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People often think the word "doubt" spelling is a little crazy
人們常常認為「doubt（懷疑）」 這字的拼法有點瘋狂，
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because of the letter "b".
因為裡頭的字母「b」。
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Since it doesn't spell a sound,
由於它不發音，
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most folks can't figure out what it's doing there.
大多數人不知道它是幹什麼用的。
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But in spite of what most of us learn in school,
然而，儘管大部分的人在學校學到的是
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sound is never the most important aspect
發音永遠不是
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of spelling an English word.
拼寫英語單詞時 所需的最重要面向，
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A word's meaning and history need to come first.
我們必須首先考慮 一個詞彙的歷史和含義。
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To doubt means to question,
「懷疑」意謂著「詢問」、
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to waver,
「躊躇」、
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to hesitate.
「猶豫不決」。
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As a noun, it means uncertainty or confusion.
作為一個名詞，它指的是 一種困惑或不確定性。
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The present-day English word "doubt"
現今的英文單詞「懷疑」
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started as a Latin word, "dubitare".
源於拉丁詞「dubitare」，
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It first moved from Latin into French
在它首次從拉丁語轉變為法語時，
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where it lost both its "buh" sound and its letter "b".
它失去了字母「b」和「buh」的音，
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And then it came into English in the 13th century.
接著在十三世紀時，它轉變為英語。
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About 100 years later,
大約一百年後，
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scribes who wrote English but also knew Latin,
懂英語也懂拉丁語的經學家
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started to reinsert the "b" into the word's spelling,
開始將「b」重新植入這個詞，
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even though no one pronounced it that way.
即便當時沒人這麼發音。
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But why would they do this?
但為何他們這麼做呢？
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Why would anyone in their right mind
為什麼有人會把 一個不發音的字母
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reinsert a silent letter into a spelling?
重新植入一個詞彙中呢？
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Well, because they knew Latin,
嗯，因為他們懂拉丁文。
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the scribes understood that the root of "doubt" had a "b" in it.
經學家知道「懷疑」的字根有個「b」。
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Over time, even as fewer literate people knew Latin,
隨著時間的推移， 即使更少的識字人懂拉丁文，
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the "b" was kept because it marked important,
「b」一直存在在那兒， 因為它被認為是重要的，
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meaningful connections to other related words,
它被認為是一個有意義的連接詞， 並且聯繫著其他相關的詞彙，
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like "dubious" and "indubitably,"
比如說「可疑的（dubious）」 和「不容置疑地（indubitalbly）」，
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which were subsequently borrowed into English
隨後英文借用同一個拉丁字根「dubitare」。
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from the same Latin root, "dubitare".
隨後英文借用同一個拉丁字根，「dubitare」。
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Understanding these historical connections
瞭解這些歷史的關聯
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not only helped us to spell "doubt,"
不僅幫助我們拼寫「懷疑（doubt）」，
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but also to understand the meaning
同時也幫助我們理解
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of these more sophisticated words.
這些更為複雜詞彙的含義。
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But the story doesn't end there.
但故事並非到此為止，
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If we look even deeper,
如果我們更深地探究它，
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we can see beyond the shadow of a doubt,
我們可以理解在這個懷疑（doubt）之外
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just how revealing that "b" can be.
「b」是多麼深具啓發性。
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There are only two base words in all of English
在所有英語中，
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that have the letters "d-o-u-b":
只有兩個基本詞有「d-o-u-b」的拼寫：
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one is doubt,
其中一個是 doubt（懷疑）、
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and the other is double.
而另一個是 double（雙）。
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We can build lots of other words
我們可以由此
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on each of these bases,
建立許多其他詞彙，
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like doubtful
比如 doubtful （令人懷疑的）、
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and doubtless,
doubtless（無疑的）、
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or doublet,
或 doublet（成對物）、
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and redouble,
redouble（加倍）、
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and doubloon.
和 doubloon（達布隆: 古西班牙雙金幣）。
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It turns out that if we look into their history,
事實證明，如果我們回顧它們的歷史，
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we can see that they both derive
我們便知道它們都源於
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from the same Latin forms.
同一拉丁文形式。
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The meaning of double,
double（雙重）的意義——
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two,
兩個——
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is reflected in a deep understanding of doubt.
反映了對懷疑的深刻理解。
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See, when we doubt,
看，當我們懷疑時
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when we hesitate,
當我們猶豫時，
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we second guess ourselves.
我們批評、糾正自己（second guess ourselves）。
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When we have doubts about something,
當我們懷疑某事時，
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when we have questions or confusion,
當我們遇到問題或感到困惑時，
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we are of two minds.
我們猶疑不定（of two minds）。
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Historically, before English began
從歷史上看，在英語開始
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to borrow words from French,
從法語那兒借字前，
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it already had a word for doubt.
英文已經有了懷疑這詞。
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That Old English word was "tweogan,"
在古英語中，這單詞是 「tweogan」，
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a word whose relationship to "two"
「懷疑（tweogan）」與「兩個（two）」之間的關聯性
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is clear in its spelling as well.
在拼寫上也很明白地顯示出來。
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So the next time you are in doubt
所以，當下次你對
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about why English spelling works the way it does,
英文的拼寫方式感到懷疑（in doubt）時，
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take a second look.
再仔細瞧瞧第二次（take a second look），
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What you find just might make you do a double-take.
也許之後你便會恍然大悟（double-take）了。
