Suddenly the door opens and you stand, taken by surprise with a slice of the most delicious cake. Or here’s an example: “Each of us found himself in a situation of this kind: an unexpected question suddenly catches us by surprise.” This is not timely and unpleasant, and there is no person on Earth who could predict or prevent those unpleasant events that have a similar situation. So, today we find out by surprise - what is it?
Your friend explanatory dictionary
Explanatory dictionary in this matter will provide invaluable service, because there is no such word in the world that he could not give an interpretation. So, the word "by surprise" means "suddenly, unexpectedly, out of time, out of place." Moreover, this word can be used in cases where a person is not ready to give an answer or adequately respond to an unexpected situation. That is, a person does not expect such an action in relation to himself.
The word “by surprise” is used in combination with such verbs: “catch”, “attack”, “catch”.
Earlier in colloquial speech, the definition of an unexpected situation was the word “flush”, but today the word in this context is not used and is considered obsolete.
Features of word formation
The modern man does not quite understand the adverb “by surprise”. What is it? To understand this, you should consider the formation of this word.
So, it consists of prefixes in - and ras-. There remains a part of the word “bad”, which, in turn, is derived from the Slavic verb “flax”. The meaning of this obsolete word is “to be scared”. In the end, it turns out that "by surprise" means "suddenly being scared or alarmed by his appearance at the wrong time or out of place."
Telephone drawing
We give an example of the use of the word "by surprise". You noticed that talking on the phone, people take up a pencil. Indeed, at such moments, hands are free, and the head is busy. But it is possible that you are bored or very tired. And from under the brush of the “artist” plain drawings appear. German psychologists conducted a series of sociological studies, on the basis of which it was possible to determine the mood in which a person is at a given moment. But dwell only on those drawings that relate to our topic. So, if during a conversation a person draws geometric shapes or houses, then he is distinguished by a love of order, a penchant for planning, and most importantly: he is very difficult to take by surprise, he will defend his point of view to the end. He knows exactly what he wants, his thoughts are clear and clearly built.