| 释义 |
ego Orig. Metaph.|ˈɛgəʊ, ˈiːgəʊ|
[L. ego I.]
1. That which is symbolized by the pronoun I; the conscious thinking subject, as opposed to the non-ego or object. Also humorously, for ‘self’.
[1789Cowper Letter 6 June, To thee both Ego and all that Ego does is interesting.] 1824Galt Rothelan II. 201 He plainly regarded Ego as one of the most captivating of the human race. 1829Edin. Rev. L. 200 In every act of consciousness we distinguish a self or ego. 1847Lewes Hist. Philos. (1867) II. 514 The Ego is essentially an Activity; consequently free. 1870Gladstone Prim. Homer (1878) 142 The harmonious laws of his mind are everywhere visibly at work—but the ego—the mere personality—is nowhere to be traced. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6) II. iv. 51 While the Non-ego shifts, the Ego remains the same.
2. In speech: I, the speaker. Hence ˈego v. trans., to say ‘ego’ when claiming an object, in response to ‘quis?’. Schoolboy slang.
1913C. Mackenzie Sinister Street I. i. vii. 103 He was often first with the claimant ‘ego’, when someone shouted ‘quis?’ over a broken pocket-knife found. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. viii. 134 In private schools a child who wishes to dispose of something..calling out ‘Quis?’ and the boy or girl who first replies ‘Ego’ receives the object and may say (to the horror of the classicist) ‘I egoed it’.
3. Self-esteem, egotism, self-importance.
Some examples are influenced by sense 4.
1891Kipling Light that Failed v. 59 I've made a discovery. Torp, there's too much Ego in my Cosmos. 1907Daily Chron. 13 Feb. 7/4 By ‘exaggerated ego’,..he meant a disproportionate idea of the importance of oneself and a belief that one was clothed with powers, capacities, and ability far above the normal or above those actually possessed. 1952S. Kauffmann Philanderer (1953) vi. 97 The quarrels—which had begun between him and his wife simply because his ego could not possibly be satiated even when fortune was good—increased terribly now. 1962J. D. Salinger Franny & Zooey 166 You keep talking about ego. My God, it would take Christ himself to decide what's ego and what isn't.
4. Psychol. That part of the mind which is most conscious of self; spec. in the work of Freud that part which, acted upon by both the id and the super-ego (ego-ideal), mediates with the environment.
1894Brain XVII. 130 By reason of the clouding over of the ego produced in one case by hypnotism, in another by nervous shock, an idea once installed..will further develop and acquire sufficient force for objective realisation. 1910H. W. Chase (tr. Freud) in Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. XXI. 193 The incompatibility of the idea in question with the ‘ego’ of the patient was the motive of the repression. 1922[see ego-ideal]. 1927J. Riviere tr. Freud's Ego & Id v. 83 Like the dweller in a borderland that it is, the ego tries to mediate between the world and the id, to make the id comply with the world's demands and, by means of muscular activity, to accommodate the world to the id's desires. 1943Psychol. Rev. L. 454 In a semi-doze we lose all sense of our egos though we may be conscious enough of impersonal items. 1943H. Read Education through Art vi. 197 The super-ego is the direct representative of the unconscious, of the id, and hence the possibility, indeed, the inevitability of a conflict with the ego, a conflict between what is perceptual and real and what is imaginative and ideal.
5. attrib. and Comb. (senses 3 and 4), as ego-attitude, ego-complex, ego-consciousness, ego-instinct, ego-satisfaction; ego-altruistic, ego-bound, ego-less, (also egolessness), adjs.; ego-hood, individuality, personality; ego-identity Psychol., the sense of one's identity or self gained from the results of self-perception and external perceptions of oneself; ego-trip, an activity, period of time, etc., devoted entirely to indulging in one's own interests or in self-expression; also as v. intr., to indulge in an ‘ego-trip’ (chiefly as pres. pple.); hence ego-tripper; ego-tripping vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1855H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. II. viii. vii. 595 The ego-altruistic sentiments..sentiments which while implying self-gratification, also imply gratification in others.
1937Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 265 When the object is encountered in a new environment with a different Ego-attitude, then the communication takes place between object-process and object-trace.
