Word of the Day：January 3, 2021
apologia
書面辯解；辯解書；辯解文
noun ap-uh-LOH-jee-uh
Definition
: a defense especially of one's opinions, position, or actions
特別表述對自己的見解，立場，行為的辯護
Examples
"Susan Sontag, probably the most influential writer on the intersection of violence and photography, didn't buy this argument. With forensic prose, she cut through complacent apologias for war photography and set photojournalistic images of violence squarely in the context of viewers' voyeurism." — Teju Cole, The New York Times Magazine, 24 May 2018
蘇珊·桑塔格（Susan Sontag），可能是在暴力方面和攝影界裡最有影響力的作家之一，但是她不接受這一論點。憑藉著客觀的文章，她突破了自以為是的戰爭攝影而道歉，並在觀眾熱於探究的背景下擺正了對暴力新聞攝影的態度。
"And then there are the countless physicists and biologists who, throughout the 20th century, contributed expertise to building and improving weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps this explains why [Neil deGrasse] Tyson eventually co-wrote a book called Accessory to War, the subtitle of which—'The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military'—surely stands as an apologia for his previous blunder." — W. Patrick McCray, The Los Angeles Review of Books, 9 Nov. 2020
然後，在整個20世紀，無數的物理學家和生物學家為構建和改進大規模毀滅性武器提供了專業知識。也許這可以解釋為什麼泰米爾·尼爾森（Neil deGrasse）泰森最終合寫了《 Accessory to War》一書的副標題其中「'The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military'」無疑是對他先前的失誤的道歉。
Did You Know?
As you might expect, apologia is a close relative of apology. Both words derive from Late Latin; apologia came to English as a direct borrowing while apology traveled through Middle French. The Latin apologia derives from a combination of the Greek prefix apo-, meaning "away from," and the word logia, from Greek lógos, meaning "speech." In their earliest English uses, apologia and apology meant basically the same thing: a formal defense or justification of one's actions or opinions. Nowadays, however, the two are distinct. The modern apology generally involves an admission of wrongdoing and an expression of regret for past actions, while an apologia typically focuses on explaining, justifying, or making clear the grounds for some course of action, belief, or position.
如您所料，apologia是apology的近親。 這兩個詞都來自拉丁語晚期。 apologia是在中古法語中apology，英語是直接借用的。 拉丁文的阿波羅語源自希臘文前綴apo-（意為「away from「遠離」」）和logia一詞的組合，該詞來自希臘語lógos（意為「speech「演講」」）。 在最早的英語用法中，apologia與apology意思基本相同：a formal defense or justification of one's actions or opinions. 「對自己的行為或觀點的正式辯護或辯護」。 但是，如今，兩者是截然不同的。 現代的apology用於承認自己有過錯，並對過去的行為表示遺憾，而apologia通常著重於解釋，證明或弄清某種行為，信念或立場。
Word Family Quiz
What -logy word begins with an "h" and in evolutionary biology refers to correspondence or similarity in form or function between parts (such as the wing of a bat and the human arm) of different species?