dilemma

英 [d?'lem?; da?-] 美[d??lem?]

CET4TEM4IELTSGRE考研TOEFL中低頻詞常用詞匯

復數:?dilemmas;

分析：di——“低”的拼音；le——“了”的拼音；m——“馬”的拼音首字母；
ma——“麻”的拼音。
記憶：如果低估了困境，馬上就會遇到麻煩。
1. di- "two" + lemma (諧音“勒馬”) => 兩邊都得被迫把馬勒住，因為兩邊兒都沒法通過了，所以就“進退兩難、進退維谷”了。

dilemma 兩難，窘境

di-, 二。-lemma, 拿，承載，詞源同lemma, epilepsy.即兩邊考慮的，引申詞義窘境，兩難。

dilemma: dilemma: [16] Dilemma was originally a technical term in rhetoric, denoting a form of argument in which one’s opponent is faced with a choice of two unfavourable alternatives. It comes via Latin dilemma from Greek dilēmma, a compound formed from di- ‘two’ and lēmma ‘proposition, premise’. (Lēmma itself, which English acquired in the 16th century, came ultimately from *lab-, the base of Greek lambánein ‘talk’.) The ‘looser’ general sense ‘choice between unpleasant alternatives’ developed in the late 16th century.
dilemma (n.): 1520s, from Late Latin dilemma, from Greek dilemma "double proposition," a technical term in rhetoric, from di- "two" + lemma "premise, anything received or taken," from root of lambanein "to take" (see analemma). It should be used only of situations where someone is forced to choose between two alternatives, both unfavorable to him. But even logicians disagree on whether certain situations are dilemmas or mere syllogisms.

1. Public policy on the family presents liberals with a dilemma.: 有關家庭的公共政策使自由主義者陷入了進退兩難的境地。