On the cutting edge或 at the cutting edge 最早出現在五十年代,它的字面意思是銳器的鋒利的部位,現在最通常的隱喻義是處在最前沿的位置。例如Ever since it outlawed public school segregation in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court has been on the cutting edge of civil rights advances. (Time, 1988)
比如,bleeding edge通常描述有一定風險的新生事物,如可能帶來經濟災難或只是曇花一現的新事物。下面的一段解釋就可以反映出"風險"的意思 "Leading Edge or Bleeding Edge: Staying at the forefront of technological innovation without going overboard......Working on the edge of technological innovation can be a difficult balancing act" (Newport Communications, 1997)。Bleeding edge 大約在20年前在句子 "Environmental management is an organization that addresses change and manages that change so the DP community can be state of the art without being the 'bleeding edge'" (Computerworld, 1983) 第一次出現,如今通常用它來指電腦技術。
形容詞edgy 也有 on the cutting edge的意思,盡管它的內涵是大膽創新("being innovative in a daring or discomfiting way"),不過它不像bleeding edge那樣顯得頗具風險。例如 "Crisp, edgy and sometimes startlingly raunchy style...the chuckles keep coming like poisoned darts." (Newsweek, 1999).
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