impossibly的运用（discomfit使困惑使窘迫）

Word of the Day：April 14, 2021

discomfit

使困惑；使窘迫；使尴尬

verb diss-KUM-fit

Definition

1：to put into a state of perplexity and embarrassment : disconcert

使陷入困惑和陷入困境的状态：不安

2 a： to frustrate the plans of : thwart

阻挠…的计划

b： archaic： to defeat in battle

古语：在战斗中失败

Examples

Jacob was discomfited by the new employee's forward, probing questions.

Jacob 被新来的员工提出的刨根问底的问题弄得心烦意乱。

"Upon entering the theater, the audience is immediately discomfited by the set; it is a portrait of devastation. Aaron Benson’s scenic design is a beautiful and chaotic vision of decay: two towering tenements whose brick walls are stripped down to their wooden lath, with battered plaster that doubles as projection surfaces peeking between the bricks." — Andrea Simakis, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 11 Mar. 2020

“一进入剧场，观众一坐下就立马进入混沌中；这是一片残破的景象。亚伦·本森(Aaron Benson)的景观设计了一幅美丽而混乱的衰败景象：两幢高耸的公寓，剥落的砖墙，裸露的木料板筋， with battered plaster that doubles as projection surfaces peeking between the bricks.（这句不知道怎么翻译了）

Did You Know?

Disconcerted by discomfit and discomfort? While the two look similar and share some semantic territory, they're etymologically unrelated. Unlike discomfort, discomfit has no connection to comfort, which comes ultimately from Latin com- plus fortis, meaning "strong." Instead, discomfit was borrowed from Anglo-French in the 13th century with the meaning "to defeat in battle." Within a couple centuries, discomfit had expanded beyond the battlefield to mean "to frustrate the plans of; to thwart," a meaning that eventually softened into the "to disconcert or confuse" use we find most often today—one quite close to the uneasiness and annoyance communicated by discomfort. For a time, usage commentators were keen to keep a greater distance between discomfit and discomfort; they recommended that discomfit be limited to "to completely defeat; to rout," but they've largely given up now, and the "disconcert or confuse" meaning is fully established. There is one major difference between discomfit and discomfort, though: discomfit is used almost exclusively as a verb, while discomfort is much more commonly used as a noun than a verb.

Disconcerted by discomfit and discomfort？ 虽然这两种语言看起来很相似，也有相同的语义含义，但它们在词源上并不相关。与 discomfort 不同，discomfit 和 comfort 没有联系，comfort最终来自于拉丁语com-加fortis，意思是“ strong「强大的」”。相反，discomfit 是从13世纪的 Anglo-French 借来的，意思是“to defeat in battle「战斗失败」”。​几个世纪内，discomfit 的意思已经超出了battlefield「战斗」，意为“to frustrate the plans of; to thwart「阻挠…的计划；阻挠」，”这个意思最终变成了我们今天最常用的“to disconcert or confuse「让人不安或迷惑」”的用法———一个接近uneasiness而另一个传达出discomfort。曾经有一段时间，usage commentators热衷于在 discomfit 和 discomfort 之间保持最大的差异；他们建议“discomfit”仅限于“to completely defeat; to rout「彻底失败」；但是现在他们基本上放弃了，“disconcert or confusion”的意思已经完全确立了。discomfit 和 discomfort 有一个主要的区别：discomfit几乎完全用作动词，而discomfort更多地用作名词而不是动词。

Test Your Vocabulary

What is the meaning of comfit?