| 释义 |
actuality|ˌæktjuːˈælɪtɪ|
[ad. med.L. actuālitātem, f. actuāl-is. See actual and -ity; cf. mod.Fr. actualité (‘a neologism.’ Littré).]
†1. Capacity of action, activity. Obs.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. xvi. (1495) 323 The sonne hath moost actualyte and vertue of werkinge. 1647H. More Song of the Soul ii. ii. iii. v, Yet falls she down at last and lowly lies..sleep doth seise her actualities. 1677Gale Crt. of Gentiles III. 122 God, by reason of his infinite actualitie, permits nothing but what he wils.
2. The state of being actual or real; reality, existing objective fact.
1675J. Howe Living Temple Wks. 1834, 34/2 An infinite possibility on the part of the creature..and a proportionable infinite actuality of power on the Creator's part. 1775J. Harris Philos. Arrangem. (1841) 365 That there are things existing in act, in reality, in actuality, (call it as you please,) we have the evidence both of our senses and of our internal consciousness. 1847Lewes Hist. Philos. (1867) I. 313 Which passed from possibility into actuality. 1848Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. i. vii. §15, 90 To sacrifice a truth of actuality to a truth of feeling. 1855Milman Lat. Chr. xiv. iii. (1864) IX. 136 Universals are real only in God but..in potentiality rather than in actuality.
3. pl. Actual existing conditions or circumstances.
1665Glanville Sceps. Sci. 42 These distinct possibilities are founded upon distinct actualities. 1832Coleridge Table Talk 5 Apr. 168 The public mind, which substitutes its own undefined notions or passions for real objects and historical actualities. 1852Grote Greece IX. ii. lxix. 34 To look at the actualities of the present and take measure of what is best to be done for the future. 1876C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. 250 His words would therefore be few, and directed to the actualities of the case.
4. a. Realism in description.
1850Merivale Hist. Rom. Emp. (1865) VIII. lxiv. 83 It invests traditions and legends with the hard colouring of modern actuality. 1879W. E. Henley in Academy 5 Apr. 298/1 Some of the characters grouped about her have a flavour of actuality.
b. spec. in Cinemat., Television (see quot. 1941). Also attrib.
1929H. G. Wells King who was King i. §1. 10 The films began with ‘actualities’, the record of more or less formal current events. 1941B.B.C. Gloss. Broadc. Terms 3 Actuality, presentation of real persons and things to give a picture of contemporary life in a particular aspect; documentary. 1944L. MacNeice Columbus 12 The radio dramatist..must select his actuality material with great discrimination. 1963Listener 3 Oct. 501/2 Television is a medium far more successful at documentary or ‘actuality’ than at fiction. |