| 词组 | optimum |
| 释义 | optimum In Latin the adjective optimum means "best," but as an English word it has acquired a more specific sense, "most favorable or best possible under given conditions." It was adopted as an English word in the late 19th century by scientific writers who used it, both as a noun and as an adjective, in describing conditions most favorable to the growth of an organism. Its principal use continues to be in scientific contexts, but it also turns up regularly now in general writing: • ... train himself to maintain his composure under less than optimum conditions —Current Biography, June 1965 • The optimum time for learning a particular thing is when the child begins to wonder about it —Barbara M. Rush, Children's House, vol. 4, no. 4, 1970 • ... each person must discover the meaning ... at an optimum moment in life —Barrett J. Mandel, AA UP Bulletin, September 1971 Several critics contend that optimum is often inappropriately used to mean simply "best," but they give no examples of such usage. Our own evidence shows that even when optimum can be replaced by best in a given context (as in the quotation above from Barbara M. Rush), the full sense of the adjective is actually "best possible" or "most favorable." Optimum is probably seldom used when the sense is simply "best," as it would be in "This is the optimum meal I've ever had." That is not to say, of course, that optimum can never be replaced by best in contexts in which both adjectives are possible. Best is a simpler word and a more straightforward one, but optimum also has its uses, and you need not regard it as a word to be strenuously avoided. |
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