now: [OE] Now is the English member of a widespread family of words denoting ‘present time’ that are traceable back to Indo-European *nu- or *nū- (a relative of the ancestor of new). Others include Greek nun, Latin nunc, Sanskrit nū, Czech nyní, and, among the Germanic languages, German nun and Dutch, Swedish, and Danish nu. (French maintenant ‘now’, incidentally, originally meant literally ‘holding in the hand’, and developed its present sense via ‘at hand’ and ‘soon’.)
now (adv.)
Old English nu "now, at present, immediately; now that," also used as an interjection and as an introductory word; common Germanic (Old Norse nu, Dutch nu, Old Frisian nu, German nun, Gothic nu "now"), from PIE *nu "now" (cognates: Sanskrit and Avestan nu, Old Persian nuram, Hittite nuwa, Greek nu, nun, Latin nunc, Old Church Slavonic nyne, Lithuanian nu, Old Irish nu-). Perhaps originally "newly, recently," and related to the root of new.
Often merely emphatic; non-temporal usage (as in Now, then) was in Old English. The adjective meaning "up to date" first recorded 1967, but the word was used also as an adjective in Middle English with the sense "current" from late 14c. Now and then "occasionally" is from 1530s; now or never attested from 1550s.
雙語例句
1. Husband and wife are now taxed separately on their incomes.
現在夫妻雙方分別按各自的收入納稅。
來自柯林斯例句
2. A journalist all his life, he's now brought out a book.
他當了一輩子新聞記者，如今已出了一本書。
來自柯林斯例句
3. He will now face a disciplinary hearing for having an affair.
他因有外遇而要面臨紀律聽證會的裁決。
來自柯林斯例句
4. The crowds had been soaked and were now nicely drying out.
這群人都渾身濕透，現在謝天謝地快晾干了。
來自柯林斯例句
5. Shirley's brother is now a consultant heart surgeon in Sweden.