| 释义 |
▪ I. real, n.1|ˈriːəl, ˈreːəl|
Also 7 reall.
[Sp. real, n. use of real adj., royal:—L. rēgāl-em: see real a.1, and rial n.]
1. A small silver coin and money of account formerly in use in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries.
a. The old Spanish real de plata (largely circulated in the United States up to c 1850, and in Mexico until 1897) = an eighth of a dollar (61/4d c 1900).
b. The former Spanish monetary unit, real (de) vellon (not current as a coin) = a quarter of a peseta.
The real of plate was formerly known in the northern U.S. by the name of Mexican or Spanish shilling, in the south by that of levy n.2 See also bit n.1 8 b.
1611Cotgr., Real, a Reall, or Spanish sixpence. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage viii. x. (1614) 795 Euery Indian payeth tribute to the King [of Spain] twelue Reals of Plate. 1662J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 97 The Muscovites..carry them [Rixdollers] to the Mint, as they do also Spanish Reals. 1760Ann. Reg. 89 All they owed to the crown..which does not amount to less than sixty millions of reals. 1798Malthus Popul. (1878) 359 The highest price is 48 reals vellon. 1850B. Taylor Eldorado II. xiii. 84 The money..was paid to me in quarter-dollars, reals, and medios, which it took me more than an hour to count.
†2. real of eight = piece of eight (eight 2 d). Obs.
1612Shelton Quix. I. i. ii. 14 It being all one to me to be paid my Money in 8 single Reals, or to be paid the same in one Real of eight. 1628Digby Voy. Medit. 38, 4 French vessels, whereof one..had still a hundred thousand reals of eight abord her. 1818Jas. Mill Brit. India I. i. ii. 31 The prize money, which was estimated at 100,000l. and 240,000 reals of eight.
▪ II. † real, a.1 (and n.2) Obs.
Also 4–5 reale, 4, 6–7 reall; pl. 5 Sc. reaws.
[a. OF. real (12th c.) = Prov. real, reial, Sp., Pg. real, It. reale:—L. rēgāl-em regal. As a variant of rial and royal, the form chiefly occurs in MSS. written about 1400.]
A. adj. Royal, regal, kingly.
13..Guy Warw. (A.) 3879 A real pauiloun he þer seye. c1350Will. Palerne 1597 Al þat real aray reken schold men neuer. 1397Rolls of Parlt. III. 379/1, I amonges other restreyned my Lord of his fredom, and toke upon me..Power Reall. c1425Wyntoun Cron. iii. iii. 560 Brute..byggyd in his land a towne, Yhit realle [and] off gret renowne. 1460J. Capgrave Chron. (Rolls) 197 The qween held a real Cristmasse aftir at Walingford. 1577Hellowes Gueuara's Chron. 109 He edified the reall palace named Neptunus. 1602Marston Ant. & Mel. ii. Wks. 1856 I. 23 Then whome I knowe not a more..pretious, reall, magnanimous, bountious.
B. n.2 A royal person. rare.
1399Langl. Rich. Redeles i. 91 Reffusynge the reule of realles kynde. Ibid. iii. 301 Whanne realles remeveth,..And carieth ouere contre ther comunes dwelleth. c1425Wyntoun Cron. viii. i. 105 Gyve any male Of Reaws might fundyn be Worth to have that realté.
▪ III. real, a.2, adv., and n.3|ˈriːəl|
Also 5–7 reall.
[a. OF. real, reel (13th c. in Godef.), or ad. late L. reālis, f. rēs thing, etc. + -al1.
The precise sense is uncertain in the following early instances of the word:—c 1440 Promp. Parv. 424/2 Real, realis.1570Levins Manip. 13/31 Reall, realis. 1598Marston Sco. Villanie To iudic. Perusers 169 Some of his new-minted Epithets (as Reall, Intrinsecate, Delphicke).]
A. adj.
I.
1. a. Having an objective existence; actually existing as a thing.
1601Shakes. All's Well v. iii. 307 Is there no exorcist Beguiles the truer Office of mine eyes? Is't reall that I see? 1651Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxiv. 210 That some such apparitions were not Imaginary, but Reall. 1667Milton P.L. viii. 310 Whereat I wak'd, and found Before mine Eyes all real, as the dream Had lively shadowd. 1821Shelley Prometh. Unb. i. 748 But from these create he can Forms more real than living man. 1859Parkinson Optics (1866) 130 A real visible object and its optical image differ in this respect.
b. In Philos. applied to whatever is regarded as having an existence in fact and not merely in appearance, thought, or language, or as having an absolute and necessary, in contrast to a merely contingent, existence.
1701Norris Ideal World i. iii. 150 An Hircocervus or any other Fictitious Being is true and real with respect to the Simple Essences or Natures. 1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. iii. i. 369 Thought we own pre-eminent, and confess the reallest of Beings. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVIII. 79/1 Numberless absurdities, such as, that..forms or sensible qualities are real things independent of their subject and the sentient beings who perceive them. 1843Mill Logic i. vi. §3 He [Locke] admitted real essences, or essences of individual objects, which he supposed to be the causes of the sensible properties of those objects. 1857Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. (ed. 3) I. 343 The perfections are unquestionably real existences. 1893Bradley Appearance & Reality xxvii. (1897) 552 The more that anything is spiritual, so much the more is it veritably real.
c. real money: (a) current coin or cash (esp. as opposed to imaginary money or money of account).
