| 释义 |
superstructure|ˈs(j)uːpəˌstrʌktjʊə(r), -tʃə(r)|
[f. super- 3 + structure, after superstruct, superstruction. Cf. F. superstructure (from 18th c.).]
That which is built upon something else as a foundation; a structure raised upon something.
1. a. lit. A building considered in relation to its foundation; an upper part of a building, erected upon a lower supporting part; any material structure resting on something else as a foundation.
c1645Howell Lett. I. ii. xv. (1892) 126 In som Places, as in Amsterdam, the Foundation costs more than the Superstructure. 1679Moxon Mech. Exerc. viii. 137 Though the Ground-plates..be part of the Carcass, yet I thought fit..they should be laid, before I treated of the superstructure. 1738Gentl. Mag. VIII. 378/2 The City Surveyor..declared..that it would be beneficial to the Superstructure to have the Foundation laid early. 1813Vancouver Agric. Devon 89 It frequently happens, that the lower part of the building is made of stone, and its superstructure of cob. 1868Lyell Princ. Geol. xli. (ed. 10) II. 404 The accumulation of the subaërial superstructure of the great cone. 1876Encycl. Brit. IV. 284/1 The superstructure of a bridge consists of the roadway and the beam, arch, or chain used to carry the roadway from support to support.
b. Railway Engineering. (See quot.)
1864Webster, Superstructure,..the sleepers, rails, and fastenings, in distinction from the road-bed;—called also permanent-way.
c. Geol. [tr. G. oberbau (C. E. Wegmann 1935, in Geol. Rundschau XXVI. 332).] A relatively shallow overlying layer of an orogenic belt that is unaffected by plutonic activity or metamorphism.
1944Proc. Geologists' Assoc. LV. 69 A distinction must be drawn, he [sc. Wegmann] maintains, between happenings in the non-migmatitic superstructure (Oberbau) and the migmatitic infrastructure (Unterbau) lying below. 1972J. G. Dennis Structural Geol. xvii. 394 In many orogenic belts, the superstructure has not been preserved in place: most of it has been eroded or transported to the external zone as allochthons.
d. Biochem. The higher-order structure of a protein or enzyme molecule which is super-imposed upon the sequence of amino-acids or nucleotide bases.
1962A. Spector in A. Pirie Lens Metabolism Rel. Cataract 334 The N-terminal residues of native proteins are probably not readily accessible to the enzyme since such groups are masked or buried in the superstructure of the molecule. 1973Nature 7 Sept. 23/1 The term superstructure will be used to include the secondary and higher order structures that might be super imposed upon the primary base sequence of a nucleic acid. 1981Sci. Amer. Feb. 60/2 (caption) Helical superstructures might be formed with increasing salt concentration.
2. a. fig. or in fig. context: An immaterial structure, as of thought, action, etc., figured as being built upon something else as a foundation.
1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. iii. 224 Lay a good foundation, and then the superstructure is like to stand. 1646J. Hall Horæ Vac. 20 Thrift..is..the Base whereon the Superstructures of all other wisdome lyes. 1698Norris Pract. Disc. (1711) III. 2 In Geometry some plain Propositions are laid down,..in order to further Theory, which, as a Superstructure, is to be rais'd upon those Foundations. 1791Cowper Yardley Oak 122 So stands a kingdom, whose foundation yet Fails not, in virtue and in wisdom laid, Through all the superstructure. 1840Macaulay Ess., Ranke's Hist. (1897) 549 Every fresh story is as solid a basis for a new superstructure as the original foundation was. 1905J. B. Bury Life St. Patrick App. 276 The visit to Pope Celestine at Rome has no legendary superstructure.
b. Pol. and Econ. In Marxist theory, the institutions and culture which are considered to result from or reflect the economic system on which a society is based.
[1903Social Democrat VII. 274 The Greeks attained to a high pitch of civilization, with a slave class as the basis of its economic superstructure.] 1904N. I. Stone tr. Marx's Contributions Critique Pol. Econ. 11 The sum total of these relations..constitutes the economic structure of society—the real foundation, on which rise legal and political superstructures. 1926M. Eastman Marx, Lenin & Sci. of Revolution iv. 50 It is obvious that if the material basis positively determined the superstructure, we should not have to disregard the superstructure and examine the basis, for the one could be directly inferred from the other. 1943J. A. Schumpeter Capitalism, Socialism, & Democracy xi. 121 We now turn to the cultural complement of the capitalist economy—to its socio-psychological superstructure, if we wish to speak the Marxian language—and to the mentality that is characteristic of capitalist society. 1960E. R. Goodman in J. A. Fishman Readings Sociol. of Lang. (1968) 729 Man considered language as an element in the Marxist superstructure dependent upon the economic base of society... Just as this base might be changed by force, so Man thought, the linguistic superstructure should be impelled to develop toward its ultimate goal. 1975Chinese Econ. Stud. VIII. iv. 10 The superstructure refers to the national government, army, law, and other political systems and their corresponding ideological forms, such as philosophy, literature, and fine arts. 1977R. Williams Marxism & Lit. ii. vi. 111 Cultural work and activity are not now, in any ordinary sense, a superstructure.
3. Metallurgy. = superlattice 1.
1932Proc. R. Soc. A. CXXXVI. 216 The type of superstructure represented by Fe3Al gives other lines [in an X-ray diffraction photograph]. 1979Nature 11 Oct. 469/2 Ordered solid solutions (superstructures or superlattices), in which atoms of one kind segregate into a particular set of lattice positions, are usually obtained by slow cooling at the critical ordering temperature. |