| 释义 |
reality|riːˈælɪtɪ|
Also 6 realyte, 7 reallity.
[ad. med.L. realitas (1120 in Du Cange), or F. réalité (16th c.): see real a.2 and -ity.]
1. a. The quality of being real or having an actual existence.
1550Bale Eng. Votaries ii. 49 Sigebertus sayth, Realyte they ioyned to their sacramentall breade, to make the people beleue it to be Christes naturall body. 1620Melton Astrolog. 20 Your discourse..hath no Realitie or Essence in it. 1651Hobbes Leviathan iii. xl. 250 The reality of his Conferences with God. 1711Addison Spect. No. 110 ⁋6 Lucretius..makes no doubt of the Reality of Apparitions. 1790Paley Horæ Paul. i. 4 It proves the general reality of the circumstances. 1813Shelley Q. Mab vii. 63 Fancy's thin creations to endow With manner, being, and reality. 1861E. Garbett Boyle Lect. 13 The presence or absence of faith..no more affects the reality of the truths revealed, than sight creates the material objects of the natural world.
b. of feelings, etc. (with implication of sense 2).
1649Cromwell Let. 19 Oct. in Carlyle, By these you will see the reality of my intentions to save blood. 1686tr. Chardin's Trav. Persia 36 The Port had never till then question'd the Truth and Reality of the Proposals. 1693T. Power in Dryden's Juvenal xii. Argt., He professes the reality of his Friendship, and the sincerity of his Intentions.
c. Correspondence to fact; truth. ? Obs.
1793Smeaton Edystone L. §72 The reality of the assertion seemed however then incredible to Dr. Spry.
d. Suggestion of, resemblance to, what is real.
1856Stanley Sinai & Pal. xiii. (1858) 431 The simplicity and reality of a teaching which took its stand on the ordinary sights and sounds still seen and heard in the same land. 1896Harper's Mag. Apr. 680/1 The showy girl and her showy accessories were reproduced on the canvas with almost startling reality.
†2.
a. Sincere devotion or loyalty to a person; sincerity or honesty of character or purpose. Obs.
1652Fuller Holy & Prof. St. (ed. 3) v. xviii. 466 We want not a will but wait a time, to expresse our reallity to the Emperour. a1657R. Loveday Lett. (1663) 126 A perfect confirmation of the opinion I ever cherished of your reality. 1665Marvell Corr. Wks. 1872–5 II. 187, I believe there is nothing but reality among the partys. 1677W. Hubbard Narrative 22 In token of the abovesaid Sachims reality in this Treaty. a1761Law Comf. Weary Pilg. (1809) 54 If thy faith and desire does not seek and cry to Christ for them in the same reality as the lame asked to walk and the blind to see.
†b. A sincere expression of opinion or feeling.
a1679T. Goodwin Work of Holy Spirit vii. Wks. 1704 V. 165 Will you take one of Paul's realities? (I must not term them complements).
3. a. Real existence; what is real; the aggregate of real things or existences; that which underlies and is the truth of appearances or phenomena.
1647H. More Song of Soul i. Psychoroia Pref., God doth not fill the World with his Glory by words and sounds, but by Spirit, and Life, and Reality. 1663Cowley College Wks. 1710 II. 623 To carry it on from Discourse and Design to Reality and Effect. 1818Shelley Rev. Islam vii. xvi, Like sweet reality among Dim visionary woes. 1864Skeat Uhland's Poems 16 What morning's dreams had promised, proved Reality when eve drew near. 1877E. R. Conder Bas. Faith iv. 178 The universe of Reality is built on Truth. 1884tr. Lotze's Metaph. i. vii. (1887) I. 217 Limitations..imposed by Reality on itself and within which it is.
b. in reality, really, actually, in fact. † Also in reality of fact.
1679B. Thorogood Succession 5 Not by fiction of Law, but in reality. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 229 In reality, the life of a Corsair is most wretched life. 1690Locke Hum. Und. i. ii. §13 This Saying..amounts, in reality of Fact, to no more but this. 1761Hume Hist. Eng. III. lxi. 321 The military being now in appearance, as well as in reality, the sole power which prevailed in the nation. 1850McCosh Div. Govt. iii. i. (1874) 321 Doubtless they intend thereby to benefit the cause of religion, but they are in reality doing it serious injury. 1869J. Martineau Ess. II. 166 In words, he does; in reality, he does not.
4. A real thing, fact, or state of things.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 113 Not to receive figures for realities. 1710Addison Tatler No. 165 ⁋1 To distinguish between Realities and Appearances. 1781Cowper Hope 68 'Tis grave philosophy's absurdest dream,..That..earth has no reality but woe. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. i. 239 What effort of the imagination could transcend the realities here presented to us? 1884F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sci. vii. (1885) 200 Their genuine success for a time has been enough to show that they rested on a reality.
5. a. The real nature or constitution of something; also without const., the real thing or state of things.
1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxx. §2 Our simple Ideas are all real, all agree to the Reality of things. 1756Washington Lett. Writ. 1889 I. 404 You entertain notions very different from the reality of the case. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 130 He probably suspected..that the appearance of the heavens did not agree with the reality.
b. That which constitutes the actual thing, as distinguished from what is merely apparent or external.
