本文经授权转载自微信公众号：田间小站
SAT GRE
外刊例句
- Others were made to give false testimony against me under duress.
其他人在胁迫下对我作伪证。
——《经济学人》 - Rights groups and international law experts say that any hostage video is, by definition, made under duress, and can constitute a war crime.
人权组织和国际法专家表示，根据定义，任何在胁迫下制作的人质视频都可能构成战争罪。
——《纽约时报》
基本释义
[noun] threats, violence, constraints, or other action used to coerce someone into doing something against their will or better judgement
[名词] 用来强迫某人违背自己的意愿或理智做某事的威胁、暴力、限制等行为
深入解读
Duress 既是一个与小站（微信公众号：田间小站）推送过的 mistress 和 buttress 有着相同结尾的单词，也是一个与英国著名品牌杜蕾斯（Durex）形似音近的单词，可以一并联想记忆。
从词源上来看， duress 一词源自拉丁语 durus （硬的），先后经拉丁语 duritia （坚硬）和古法语 duresse, durece 于14世纪初进入英语，原先用来表示“严厉的对待”。
等到了15世纪初后， duress 开始发展出现在的主要含义指“胁迫、强迫”，常作正式用语使用，侧重指通过威胁、暴力、监禁、限制等非法手段强迫某人违背自己的意愿或理智做某事或容忍某些行为。比如：
- 鸦片战争后香港被强迫割让给了英国。
Hong Kong was ceded to Britain under duress after the Opium War. - 首恶必办，胁从不问，立功受奖。
The chief criminals shall be punished without fail, those who are accomplices under duress shall go unpunished and those who perform deeds of merit shall be rewarded.
值得注意的是， duress 也是一个法律术语，用来表示“监禁、束缚”，主要指非法行使约束力，迫使某人实施某种行为。
名人名言
People never change because they are under threat or under duress. Never. They change because they see something that makes their life seem valuable enough to start moving toward a life worth living.
人们永远不会因为受到威胁或胁迫而改变。绝不。他们之所以改变是因为他们看到了一些让他们的生活看起来足够有价值的东西，从而开始走向有意义的生活。
出自美国著名演员小罗伯特·唐尼（Robert Downey Jr.）。
同近义词
- coercion: the practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats
- compulsion: the action or state of forcing or being forced to do something; constraint
- force: coercion or compulsion, especially with the use or threat of violence