1685Petty Will p. v, An estate of about 1300l. in ready and real money. 1849Freese Comm. Class-bk. 71 Real monies are coins of any kind of metal, made current by the authority of the state.
(b) colloq. A large sum of money.
1918R. W. Lardner Treat 'em Rough 120, I could go out and pitch baseball and make real money. 1939A. Huxley After Many Summer i. iv. 46, I did some business this morning... Might make a lot of money. Real money. 1964L. Deighton Funeral in Berlin iii. 21 ‘Whom do you feel like?’ I liked that ‘whom’—you've got to pay real money these days to get a secretary that could say that.
(c) colloq. The coinage or currency in which one habitually reckons, freq. as opp. to foreign currency.
1973L. Meynell Thirteen Trumpeters iv. 50 So I'm paying one thousand seven hundred and ten lire for my Pimms?.. What's it mean in real money? 1977Vole No. 2. 17/2 Just before the demise of real money and the introduction of decimal coinage, the officials of Gloucester Shoveha'penny League invested {pstlg}10 in old-style halfpennies. 1977Zigzag Mar. 7/1 They charged me three hundred francs. Well, that's..quite a lot in real money.
d. Math. Of quantities. (Opposed to imaginary 1 c, or impossible 2.)
1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Root, If the value of x be positive, i.e. if x be a positive quantity,..the root [of an equation] is called a real or true root. 1841Penny Cycl. XX. 150/2 Here a and b are meant to be real algebraical quantities, that is, reducible to positive or negative whole numbers or fractions. 1875Encycl. Brit. I. 544/2 Every quadratic equation has always two roots, real or imaginary. 1910Ibid. I. 613/1 The development of the theory of equations leads to the amplification of real numbers, rational and irrational, positive and negative, by imaginary and complex numbers. 1952S. C. Kleene Introd. Metamath. i. 6 That there are infinite sets considered in mathematics which cannot be enumerated was shown by Cantor's famous ‘diagonal method’. The set of the real numbers is non-enumerable. 1965Patterson & Rutherford Elem. Abstract Algebra iii. 85 The real number a is called the real part of the complex number (a, b) and the real number b is called the imaginary part. 1972S. W. P. Steen Math. Logic iii. 178 Having defined the integers we can then define rational numbers as triplets of integers, then real numbers as Dedekind Sections of rational numbers and lastly complex numbers as ordered pairs of real numbers.
e. Optics. (See quot.)
1859Parkinson Optics (1866) 130 If an image consist of points through which the light actually passes it is called real;—in other cases virtual. Hence a screen placed in the position of an image will receive illumination only when the image is real.
f. real time, the actual time during which a process or event occurs, esp. one analysed by a computer, in contrast to time subsequent to it when computer processing may be done, a recording replayed, or the like.
1953Math. Tables & Other Aids to Computation VII. 73 With the advent of large-scale high-speed digital computers, there arises the question of their possible use in the solution of problems in ‘real time’, i.e., in conjunction with instruments receiving and responding to stimuli from the external environment. The criteria for satisfactory operation in such real-time service are different from those generally encountered. 1964Listener 19 Nov. 784/1 A higher speed in computers means that their complexity can increase very rapidly, too, and that they can more easily engage in activites in what we call ‘real time’. That is to say, they can calculate at the actual speed of the events taking place. 1968Times 10 Dec. 6/8 The data gathered by the telescopes are stored on board the satellite by magnetic tapes and discs... The Smithsonian experiment can also be used in real time, transmitting information as it gathers it. 1970Nature 20 June 1110/2 The data are telemetered to ground-based stations which record the information on magnetic tape and provide a digital print-out in real time. 1973Sci. Amer. May 115/2 It is wrong to detail a suspense plot, even though we all recall from real time how Apollo 13 limped back safely. 1973Nature 12 Oct. 294/1 As we are working in scientific ‘real time’, we have to ask at what stage the work will be when filming is in progress. 1979R. Hawkey Side-Effect xi. 83 The Real Time was three hundred milliseconds, but it was shot in slow motion.
attrib.1953[see above]. 1960N.Y. Times 17 July 13/4 As an experiment, Air Force and Weather Bureau meteorologists attempted to use the pictures to make ‘real time’ forecasts of the weather—forecasts fresh enough to be useful. 1968Times 1 Nov. 23/6 Computers have been slow to conquer the real-time control of industrial processes and traffic flows. 1970O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing vi. 96 An example of a real-time process is a cheque account system in a bank where all transactions, e.g. withdrawals, are reported to the computer before they are finished. 1972Guardian 9 Feb. 3/8 We do think we know how to develop a satellite with a near real-time (instantaneous) capability. 1975Offshore Engineer Sept. 52/2 Sea & Storm is also..showing a wave data processing unit..which will give virtually realtime treatment of data from wave buoys. 1977Navy News June 44 (Advt.), To undertake training of our customers' engineers/programmers/technicians on all aspects of software applicable to real-time radar systems.
