| 释义 |
tact|tækt|
[ad. (immed. or ult.) L. tact-us touch, f. ppl. stem of tangĕre to touch: cf. F. tact (14th c. in sense 1), Ger. tact, takt (1619 in sense 4).]
I.
1. a. The sense of touch; touch. In quot. 1809 transf. [So in L.; F. tact (14th c. in Littré).][c1200Vices & Virtues 17 Ða fif wittes..þat is, visus, auditus, gustus, ordoratus, et tactus, þat is ȝesihthe, ȝeherhþe, smac, and smell, and tactþe.] 1651A. Ross Arcana Microcosm. ii. xxi. 110 Of all the creatures, the sense of tact is most exquisite in man. 1809Kendall Trav. III. 102 Such is the delicacy of their [divining or mineral rods'] tact, that the weakest power is sufficient to determine them. 1865Grote Plato (1867) II. xxvi. 370 The various Percepta or Percipienda of tact, vision, hearing—sweet, hot, hard, light—have each its special bodily organ. 1881Le Conte Sight 77 Sight is a very refined tact.
b. fig. A keen faculty of perception or discrimination likened to the sense of touch.
1797W. Tooke Life Catherine II. 206 It was from his genius alone that he had seized the character of other nations, and it shews a niceness of tact exceedingly rare. 1802Coleridge Lett., to W. Sotheby (1895) 397 You..must needs have a better tact of what will offend that class of readers. 1842Manning Serm. ii. (1843) I. 22 To..deaden the keen tact of conscience. 1876Green Stray Stud. 120 The popular voice showed a singular historical tact in its mistake.
2. Ready and delicate sense of what is fitting and proper in dealing with others, so as to avoid giving offence, or win good will; skill or judgement in dealing with men or negotiating difficult or delicate situations; the faculty of saying or doing the right thing at the right time. [a. F. tact (Voltaire 1769).]
[1793D. Stewart Outl. Mor. Philos. i. x. §87 (1855) 48 The use made in the French tongue of the word Tact, to denote that delicate sense of propriety which enables a man to feel his way in the difficult intercourse of polished society.] 1804–6Syd. Smith Mor. Philos. xii. (1850) 154 We have begun, though of late years, to use the word tact. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1872) II. i. iv. 22 A most delicate task; requiring tact. 1875Helps Ess., Secrecy 55 Few persons have tact enough to perceive when to be silent, and when to offer you counsel or condolence. 1892R. B. Brett in 19th Cent. Jan. 22 That fine instinct in the management of men which is commonly called tact.
†3. The act of touching or handling; an instance of this, a touch. Obs. rare. [So in L.]
1801Jefferson Writ. (1830) III. 467, I judged from a tact of the southern pulse. 1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 64 Others that are harmless in tact.
II.
4. Mus. A stroke in beating time; = beat n.1 4: see also quot. 1891. [= (Germ.) L. tactus, Adam v. Fulda 1490; Ger. tact, Prätorius 1619.]
1609J. Dowland Ornith. Microl. 46 Tact is a successive motion in singing, directing the equalitie of the measure. 1614T. Ravenscroft Brief Disc. 20 Tact, Touch or Time, is, a certaine Motion of the hand (whereby the Quantity of Notes and Rests are directed) by an equall Measure. [1777R. Donkin Military Coll. 161 Count Saxe recommends the tact, or marching en cadence.] 1828Webster, Tact,..formerly the stroke in beating time in music. 1891Cent. Dict., Tact..in music, a beat or pulse; especially, the emphatic down-beat with which a measure begins; hence, also, a measure.
III. 5. Psychol. [Final element of con)tact.] B. F. Skinner's term for an utterance which is evoked by an object, event, etc., and reinforces the learning of a response. Hence as v. trans., to respond to (a stimulus) with an utterance; intr., to utter words or sounds in this way; so ˈtacted ppl. a.; ˈtacting vbl. n. Cf. mand.
1954Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Aug. 181 Skinner..describes how a child learns to emit ‘tacts’ (i.e. verbal responses controlled by properties of objects or situations) under the influence of ‘generalized reinforcers’, particularly approval. 1957B. F. Skinner Verbal Behavior v. 81 There is no suitable term for this type of operant... The invented word ‘tact’ will be used here. The term carries a mnemonic suggestion of behavior which ‘makes contact with’ the physical world. A tact may be defined as a verbal operant in which a response of given form is evoked (or at least strengthened) by a particular object. 1959, etc. [see mand]. 1964A. W. Staats Human Learning iii. 73/2 The child learns in this manner to tact environmental events as well as objects. 1969B. F. Skinner Contingencies of Reinforcement viii. 254 The close relation between the topography of behavior and the tacted stimulus. 1977Listener 5 May 597/2 What is nowadays called ‘tacting’ (i.e., verbal behaviour controlled primarily by its antecedents—in this case the sight of the milk)... Victor was evidently conditioned only to tact. |