| 释义 |
edification|ˌɛdɪfɪˈkeɪʃən|
[ad. L. ædificātiōn-em, f. ædificāre to build, edify.]
1. Building. rare in mod. use.
1549W. Thomas Hist. Ital. 10 b About 700 yeres after the edificacion of Rome. 1599Hakluyt Voy. II. 111 The castle..is not onely of situation the strongest I have seene, but also of edification. 1669Gale Crt. Gentiles i. iii. ii. 27 Cadmus..is said to have written 4 Books, touching the Edification of his own Citie. 1705Stanhope Paraphr. I. 80 The Edification whereof would be best promoted by attributing to those Workmen neither more nor less than their Due. 1721–33Strype Eccl. Mem. II. i. ii. ii. 261 Officers to make all manner of provision for the edification of the said fortresses. 1805Ann. Rev. III. 236 The exhibition of games, the edification of palaces. 1859Jephson Brittany xviii. 293 Church-edification is everywhere the order of the day.
†b. concr. A building. Obs.
1432–50tr. Higden (1865) I. 405 To make edificacions in cites. 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xv. ii. 320 He throweth down also the enimies edifications. 1656in Blount Glossogr. and in mod. Dicts; not in Bailey, Johnson, or Ash.
c. fig. Building up of character, etc.
1856Ruskin Mod. Paint. IV. v. App. iii, The whole period of youth is one essentially of formation, edification, instruction. 1870Swinburne Ess. & Stud. (1875) 165 The religious idea, as opposed to Philistine demolition or to Philistine edification.
2. fig. In religious use, after Gr. οἰκοδοµή in 1 Cor. xiv: The building up the church, of the soul, in faith and holiness; the imparting of moral and spiritual stability and strength by suitable instruction and exhortation.
1382Wyclif Rom. xiv. 19 And kepe we tho thingis to gidere that ben of edificacioun, that is, to bylde soulis to heuene. c1440Gesta. Rom. lxiv. 276 (Harl. MS.) Noble and profitable wordis, to edificacion of þe peple. 1548Latimer Serm. Ploughers i. 67 Devilish ploughing, the which worketh to have things in Latin, and letteth the fruitful edification. 1611Bible 2 Cor. x. 8. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxvii. 236 To the edification of God's people. 1710Norris Chr. Prud. v. 202 To build up men in Faith and Holiness of Life, that which we properly mean by Edification. a1876J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. II. iv. xi. 417 In providing for the religious necessities of posterity, they were directly serving their own edification.
b. Mental or moral improvement, intellectual profit; instruction. (Now often ironical.)
1660W. Secker Nonsuch Prof. Pref. 16 The design of this Peece is not the ostentation of the Author, but the edification of the Reader. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. p. lxxvii, For the Edification of the Citizens of our Metropolis in Loyalty. 1772Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) II. 199 Promote..mutual edification by every proper means. 1777Sheridan Sch. Scand. v. ii, It certainly is edification to hear him talk. 1826Scott Woodst. iii, Where was the edification of all this? 1857De Quincey Whiggism Wks. VI. 39 That he might distribute his edification in equal proportions. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 206 Kindly answer, for the edification of the company and myself. |