| 释义 |
eagre|ˈeɪgə(r), ˈiːgə(r)|
Forms: α. (2, 8 higra), 7 higre, 7– hygre, hyger. β. (? 6,) 7 agar, (9 dial. ager), 7–9 eagre, 8 eger, egre, (9 ægir, ægre, pseudo-arch. eygre), 7– eager, eagre.
[Of unknown etymology. The conjecture which connects it with the OE. éaᵹor, éᵹor, occurring in comb., app. with sense ‘flood, ocean’, is untenable, because the OE. ᵹ in such a position would have become y in mod.E. Nor can it be a. ON. ǽgir ocean, sea-god, as the inflexional -r would in that case have disappeared.
The identity of eagre with higre (latinized as higra by William of Malmesbury) seems clear from the sense, but is difficult to account for phonologically. The usual pronunc. in the neighbourhood of the Humber and Trent is |ˈeɪgə(r)|; the 17th (? 16th) c. spelling agar seems to be a phonetic rendering of this or its antecedent. The Dicts. give |ˈiːgə(r)|. Identity with acker is not clearly indicated by the sense, and is very doubtful.]
A tidal wave of unusual height, caused by the rushing of the tide up a narrowing estuary; = bore n.3 Chiefly with reference to the Humber (and Trent) and the Severn.
α [c1125William of Malmesbury Gest. Pontific (Rolls) 292 [The Bore on the Severn] Nautæ certe gnari, cum vident illam Higram (sic enim Anglici vocant) venire, navem obvertunt, et per medium secantes violentiam ejus eludunt. ]1612Drayton Poly-olb. vii. 101 With whose tumultuous waues Shut up in narrower bounds, the Higre wildly raues. 1623J. Taylor (Water P.) Wherry-Ferry Voy. Wks. ii. 11/1 The Flood..hath lesse mercy then Beare, Wolfe or Tyger, And..it is called the Hyger. 1704Steele Lying Lover, Such a Roll of the Tides as the Sailors corruptly call the Higre, instead of the Eager. 1817Stark Hist. Gainsburgh (1843) 522 A curious phenomenon is observed in the Trent called the Eagre or Hygre.
β [1592Lyly Gallathea i. i, [The scene is beside the Humber] Neptune..sendeth a Monster called the Agar, against whose comming the waters rose, the fowles flie away, etc. ]1647Sprigge Anglia Rediv. (1854) 76 A sudden surprisal of the tide called Eager. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. (1650) 312 Those Agars and impetuous flows. 1685Dryden Threnodia August. iv, His manly heart..like an eagre rode in triumph oer the tide. 1759Johnson Idler No. 49 ⁋12 He forded rivers where the current roared like the Egre of the Severn. 1851Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 323 The Eager or Eau-guerre, so remarkable in the mouth of the Severn. 1862Dana Man. Geol. 653 In the eagre of the Amazon, the whole tide passes up the stream in five or six waves..each twelve to fifteen feet high. 1863J. Ingelow High Tide Lindis..at the eygre's breast Flung uppe her weltering walls. 1870E. Peacock Ralf. Skirl. II. 87 He would..get on a pink and go up wi' th'ager. |