ordeal

• n. 折磨；嚴酷的考驗；痛苦的經驗

來自古英語ordel,裁決，裁定，身體的磨難，來自Proto-Germanic*uz-dailjam,即deal out,神的安排，神的旨意，來自*uz,向外，詞源同out,*dailijam,安排，分配，詞源同deal.原指古代一種用折磨肉體來裁決對錯的極其殘忍的迷信審判，如使一個人赤腳走在燒紅的鐵塊或鐵板上，如果這個人安然無恙的走過這塊鐵板，則說明神判斷他無罪，如果他倒在鐵塊上，則死有餘辜。後引申詞義磨難，折磨。

ordeal

ordeal: [OE] The ‘meting out of judgement’ is the etymological notion immediately underlying ordeal, but at a more primitive level still than that it denotes simply ‘distribution, giving out shares’. It comes ultimately from prehistoric Germanic *uzdailjan ‘share out’, a compound verb formed from *uz- ‘out’ and *dailjan, ancestor of English deal.

The noun derived from this was *uzdailjam, and it came to be used over the centuries for the ‘handing out of judgements’ (modern German urteil, for instance, means among other things ‘judicial verdict or sentence’). Its Old English descendant, ordāl, denoted specifically a ‘trial in which a person’s guilt or innocence were determined by a hazardous physical test, such as holding on to red-hot iron’, but the metaphorical extension to any ‘trying experience’ did not take place until as recently as the mid-17th century.
=> deal

ordeal (n.)

Old English ordel, ordal, "trial by physical test," literally "judgment, verdict," from Proto-Germanic noun *uz-dailjam (cognates: Old Saxon urdeli, Old Frisian urdel, Dutch oordeel, German urteil "judgment"), literally "that which is dealt out" (by the gods), from *uzdailijan "share out," related to Old English adælan "to deal out" (see deal (n.1)). Curiously absent in Middle English, and perhaps reborrowed 16c. from Medieval Latin or Middle French, which got it from Germanic.

The notion is of the kind of arduous physical test (such as walking blindfolded and barefoot between red-hot plowshares) that was believed to determine a person's guilt or innocence by immediate judgment of the deity, an ancient Teutonic mode of trial. English retains a more exact sense of the word; its cognates in German, etc., have been generalized.

Metaphoric extension to "anything which tests character or endurance" is attested from 1650s. The prefix or- survives in English only in this word, but was common in Old English and other Germanic languages (Gothic ur-, Old Norse or-, etc.) and originally was an adverb and preposition meaning "out."

1. Mona remains unshaken by her ordeal and is matter-of-fact about her courage.

莫娜不為她經曆的這場磨難所動，對自己表現出的勇氣也態度淡然。

來自柯林斯例句

2. The former hostage is in remarkably good shape considering his ordeal.

想想人質曾遭受的折磨，獲救後其身體狀況已經是出奇地好了。

來自柯林斯例句

3. Stopping only briefly to regain her composure, she described her agonising ordeal.

她隻停頓了一小會兒讓自己恢複平靜，然後講述了她無比痛苦的經曆。

來自柯林斯例句

4. Last night he relived his terrifying ordeal.

昨夜他又一次體驗了那種可怕的折磨。

來自柯林斯例句

5. The ceremony was an ordeal for those who had been recently bereaved.

這個儀式對於那些新近喪失親友的人來說是一種折磨。

來自《權威詞典》