- 1獵巫；政治迫害、扣帽子式的清算。台灣媒體現在也直接講「獵巫」，用法幾乎一樣——重點在於「不公平的追殺」，不是真的在抓巫婆。
A witch hunt is a hunt for people whose ideas are thought to be wrong or dangerous, so they can be named, , and punished. It happens inside a country, a company, a political party, a school. The word is a criticism: when you call something a witch hunt, you are saying the search is unfair — the are , the evidence is thin, and the point is to find someone to blame rather than to find out the truth.
The picture behind it is real history. In Europe and colonial America, people (mostly women) were accused of being witches, tried, and killed on evidence that would convince nobody today. The word carries three things across from that history: the accused can hardly ever prove they are innocent, one accusation leads to the next, and the crowd enjoys it.
In modern use it covers a wide range. A government hunting for people with certain ; a boss hunting for whoever leaked a document; a newspaper hunting for someone to blame after a scandal. It has also become a favourite word of powerful people under investigation — a politician facing serious charges will call the whole investigation a witch hunt. So when you hear it, listen carefully: sometimes it names a real injustice, and sometimes it is a way of avoiding a fair question.
It works as a noun ('It turned into a witch hunt'), and you will also see the verb 'witch-hunt' and the phrase 'witch-hunting', though those are much rarer.
From the word’s history
Compound of witch + hunt.
由 witch「女巫」加 hunt「獵捕」組成。
組成witch + hunt. A hunt is a search for something you mean to catch; a witch is someone accused of evil magic. Together: a search for people to accuse. The compound is usually hyphenated (witch-hunt) or written as two words.
同家族的字
- witchfirst half of the compound
- witchcraftshares 'witch' — what the accused were said to practise
- manhuntsame 'hunt' pattern: a hunt for a person rather than an animal
原始詞典資料4 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。
witch-huntnoun/ˈwɪtʃhʌnt/
- 1
historicalA search for people believed to be using sorcery or harmful magic, typically in order to persecute or punish them.
- To-night ye will see. It is the great witch-hunt, and many will be smelt out as wizards and slain.
- Simpkins told us that before the days of English witch hunts, the coven organised public and popular festivities such as on the great days of May Eve, Hallowe'en, Candlemas and Lammas. These were called Witches' Sabbats or Frolics.
- 2
An attempt to find and punish or harass a group of people perceived as a threat, usually on ideological or political grounds.
- Rank-and-file Communists everywhere are led away on a senseless witch-hunt after 'Trotskyists'.
- 3
A public or political campaign or investigation which smears a person or group.
- Even fewer people could believe that the UNCW administration would actually undertake a witch hunt against me, even going so far as to invoke their right to read my personal e-mails because they were on the university's system.
- I defended myself vigorously on that complaint as well; also mentioning that Julie Ann Wilks had always disliked me and had been conducting “a witch hunt” against me. As soon as I said the words “witch hunt” Katy interrupted and wouldn't let me continue […]
witch-huntverb/ˈwɪtʃhʌnt/
- 1
informalTo aggressively pursue, investigate, or persecute individuals or groups based on unsubstantiated accusations, often driven by fear, ideology, political expediency, moral panic, etc.
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。