Exhibit展品
incredible
/ɪnˈkredəbəl/
When did “not believable” start to mean “wonderful”?“不可信”是从什么时候起变成“好极了”的？
Today此刻
Difficult to believe, or, loosely, extraordinarily good.难以相信；宽松地说，也指好得不寻常。
Historical历史形态
Take it apart拆开来看
Latin in- plus credibilis, from credere. The intensifier sense is a later English emptying of “unbelievable,” kin to what happened to terrific.拉丁语 in- 加 credibilis，来自 credere。用作强调的意思，是后来英语把“不可信”倒空，与 terrific 的遭遇同类。
Travel through time穿过时间
Latin拉丁语
credere
to believe相信
Latin拉丁语
incredibilis
unbelievable不可信
English英语
incredible
unbelievable, later astonishing不可信，后来是惊人
How the meaning moved意义如何移动
01 · Latin and English01 · 拉丁语与英语
not to be believed不可相信
02 · English02 · 英语
astonishing惊人
03 · later colloquial English03 · 较晚的口语英语
extreme, as a loose intensifier极端，作为一种宽松的强调
Story故事
Belief, refused, then emptied信念被拒绝，然后被倒空
Latin incredibilis is in-, not, plus credibilis, believable, from credere. The word means what it says: not to be believed. English keeps that sense. A story is incredible when you should not trust it.
Colloquial English then does what it did to terrific. The refusal of belief becomes a gasp, and the gasp becomes praise. Incredible means amazing, extreme, great. The morphology still says no. The tone often says yes.
Creed is belief spoken. Credit is belief extended. Incredible is belief withheld, until the withholding itself becomes a way of clapping.
拉丁语 incredibilis 是 in-（不）加 credibilis（可信的），来自 credere。这个词说的就是它的意思：不可相信。英语保住这个意思。一个故事 incredible，是你不应当信任它。
口语英语随后做了它对 terrific 做过的事。拒绝相信变成一声惊叹，惊叹变成夸奖。incredible 的意思是惊人、极端、很好。形态仍在说不。语气常常在说是。
creed 是说出来的相信。credit 是给予出去的相信。incredible 是被扣下的相信，直到这扣下本身变成一种鼓掌。
Keep wandering继续漫游
Research notes研究笔记
Confidence · High把握 · 高
The outline is the ordinary account in historical dictionaries.轮廓与历史词典里的通行说法一致。
Sources出处
An outline for the visitor, not a critical edition.给访客的纲要，不是校勘本。