2. a. Actually existing or present as a state or quality of things; having a foundation in fact; actually occurring or happening. Phr. real life, real world (passing into senses 3 and 4). Also attrib.
1597Shakes. Lover's Compl. 114 His real habitude gave life and grace To appertainings and to ornament, Accomplished in himself, not in his case. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. ii. §7 Time..denotes nothing real in its self existing..and so can argue nothing as to the real existence of things from all eternity. c1689Prior To Chas. Montague 4 He can imagin'd pleasures find, To combat against real cares. 1729Butler Serm. Hum. Nat. ii. Wks. 1874 II. 18 Our inward feelings, and the perceptions we receive from our external senses, are equally real. 1771T. Jefferson Let. 3 Aug. in Koch & Peden Life & Selected Writings (1944) viii. 358 Considering history as a moral exercise, her lessons would be too infrequent if confined to real life. 1794Paley Evid. iii. ii. (1817) 288 The malady was real, the cure was real, whether the popular explication of the cause was well founded or not. 1801M. Edgeworth Belinda I. iii. 70 Nothing is more unlike a novel than real life. 1816J. Wilson City of Plague ii. iii. 122 More terrible These sights and sounds from the disastrous sky Than all the real terrors of the Plague. 1836Dickens Pickw. (1837) v. 44 A curious manuscript..curious as a leaf from the romance of real life. 1838J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. XXXI. 28 The writers and readers..in France have..a thirst for something which shall address itself to their real-life feelings. 1852A. Jameson Leg. Madonna Introd. 36 The Caracci school..combined..the study of the antique with the observation of real life. 1876C. M. Yonge Womankind v. 34 Insolence to a governess is an old stock complaint. In real life, I never heard of it from anyone by birth and breeding a lady. 1879M. Arnold Irish Cathol. Ess. 115 From Christianity's being a real source of cure, for a real bondage and misery. 1884tr. Lotze's Logic iii. ii. (1888) II. 208 We call..an event Real which occurs or has occurred, in contradistinction to that which does not occur. 1909Daily Chron. 16 Apr. 3/5 Jocelyn Johnstone..showed..humour in her sketches of..‘real life’ scenes. 1923C. D. Broad Sci. Thought xiii. 536 Now, in real life, there are no examples of pure creation. 1937‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier ix. 182 One could..give everything away, change one's name and start out with no money... But in real life nobody ever does that kind of thing. 1957P. Suppes Introd. Logic xii. 286 Textbook problems (as opposed to real-life problems). 1963Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 296 The instances in which its selection depends on real world context. 1966Listener 19 May 727/1 The Vice Chancellor of Lancaster University strongly believes ‘that the university must keep contact with the real world outside’. May I take this opportunity to ask..: (a) what is real about the real world? (b) why it is always outside? 1977National Observer (U.S.) 15 Jan. 13/1 The roles each of us plays on the revolving stage of the real world have been well described. 1978P. Marsh et al. Rules of Disorder ii. 33 In the perception of our non-academic pupils, school is..a waste of time..not..a part of their ‘real’ lives.
b. real presence, the actual presence of Christ's body and blood in the sacrament of the Eucharist.
The precise sense attached to real depends on the belief held as to the nature or mode of the presence. In the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches it implies the presence (by transubstantiation or consubstantiation) of the actual body and blood of Christ; by the Church of England it is held that the body and blood are present ‘only after an heavenly and spiritual manner’.
1559Fecknam in Strype Ann. Ref. I. App. ix. (1709) 25 Doctor Cranmer..did most constantly affirme and defend the real Presence of Chryst's Bodye in the Holie Euchariste. 1563Foxe A. & M. 979/1 [Latimer] This same presence may be called moste fitly, a reall presence, that is a presence not fained, but a true and faythfull presence. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. vii. §12 Confessing the reall presence, and that the manner thereof transcended his apprehension. 1687Dryden Hind & P. ii. 32 And to explain what your forefathers meant By real presence in the Sacrament, After long fencing..Your salvo comes, that he's not there at all. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVIII. 78/1 This account of the Romish doctrine concerning the real presence. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. I. 322 Wickliffe..seems to have agreed with the present Church of England, in denying a bodily but acknowledging a real spiritual presence in the sacramental elements. 1882M. Creighton Hist. Papacy i. ii. (1899) I. 124 Wyclif did not deny the real presence of Christ in the elements; he denied only the change of substance in the elements after consecration.
3. a. That is actually and truly such as its name implies; possessing the essential qualities denoted by its name; hence, genuine, undoubted.
1559in Strype Ann. Ref. (1824) I. ii. App. vi. 401 Ecclesiasticall lawes made, cannot bynd the universall churche of Christe, without the reall assent..of the sea apostolike. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxvii. §2 That which alone is material, namely the real participation of Christ..by means of this sacrament. 1667Milton P.L. x. 413 Planets..real Eclips Then sufferd. 1712Addison Spect. No. 275 ⁋3 Homer tells us that the Blood of the Gods is not real Blood, but only something like it. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. 51 Pressing down the whole by the weight of a real monarchy. 1836Hor. Smith Tin Trump. I. 12 Dressing like a real, and driving like an amateur coachman. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. iv. (1878) 52 It was evidently real and not affected doubt.
b. Natural, as opposed to artificial or depicted.
