問:查牛津、朗文詞典,都有disagree about / on / over的用法,但我跟英國、加拿大朋友通信,他們都說disagree
over the idea(不同意這主意)應改為disagree with the idea。難道詞典都不正確?
答:Disagree with是「和……不同」、「和某人見解不同」或「不同意某個主意、說法」,例如:(1)His story of the robbery disagrees with those of the other
eyewitnesses(他對劫案的描述,和其他目擊證人不同)。(2)I
disagree with him / with his idea(我不同意他那個主意)。
Disagree about / on / over不是「不同意某些事或某人的意見、說法等」,而是「就某些事和某某有不同意見或說法」,例如:(1)They disagree over the cause of the accident(在意外事故起因的問題上,他們意見不同)。(2)He disagreed
with his wife over their daughter's education(在女兒的教育問題上,他和妻子意見不同)。
問:坊間有沒有講解字源的英文字典,例如列明各字的大約初見於哪個時代等?
答:要查字源,最好找大型字典,例如New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary以及Merriam-Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary。中型字典如《牛津高階英漢雙解詞典》等,一般沒有字源注釋,唯一例外的,據我所知,是《牛津簡明英漢雙解詞典》(Concise
Oxford English-Chinese Dictionary),例如該詞典fop(紈絝子弟)字條下有注:17th c: perhaps from earlier fop "fool",即「始見於十七世紀,或出自較早之fop(蠢人)一字」。