| 释义 |
adaptation|ædæpˈteɪʃən|
[a. Fr. adaptation, ad. late L. adaptātiōn-em, n. of action f. adaptā-re; see adapt. Not in Cotgr. 1632; see adapting vbl. n.]
1. The action or process of adapting, fitting, or suiting one thing to another.
1610Healey St. Aug., City of God 743 They..made a very ingenious adaptation of the one to the other. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xi. 130 A commixtion of both in the whole rather than an adaptation or cement of the one unto the other. 1782Priestley Nat. & Rev. Relig. I. 29 There are..many adaptations of one thing to another. 1881Lubbock in Nature No. 618, 411 Electricity in the year 1831 may be considered to have just been ripe for its adaptation to practical purposes.
2. a. The process of modifying a thing so as to suit new conditions: as, the modification of a piece of music to suit a different instrument or different purpose; the alteration of a dramatic composition to suit a different audience; the alteration of form which a word of one language often undergoes to make it fit the etymological or phonetic system of another, as when the L. adaptātiōnem is taken into Fr. and E. as adaptation.
1790Paley Hor. Paul. i. 3 His adaptation will be the result of counsel, scheme, and industry. 1846Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 140 Man has unrivalled powers of self-adaptation. 1878C. Parry in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 89 Arrangement, or adaptation, is the musical counterpart of literary translation.
b. spec. in Optics. The adjustment of the eye to variations in the intensity or colour of light. Also = accommodation 1 b.
1881in Syd. Soc. Lex. 1920Jrnl. Gen. Phys. II. 499 The phenomenon of retinal adaptation is one of the most familiar facts of sensory physiology. Ibid. 516 During the dark adaptation of the human eye, its visual threshold decreases to a small fraction of its original value in the light. 1950L. C. Thomson in Brit. Jrnl. Ophthalmology Mar. 145 The sensory receptor cells in the retina..play a part in visual adaptation. 1960R. A. Weale Eye & its Function vii. 110 Chromatic adaptation experiments, in which the eye is exposed continuously to a coloured background of moderate luminance.
3. The condition or state of being adapted; adaptedness, suitableness.
1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. i. 2 This adaptation and congruity of these Faculties to their several proper Objects. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 160 ⁋2 The benefit of this adaptation of men to things is not always perceived. 1836J. Gilbert Atonement viii. (1852) 230 He perceives its adaptation to melt his mind. 1867J. Martineau Chr. Life (ed. 4) 291 The adaptation of immortality to our true wants.
4. A special instance of adapting; and hence, concr. an adapted form or copy, a reproduction of anything modified to suit new uses.
1859Darwin Orig. Spec. iii. (1873) 48 We see beautiful adaptations everywhere and in every part of the organic world. 1860Sat. Rev. No. 250, 181/2 A French play is adapted by A..B either appropriates A's adaptation or makes another. Mod. The word pibroch is our adaptation of the Gaelic piobaireachd, that is to say ‘piper-ship.’
5. Biol. Organic modification by which an organism or species becomes adapted to its environment.
1859Darwin in Jrnl. Linn. Soc. Zool. III. 50 The most vigorous and healthy males, implying perfect adaptation, must generally gain the victory in their contests [for the females]. 1875Encycl. Brit. I. 145/2 Adaptation..is usually restricted..to imply such modifications as arise during the life of an individual, when an external change directly generates some change of function and structure. 1897H. F. Osborn in Science 15 Oct., Ontogenetic adaptation..enables animals and plants to survive very critical changes in their environment. 1904H. E. Crampton in Biometrika III. 114 A rigid..organization, incapable..of structural alterations as the result of ‘functional adaptation’. 1923J. S. Huxley Ess. of Biologist i. 13 If the degree of adaptation has not increased during evolution, then it is clear that progress does not consist in increase in adaptation. |