- 1一點點、絲毫（幾乎只用於否定句：not a whit = 一點也不）
A whit means the tiniest possible amount — a scrap, a . In modern English it almost never appears alone; it lives inside a small set of fixed phrases, nearly always negative: 'not a whit' (not at all), 'not one whit', 'not a whit better', 'never a whit'. So 'He didn't care a whit' means he did not care even slightly, and 'She hasn't changed a whit' means she has not changed at all. It is old-fashioned and literary — you will find it in Shakespeare, in the Bible, in older novels, and in the writing of people who like a slightly grand style. Ordinary speech today uses 'not a bit' or 'not at all' instead. Worth knowing so you can read it, but you don't need to produce it. It comes from the same old word as 'wight', an old word for a creature or person; the sense narrowed from 'a thing' down to 'the smallest thing'.
組成From Middle English 'wiȝt/wight', from Old English 'wiht' meaning a creature, a person, or simply a thing. Further back, Proto-Germanic *wihtą, 'thing, creature'. The meaning shrank over time: 'a thing' → 'the smallest thing' → 'the least amount'.
同家族的字
- wighta doublet — the same Old English 'wiht'; wight kept the 'creature/being' meaning while whit kept 'the smallest bit'
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。
Whitnoun詞源 1
- 1
Whitsunday.
- Holonyms: Pentecost, Whitsun, Whitsuntide, Whit (season)
- 2
The season of Whitsuntide.
- Meronyms: Pentecost, Whitsun, Whit (day)
Whitname詞源 2
- 1
archaichistoricalNewgate Prison in London, England (particularly as it was in the 15- and 1600s).
- A Bow Street Runner says "I knew a cove as talked the way you do – leastways, in the way of business I knew him! In fact, you remind me of him very strong […] He was on the dub-lay, and very clever with his fambles. He ended up in the Whit, o’ course."
- One of the strong drinks brewed in the Whit, a place as noted for the variety of its potions as the irony of its expressions, was called 'South Sea'. The gin brewed in Newgate was […]
whitnoun詞源 1/wɪt/
- 1
datedThe smallest part or particle imaginable; an iota.
- Star. I beleeue we muſt leaue the killing out, when all is done. Bot. Not a whit: I haue a deuice to make all well.
- Sadly behind the great age of rowdy self-advertisement in which their lot has fallen, they seem not to have advanced one whit beyond John the Baptist and the Apostles, 1800 years ago, in their notions of the way in which the metanoia, the change of mind of the ill-doer, is to be brought about.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
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。