| 释义 |
subtlety|ˈsʌt(ə)ltɪ|
Forms: α. 4 sotilti, sutil(l)te, suttilte, 4–5 sotelte(e, -ilte(e, -ylte(e, sutelte(e, 4–6 soteltie, 5 -ty, -ellte, sutiltee, sutteltee, 5–6 sotyltie, suttelte, 5–7 suttletie, -ty, 6 sotiltie, -tye, sottelte, souttiltey, sutteltie, suttlete, suttylt(e)y, -ie. β. 5–6 subtelte, 6 -tie, 6–7 subtletie, 6– subtlety.
[a. OF. su-, soutilte:—L. subtīlitās, -ātem, n. of quality f. subtīlis subtle. The spelling was latinized in the 16th c. like that of subtle. Cf. subtility, subtilty.]
1. Of persons, the mind, its faculties or operations: Acuteness, sagacity, penetration: in modern use chiefly with implication of delicate or keen perception of fine distinctions or nice points.
α1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 5903 Gudes of grace may þir be, Mynde, and witte, and sutilte. 1422Yonge tr. Secr. Secr. vi. 134 What aualyth Sotilte of vndyrstondynge and connynge? 1538Starkey England i. iv. 116 Ther ys no⁓thyng so true and manyfest, but the suttylty of mannys reson may deuyse somethyng to say contrary.
βc1400Rom. Rose 7471 Who so that hath hadde the subtelte The double sentence for to se. 1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 24 They greatly excel all other men in subteltie of wit and knowledge. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxvii. (1611) 363 They labour..by subtletie of wit to make some shew of agreement. 1638–56Cowley Davideis iii. note 32 Some with much subtlety, and some probability, understand a Pillar of Salt, to signifie only an Everlasting Pillar, of what matter soever. 1780Harris Philol. Enq. Wks. (1841) 508 Though that subtlety might sometimes have led them into refinements rather frivolous, yet have they given eminent samples of penetrating ingenuity. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 409 Wit, taste, amplitude of comprehension, subtlety in drawing distinctions. 1872W. Minto Engl. Prose Lit. i. i. 47 His subtlety in distinguishing wherein things agree and wherein they differ.
†2. Skill, cleverness, dexterity. Obs.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xi. (Symon & Iudas) 271 A kyste þat wrocht is all with costlyke wark & sutelte. c1400Destr. Troy 8395 Miche soteltie, for-sothe, settyng of notes, Crafte þat was coynt, knawyng of tymes.
3. Craftiness, cunning, esp. of a treacherous kind; guile, treachery.
α1375Barbour Bruce i. 172 Throuch gret sutelte and ghyle,..He was arestyt syne and tane. c1394P. Pl. Crede 56 Ȝet seyn they in here sutilte to sottes in townes, Þei comen out of Carmeli Crist for to followen. c1410Hoccleve Mother of God 46 Lest our fo, the feend, thurgh his sotiltee,..Me ouercome with his treecherie. 1456Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 18 To wirk with suteltee of ypocrisy. 1526Tindale Matt. xxvi. 4 The chefe prestes..heelde a counsell, howe they mygt take Jesus by suttelte, and kyll him. 1577Grange Golden Aphrod. G iv, She turned him for his suttlety in stealyng the same into a wylie Foxe. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 93 In the wilie Snake, What⁓ever sleights none would suspicious mark, As from his wit and native suttletie Proceeding.
β1532Rom. Rose 6172 in Chaucer's Wks. 160 b/1, I dwell with hem that proude be And ful of wyles and subtelte. 1548–9(Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Litany, Those euyls, whiche the crafte and subteltie of the deuyll or man worketh against us. 1656Bramhall Reply S.W. 3 To observe with what subtlety this case is proposed, that the Church of England agreed with the Church of Rome. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xvii. II. (1787) 73 The laws were violated by power, or perverted by subtlety. 1821Byron Cain iii. i, Surely a father's blessing may avert A reptile's subtlety.
†4. An ingenious contrivance; a crafty or cunning device; an artifice; freq. in unfavourable sense, a wily stratagem or trick, something craftily invented. Obs.
α1375Barbour Bruce iii. 611 Bot giff we fynd sum sutelte, Ourtane all sone sall we be. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 20 Bi false procurynge of matrymonye bi soteltees and queyntese. c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 5 Anoþer sotelte I wylle telle. Take harpe strynges made of bowel [etc.]. c1450Bk. Curtasye 758 in Babees Bk., Yf þo syluer dysshe wylle algate brenne, A sotelte I wylle þe kenne. 1545Brinklow Compl. vii. (1874) 20 How many gyles and suttylteys be there, to auoyde and escape the seruyng of the kyngs wrytt. 1671Milton Samson 56 Liable to fall By weakest suttleties.
