| 释义 |
determinable, a. and n.|dɪˈtɜːmɪnəb(ə)l|
[In ME., a. OF. determinable fixed, determinate, ad. L. dēterminābilis (Tertull.) that has an end, finite. In later use, following the ordinary analogy of adjs. in -able, in which sense it has also been revived in mod.F. (Not in Cotgr.; 1878 in Dict. Acad.)]
A. adj.
†1. Fixed, definite, determined. Obs.
c1325E.E. Allit. P. A. 593 In sauter is said a verce ouverte Þat spekez a poynt determynable. 1486Bk. St. Albans, Her. A v a, Ther be ix. vices contrary to gentilmen of the wiche v. ben indetermynable and iiij. determynable. 1525Ld. Berners Froiss. II. ccxxii. [ccxviii.] 686 The kynge hath commaunded me to gyue you a determynable answere to your requestes. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. i. 280 Yet were there no small difficulty to set downe a determinable Chronology.
2. Capable of being determined; proper to be determined.
a. Capable of being, or proper to be, legally or authoritatively decided or settled.
1485Act 1 Hen. VII, c. 7 The same Rescous and Disobeysance shall be Felony, enquirable and determinable as is aforesaid. 1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 165 Certaine principall points concerning the Port townes, be determinable at Shipwey onely. 1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. ii. (1632) 110 Affairs..which were not determinable one way or other by the Scripture. c1645Howell Lett. (1655) IV. iv. xvi. 39 A Forest hath her Court..where matters are as pleadable and determinable, as at Westminster-Hall. 1685Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 248 All Causes not Determinable by y⊇ Respective County Courts. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) III. xvii. 307 To prepare all matters determinable in parliament. 1845Ld. Campbell Chancellors (1857) I. xix. 281 Matters determinable by your common law.
b. Capable of being definitely limited, fixed, assigned, or laid down.
1581Mulcaster Positions xlii. (1887) 261 The Elementarie time, determinable not by yeares, but by sufficiencie. 1611R. Fenton Usury i. iii. 15 Every intention..is determinable by the act it selfe to be good or bad. 1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. III. xxvi. 96 Standards of space and velocity are also determinable.
c. Capable of being definitely ascertained (a) as to fact or identity, (b) as to meaning or character.
1658Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus Wks. II. 522 What is the most lasting herb or seed, seems not easily determinable. 1748Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. 274 These words being determinable only by means of the known words to which they are joined. Ibid. 348 Relations..not determinable with Certainty and Precision. 1846Ellis Elgin Marb. I. 29 One remarkable little spot is also determinable with certainty. 1846Grote Greece i. xviii. (1862) II. 447 Whether Sidon or Tyre was the most ancient, seems not determinable. 1880Gunther Fishes 314 Some of the earliest determinable fish remains.
3. Liable to be terminated or to come to an end; terminable (esp. in Law).
1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. viii. iii. 130 The divels death, whose life he held to be determinable and mortall. 1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iv. viii. 376 It presents all our enjoyments as determined or determinable in a short time. 1707Lond. Gaz. No. 4382/4 In Lease for 99 Years, determinable on one, two and three Lives. 1815T. Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 260 A truce determinable on the first act of impressment. 1848Wharton Law Lex., Determinable Freeholds, estates for life, which may determine upon future contingencies before the life for which they are created expires. 1876Digby Real Prop. v. 229 note, Here the estate would be an estate determinable upon the specified event.
B. n. Philos. [tr. G. das bestimmbare.] That which is capable of being given a more determinate form or of being more precisely specified; spec. (in W. E. Johnson's use) a general term or concept (e.g. colour) under which several specific terms or concepts fall (e.g. red, yellow, green). Also as adj.
1878S. H. Hodgson Philos. of Reflection I. iv. 272 Maimon adds [in Die Kathegorien des Aristoteles: Propädeutik 248] that since the critical philosophy has already fixed the meaning of the expressions, matter and form, he will use expressions of his own instead of them, namely, the determinable and its determination. Ibid., Space is therefore the matter, the determinable (bestimmbare). 1906W. James Let. 3 Apr. in R. B. Perry Thought & Char. W. J. (1935) II. 392 Taking ‘experience’ concretely..seems to me the only way in which to leave all its determinations real so far as they are attained, and at the same time to leave always a determinable..that provides for what is fertile and developable in the process. 1921W. E. Johnson Logic I. xi. 174, I propose to call such terms as colour and shape determinables in relation to such terms as red and circular which will be called determinates. 1949G. Ryle Concept of Mind ii. 44 Many disposition-concepts are determinable concepts. 1960S. Körner Philos. of Math. viii. 167 Perceptual characteristics which in the philosophical literature are sometimes called ‘determinables’ or ‘respects of likeness’, such as ‘colour’, ‘shape’, etc., are all internally inexact.
Hence deˈterminableness. rare.
1727Bailey vol. II, Determinableness, capableness of being determined or decided. 1775in Ash; and in mod. Dicts. |