1718Pope Arachne 158 A real bull seems in the piece to roar, And real billows breaking on the shore. 1827H. Steuart Planter's G. Pref. (1828) 2 In removing Wood, for the purpose of creating Real Landscape, plants of a large size are necessarily employed.
c. Mus. (See quots.)
1869Ouseley Counterp. xiv. 83 Counterpoint in more than four real parts, i.e. ‘parts which proceed together, and yet have each a different melody’. Ibid. xix. 160 A fugue with a subject, the answer to which gives every interval by exact and simple transposition, is called a real fugue. 1889Prout Harmony v. §139 If..the quality of the intervals is exactly the same in the imitations as in the pattern, the sequence will be real, i.e. exact... A real sequence is much rarer than a tonal one.
4. a. That is actually present or involved, as opposed to apparent, ostensible, etc.; spec. in Econ., reckoned by purchasing power rather than monetary or nominal value.
1716Pope Let. to Lady M. W. Montagu 18 Aug., Whatever I write will be the real thought of that hour. 1771Junius Lett. lix. 307, I doubt not they delivered their real sentiments. 1775Johnson Journey to Western Islands 368 Lesley..related so punctiliously, that a hundred hen eggs, new laid, were sold in the Islands for a peny... Posterity has since grown wiser; and having learned, that nominal and real value may differ, they now tell no such stories. 1776Adam Smith Wealth of Nations I. i. v. 39 Labour, like commodities, may be said to have a real and a nominal price. Its real price may be said to consist in the quantity of the necessaries and conveniences of life which are given for it; its nominal price, in the quantity of money. 1802–12Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) IV. 644 note, There lurks the real reason at the bottom of the ostensible one. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. vii. 279 With regard to the real explanation of these effects, it may be shown [etc.]. 1870Lowell Study Wind. 249 An imperturbable perception of the real relations of things. 1882R. Bithell Counting-House Dict. 208 The nominal value of a coin is that value which is assigned to it by law, and often differs very materially from its real or metallic value. 1885J. L. Joynes tr. Marx's Wage-Labour & Capital 10 The real wage expresses the price of labour in relation to the price of other commodities... Real wages may remain the same, or they may even rise, and yet the relative wages may none the less have fallen. 1929Soc. Sci. Abstracts 23 The close similarity of the general price level..substantiates its use as a measure of ‘real income’. 1936K. A. H. Egerton Dict. Econ. Terms (ed. 2) 131 Real wages at such times change at a very different rate, and sometimes in the opposite direction, from nominal or money wages; being based on the purchases a wage at any given time will make. 1964Gould & Kolb Dict. Soc. Sci. 454/1 If a series of national product estimates for several years is divided by a price index, each year's national product being divided by the price index for that year, the resulting series is known as deflated or real national product, or national product in real terms. 1976Glasgow Herald 26 Nov. 1/6 Real earnings have fallen in the past few years and there is no way we can agree to any further reduction in the purchasing power of our members. 1981Sunday Times 26 Apr. 13/4 Despite an urgent maintenance and restoration programme, it [sc. the National Trust] is spending less in real terms on looking after its property than it was two years ago.
b. The actual (thing or person); that properly bears the name.
a1631Donne Poems (1650) 9 The Kings reall, or his stamped face. 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 10 One of them to his thinking favoured very much his companion, and as he was about to follow them, his reall companion called him to come back. 1704[see horizon 3]. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 244 The bag..may rather be considered as a supplemental womb. In the real womb, the little animal is partly brought to perfection. 1813Sporting Mag. XLI. 175 She went the real pace, having passed this extent of country in forty-five minutes. 1840Macaulay Ess., Clive, It was absurd to regard him as the real master of Hindostan. 1869Ruskin Q. of Air §5 From the real sun, rising and setting;—from the real atmosphere [etc.].
c. the real thing: (a) The thing itself, as contrasted with imitations or counterfeits; hence slang, the ‘genuine article’.
1818Lady Morgan Autobiog. (1859) 15 He is the real thing, and no mistake. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Notebks. II. 37 Represented with the vividness of the real thing. 1846Punch 20 June 272/2 You, who will not subscribe to the real thing; come, pull out your purse to the name:..although you know that you ask for the ‘Ragged Schools’,..beg subscriptions for the ‘Youths of Limited Circumstances’. 1884Art Amateur Dec. 23/1 Those persons who indulge in..having..Japanese rooms in their houses, but have only a ludicrous imitation, will be interested in seeing here the real thing. 1902T. W. H. Crosland Outlook Odes 31 My tobacco merchant, who sells me two ounces of the real thing every week. 1939War Illustr. 2 Dec. 365 The ‘stand-by’ atmosphere of the first few weeks of war may be lost at any moment in the urgency of the ‘real thing’. 1977Time 22 Aug. 40/2 But the copied Coke may not work. India's soft-drink fanciers have learned to distinguish between ersatz Coke, which is peddled everywhere on the Indian market, and the Real Thing.
