wane, and would not rise till the small hours.
  • 3

    literaryThe end of a period.

    • The day was in its prime, the day was in its wane, and still, uneasy in mind and body, she slept on.
    • The situation of the Venetian party in the wane of the eighteenth century had become extremely critical.
  • 4

    artsbusinesscarpentryA rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.

    • 2002, Peter Ross, Appraisal and Repair of Timber Structures, p. 11, Sapwood, or even bark, may appear on the corners, or may have been cut off, resulting in wane, or missing timber.

waneverb詞源 2/weɪn/

  • 1

    To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.

    • You saw but sorrow in its waning form.
    • Land and trade ever will wax and wane together.
  • 2

    For light to dim or diminish in strength.

    • The skies may hold not the splendour of sundown fast; / It wanes into twilight as dawn dies down into day.
  • 3

    astronomynatural-sciencesFor the Moon to pass through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible.

    • The fall of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing of one moon-spot after another, as the moon wanes.
  • 4

    Said of a time period that comes to an end.

    • Fast as autumn days toward winter: yet it seems//Here that autumn wanes not, here that woods and streams
  • 5

    archaicTo decrease physically in size, amount, numbers or surface.

    • The snow which had been for some time waning, had given way entirely under the fresh gale of the preceding night.
    • Denisovans had little genetic diversity, suggesting that their small population waned further as populations of modern humans expanded.
  • 6

    obsoleteTo cause to decrease.

    • In which no lustful finger can profane him, Nor any earth with black eclipses wane him
    • Proud once and princely was the mansion, ere a succession of spendthrifts waned away its splendour.

wanenoun詞源 3/weɪn/

  • 1

    slangA child.

wanenoun詞源 4/weɪn/

  • 1

    obsoleteA house or dwelling.

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。