1840Macaulay Ess., Clive, A formal grant of the powers of which he already possessed the reality. 1861M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 45 Thick walls and turrets at the angles gave the whole the aspect and the reality of a fortress. 1878J. P. Hopps Jesus vii. 27 The reality and not the mere show of prayer.
6. Law.
†a. = realty2 3.
b. (See quot.)
1628Sir E. Coke Upon Littleton ii. xi. §177 Chattels..Reall, because they concerne the realitie. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey) s.v., In a Law-sense, Reality or Realty is oppos'd to Personalty. 1845–56Bouvier's Law Dict. U.S. s.v. Real, Reality of Laws, those laws which govern property, whether real or personal, or things; the term is used in opposition to Personality of laws.
7. attrib. and Comb., as reality content, reality control, reality-revealer, reality value; reality-based, reality-centred adjs.; reality principle, the principle propounded by Freud that the actual conditions of living modify the pleasure-seeking activity of the libido; reality-testing, the testing of an emotion or thought in a real-life context; also attrib.; hence reality-test n. and v., -tested ppl. a.
1960L. Pincus Marriage i. 25 A challenge to move forward to fuller and more reality-based relations. 1962Listener 19 Apr. 683/1 These concepts themselves keep the child's thinking ‘reality-centred’.
1951J. M. Fraser Psychol. x. 112 When we find someone in whose life..phantasy achievements occupy a very large place, we are probably justified in thinking that the reality-content of his motivation is a little low.
1949‘G. Orwell’ Nineteen Eighty-Four i. 37 Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting... All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Reality control’, they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink’. Ibid. 54 It's merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control.
1921R. Macaulay Dangerous Ages xii. 236 Your ego is at present in..an impermanent stage in its struggle towards the adult level of the reality-principle. 1922C. J. M. Hubback tr. Freud's Beyond Pleasure Princ. i. 5 Under the influence of the instinct of the ego for self-preservation it [sc. the pleasure-principle] is replaced by the ‘reality-principle’. 1954D. Riesman Individualism Reconsidered xxii. 345 By the reality principle alone, mankind could not be governed. 1957N. Frye Anat. of Criticism (1971) ii. 75 In literature, what entertains is prior to what instructs,..the reality-principle is subordinate to the pleasure-principle. 1968Listener 22 Feb. 244/1 The real world—where there are limits on what is possible..where..the reality principle operates. 1976S. Hynes Auden Generation vi. 185 It is the existence of Europe, and not any political doctrine that is the reality principle here.
1962A. Huxley Island ix. 136 Murugan calls it dope... We, on the contrary, give the stuff good names—the moksha-medicine, the reality-revealer, the truth-and-beauty pill. Ibid. 141 ‘Which is the easy way?’ Will asked. ‘Education and reality-revealers.’
1925J. Riviere tr. Freud's Papers on Metapsychol. in Coll. Papers IV. 20 Their entire disregard of the reality-test. 1968N. N. Holland in Levine & Madden Art Victorian Prose 333 The more we reality-test a work of literature, the more we become aware of the reality of ourselves as separate beings.
1960L. Pincus Marriage i. 19 Some remnants of ego (reality-tested experience) may..be repressed.
1925J. Riviere tr. Freud's Papers on Metapsychol. in Coll. Papers IV. 16 One mode of thought-activity was split off; it was kept free from reality-testing and remained subordinated to the pleasure-principle alone. 1953J. Strachey tr. Freud's Interpretation of Dreams II. in Coll. Works V. 566 In other words it becomes evident that there must be a means of ‘reality-testing’ (i.e. testing things to see whether they are real or not). 1955M. Laserowitz Struct. of Metaphysics ii. 72 These then contribute their psychic charge, which both intensifies our feeling of disquietude and weakens our reality-testing abilities. 1960L. Pincus Marriage i. 20 The more healthy process of reality-testing and reassimilation. 1974S. A. Renshon Psychol. Needs & Polit. Behav. iv. 44 The principle of adequate reality testing allows us to come to grips with this problem.
1923Reality-value [see image n. 5 a]. 1961Listener 23 Nov. 856/2 From the point of view of emancipation, as opposed that is to the point of view of truth or (as he called it) reality value, Freud was deeply affected by two considerations.
▸ reality-based adj. (a) founded on realistic thinking or the state of things as they actually are; (b) orig. U.S. (of a television programme) non-fictional, depicting a real event or situation, esp. either by filming the people involved at the time or using a reconstruction by actors; cf. reality television n., docusoap n.
1946Amer. Sociol. Rev. 11 348/2 The only true ‘classless’ society..has gradients of control and status... But these are *reality-based, functionally appropriate, and ethically unassailable. 1960L. Pincus Marriage i. 25 A challenge to move forward to fuller and more reality-based relations. 1988Contemp. Sociol. 17 822/1 A persistent theme..is that television ‘texts’, both reality-based and fictional, contain messages similar to those embedded in the myths and narratives of oral cultures. 1994D. Rushkoff Cyberia iii. xi. 147 In the safety of his cocooned emotional playground, Green Fire is free to take daring leaps into interdimensional zones that a parent, professional, or reality-based adult would not. 2000Sunday Herald (Glasgow) 27 Feb. 3/6 The morality of reality-based so-called ‘shockumentaries’.