β1576Turberv. Venerie xxix, Let him marke the place where he hath fed, and whereon also to marke his subtleties and craftes. 1654Bramhall Just Vind. vii. (1661) 224 It hath been an old Subtlety of the Popes..to make the world believe that nothing could be done without them.
5. Cookery. A highly ornamental device, wholly or chiefly made of sugar, sometimes eaten, sometimes used as a table decoration. Obs. exc. Hist.
c1390Form of Cury in Warner Antiq. Culin. (1791) 4 It techith for to make curious potages and meetes, and sotiltees. c1440in Househ. Ord. (1790) 450 A soteltee Seint⁓jorge on horsebak, and sleynge the dragun. 1467–8Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 92 Pro le Tynfole empt. pro ornacione et pictura del soteltez erga festum Natal. Domini. 1517R. Torkington Pilgr. (1884) 7 They mad vs goodly Chere wt Diverse Sotylties as Comfytes and Marche Panys. 1552Latimer Serm. Par. King (Parker Soc.) II. 139 At the end of the dinner they have certain subtleties, custards, sweet and delicate things. [1768H. Walpole Let. to Cole 6 June, I am no culinary antiquary: the Bishop of Carlisle, who is, I have often heard talk of a sotelte [printed sotelle], as an ancient dish. 1852C. M. Yonge Cameos II. xxxi. (1877) 327 The feast was entirely of fish: but they were of many kinds, and were adorned in the quaintest fashions, with sotilties, or subtleties. 1875J. C. Jeaffreson Bk. Table I. 133 A subtelty, representing a pelican on a nest with her birds. ]
†6. Abstruseness, complexity, intricacy; also pl., abstruse or intricate matters. Obs.
13..Seuyn Sag. (W.) 48, I wil that ye teche him euyn The sutelte of sience seuyn. 1387Trevisa tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 15 Nouȝt sotilte of sentence, noþer faire florischynge of wordes, but swetnesse of deuocion of þe matire schal regne in þis book. c1407Lydg. Reason & Sens. 1700 [Mercury] doth habounde In sotyltes ful profounde. 1535Coverdale Wisd. viii. 8 She knoweth y⊇ sotilties of wordes, & can expounde darke sentences. 1591Sparry tr. Cattan's Geomancie A 4, The.. suttletie of this Science.
7. A refinement or nicety of thought, speculation, or argument; a fine distinction; a nice point.
1654Bramhall Just Vind. ii. (1661) 28 That prefers not a subtlety or an imaginary truth before the bond of peace. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) II. 486 They that are curious in Subtleties, and ignorant in things of solid Knowledge. 1760Sterne Tr. Shandy IV. xxix, My father delighted in subtleties of this kind. 1837Whewell Hist. Induct. Sci. (1857) I. 191 The..unprofitable subtleties of the schools. 1868Milman St. Paul's vi. 115 The lecturer had no logical subtleties. 1876Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxiv. 369 [He] held that land as a plain matter of fact, and without any legal subtleties, as a personal gift from King William. 1903Ld. Halsbury in Law Rep. 1 K.B. Div. 413 By ingenious subtleties to bring within the grasp of the tax something which was not intended.
8. Thinness, tenuity, exility; penetrativeness arising from lack of density.
1691Ray Creation i. (1704) 109 The subtlety, activity, and penetrancy of its effluvia. 1748Hartley Observ. Man i. i. §1. 24 Admitting the Existence and Subtlety of the Aether. 1779Johnson L.P., Cowley (1781) I. 31 Subtlety..in its original import means exility of particles. 1855Brewster Newton I. vi. 146, I will suppose ether to consist of parts differing from one another in subtlety by indefinite degrees. 1893Sir R. Ball Story of Sun 120 Such is the wondrous subtlety of the ethereal fluid.
9. Fineness or delicacy of nature, character, manner, operation, or the like; an instance of this.
1820Hazlitt Lect. Dram. Lit. 17 Religious controversy sharpens the understanding by the subtlety and remoteness of the topics it discusses. 1840Carlyle Heroes (1858) 204 Who knows to what unnameable subtleties of spiritual law all these Pagan Fables owe their shape! 1879Swinburne Stud. Shaks. (1880) 7 The delicate and infinite subtleties of change and growth discernible in the spirit and the speech of the greatest among poets. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. cvii. III. 549, I doubt whether democracy tends to discourage originality, subtlety, refinement, in thought and in expression. |