请输入您要查询的英文单词:

 

单词 element
释义 I. element, n.|ˈɛlɪmənt|
Forms: 3–4, 7 elemens (pl.), 4 ela-, elemente, 5 elymente, 6 elyment, elemente, 4– element.
[a. OF. element, ad. L. elementum, a word of which the etymology and primary meaning are uncertain, but which was employed as transl. of Gr. στοιχεῖον in the various senses:—a component unit of a series; a constituent part of a complex whole (hence the ‘four elements’); a member of the planetary system; a letter of the alphabet; a fundamental principle of a science.]
I. A component part of a complex whole.
* of material things.
1. One of the simple substances of which all material bodies are compounded.
a. In ancient and mediæval philosophy these were believed to be: Earth, water, air, and fire. See examples in 9. Obs. exc. Hist.
b. In pre-scientific chemistry the supposed ‘elements’ were variously enumerated, the usual number being about five or six. (See quots.)
1724Watts Logic i. ii. §2 (1822) 17 The chemist makes spirit, salt, sulphur, water, and earth, to be their five elements.1765Dict. Art & Sc. II. s.v. Element [enumerate Water, Air, Oil, Salt, Earth].
c. In modern chemistry applied to those substances (of which more than seventy are now known) which have hitherto resisted analysis, and which are provisionally supposed to be simple bodies.
1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. i. (1814) 8 Bodies..not capable of being decompounded are considered..as elements.1830M. Donovan Dom. Econ. I. 111 Sugar is composed of three elements, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.1841Emerson Ess. Hist. Wks. (Bohn) I. 17 Fifty or sixty chemical elements.1854Bushnan in Circ. Sc. (c 1865) II. 6/1 The proximate elements are formed by the union of several ultimate elements.1881Williamson in Nature No. 618. 414 The foundation of..chemistry was laid by the discovery of chemical elements.
2. In wider sense: One of the relatively simple substances of which a complex substance is composed; in pl. the ‘raw material’ of which a thing is made.
c1386Chaucer Friar's T. 206 Make ye yow newe bodies alway Of elementz.1593Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. iii, If those principall & mother elements of the world, whereof all things in this lower world are made, should loose the qualities which now they haue.1610Shakes. Temp. iii. iii. 61 The Elements Of whom your swords are temper'd may as well Wound the loud windes.1851Carpenter Man. Phys. 319 The two elements [Fibrine and the Red Corpuscles] separating from each other laterally.
3. The bread and wine used in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Chiefly pl.[The word elementa is used in late L. in the sense of ‘articles of food and drink, the solid and liquid portions of a meal’ (see Du Cange); but in the ecclesiastical use there is probably a reference to the philosophical sense of mere ‘matter’ as apart from ‘form’; the ‘form’, by virtue of which the ‘elements’ became Christ's body and blood, being believed to be imparted by the act of consecration.] 1593Hooker Eccl. Pol. iv. i. (1611) 128 Vnto the element let the word bee added, and they two make a Sacrament.a1600tr. Calvin's Comm. Prayer-bk. in Phenix (1708) II. 245 As if these Elements were turn'd and chang'd into the Substance of his Flesh and Blood.1607Hieron Wks. I. 256 Such slender & vnlikely elemens of water, bread & wine.1633D. Rogers Sacraments 132 They..bring an whole unbroken Element, made of a fine white delicate wafer.1745Wesley Answ. Ch. 35 He deliver'd the Elements with his own Hands.1866Direct. Angl. (ed. 3) 354 Elements, the materials used in the Sacraments.
4. a. Physiol. A definite small portion of an animal or vegetable structure.
1841–71T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. 654 Two elements [of a vertebra] which embrace the spinal marrow.1884Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. & Ferns 182 Small vascular bundles composed of narrow elements.Ibid. 459 On the side of the wood, new elements..are constantly added.
b. One of the essential parts of any scientific apparatus; used esp. of simple instruments united to form a complex instrument of the same kind. voltaic element: usually = cell 10, but sometimes = electrode.
1831Brewster Nat. Magic vi. (1833) 148 We can even reproduce them..with the simplest elements of our optical apparatus.1871tr. Schellen's Spectr. Anal. ix. 67 An electric battery of 50 Bunsen's or Grove's large elements.
c. The resistance wire carrying the current in an electric heater; (also used of) the bar or collection of pieces of asbestos, etc., in an electric or gas stove.
