| 词组 | momentarily |
| 释义 | momentarily A relatively new sense of this word has drawn a fair number of attacks in recent years from a small but determined group of critics. The disputed sense is "at any moment; in a moment," as in "We'll be leaving momentarily." Its detractors insist that momentarily is correct only in its original sense, "for a moment," which was first recorded in 1654. This sense, although impressively old, appears to have been rarely used until the 20th century (the first of our dictionaries to enter it was Webster 1909), but it is now extremely common: • ... the Pacific breezes momentarily gave way to a brisker wind —Times Literary Supp., 16 Apr. 1970 • ... it is a momentarily heart-stopping... experience —Marvin Grosswirth, Datamation, January 1981 Two additional senses of momentarily were used, albeit rarely, during the 19th century. One of them was "instantly," which was first recorded in 1799: • This was momentarily agreed to —Richard Sickle-more, Agnes and Leonora, 1799 (OED) And the other was "at every moment; from moment to moment," which dates from 1800: • I am interrupted momentarily by visitors, like fleas, infesting a new-comer! —Robert Southey, letter, 1 May 1800 (OED) The "from moment to moment" sense was the only one entered in Webster 1828, and it continued to be the only sense in Merriam-Webster dictionaries throughout the 19th century. It was never common, however, and it appears now to have passed entirely out of use, along with the equally rare "instantly" sense. The history of momentarily is complicated by its connection with momently, a little-used adverb that at one time or another has had (as the OED shows) each of the senses that momentarily has had. Webster 1828 gave momently two senses, the first of which was "for a moment"—which, of course, is now the prescribed sense of momentarily—and the second of which was really two senses in one, "in a moment; every moment." Webster's reason for giving two definitions for the second sense is revealed by the sentence he used to illustrate it, "We momently expect the arrival of the mail," which can be understood as either "We expect the arrival of the mail in a moment" or "We are at every moment expecting the arrival of the mail." Such usage with the verb expect seems to represent a transition between the sense "at every moment; from moment to moment" and the sense "at any moment; in a moment." This transition occurred with momentarily as well as with momently: • During the early part of the morning, I momentarily expected his coming; he was not in the frequent habit of entering the schoolroom, but... I had the impression that he was sure to visit it that day —Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847 We have no further evidence from the 1800s showing momentarily used in this way, but it was through such usage (with expect) that momentarily "at any moment" first became common in American English in the 20th century: • Arrests were expected momentarily as police continued their investigation —Sun (Baltimore), 13 Aug. 1928 (OED Supplement) Fowler 1926 distinguished between momentarily and momently, asserting that momentarily meant "for a moment" and that momently meant "from moment to moment." That distinction was not to be found in any dictionary. The evidence, scanty as it is, suggests that at the beginning of the 20th century momentarily and momently were uncommon words that were used more or less interchangeably in several senses. In the years since, momently has continued to be uncommon, while momentarily has come into frequent use, first in its sense "for a moment" and soon afterward in its sense "at any moment; in a moment." These two senses have coexisted in American English for many decades (in British English, "at any moment" is rare). Neither one is inherently superior to the other, and neither one detracts in any way from the other. The meaning of each is always made clear by the context in which it occurs: • ... more than ever convinced that the small unfamiliar stateroom ... had momentarily been filled and then emptied of black sea water —John Hawkes, Fiction, vol. 1, no. 4, 1973 • The menu said that momentarily we should be sipping consomme from shallow silver cups —John Hawkes, Fiction, vol. 1, no. 4, 1973 The notion that "at any moment" is in some way an error is attributable to the fact that "for a moment" was the first sense to become common (as well as to the mistaken assumption that a word can have only one meaning). This notion has not been widely promoted by usage commentators, but it does enjoy some popularity among certain writers, readers, and editors, and those who believe it are generally pretty sure of themselves: • There may be comity between those who think ... momentarily means in a moment (airline captain over loudspeaker: "We'll be taking off momentarily, folks") and those who know it means for a moment. Members of these two classes can sit in adjoining seats on the plane and get along fine ... , but once the plane has emptied, they will proceed toward different destinations —Paul Fussell, in The Contemporary Essay, 1984 Since we at Merriam-Webster will be traveling with the people who "think" that momentarily can mean "in a moment," we cannot be sure where those people who "know" that it can mean only "for a moment" are headed. We hope, though, that they will consider a trip to the nearest library, where any number of good dictionaries will tell them that the airline captain was speaking standard English. |
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