| 释义 |
‖ terre-à-terre, a. (and adv.) phr.|tɛr a tɛr|
[Fr.: see terra a terra.]
In Ballet, applied to a step or manner of dancing in which the feet remain on or close to the ground. In transf. use: without elevation of style; down-to-earth, realistic, matter-of-fact; pedestrian, unimaginative. Also as adv. phr.
(Fr. terre à terre ‘pas de danse qui s'exécute sans sauter’ Roquefort 1829.)
1727–41: see terra a terra. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) V. 668/1 The grander sort of dancing, and terre à terre, is the best adapted to such dancers. 1830[see elevation 1 e]. 1884W. James Ess. Radical Empiricism (1912) xii. 266 No seeker of truth can fail to rejoice at the terre-à-terre sort of discussion of the issues between Empiricism and Transcendentalism..that seems to have begun in Mind. 1888Athenæum 6 Oct. 443/3 His very matter-of-factness, his terre-à-terre fidelity to his authorities. 1898Daily News 25 Oct. 2/3 It is so ‘true’, and yet just removed from that terre-à-terre fact which distinguishes so much portraiture. 1907W. James Pragmatism vii. 268 Shutting out all wider metaphysical views and condemning us to the most terre-à-terre naturalism. 1915M. E. Perugini Art of Ballet iii. 33 To dance, ‘terre-à-terre’, that is, with the feet, or one foot at least, on or close to the ground. 1920Athenæum 5 Nov. 617/2 The author of ‘Les Baisers’ always elegantly terre-à-terre, formulates his more concrete desires. 1930Time & Tide 18 Apr. 500/2 He was too frank not to admit that his friend and chief was, intellectually, very terre-à-terre. 1941Burlington Mag. Aug. 37/2 The romanticism of this portrait is not the sophisticated, rarefied one..: it is definitely more terre-à-terre. 1961Times 27 May 6/2 He regrets that the Bolshoi ballet seemed to pay so little attention to terre à terre dancing. 1981Listener 26 Feb. 284/3 She..was ‘a credible girl who suffered from menstrual cramps’... You can't get more terre à terre than that. 1983M. Keynes Lydia Lopokova 59 During the next year, 1912, Lydia..danced an extremely difficult terre-à-terre ‘toe dance’. |