1906Nature 17 May 60/2 The method exemplified is the use of silicated carbon upon a terra-cotta base, forming an ‘element’.1925Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXI. 535 The dimensions, temperature..distribution of heating elements..and various furnace types are considered.1926Gloss. Terms Electr. Engin. (B.S.I.) 153 Heating element, the complete resistor, including the element carrier on which it is wound, as used in ovens, electric fires, radiators, etc.1952‘N. Shute’ Far Country iii. 75 The girl stared at the hot elements of the fire.
** of non-material things.
5. a. A constituent portion of an immaterial whole, as of a concept, character, state of things, community, etc.
1599Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 357 There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord.1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 7 These simple Elements of Magnitude, Figure, Site and Motion..are all clearly intelligible as different Modes of extended Substance.1833Browning Pauline 21, I strip my mind bare—whose first elements I shall unveil.1841Emerson Eng. Traits, Character Wks. (Bohn) II. 61 This [English] race has added new elements to humanity, and has a deeper root in the world.1845Graves in Encycl. Metrop. 783/1 Mixed with bigotry and superstition, it [the canon law] will be found to contain many pure elements.1867Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. iii. 93 In our old constitution we find the elements of feudalism.1870E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. III. 187 Size is certainly one main element of beauty.1876Green Short Hist. vii. §5 (1882) 386 The woollen manufacture had become an important element in the national wealth.Mod. The Celtic and Teutonic elements in the population.
b. Often followed by of = ‘consisting of’.
1851Helps Friends in C. I. 11 These practices have elements of charity and prudence as well as fear and meanness in them.1866Kingsley Herew. vii. 129 It had its usual element of cant.1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 241 The greatest strength is observed to have an element of limitation.1869Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) III. xii. 162 Mingled with all this there is a certain element of grim merriment.
c. Math. Any of the symbols or quantities which, set out in an array, constitute a determinant or matrix.
[1859G. Salmon Lessons Mod. Higher Algebra i. 1 The coefficients a1, b1, &c., which enter into the expression of a determinant, are called the constituents of that determinant, and the products a1b2, &c., are called the elements of the determinant.]1867C. L. Dodgson Elem. Treat. Determinants ii. 6 If mn quantities be so placed as to form m rows and n columns: they are said to form a Block; and the mn quantities are called the Elements of such a Block.1881[see constituent a. and n. B. 4].1939A. C. Aitken Determinants & Matrices i. 4 A matrix may possibly consist of a single row, or of a single column, of elements.1968P. A. P. Moran Introd. Probability Theory iii. 109 p(t) is a column vector whose elements are p1 (t),{ddd},pn(t).
d. Math. and Logic. [cf. G. element in same sense (G. Cantor in Math. Ann. (1882) XX. 114, (1883) XXI. 587, (1895) XLVI. 481, etc.).] Any of the (real or conceptual) entities of which a set is composed; an entity that satisfies the criterion or criteria used to define a set.
1857[see set n.2 10].1901L. E. Dickson Linear Groups i. 5 A set of s distinct elements satisfying the above four conditions is said to form a field of order s.1953A. A. Fraenkel Abstract Set Theory i. 22 In fact ‘x is red’ corresponds to the relation ‘x is an element of the set of all red things’.1965Shih-Chên Hu Elem. Mod. Algebra v. 119 The only nilpotent element in an integral domain is the zero element 0.
6. One of the facts or conditions which ‘enter into’ or determine the result of a process, calculation, deliberation, or inquiry. Also with of (cf. 5 b).
1812Woodhouse Astron. ix. 66 The length of a sidereal year (an element of little or no importance in Astronomy).1823Chalmers Serm. I. 129 His will was reduced to an element of utter insignificancy.1842W. Grove Corr. Phys. Forces 32 If the element of quantity be included, this objection will not apply.1866Crump Banking iii. 72 The periodical publication of accounts by the joint-stock banks furnishes a very important element in coming to a decision.1876Mozley Univ. Serm. iv. 88 Everything depends upon one element in the case, which element they cannot get at.
7. spec. (pl.)
a. Astron. The data necessary to determine the orbit of a heavenly body.
b. Cryst. Those needed to determine the form of a crystal.