(b) spec. True love as distinct from infatuation, flirtation, etc.
1857C. M. Yonge Dynevor Terrace I. xi. 173, I could not part with you where we were not sure the ‘real thing’ was felt for you. 1906J. Galsworthy Man of Property iii. iii. 302 This was none of those affairs of a season that distract men and women about town... This was the real thing! 1919Wodehouse Damsel in Distress v. 61 It had come at last. The Real Thing. George had never been in love before. Not really in love. 1931J. Cannan High Table x. 152 He was afraid that she would think he was just flirting—that it wasn't the Real Thing. 1941M. McCarthy in Partisan Rev. VIII. 327 All that conjugal tenderness had been a brightly packaged substitute for the Real Thing. 1955E. Waugh Officers & Gentlemen ii. ii. 189, I thought of you at the last. Ever since we met I've known I had found the real thing. 1960Woman's Own 19 Mar. 17/2 Once these phases are over, you should be ready for the Real Thing..the man who will be exactly right for you. 1973G. Scott Water Horse (1974) xvi. 109 A girl..whom she knew to be looking for the Real Thing in Spain.
d. the real McCoy: see McCoy.
e. real tennis = tennis n. 1. Also attrib.
The usage distinguishes the original game from the modified form which became the more popular after 1874; see lawn-tennis and tennis n. 2. Derivation from real a.1 is a folk etymology.
1880[see jeu de paume s.v. jeu d]. 1902[see royal tennis s.v. royal a. 15 a]. 1954A. S. C. Ross in Neuphilol. Mitteilungen LV. 22 The games of real tennis and piquet..are still perhaps marks of the upper class. 1966Oxford Mag. Michaelmas, No. 8, p. 149 A splendid exhibition of real tennis was given at the Merton Street court on Sunday. 1972Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 14 Jan. 25/4 There are 17 Real Tennis courts in use in the country. 1975Country Life 30 Jan. 258/1 Today tennis means to most people lawn tennis, while its..ancestor..has survived under the title ‘real tennis’... Only one public school boasts a real tennis court... Canford in Dorset.
f. real ale, a name sometimes applied to draught beer that has been brewed and stored in the traditional way, and which has undergone secondary fermentation of the yeast in the container from which it is dispensed; also called ‘cask-conditioned’ beer; real coffee, coffee made directly from ground coffee beans, as opposed to ‘instant’ coffee.
1964L. Deighton Funeral in Berlin iv. 281 Could you find us a little cup of real coffee? 1972What's Brewing Oct., Mr A― B―..is ripping out the keg taps and replacing them with real ale from wooden barrels. 1973C. Hutt Death of Eng. Pub i. 25 The beer-drinker who feels strongly about the declining quality of his pint has two organisations he can turn to..—the long-established Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood, and the more recently formed, more militant CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale). 1974N. Freeling Dressing of Diamond 201 ‘Where's the patrol, Gilbert?’ ‘Be back any minute.’ ‘Then you might make us some real coffee.’ 1974Good Beer Guide (CAMRA) 2 The real ale we are talking about has to stand up to three tests; in the way it is brewed, the way it is stored and the way it is served. 1976Evening Standard 29 Dec., The most popular of about a dozen real ales brought in from distant parts to a growing number of pubs in the capital. 1980Times 23 Sept. 8/3 In the 1970s..the ‘real ale’ fashion took hold.
5.
†a. Sincere, straightforward, honest. Obs. (freq. in 17th c.).
1597Bacon Ess., Ceremonies & Respects (Arb.) 24 He that is only reall had need haue exceeding great parts of vertue. 1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 51 The Dutch hath an honest and reall manner of dealing. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §35 If his intentions were real. 1686tr. Chardin's Trav. Persia 173 Supposing he should be real and sincere. 1709S. Centlivre Gamester i. i, If I could believe thee real, my joys would be compleat.
†b. True or loyal to another. Obs.
1642Earl of Clanricarde in Carte Ormonde (1735) III. 79 To haue a person soe full of worth and honour to be firme and reall to me. 1690Secr. Hist. Chas. II & Jas. II, 91 Which, had England been real to the confederate, might have been easily wrested again out of his hand.
c. Free from nonsense, affectation, or pretence; ‘genuine’. Also loosely, aware of, or in touch with, real life.
