ordeal

• n. 折磨；严酷的考验；痛苦的经验

来自古英语ordel,裁决，裁定，身体的磨难，来自Proto-Germanic*uz-dailjam,即deal out,神的安排，神的旨意，来自*uz,向外，词源同out,*dailijam,安排，分配，词源同deal.原指古代一种用折磨肉体来裁决对错的极其残忍的迷信审判，如使一个人赤脚走在烧红的铁块或铁板上，如果这个人安然无恙的走过这块铁板，则说明神判断他无罪，如果他倒在铁块上，则死有余辜。后引申词义磨难，折磨。

ordeal

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."

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.

这个仪式对于那些新近丧失亲友的人来说是一种折磨。

来自《权威词典》