Insignificance
“Insignificance” 指某物、某人或某事因为力量微弱、规模极小或缺乏价值而显得不重要。
- “Looking at the stars makes you realize your own insignificance in the universe.” (仰望星空会让你意识到自己在宇宙中的渺小。)
- “She felt a sense of insignificance when standing among the world’s most powerful leaders.” (站在世界最有权势的领导人中间，她感到自己微不足道。)
- “The errors were of such insignificance that they didn’t affect the final result.” (这些错误非常微小，以至于没有影响最终结果。)
词根 “sign” 源自拉丁语 “signum” (标志/印记)。“significance” 原意指“有标志性的/重要的”。
- 前缀: “in-” (不)
- 词根: “sign” (标志)
- 后缀: “-ific” (做…的) + “-ance” (名词后缀)
在存在主义文学中，个体的 “insignificance” 是一个常被探讨的主题，即人在浩瀚宇宙或宏大历史背景下的微弱地位。
- 形容词: insignificant (微不足道的)
- 副词: insignificantly (微不足道地)
- 反义词: significance (重要性)
in (不) + significance (重要性) = 不重要 -> 微不足道。
“A small ant spent all day carrying a tiny seed. To the humans walking by, the ant’s work was a picture of insignificance. But to the ant colony, that one seed meant life during the winter. Importance, the ant knew, depends on who is looking.” (一只小蚂蚁整天都在搬运一颗小种子。对路过的人类来说，蚂蚁的工作显得微不足道。但对蚁群来说，那一颗种子意味着冬天的生命。蚂蚁知道，重要性取决于看的人是谁。)