1847Tennyson Princ. Concl. 18 They hated banter, wish'd for something real. 1851Hawthorne Ho. Sev. Gables ix, Phoebe's presence made a home about her... She was real! 1880Mrs. Whitney Odd or Even? xxxvi, She had been so near real people who meant every bit of their lives. 1961Noble Savage Fall 12 He [sc. Seymour Krim] alludes to something called ‘direct writing’, and he finds that criticism gets in the way of his ‘truer, realer, imaginative bounce’. 1964Sunday Express 1 Mar. 22/5 Most [actors]..are so insincere... Albie..is an exception... He's a real person. 1966New Statesman 17 June 873/2 This was a realler America than I had known in the past, hitching on this or that bandwagon or presidential campaign. 1967P. Welles Babyhip (1969) xxviii. 179 Sometimes I wish I were back in Paris. The people seemed realer. 1969Newsweek 9 June 95 Why suffer all the bad hotels and rotten food and accountants and taxes if you waste the opportunity on stage to be real? 1973Scotsman 7 Aug. 8/5, I notice..the editor-designate of the much discussed ‘Scottish International’ review telling us that Glasgow is a ‘realler’ city than Edinburgh. 1976New Yorker 1 Mar. 35/1 ‘Ellen. Be real for once. I said we'd get together.’ ‘In your letter you said we'd have dinner.’ 1977Time 25 July 45/2 Billy is very sweet and very gentle and very real.
II.
6. Law. (Opposed to personal.) a. Of actions, causes, etc.: Relating to things, or spec. to real property (see c).
In early use freq. placed after the n., and with pl. in -s.
1448Shillingford's Lett. (Camden) App. 139 Any action real personall and myxte apon any person or persons. 1535Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 26 §4 All actions realles, hereafter shalbe conueied, perpetrated, or sued for any landes. 1574tr. Littleton's Tenures 41 If the villaine be demaundant in an accion reall, or plaintife in an action personal. 1603Owen Pembrokesh. (1892) 155 Pleas reall and mixt for landes are and must be sued at home. 1652Gaule Magastrom. 342 All matters or causes, criminall or reall. 1768Blackstone Comm. III. 117 Real actions..which concern real property only. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 491 After a real action was barred by length of time. 1863H. Cox Instit. ii. ix. 512 Real actions, brought for the specific recovery of freeholds.
b. Connected in some way with things or real property: (see quots. and Wharton's Law Lexicon).
1467–8Rolls of Parlt. V. 578/2 Lands, Tenementez and other Possessions..in demeane and reall possession. 1625Burges Pers. Tithes 48 How much should bee due, where no Custome, Composition real, or other sufficient Priuiledges takes place. 1666–88Dallas Stiles (1697) 694 (heading) Real Rights. Ibid. 797 Disposition..of certain Lands, Baronies, and others, in Real Warrandice of other Lands formerly Disponed. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v., Customs are said to be real; that is, they determine all inheritances within their extent. 1766Blackstone Comm. II. iii. 28 A real composition is when an agreement is made between the owner of the lands, and the parson or vicar,..that such lands shall for the future be discharged from payment of tithes, by reason of some land or other real recompence given to the parson, in lieu..thereof. 1802–12Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) I. 53 Real evidence, that which is afforded by a being belonging, not to the class of persons, but to the class of things. 1832Austin Jurispr. (1879) I. 59 Real rights (property in things real or real property) are rights which are inheritable. 1837tr. Guizot's Hist. Civiliz. iii. 89 Personal legislation, in contradistinction to real legislation, which is found upon territory.
c. Consisting of immovable property, as lands and houses; esp. real estate (see estate n. 11); also attrib.
1641Decay Trade 2 The price and measure of all our other meanes both personall and reall. 1644G. Plattes in Hartlib's Legacy (1655) 209 A present estate, either real or personal. 1690Child Disc. Trade (1694) 8 Securities of lands and houses [are] rendered, indeed such as we commonly call them, real securities. 1711Steele Spect. No. 97 ⁋5 Their real Estate shall be immediately vested in the next Heir. 1756[see estate n. 11]. 1827Jarman Powell's Devises II. 169 The word effects, without the word real, will not..comprehend land. 1840Spirit of Times 25 Jan. 562/1 A negro, the holder of a ticket in the grand real estate lottery.., came pushing into a lottery office in great excitement. 1843Niles' Nat. Reg. 4 Mar. 5 Real estate bank... A committee of the legislature of Arkansas have reported the facts connected with the management of this institution. 1845Stephen Comm. Laws Eng. (1874) II. 9 Things real comprise not only the land itself, but also such incorporeal rights as issue out of or are connected with it. 1849Knickerbocker XXXIII. 174 His father had recently made some heavy real-estate purchases. 1854H. D. Thoreau Walden 88 This experience entitled me to be regarded as a sort of real-estate broker by my friends. 1870Pinkerton Guide 27 A sale of real estate by order of Orphans' Court..must be public. 1880Harper's Mag. Sept. 562 This region was..seized upon by real-estate speculators. 1892Kipling Lett. of Travel (1920) 85 The packed real-estate offices; the real-estate agents themselves. 1903Westm. Gaz. 11 Sept. 2/3 The law might almost be forgiven for making no provision for dealing with real-estate-owning paupers. 1965H. T. Ansoff Corporate Strategy (1968) vi. 104 A company which primarily buys and sells..may be an investment trust, a pension fund, or a real estate syndicate. 1969Sydney Morning Herald 24 May 30/1 (Advt.), The Real Estate Institute of New South Wales..will commence the next evening course of lectures in Real Estate and Valuation Practice. 1972Accountant 17 Aug. 193/2 The cannibalization of assets, particularly of real estate subsidiaries. 1978S. Brill Teamsters vi. 208 He sincerely believed that real-estate investments were the gold mines of the future.
d. chattels real: (see chattel 4 b).