1788–9Howard Encycl., Elements, in astronomy, are..those fundamental numbers, which are employed in the construction of tables of the planetary motions.1816Playfair Nat. Phil. II. 197 The elements of their [comets'] orbits..agreed nearly with those of the Comet of 1682.1834M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. ii. (1849) 12 This depends upon seven quantities called the elements of the orbit.1878Gurney Crystallogr. 41 The three angles between the axes and two of the ratios between the parameters, are called the elements of the crystal.
8. Math. An infinitesimal part of a magnitude of any kind; a differential.
1727–51Chambers Cycl., Element of an area, called also its differential, is the rectangle..of the semi-ordinate..into the differential of the absciss.1882Minchin Unipl. Kinemat. 112 P any point in the lamina at which the element of mass is dm.1885Watson & Burbury Math. Th. Electr. & Magn. I. 250 The molecular distributions within the element of volume dx dy dz.
II. The ‘four elements’.
9. a. Used as a general name for earth, water, air, and fire; originally in sense 1, to which many of the earlier instances have explicit reference; now merely as a matter of traditional custom.
a1300Signs bef. Judgm. 177 in E.E.P. (1862) 12 Þe .xii. dai þe fure elemens sul cri..merci ihsu fiz mari.c1300Fragm. Pop. Sc. (Wright) 120 Bynethe the loweste hevene..Beoth the four elementz, of wham we beoth i-wroȝt.a1340Hampole Psalter ix. 34 Þe erth is þe end of thynges & þe last element.1393Gower Conf. III. 97 It [air] is eke the thridde element.1483Caxton Cato 4 The foure elementes menace alle men that thanke not god.1535Coverdale Wisd. xix. 18 The elementes turned in to them selues, like as whan one tune is chaunged vpon an instrument of musick.1645Digby Nat. Bodies iv. (1658) 37 There are but four simple bodies: and these are rightly named Elements.1656H. More Antid. Ath. (1712) Gen. Pref. 15 Regions of looser particles of the third Element.1711Pope Temp. Fame 447 Thro' undulating air the sounds are sent, And spread o'er all the fluid element.1723Briton No. iii, Rich wines and high-season'd Ragouts supply the place of Vegetables and meer Element.1787G. White Selborne i. 3 Fine limpid water..much commended by those who drink the pure element.1816Byron Ch. Har. iii. lxxiv, When elements to elements conform, And dust is as it should be.1886T. K. Oliphant New Eng. II. 219 If the great authors named were set up as models..we should never hear of fire as ‘the devouring element’.
b. fig.
1813Wellington Lett. in Gurw. Disp. XI. 12 A British minister cannot have too often under his view the element by which he is surrounded.1850Kingsley Alt. Locke i. (1876) 2 Italy..where natural beauty would have become the very element which I breathed.
10.
a. The sky; ? also, the atmosphere. Obs.[This sense is app. due to med.L. ‘elementum ignis’ as a name of the starry sphere; but there may be a mixture of the sense ‘air’.] c1485Digby Myst. (1882) ii. 371 A meruelous lyȝt fro thelement dyd glyde.1509Hawes Past. Pleas. 15, I..sawe a craggy rocke..neare to the element.1534More Treat. Passion Wks. 1307/1 The moone & the sterres appere in the element.1580Sidney Arcadia v. (1590) 458 Morning had taken full possession of the element.1634Milton Comus 299, I took them for a faery vision Of some gay creatures of the element.1676Hobbes Iliad xix. 331 A thick Snow, Which Boreas bloweth through the Element.1714Gay Shepherd's Week vi. 3 note, Welkin..is frequently taken for the Element or Sky.
b. ? One of the ‘heavens’ or celestial spheres of ancient astronomy (see sphere); also (rarely) one of the heavenly bodies themselves. Obs.[Cf. med.L. elementa ‘planets’ and ‘signs of the zodiac’; but neither of these senses is clearly evidenced in our quots.] a1300Cursor M. 395 Þe sterres gret and smale Þat we may se..In þe ouermast element of alle.c1384Chaucer H. Fame 975 Wyth fetheris of Philosophye To passen everyche element.1534Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) B b, These were the fyrste that wold serche the trouthe of the elementes of the heuen.1593Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. ix, The Sunne, the Moone, any one of the heauens or elements.1604Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 464 Witnesse you euer-burning Lights aboue, You Elements, that clip vs round about.
11. pl. Atmospheric agencies or powers.
