utility英语解释

在词根辞典中对两个词的解释如下：Utility的解释：late 14c., "fact of being useful," from Old French utilite "usefulness" (13c., Modern French + utilité), earlier utilitet (12c.), from Latin utilitatem (nominative utilitas) "usefulness, serviceableness, profit," from utilis "usable," from uti "make use of, profit by, take advantage of" (see use (v.)). Meaning "a useful thing" is from late 15c. As a shortened form of public utility it is recorded from 1930.Tool的解释：Old English tol "instrument, implement used by a craftsman or laborer, weapon," from Proto-Germanic *tōwalan "implement" (source also of Old Norse tol), from a verb stem represented by Old English tawian "prepare" (see taw). The ending is the instrumental suffix -el (1). Figurative sense of "person used by another for his own ends" is recorded from 1660s. Slang meaning "penis" first recorded 1550s.由此，可以想到utility由use，util发展而来n. 实用工具，功效，效用 adj. 实用的，有价值的，公用的且这种有用和价值不一定是具体的，可以是更宽泛的，更通用性的，对“有用处”这个词的上层抽象，偏宏观。而tool 做工具时一般是指具体的工具，或某一类工具，是个具体化的概念。n. 辅助工具（具体的）， “爪牙，傀儡”（指人）， 方法（指事）v. 使用工具，开车。