7.
†a. Consisting of actual things. Obs. rare.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage vii. ix. (1614) 698 The ceremonies they used to them, were..verball prayers, reall offerings. Ibid. ix. xiv. 912 The Colonie..haue not onely sent verball, but reall commendations of the place.
b. Relating to, concerned with, things.
1593G. Harvey Pierces Superer. Wks. (Grosart) II. 162 The most endlesse altercations; being generally rather verbal, then reall, and more circumstantiall, then substantiall. 1620T. Granger Div. Logike 143 Logicke is a Rationall, not reall art. 1681Ray Corr. (1848) 130 Making your discoveries and observations public, for..the advancement of real philosophy. 1697tr. Burgersdicius his Logic ii. xv. 64 A Real is when the Attribute of the Question is real; as, ‘is a Place a Superficies?’ or so. 1845Whately Logic in Encycl. Metrop. I. 235/1 Those which are called real Definitions, viz. which unfold the nature of the thing. 1870J. H. Newman Gram. Assent i. i. 8 Propositions..of which the terms stand for things external to us, unit and individual as..‘the earth goes round the sun’..; these I call real propositions, and their apprehension real.
†c. Of written characters: Representing things instead of sounds. Obs.
1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xvi. §2 We understand further, that it is the use of China, and the kingdoms of the High Levant, to write in characters real, which express neither letters nor words in gross, but things or notions. 1668Wilkins Real Char. i. iii. §5. 13 A Real universal Character, that should not signifie words, but things and notions. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Character, The real character is no chimera; the Chinese and Japonese have already something like it.
d. Corresponding to actuality; true.
1657–83Evelyn Hist. Relig. (1850) I. 87 But, though we can neither see God, nor our souls, we may and can have a real idea of both, without a sensible vision. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxx. §5 Ideas of substances are real, when they agree with the existence of things. 1862H. Spencer First Princ. i. ii. §11 (1875) 32 The impossibility of expanding our symbolic conception of self-creation into a real conception, remains as complete as ever. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xiv. (1878) 287 Whether a story be real in fact or only real in meaning.
†8. Essential, important. Obs.—1
1620Ld. Herbert Corr. in Life (1886) 349 This being the reallest,..I need not insist upon some less essential forms.
9. Attached, or pertaining, to scholastic Realism.
1528Tindale Obed. Chr. Man To Rdr., One holdeth this, an other that. One is reall, an other nominall. 1663Butler Hud. i. i. 156 Profound in all the Nominal And Real ways beyond them all.
10. real school [tr. G. realschule: see Realschule]. Applied to a class of schools in Germany which occupy themselves mainly with the sciences and modern languages, as subjects of practical utility. Hence real scholar.
1833Sir W. Hamilton Discuss. (1852) 552 Realschulen, real schools..because they are less occupied with the study of languages (Verbalia) than with the knowledge of things (Realia). 1836Ibid. 269 The best of our former Real Scholars, when brought into collation with the Latin Scholars could, in general, hardly compete with the most middling of these. 1885Guardian 6 May 697/3 Chapters on the State schools, whether..real schools, or gymnasia.
III. 11. Comb., as real-hearted, real-minded, real-seeming adjs.
a1866J. Grote Exam. Utilit. Phil. ii. (1870) 37 The more real-minded the philosopher is, and the less he is the mere echo of others. 1884J. Parker Apost. Life III. 66 Would..real-hearted men respect him now? 1948E. Bowen Why do I Write? 24 You and I, by writing a story, impose shape—on fictitious life, it's true, but on life that is real-seeming enough to be familiar and recognisable. 1951S. Spender World within World 310 Reader-writer walk together in a real-seeming dream-alliance leading into gardens inhabited by Stephen Daedalus and Marcel.
B. adv.
1. (Usually with adjs.) Really, genuinely. Also more loosely in later use (orig. Sc. and U.S.): Very, extremely.
In early use properly an adj. qualifying the phrase (‘good turn’, etc.) which follows, and only at a later period apprehended as an adv. qualifying the adj. (‘good’, etc.). Not common in standard use in southern England except to some extent in the orig. construction.
1658Whole Duty Man xiii. §35 The reallest good turn that can be done from one man to another. 1718J. Fox Wanderer No. 17. 116 An Opportunity of doing a real good Office. 1771E. Griffith Hist. Lady Barton II. 283 The burning of three real good and substantial houses in this town. 1827R. H. Froude Rem. (1838) I. 448 Last Friday was a real fine day. 1885G. Allen Babylon vi, It looks real nice. 1887Mabel Wetheral Two N.-C. Maids xxv. 174, I was real put out to think how [etc.]. 1939War Illustr. 28 Oct. 219/1 If I had not been on fire I could easily have shot down two more. It was real bad luck, but my pals accounted for three besides the one I hit. 1943K. Tennant Ride on Stranger viii. 77 He's real clever. 1959J. Ludwig in Tamarack Rev. Summer 7 Some day she'd get real tough with her son Sidney. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 50/3 (Advt.), Austin Healey Sprite black, radio, a real nice car. 1968K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 111 It was real heavy going, and I must have dried the flamin' plugs and points twenty times. 1976Daily Mirror 18 Mar. 24/4 I'm havin' a rest—I feel real listless.