▸ reality check n. orig. U.S. a reminder of the situation or state of things in the real world, esp. to dispel mistaken perceptions or unrealistic expectations; a corrective comparison with real life.
1935R. R. Willoughby in C. Murchison Handbk. Social Psychol. xii. 471 The ordinary checks, delays, and inhibitions imposed by objective reality... Among the implicit reactions we may distinguish two subdivisions, one in which the normally present criticism from the sense of reality is still present, but abeyant, and one in which this *reality-check is completely lapsed. 1960Jrnl. Educ. Sociol. 34 125 Passing through the educational system tended..to act as a reality check as to the plausibility of their occupational plans in relation to their educational plans. 1973H. L. Nieburg Culture Storm iii. 55 The need for a reality check provides the chief distinction between mental health and illness. 1995Briarpatch Mar. 32/1 Let's do a reality check. Over 90 percent of single mothers under the age of 25 live in poverty. 2000N.Y. Times 15 Oct. iv. 17/3 The attack in Yemen serves as a reality check... It reminds us that our power to project our values can be seen as a mortal threat to the values of others.
▸ reality checking n. the act or process of comparing an idea, opinion, etc., with related factual evidence, esp. to dispel misapprehensions; corrective comparison with external reality.
1953H. D. Sargent Insight Test ix.178 On the other hand the necessity for *reality checking shows how tenuous the patient feels this reality boundary to be. 1989Adweek (Nexis) 14 Aug. The most painful aspect of her job..is turning away..entrepreneurs whose ideas, while often brilliant, are unmarketable... We try to do a lot of reality checking before we make our decision. 1997Parenting Sept. 127/2 Get together with a group of friends and do some reality-checking over lunch.
▸ reality programming n. orig. U.S. = reality television n.
1962Public Opinion Q. 26 502 When the broadcaster presents fantasy, children attend by the millions, while parents and educators complain; when he presents *reality programming, the critics applaud but few children..watch. 1980Time 29 Sept. 83 He assumes that what interests him will interest his audience. This assumption should prove to be correct provided that the audience can forget the banality of That's Incredible!, Those Amazing Animals and the rest of what is mislabeled ‘reality programming’. 1998Guardian 12 Feb. ii. 7/3 It is called reality programming. Life soaps, popular documentary, factual entertainment.
▸ reality show n. orig. U.S. an artificial representation of reality; spec. a television programme that focuses on non-fictional subject matter, primarily with the aim of providing entertainment rather than information; cf. reality-based adj., reality television n.
1968H. S. Thompson Let. 18 Oct. in Fear & Loathing in Amer. (2000) 139 The inference that Kesey staged gang-rapes for journalistic tours..makes me wonder what sort of crippled *reality-show I'm contributing to by writing ‘journalism’. 1977Washington Post (Nexis) 4 Feb. b1 ‘American Bandstand's 25th Anniversary’, a two-hour ABC special..[is] not a reality show. Nor is it a history of pop music—a rock ‘Roots’. 1999Australian (Brisbane) 13 May (Media Suppl.) 20/2 ‘Reality shows’ are nothing more than the televisual equivalent of slowing down to get a better look at a car accident, tarted up as documentary. 2004Eve Dec. 80/3 Velvet-voiced Tony Hadley won ITV's reality show Reborn in the USA in 2003 and has just released his scathing Spandau-Ballet-bashing autobiography.
▸ reality television n. orig. U.S. television programmes that focus on non-fictional subject matter, primarily with the aim of providing entertainment rather than information; this style of programme regarded as a television genre; cf. reality-based adj., reality show n.
1978Newsweek (Nexis) 20 Mar. 71 The pilot episode shows a Washington, D.C., surgeon treating two severely burned children (one of whom dies) and, later, playing poker and driving his Jeep. ‘This will be *reality television’, promises NBC programing head Paul Klein. ‘No actors will ever be used.’ 1989Wall St. Jrnl. b1/5 Viewers will see Paramount's Tabloid, another entry in the hot genre of ‘reality television’. 1997Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 6 May 24/1 While it is a form of reality television, in that ordinary families filmed themselves in ‘real’ situations in their homes, Home Truths was not a project that grew organically. 2001Brill's Content Feb. 81/1 My obsession with reality television began when America's did: in the early nineties, with the debut of Cops, America's Most Wanted, and Rescue 911.
▸ reality TV n. orig. U.S. = reality television n.
1980Washington Post 20 Aug. B8/2 There are fresh episodes of its ‘*reality’ TV series..to whet viewers' appetites while everybody waits for the actors' strike to end. 1988Time (Electronic ed.) 16 May (heading) Fact vs. Fiction on ‘Reality TV’: New shows blur the line, raising ethics and aesthetics questions. 2000New Scientist 7 Oct. 45/2 Viewers get jaded very quickly and want to see reality TV that degrades and demeans participants—for their entertainment, like a modern-day Roman circus. |