genius

• n. 天才，天賦；精神

來自詞根gen, 生育，詞源同generate.原義為守護精靈，傳說中每個人出生時都會有守護精靈相伴而生，並一生陪伴成長，引申義天資。參考電影《黃金羅盤》。

genius

genius: [16] Latin genius originally meant ‘deity of generation and birth’. It came ultimately from the Indo-European base *gen- ‘produce’ (source of English gene, generate, genitive, etc), probably via a derivative *gnjos. It broadened out considerably in meaning, initially to ‘attendant spirit’, the sense in which English originally acquired it (French took it over as génie, a word which, because of its phonetic and semantic similarity to Arabic jinn, 18th-century translators of the Arabian nights eagerly adopted into English as genie).

The main modern English sense, ‘person of outstanding intellectual ability’, which dates from the 17th century, goes back to a comparatively rare Latin ‘intellectual capacity’. Genial [16] comes from Latin geniālis, a derivative of genius, which again originally meant ‘of generation and birth’ (a sense which survived into English: ‘And thou, glad Genius! in whose gentle hand the bridal bower and genial bed remain’, Edmund Spenser, Epithalamion 1595).

It later developed in Latin to ‘pleasant, festive’.
=> general

genius (n.)

late 14c., "tutelary or moral spirit" who guides and governs an individual through life, from Latin genius "guardian deity or spirit which watches over each person from birth; spirit, incarnation; wit, talent;" also "prophetic skill," originally "generative power" (or "inborn nature"), from PIE *gen(e)-yo-, from root *gene- "to produce, give birth, beget" (see genus). Sense of "characteristic disposition" of a person is from 1580s. Meaning "person of natural intelligence or talent" and that of "exalted natural mental ability" are first recorded 1640s.

1. I was hoping some of his genius might rub off.

我希望他的才華也可以影響他人。

來自柯林斯例句

2. At the time, his appointment seemed a stroke of genius.

當時，對他的任命猶如神來之筆。

來自柯林斯例句

3. Is he a nutter, or is he a genius?

他是瘋子，還是天才？

來自柯林斯例句

4. His genius was not confined to the decoration of buildings.

他的天賦不單體現在建築物的裝飾上。

來自柯林斯例句

5. He last night denounced the British "genius for running ourselves down".

昨晚，他譴責了英國那位“抨擊我們自己人的天才”。

來自柯林斯例句