| 释义 |
Struldbrug|ˈstrʌldbrʌg|
Also 8 (Swift) -brugg; corruptly 8–9 Strulbrug.
[Arbitrarily formed.]
In Swift's Gulliver's Travels, given as the native appellation of ‘the immortals’ in the kingdom of Luggnagg, who were incapable of dying, but after the age of eighty continued to exist in a state of miserable decrepitude, regarded as legally dead, and receiving a small pittance from the state. Hence in allusive uses.
1726Swift Gulliver iii. x. 127–8 Struldbrugs. 129 ff. Struldbrugg, -bruggs. 1773A. Grant Lett. fr. Mountains (1807) I. vii. 57 The sages here get a great deal of reverence and attention, not usually paid to the struldbruggs of other countries. 1784H. Walpole Let. to H. S. Conway 25 June, I am very well content to be a Strulbrug, and to exist after I have done being. 1847H. Miller First Impr. Eng. xvi. 293 These [trees] are mere hollow trunks, of vast bulk, but stinted foliage..—mere struldbrugs of the forest. 1908Contemp. Rev. Dec. 744 There is a danger lest the aged pensioner at home should sink into the condition of a Struldbrug.
attrib.1844De Quincey Greece under Romans Wks. 1890 VII. 275 All the great Moslem nations being already in a Strulbrug state, and held erect only by the colossal support of Christian powers.
Hence Struldbruggian a., of or pertaining to a Struldbrug. Struldbrugism, the condition or practice of a Struldbrug.
1778H. Walpole Let. to W. Mason 15 May, I have long taken my doctor's degree in Strulbruggism, and wonder I concern myself about the affairs of the living. 1788― Let. Lady Craven 11 Dec., When any personage has shone as much as is possible in his or her best walk,..he should take up his strulbrugism, and be heard of no more. 1909Times Lit. Suppl. 2 Sept. 314/1 Rescuing old authors from the dangers of the Struldbruggian state. |