Word of the Day：verbiage 冗詞；晦澀

Word of the Day ： September 13， 2020

verbiage

冗詞；晦澀

noun

VER-bee-ij

Definition

1 ： a profusion of words usually of little or obscure content

有大量的單詞通常很少使用或晦澀的

2 ： manner of expressing oneself in words ： diction

用語言表達自己的方式：用詞

Examples

“One resident … said during a virtual focus group that a lot of his community was concerned reading the changes of

verbiage

from ‘flood control task force’ to ‘infrastructure resilience。’” — Paul Wedding， The Houston Chronicle， 31 Jul。 2020

“一名居民……在一個虛擬焦點小組會議中說，他社群的很多人看到是‘抗洪工作’到‘基礎設施的恢復’報道的用詞變化。

“It was always G-rated trash talk—he is a devout Catholic， after all， and the strongest epithet he ever seemed to let loose was ‘Shoot’…。 And his

verbiage

was often misunderstood。 To opposing fans he was a mouthy loose cannon。 To those who knew and understood him， it was just his joy and exuberance spilling over。” — Jim Alexander， The Daily News of Los Angeles， 10 Feb。 2020

“這始終是無意義的談話——雖然他是一位虔誠的天主教徒，他似乎最常說出的詞是‘Shoot’。。。。他的語氣常常被誤解。對反對的fans來說，他是個大嘴巴，對於那些認識和了解他的人來說，這僅僅是他的喜悅和過分的灑脫罷了。”

Did You Know？

Verbiage

descends from French verbier， meaning “to trill” or “to warble。” The usual sense of the word implies an overabundance of possibly unnecessary words， much like the word wordiness。 In other words， a writer with a fondness for

verbiage

might be accused of “wordiness。” Some people think the phrase “excess

verbiage

” is redundant， but that‘s not necessarily true。

Verbiage

has a second sense meaning， simply， “wording，” with no suggestion of excess。 This second definition has sometimes been treated as an error by people who insist that

verbiage

must always imply excessiveness， but that sense is well-established and can be considered standard。

Verbiage源自法語verbier，意為“to trill『顫音』”或“to warble『顫音』”。這個詞通常意味著可能不必要的詞，就像單詞wordiness。換句話說，一個喜歡誇誇其談的作家可能會被指責為“wordiness『累贅』”。有些人認為“excess verbiage 『多餘的廢話』”是不需要的，但這並不一定正確的。Verbiage還有第二種意思，簡單地說就是“wording『措辭』”，沒有多餘的暗示。這第二個定義有時被人們認為是錯誤的，因為有些人堅持說，verbiage 意味著過度的，但這種理解是公認的，可以被認定為標準。

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