2. (with advbs.) colloq. (chiefly N. Amer. and Austral.).
1893H. A. Shands Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi 52 Real down... Used by cultivated whites to mean exceedingly or extremely. A thing that is extremely nice is said to be real down nice. 1924J. C. French Writing x. 290 Avoid: They live good in that camp (say live well), I sure will write real soon (say surely will, really soon). 1933R. L. Pooley in Amer. Speech VIII. 61/2 One such [grammarian], commenting on the sentence, ‘I will write real soon,’ corrects real to read really. This is utter nonsense. No one ever says I will write really soon... It simply isn't English. 1942Z. N. Hurston in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 225/1 De man looked at me real hard for dat. 1947K. Tennant Lost Haven xix. 317 Everyone said she was lucky... Everything fell out ‘real nice’ for her. 1959Weekly Times (Melbourne) 30 Sept. (Advt.), How about picking up your phone and asking your B.F.E. dealer to arrange a free demonstration of a ‘35’ on your property real soon? 1967G. Jackson Let. 13 July in Soledad Brother (1971) 121, I felt real bad about that. 1975D. Lodge Changing Places ii. 57 You and I must have lunch together real soon.
C. Absolute or as n.
†1. = realist 2. Obs.
1519W. Horman Vulg. 93 The wey of the nomynallys and reals is dyuers. 1604T. Wright Passions vi. 298 Those dissenting and contradicting Sectes of..Realles and Nominalles. 1684S. G. Angl. Spec. 801 W. Ockham headed the Nominals against the Reals, followers of Scotus.
2. a. A real thing; a thing having (or conceived as having) a real existence, either in the ordinary or in a metaphysical sense.
a1626Bp. Andrewes Serm. (1856) I. 142 The names of His imposing; there is no surer place in logic than from them. His nominals be reals. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 82 Hereunto we know not how to assent in the Generall, as having met with some whose Reals made good their representations. c1810Coleridge in Lit. Rem. (1838) III. 332 If we will confound actuals with reals. 1884tr. Lotze's Metaph. 60 A material of reality, a Real pure and simple, which in itself is neither this nor that, but the principle of reality for everything.
†b. A piece of real property. Obs. rare.
1651W. G. tr. Cowel's Inst. 26 And so of immoveables and realls if aliened by the Husband in his lifetime.
3. the real: That which actually exists, contrasted (a) with a copy, counterfeit, etc., (b) with what is abstract or notional.
1818Coleridge On Poesy or Art, For this does the artist for a time abandon the external real in order to return to it with a complete sympathy with its internal and actual. 1844Mrs. Browning Dead Pan xxxvi, And the Real is His song. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xv, Thus ended..the ideal of life for Augustine St. Clare. But the real remained. 1870Newman Gram. Assent i. v. 135 Religion has to do with the real, and the real is the particular.
4. Math. A real number.
1866W. R. Hamilton Elem. Quaternions i. i. 10 Such scalars are..simply the reals (or real quantities) of Algebra. 1940W. V. Quine Math. Logic 273 The fact that every bounded class of reals has a least bound is the basic formal difference between the reals and the ratios. 1967Condon & Odishaw Handbk. Physics (ed. 2) i. ii. 22/1 Apart from the reals and the complex numbers they are the only associative hypercomplex systems with real coefficients and no divisors of zero. 1979Proc. London Math. Soc. XXXVIII. 367 Let x, h, Q denote large reals with x ⩾ h > Q.
D. In colloq. phr. for real (orig. U.S.).
a. as adj. phr. Genuine, (in) earnest, true, sincere. Occas. attrib.
1954, etc. [see for prep. 19 g]. 1956[see pick v.1 21 r]. 1972M. J. Bosse Incident at Naha 55 Was that kid for real? I mean, he didn't look as if he could fight his way out of a paper bag. 1973Black Panther 17 Mar. 8/1 This is no ‘scare tactic’, it is for real. 1973W. Fairchild Swiss Arrangement vii. 78, I told him I was staying with Mom and that's for real. 1977B. Randall Fan 34 Dear Mr. Breen. Are you for real?.. Give us a rest.
b. advb. phr. Really, truly, actually; in reality.
1962J. Glenn in Into Orbit 183 Everyone seemed to sense that we were going for real this time. 1964M. McLuhan Understanding Media (1967) ii. xxx. 320 It was Hitler who gave radio the Orson Welles treatment for real. 1970E. Bullins Theme is Blackness (1973) 179 Yeah! For real! Shoot me! That's what she says. 1972J. E. Franklin in W. King Black Short Story Anthol. 355 ‘We'll let her in on our team, see?’ ‘For real?’ ‘Not for real, just play-like.’ 1977R. Air Force News 22 June–5 July 11/2 Two pilots have in fact done the job ‘for real’—both Sqn Ldr Marshall and Flt Lt Dave Fischer have put Harriers down on the deck of HMS Bulwark.
▪ IV. real
obs. form of reel n. |