| 释义 |
fatuity|fəˈtjuːɪtɪ|
[ad. F. fatuité = Pr. fatuitat, ad. L. fatuitātem, f. fatuus foolish.]
1. Folly, silliness, stupidity. Now chiefly (? after 2) in stronger sense: Crass stupidity, ‘idiotic’ folly; mental blindness caused by ‘infatuation’.
The F. word, being associated with its etymological cognate fat fop, has usually the sense of ‘conceited folly, silly affectation’; this sense, if it occurs in Eng., is only a Gallicism.
1648Eikon Bas. v. 28 It had argued..extream fatuitie of minde in Mee, so far to binde My own hands at their request. 1660Waterhouse Arms & Arm. 53 They descend to the fatuity of bringing wild beasts into their Gods and Emperours places. 1797Mrs. Radcliffe Italian xxiii. (1824) 660 He confounded delicacy of feeling with fatuity of mind. 1812H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr. x. (1873) 93 The applause of unintellectual fatuity. 1859Thackeray Virgin. lxxxv, O strange fatuity of youth! 1878Lecky Eng. in 18th C. I. i. 10 Attacked with a strange fatuity the very Church on whose teaching the monarchical enthusiasm mainly rested.
b. Something fatuous; that which is fatuous.
1538Bale Thre Lawes 1386 In vayne worshyp they teachynge mennys fatuyte. 1887F. Hall in Nation (N.Y.) XLIV. 141/2 Star-gazing..and kindred futilities and fatuities.
2. Idiocy, mental imbecility, dementia. Now rare.
1621–51Burton Anat. Mel. i. i. iii. iii. 34 If..the animal spirits are..cold, [follows] fatuity and sottishness. a1676Hale Hist. Placit. Cor. (1736) I. iv. 29 Ideocy or fatuity à nativitate. 1707Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 93 The Ancients imputed Fatuity to the Refrigeration of the Head. 1748Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. 391 A species of Madness; as Fatuity or Idiotism is. 1779Johnson Lett. Mrs. Thrale 6 Apr., Death is dreadful, and fatuity is more dreadful. 1797M. Baillie Morb. Anat. (1807) 434 He has met with this appearance in cases of fatuity. 1884in Syd. Soc. Lex. |