purchase A for B: 花了B购进A?
看到purchase A for B,总觉得有点梗,因为for不应该有“[花]出去”之义,但主流词典大都收录了这个表达结构,如
【例句1】They purchased the land for $1 million. (他们以100万美元买下了这块土地。)[牛津高级学者辞典]
【例句2】The company was purchased for £3.5 billion. (该公司以35亿英镑的价格被收购。) [剑桥商业英语词典]
上面两句的for应该是强调额度(不可能是目的和原因)。
下一句确实是目的,
【例句3】The property was purchased for investment purposes. (购买该房产是出于投资目的。)[朗文商业英语词典]
purchase=pur-+chase。pur-的含义为forth(这里有强化之义), chase的含义为run after, 因此purchase本义是“在后面向前跑”,衍生为“求购”之义。
purchase比buy正式,应该是经过比较强的搜求,因此主动性、计划性强。buy可能是见到啥就买啥。
purchase因为有机会、有搜求,可能交易额度比较大。因为交易的额度大,所以对额度比较关注,这大概是【例句1,2】用for的原因。
purchase A from B是从B购买A,如
【例句4】The equipment can be purchased from your local supplier. (设备可以从当地供应商处购买。)[牛津高级学者辞典]
【例句5】The tickets can only be purchased in advance from our website. (门票只能在我们的网站上提前购买。) [牛津高级学者辞典]
【例句6】Tickets may be purchased in advance from the box office. (门票可提前从票房处购买。)[朗文当代英语词典]