distanceとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From Middle English distance, distaunce, destaunce, from Old French destance, from Latin distantia (“distance, remoteness, difference”), from distāns, present participle of distō (“I stand apart, I am separate, distant, または different”), from di-, dis- (“apart”) + stō (“I stand”). Compare Dutch afstand (“distance”, literally “off-stand, off-stance”), German Abstand.

発音

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪs.tɪns/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪs.təns/

名詞

distance (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 distances)

1. (countable) The amount of space between two points, usually geographical points, usually (but not necessarily) measured along a straight line.

   The distance to Petersborough is thirty miles.

   From Moscow, the distance is relatively short to Saint Petersburg, relatively long to Novosibirsk, but even greater to Vladivostok.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.

2. Length or interval of time.
   • 1718, Matthew Prior, Preface to a Collection of Poems

     ten years' distance between my writing the one and the other

   • 1795, John Playfair, Elements of Geometry

     the writings of Euclid at the distance of two thousand years

3. (countable, informal) The difference; the subjective measure between two quantities.

   We're narrowing the distance between the two versions of the bill.  The distance between the lowest and next gear on my bicycle is annoying.

4. Remoteness of place; a remote place.
   • 1819 June 23​, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Rip Van Winkle”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number I, New York, N.Y.: […] C. S. Van Winkle, […], OCLC 1090970992, page 71:

     As he was about to descend, he heard a voice from a distance, hallooing, "Rip Van Winkle! Rip Van Winkle!"

   • 1799, Thomas Campbell, The Pleasure of Hope

     'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.

   • 1713, Joseph Addison, Cato, published 1712, [Act 5, scene 1]:

     [He] waits at distance till he hears from Cato.

5. Remoteness in succession or relation.

   the distance between a descendant and his ancestor

6. A space marked out in the last part of a racecourse.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], OCLC 228727523:

     the horse that ran the whole field out of distance

7. (uncountable, figuratively) The entire amount of progress to an objective.

   He had promised to perform this task, but did not go the distance.

8. (uncountable, figuratively) A withholding of intimacy; alienation; variance.

   The friendship did not survive the row: they kept each other at a distance.

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Seditions and Troubles

     Setting them [factions] at distance, or at least distrust amongst themselves.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 8”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     On the part of Heaven, / Now alienated, distance and distaste.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619:

     In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. […] Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.

9. The remoteness or reserve which respect requires; hence, respect; ceremoniousness.
   • 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour

     I hope your modesty / Will know what distance to the crown is due.

   • 1706, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preached in the Guild-Hall Chapel, September 28 1706

     'Tis by respect and distance that authority is upheld.

10. The space measured back from the winning-post which a racehorse running in a heat must reach when the winner has covered the whole course, in order to run in the final heat.

同意語

• (remoteness): farness

派生語

関連する語

• distant

動詞

distance (三人称単数 現在形 distances, 現在分詞 distancing, 過去形および過去分詞形 distanced)

1. (transitive) To move away (from) someone or something.

   He distanced himself from the comments made by some of his colleagues.

2. (transitive) To leave at a distance; to outpace, leave behind.
   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 71:

     Then the horse, with muscles strong as steel, distanced the sound.

派生語

• outdistance

Further reading

• distance in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• distance in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• distance at OneLook Dictionary Search

アナグラム

• danciest