1929D. H. Lawrence Pansies 67 As a plant becomes pot-bound Man becomes ego-bound Enclosed in his own limited mental consciousness.
1916C. E. Long tr. Jung's Coll. Papers Analyt. Psychol. i. 80 They are disturbances which only belong to the superficial, and none reaches so deep as to attack the strong-knit foundation of the ego-complex. 1922Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Oct. 115 Jung then goes on to describe the ‘ego complex’ (Ichkomplex) which in the normal mind is the dominant psychic instance. 1926W. McDougall Introd. Soc. Psychol. (ed. 20) Suppl. iv. 404 The Freudians have recognised the importance of this rôle [sc. self-regard] in all that they have written of the function of the ‘ego-complex’, and the ‘ego instincts’ in inhibiting, controlling, conflicting with, and repressing the sexual tendencies.
1917Glueck & Lind tr. Adler's Neurotic Constitution (1921) ii. 21 Consciousness of guilt and conscience are fictitious guiding principles of caution, like religiosity and subserve the craving for security. Their object is to prevent a lowering of the ego-consciousness when the irritated aggressiveness impels immoderately to selfish deeds. 1963Auden Dyer's Hand 96 An ego-consciousness which paints himself painting himself.
1873Brit. Q. Rev. LVII. 79 We must face..the reality of our own ego-hood. 1906S. S. Laurie Synthetica II. 241 This is his return to God, from Whom his negating Egohood for a time separates him.
1951E. H. Erikson Childhood & Society iii. vii. 228 The sense of ego identity, then, is the accrued confidence that the inner sameness and continuity are matched by the sameness and continuity of one's meaning for others, as evidenced in the tangible promise of a ‘career’. 1964M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. x. 129 A very important kind of cognitive learning is that in which a person comes to look at himself in a different way—his self-perception or ‘ego-identity’ is changed. 1977A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory ix. 311 Frustration generated by disjunction between ego-ideal and ego provides the basis for aggression turned against the ‘inadequate’ ego-identity.
1917C. R. Payne tr. Hirschmann's Freud's Theories of Neuroses x. 241 Freud is perfectly clear on the point of the decisive rôle played in life and also in the neurosis by the egotistic or ego instincts alongside of the sexual instinct. 1922C. J. M. Hubback tr. Freud's Beyond Pleasure Principle iii. 54 Our discussion so far results in the establishing of a sharp antithesis between the ‘ego-instincts’ and the sexual instincts, the former impelling towards death and the latter towards the preservation of life.
1937Sunday Times 12 Dec. 5/2 Those subconscious ego-less depths of it [sc. the consciousness] from which..only the greatest things in art can come. 1972T. Ravenscroft Spear of Destiny xxii. 297 The egoless zombie. 1984Byte May 420/3 What I suggest is..working toward the ‘egoless programming’ model.
1972Chögyam Trungpa Mudra 68 From the action one develops the transcendental knowledge of egolessness. 1982Financial Times 13 Mar. 19/3 You hold sway, if you do, by egolessness.
1954J. A. C. Brown Soc. Psychol. Industry vii. 189 Work becomes an avenue for securing ego satisfactions.
1969It 13–28 June 11/2 They're using the music as a vehicle for character and personality building. I don't think they're half as much a musical ego-trip as people imagine. 1970Observer 20 Sept. 26/1 His was no musical ego-trip, no money-grubbing Tin-Pan Alley beano feast. 1970Melody Maker 12 Sept. 29 Ego tripper... That's me, folks!
1970New York 16 Nov. 6/2 Father ego-tripping on his children's academic and other achievements. 1972Atlantic Monthly Oct. 80 What is overlooked in the inevitable discussion of the alleged ego-tripping in Mailer's writing is that these more ‘modest’ selves are often at work in the sounds and turns of his sentences. 1972N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 12 Nov. 63 Tate's poems are not..bardic, political, populist, confessional, ego-tripping, hash-inspired or full of fine sentiments and derivative techniques. 1977Time 7 Mar. 2/3 Sadly for Ireland, O'Brien is but one of the ego-tripping ministers in the present coalition government. 1984D. Lodge Small World iv. iii. 308 All that travelling away from home and duty, staying in swanky hotels, ego-tripping, partying, generally overindulging. |