| 释义 |
stupidity|stjuːˈpɪdɪtɪ|
[ad. L. stupiditās, f. stupid-us: see stupid and -ity. Cf. F. stupidité, It. stupidità.]
†1. Numbness, incapacity for sensation. Obs.
stupidity of the teeth = late L. stupor dentium: see stupor 1.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 83 It is also good against the inflammation of the eares, the stupidity and dulnesse of the teeth. 1653R. Sanders Physiogn. 186 A dull stupidity of the head and sences. 1661R. Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 201 The signes of their wounds are great paine,..blacknesse, and stupidity of the part. 1702Floyer Cold Bathing i. (1709) 139 The Nature and Cure of a Torpor or Stupidity of the Limbs. 1737Bracken Farriery Impr. (1757) II. 273 Those Things which take away Pain by causing a Stupidity.
†2. The condition of being deprived of the use of the faculties; a state of stupor. Obs.
1604R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Stupiditie, dulnesse: astonishment. 1608Willet Hexapla Exod. 267 Pharaoh was taken with such stupiditie that..hee had no power. 1615Chapman Odyss. vi. 252 As now thee To view (O Virgin) a stupiditie Past admiration strikes me. 1621G. Sandys Ovid's Met. v. (1626) 102 Stone-like stood Ceres at this heauy newes;..When griefe had quickned her stupiditie, Shee tooke her Chariot, and ascends the skie. 1622Wotton in L. P. Smith Life & Lett. (1907) II. 236 One of my gondoliers..was suddenly strucken with a silent stupidity, his feet going from him. 1627Drayton Agincourt 39 The dreadfull bellowing..sounded like the dreadfull doome, And them with such stupidity benummes, As though [etc.]. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. vi. 169 Causing onely a gentle Sleep, in no wise a Stupidity. 1684W. Russell Phys. Treatise 117, I..found her drowsie, tho the Cold and Stupidity were some⁓what less. 1806Med. Jrnl. XV. 381 The pain in her head became so acute, as to produce at times, actions of violence, which rendered confinement necessary, and the intervals were marked by stupidity. 1831Examiner 764/2 ‘Locus’ was a cant word to describe the act of putting a man in a state of stupidity.
†3. Incapacity for emotion; lack of feeling or interest, apathy, indifference. Obs.
1568G. Skeyne Pest (Bannatyne Club) 15 The cause quhairby few ar preseruit..is maist euident..the negligence & Stupiditie of mankynd, contemptioun of medicine, [etc.]. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxvii. §3 Shall I wish that men would more giue themselues to meditate with silence what we haue by the Sacrament, & lesse to dispute of the manner how? If any man suppose that this were too great stupiditie and dulnes, let vs see whether [etc.]. 1668Clarendon Contempl. Ps. Tracts (1727) 688 The stupidity of the heart alone is the cause of all desperate incogitance. a1672Wilkins Nat. Relig. 387 It supposes them to have..such a stupidity upon their consciences, as makes them past feeling. 1701G. Stanhope Medit. St. Aug. xl. (1720) 105 Awaken my stupidity, quicken my deadness. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 89 A certain Stupidity of Soul, without Desire of Good, or Conscience of Evil, had entirely overwhelm'd me. 1724Bolingbroke Let. 12 Sept., in Swift's Lett. (1766) II. 37 It is neither sickness, nor journies, nor ill humours, nor age, nor vexation, nor stupidity, which has hindered me from answering sooner your letter. 1748Hartley Observ. Man ii. iv. §4. 412 If indeed a Man's Despair should make him..harden himself in a careless Stupidity with respect to his future Condition.
†b. Insensibility to pain or sorrow; blameable absence of resentment under injury or insult. Obs.
1627Donne Serm. xliv. (1640) 443 Without this [belief in the Trinity], all morall vertues are but diseases;..Active valour is but a fury, whatsoever we do, and passive valour is but a stupidity, whatsoever we suffer. 1661Cowley Cromwell Ess., etc. (1906) 362 The continuance of those oppressions upon the people, which will at last tire out their patience, though it be great even to stupidity. a1673Stillingfl. Serm. vi. (1673) 110 Stupidity then under sufferings can be no part of the excellency of a man; which in its greatest height is in the Beings the most beneath him.
4. Dullness or slowness of apprehension; gross want of intelligence.
1541R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 C ij b, Nowe we must esteme the stupydyte or audacyte of the man. I say the stupidite yf he thynke to say well and the boldnes yf he fele hym selfe culpable to saye nothynge. 1598B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iii. v, I forgive Mr. Stephen, for he is stupiditie it selfe! 1620T. Granger Div. Logike 110 Stupiditie a naturall impotencie to vnderstand easily. 1675in Verney Mem. (1907) II. 292 God watt his stupiditie will find it a hard Taske to learn one [sc. a trade]. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. x. §8. 67 It moves slowly, and retrieves not the Ideas, that it has, and are laid up in store, quick enough to serve the Mind upon occasions. This, if it be to a great degree, is Stupidity. 1759Goldsm. Polite Learn. iv, But let the Germans have their due: if they are dull, no nation alive..better understands all the decorums of stupidity. 1774H. Walpole Let. to C'tess Upper Ossory 14 June, Mr. Anstey..has published the most complete piece of stupidity I ever read. It is a satire on a parson who [etc.]. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. vii, With Stupidity and sound Digestion man may front much. 1880‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abr. viii. 58 ‘Have you engaged a hearse?’ ‘Bless my stupidity, I never thought of it!’ 1896Law Times CI. 516/1 On the average, stupidity in the Church gets better paid than brains at the Bar. 1913Woodrow Wilson New Freedom iii. 70 In public affairs stupidity is more dangerous than knavery.
b. A stupid idea, action, etc.
1633G. Herbert Temple, Ch. Militant 153 Their hearts Are given over..To such Mahometan stupidities, As the old heathen would deem prodigies. 1707Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 245 There..is an infinity of learned Men, who would think themselves Hereticks in Philosophy, if they..thought to search after Truth elsewhere... This is so great a Stupidity, that [etc.]. 1851N. Brit. Rev. XV. 467 The dull stupidities and senseless flippancies of Roman architecture. 1868E. Edwards Ralegh I. xxiii. 525 To..enlightened persons..such themes..are of course, mere obsolete stupidities. 1870G. W. Dasent Ann. Eventful Life III. iv. 74 Of all our escapades and stupidities on the journey I decline to dwell. 1874J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 115 One of the stock stupidities of modern times is belief in a vista.
5. Obstinacy. dial.
1886S.W. Linc. Gloss., Stupidity, obstinacy, not dullness. They understood it well enough; it was stupidity, and nowt else. |