| 释义 |
▪ I. eunuch, n.|ˈjuːnək|
Forms: [4 eunuchus], 5 enuke, 6–7 eunuche, 6– eunuch.
[ad. L. eunūch-us, a. Gr. εὐνοῦχος, f. εὐνή bed + -οχ- ablaut-stem of ἔχειν to keep; the literal sense is thus a bedchamber guard or attendant.]
1. a. A castrated person of the male sex; also, such a person employed as a harem attendant, or in Oriental courts and under the Roman emperors, charged with important affairs of state. Also fig. (freq. preceded by a descriptive adj.).
c1430Lydg. Bochas iii. xxv. 96 a, Whan the Enukes to y⊇ King her brought She was accepted. 1590Nashe Anat. Absurd B ij a, Speaking..of whoredome, as though they had beene Eunuches from theyr cradle. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI iv. ii. 175 Lord Say hath gelded the Commonwealth, and made it an Eunuch. 1601― All's Well ii. iii. 94 And they were sons of mine..I would send them to'th Turke to make Eunuches of. a1616Beaumont Poems, The Glance, Throw Those flakes upon the eunuch's colder snow. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xxi. 210 Those who are born Eunuchs deserve no such great commendation for their chastity. 1701W. Wotton Hist. Rome i. 462 He had a mortal Aversion to Eunuchs, that third Species of Mankind. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. II. 51 The private apartments of the palace were governed by a favourite eunuch. 1807Robinson Archæol. Græca v. xiii. 472 The first that made eunuchs was Semiramis. 1819Byron Juan Ded. in Wks. (1833) XV. 105 The intellectual eunuch Castlereagh. 1819Shelley Peter Bell 3rd iv. xi, But from the first 'twas Peter's drift To be a kind of moral eunuch. 1867M. E. Herbert Cradle L. viii. 224 Achill Aga, offered to show the ladies his harem; and a black eunuch was summoned to escort them. 1871R. Ellis Catullus lxiii. 34 Thither hie the votaress eunuchs with an emulous alacrity. 1963Times 18 Jan. 9/5 It seems that in Rhodesia one cannot remain neutral, that after all one is provoked to react, or become a political eunuch.
¶ In the LXX. and the Vulgate the Gr. εὐνοῦχος, L. eunūchus, following the corresponding Heb. sārīs, sometimes designate palace officials who were not ‘eunuchs’, e.g. Potiphar (Gen. xxxix. 1, where A.V. has ‘officer’). Hence the Eng. word has occas. been similarly used in discussions of passages in which the meaning of the word is disputed.
[1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 305 Putyphar þat was eunuchus..Eunuchus is he þat is i-gilded, and suche were somtyme i-made wardeynes of ladyes in Egipt.] 1557N. T. (Genev.) Acts viii. 27 note, Noble men were called Eunuches, although they were not gelded.
b. A male singer, castrated in boyhood, so as to retain an alto or soprano voice. Cf. castrato.
1732Ld. Lansdowne Charac. Wycherly Wks. 1736 II. 112 Our modern writers..like Eunuchs..sacrifice their Manhood for a Voice, and reduce Poetry, like Echo to be nothing but Sound. 1738Johnson London 59 Let such..With warbling eunuchs fill a licenc'd stage. 1761Churchill Rosciad Poems (1763) I. 35 Never shall a truly British Age Bear a vile race of Eunuchs on the Stage.
c. Used as adj.: Emasculated. rare—1.
1817Godwin Mandeville III. 96 He had a mind wholly eunuch and ungenerative in matters of literature and taste.
2. attrib. and Comb. Also fig. eunuch flute, a type of mirliton (see quot. 1928).
[1635M. Mersenne Harmonicorum Libri ii. ii. 79 De Instrumentis Harmonicis... Fleuste Eunuque. Fistula monofora.] 1666Dryden Ann. Mirab. xl, That eunuch guardian of rich Holland's trade, Who envies us what he wants power to enjoy. 1739P. Whitehead Manners 8 What sing-song Riot, and what Eunuch-squawling. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey iii. vi, Bright moon! sultana of the soul! the Passions are thy eunuch slaves. 1849–50Alison Hist. Europe VIII. l. §37. 157 Liberty..expired amidst eunuch servility and Eastern adulation. 1928E. W. Naylor Poets & Music v. 97 The ‘eunuch’ flute..is not a flute at all, but a tube covered at the small end with a thin membrane. The performer sings, or rather hums, through a hole in the side, near the membrane. 1961A. C. Baines Mus. Instruments 19 The Eunuch Flute, and the Bumbass.
▪ II. † ˈeunuch, v. Obs.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To make a eunuch of, castrate; also fig.
a1658Cleveland Gen. Poems (1677) 15 Give me a Lover bold and free, Not Eunuch'd with Formality; Like an Embassador that beds a Queen. 1682Creech Lucretius (T.), They eunuch all their Priests.
Hence ˈeunuched ppl. a., emasculated.
1627May Lucan x. 156 Th' vnhappy strength-robb'd company, The Eunuch'd youths. |