state-of-the-art”  很熟悉，我是常用的，主要是寫proposal申請房頂。每次必用。還有一個詞”novel”，同一文件中交換着用，以免單調。Review 別人proposal時，也是看到90%以上的文本也在用。從來沒有查過辭典，因為從來沒有懷疑過自己不懂它的意思。如果要我翻成中文的話，應該是‘當今頂尖的成果’。

聽說還有第二種意思，好奇起來，具說字典也落伍了，真是有點不可思議。我自己英文底子低，無法判斷是非，不過字典還時要查一查的，至少比我要權威的多。下面選登差到的三個字典的定義

Definition of “state-of-the-art” 

1. Wikipedia

State of the art (sometimes cutting edge)  refers to the highest level of general development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field achieved at a particular time.

2．Merriam-Webster (since 1828)

The level of development (as of a device, procedure, process, technique, or science) reached at any particular time usually as a result of modern methods

3. Cambridge dictionary

The besgt and most modern of its type

三個辭典的解釋是一致的。 三者都沒有給出第二種其它的意思。再看看這個詞的原始出處的來龍去脈。

Origin and history ( from wikipedia)

The origin of the concept of "state of the art" took place in the beginning of the twentieth century.^[3] The earliest use of the term "state of the art" documented by the Oxford English Dictionary dates back to 1910, from an engineering manual by Henry Harrison Suplee (1856-post 1943), an engineering graduate (University of Pennsylvania, 1876), titled Gas Turbine: progress in the design and construction of turbines operated by gases of combustion. The passage reads: "In the present state of the art this is all that can be done". The term, "art", itself refers to the useful arts, skills and methods relating to practical subjects such as manufacture and craftsmanship, rather than in the sense of the performing arts and the fine arts.

看來是個相對的新詞（1910），最早是用在指燃氣輪機葉片達到當時的最高水平，也就是我說的頂尖的成果（"In the present state of the art this is all that can be done".）。z重要是 最後一句明白無誤地點明：不要誤讀The term, "art"， 它與‘the sense of the performing arts and the fine arts.’無關。

那麼有沒有可能經過一，二百年後變遷。該詞義演變出其他的新意呢？ 也許吧，尤其是如果這個新意已經廣泛的被使用在某些領域，那麼一定會在文獻中找到有許多現成的例子。因為我自己孤陋寡聞，在科技文獻中從來沒有遇到過。很希望廣聞博閱者幫助撿索出幾個例子，讓我們百聞不如一見，學習一下。