1555Eden Decades W. Ind. i. iv. (Arb.) 81 Owre nation hadde trowbled the elementes.1605Shakes. Lear iii. ii. 16, I taxe not you, you Elements with vnkindnesse.1813Bakewell Introd. Geol. (1815) 239 Diminution of rocks..by the incessant operation of the elements.1855Prescott Philip II, i. iv. (1857) 61 Too gallant a cavalier to be daunted by the elements.1866Neale Sequences & H. 102 The war of elements above.
12. That one of the ‘four elements’ which is the natural abode of any particular class of living beings; said chiefly of air and water. Hence transf. and fig. (a person's) ordinary range of activity, the surroundings in which one feels at home; the appropriate sphere of operation of any agency. Phrases, in, out of (one's) element.
1598Shakes. Merry W. iv. ii. 186 She workes by Charmes..beyond our element.1599Broughton's Lett. viii. 26 You are in for all day..it is your element.1667Milton P.L. ii. 275 Our torments also may in length of time Become our Elements.1673Temple Observ. United Prov. Wks. 1731 I. 69 It seems to be with Trade, as with the Sea (its Element).1719De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. iv. 73 When they came to make boards..they were quite out of their element.1784Johnson in Boswell III. 629 The town is my element; there are my friends, there are my books.1823Lamb Elia Ser. i. xii. (1865) 104 My proper element of prose.1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 534 Ferguson was in his element.1874Maurice Friendship Bks. iii. 69 Englishmen were to be taught that..the sea was to be their element.Mod. Some fishes can live a long time after removal from their element.
III. 13. Primordial principle, source of origin. rare.
1655–60Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 61/1 Infinity is..the principle and Element of things.1850Tennyson In Mem. Concl., That God, which ever lives and loves, One God, one law, one element.
IV.
14. a. pl. The letters of the alphabet (obs.). Hence, the rudiments of learning, the ‘A, B, C’; also, the first principles of an art or science.
1382Wyclif Gal. iv. 9 Hou ben ȝe turned..to syke, or freel, and nedy elementis.1552Huloet Elementes or principles of grammer—Elementes letters wherof be made sillables.1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. i. (1627) 7 Beginning at the very first Elements, even at the A, B, C.1644Milton Educ. (1738) 137 At the same time..might be taught..the Elements of Geometry.1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. viii. 60 Man knows first by elements & after long study learns a syllable, & in good time gets a word.1799Mackintosh Stud. Law Nat., &c. Wks. 1846 I. 342 Public lectures..have been used..to teach the elements of almost every part of learning.1833Cruse Eusebius iv. xxiv. 161 Books containing elements of the faith.1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 425 Calculation and geometry and all the other elements of instruction.
b. Euclid's Elements: the title of a treatise on the rudiments of Geometry.
1655–60Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 8/2 Those [propositions] which Euclid hath reduced into his Elements.1793T. Beddoes Math. Evid. 47 As if the elements of Euclid were not already tedious enough.1828Lardner Euclid Pref., Euclid's Elements were first used in the school of Alexandria.
II. ˈelement, v.
Also 6 ellement.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To compound of elements. Obs.
1400[see elemented ppl. a.].1477Norton Ord. Alch. v. in Ashm. 86 The third thinge elemented of them all.c1535[see elemented ppl. a.].1582Batman On Barthol. xi. xvi. 165 Foure elements..of the which all things ellemented..are made.a1631Donne Poems (1650) 194 As of this all, though many parts decay, The pure which elemented them shall stay.1647A. Farindon Serm. (1672) I. 135 Man thus created, thus elemented and composed.
2. fig. Now rare.
1628Donne Serm. xlviii. 487 Elemented and composed of Heresies.1640Walton Donne 38 His very soul was elemented of nothing but sadness.1670Lives i. 33 Absence..doth remove Those things that Elemented it [sublunary love].1654Whitlock Zootomia 32 A world elemented with Sinne and Misery.1905F. Greenslet J. R. Lowell i. 2 When we endeavor to add to our portrait of his personality some analysis of the things that elemented it.
3. To instruct in the rudiments of learning; cf. element n. 14. Obs.
1651Reliq. Wotton. 489, I thought he had been better elemented at Eton.1662[see elemented ppl. a. 2].
随便看

 

英语词典包含277258条英英释义在线翻译词条,基本涵盖了全部常用单词的英英翻译及用法,是英语学习的有利工具。

 

Copyright © 2004-2022 Newdu.com All Rights Reserved
更新时间:2025/2/7 11:50:27