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."
中文解释
1. or- "out" + deal => literally "deal out, share out".2. literally "that which is dealt out" (by the gods).3. The prefix or- survives in English only in this word, but was common in Old English and other Germanic languages and originally was an adverb and preposition meaning "out".4. 谐音“奥迪哦、熬弟哦”——想获得奥迪就要经受严峻的考验5. deal => dole, ordeal.
实用例句
1. Mona remains unshaken by her ordeal and is matter-of-fact about her courage.
莫娜不为她经历的这场磨难所动，对自己表现出的勇气也态度淡然。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The former hostage is in remarkably good shape considering his ordeal.
想想人质曾遭受的折磨，获救后其身体状况已经是出奇地好了。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Stopping only briefly to regain her composure, she described her agonising ordeal.
她只停顿了一小会儿让自己恢复平静，然后讲述了她无比痛苦的经历。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Last night he relived his terrifying ordeal.
昨夜他又一次体验了那种可怕的折磨。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The ceremony was an ordeal for those who had been recently bereaved.