rather: [OE] Rather originated as the comparative form of the now obsolete adjective rathe ‘quick’, and so to begin with meant ‘more quickly’, hence ‘earlier, sooner’. Its most frequent modern meaning, ‘more willingly’, emerged as recently as the 16th century. Rathe itself went back to a prehistoric Germanic *khrathaz, which may have been derived from the same base as produced English rash ‘impetuous’. => rash
rather (adv.)
Old English hraþor "more quickly, earlier, sooner," also "more readily," comparative of hraþe, hræþe "quickly, hastily, promptly, readily, immediately," which is related to hræð "quick, nimble, prompt, ready," from Proto-Germanic *khratha- (cognates: Old Norse hraðr, Old High German hrad), from PIE *kret- "to shake." The base form rathe was obsolete by 18c. except in poetry (Tennyson); superlative rathest fell from use by 17c. Meaning "more willingly" is recorded from c. 1300; sense of "more truly" is attested from late 14c.
The rather lambes bene starved with cold
[Spenser, "The Shepheardes Calender" (Februarie), 1579]
雙語例句
1. Rather taken aback by such forwardness, I slammed down the phone.
如此無禮的言語讓我火冒三丈，我砰的一下把電話掛了。
來自柯林斯例句
2. The process is not a circle but rather a spiral.
這個過程不是一個圓周運動而是螺旋上升型的。
來自柯林斯例句
3. I gradually got rather disillusioned with the whole setup of the university.
漸漸地，我對大學的整個體製感到相當失望。
來自柯林斯例句
4. She was in rather a bad film about the Mau Mau.