释义 |
▪ I. ‖ div|diːv| Also dive, deev, dev, dew. [Pers. dīv, dīw, formerly dēv:—Zend daēva, = Skr. dēva god: see deva.] An evil spirit or demon of Persian mythology; a devil; an evil genius. The Indo-Iranian language had two words expressive of divinity: asuria and dēva. In the separate development of the languages, dēva became in Sanskrit the general name for gods, while the Asuras became the enemies of the gods. In the Zend-Avesta, on the other hand, Ahura, i.e. Asura (originally ‘Lord’ in Indo-Iranian) came to mean the supreme God Ahura Mazda, while daēva (Persian dēv or dīv) became the general name of an evil spirit, a fiend, demon, or devil, for which there had originally been no generic name.
1777J. Richardson Dissert. East. Nations 142 The Dives are pictured as hideous in form and malignant in mind. 1843J. Wilson Pársi Relig. 150 Ahriman, this chief of death, this chief of the Dews. 1855Smedley Occult Sciences 50 The div of ancient Persia..is supposed to be the same as the European devil of the middle ages. 1878M. Haug Relig. of Parsis (ed. 2) 268. 1883 E. O'Donovan Story of Merv xviii, Ghouls and divs, and various other kinds of evil spirits. 1893Max Müller Theosophy vi. 181. 1895 J. Darmesteter Zend-Avesta (ed. 2) Introd. 51 Daêva is generally understood as a ‘dream’, and that is the meaning it has in the derived dêv and in most of the Zend texts generally..but it must also have applied to false gods. ▪ II. div, n.2 Math.|dɪv| Also 9 with point. [Abbrev.] Divergence (of), chiefly in symbolic contexts: see divergence n. 3 b.
1883O. Heaviside in Electrician 14 Apr. 510/2 Let R denote the electrostatic force, and ρ the volume density of electricity, then we may say 4πρ = -conv. R, or, = div. R, where we use conv. and div. as abbreviations. 1924C. E. Weatherburn Adv. Vector Analysis i. 7 From a vector function F may be derived two other point-functions, the one a scalar..called the divergence of F ..denoted by div F . 1953E. R. Peck Electr. & Magn. xii. 425 The conservation of electric charge is stated in differential form by the equation of continuity..div J + ∂ρ/∂t = 0. 1975Parton & Owen Appl. Electromagnetics i. 18 The operations div and curl can be used to classify fields. ▪ III. div Sc. and north. dial. f. do v., in pres. indic. |