| 释义 |
fermentation|fɜːmənˈteɪʃən|
[ad. L. fermentātiōn-em, n. of action f. ferment-āre to ferment.]
The action or process of fermenting.
1. A process of the nature of that resulting from the operation of leaven on dough or on saccharine liquids.
The features superficially recognizable in the process in these instances are an effervescence or internal commotion, with evolution of heat, in the substance operated on, and a resulting alteration of its properties. Before the rise of modern chemistry, the term was applied to all chemical changes exhibiting these characters; in Alchemy, it was the name of an internal change supposed to be produced in metals by a ‘ferment’, operating after the manner of leaven. In modern science the name is restricted to a definite class of chemical changes peculiar to organic compounds, and produced in them by the stimulus of a ‘ferment’ (see ferment n. 1); the various kinds of fermentation are distinguished by qualifying adjs., as acetous, alcoholic, butyric, lactic, putrefactive, etc. (see those words). In popular language the term is no longer applied to other kinds of change than those which it denotes in scientific use, but it usually conveys the notion of a sensible effervescence or ‘working’, which is not involved in the chemical sense.
a. in applications covered by the modern scientific sense.
1601Holland Pliny xxiii. vii. II. 170 Some used to put thereunto [the juice out of mulberries] myrrhe and cypresse, setting all to frie and take their fermentation in the sun. a1682Sir T. Browne Tracts (1684) 26 Made by hindring and keeping the must from fermentation or working. 1718Quincy Compl. Disp. 8 The second is the inflammable Spirit of Vegetable, and what is procured by the help of Fermentation. 1796C. Marshall Garden. xiii. (1813) 179 The dung of animals..is put together for fermentation. 1842A. Combe Physiol. Digestion (ed. 4) 110 Others..contended, that chymification results from simple fermentation of the alimentary mass. 1874M. C. Cooke Fungi 3 These cells are capable of producing fermentation in certain liquids.
†b. in Alchemy. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 264 Oure cementynge and fermentacioun. 1471Ripley Comp. Alch. ix. in Ashm. (1652) 173 Trew Fermentacyon few Workers do understond. 1599Thynne Animadv. (1875) 32 Fermentacione ys a peculier terme of Alchymye. 1610B. Jonson Alch. i. i, Because o' your fermentation, and cibation.
†c. in various other vague applications. Obs.
a1661Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 91 Others impute the heat..to the fermentation of several minerals. 1671Grew Anat. Plants i. i. §30 (1682) 6 The General Cause of the growth of a..Seed, is Fermentation. 1678State Trials, Earl of Pembroke (1810) 1341 Claret, and..small-beer..set the blood upon a fermentation. 1707Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 67 An acid Salt mingles it self with an Alkali: from which Mixture results a Fermentation, and very sensible Heat. 1728–46Thomson Spring 569 The torpid sap..in fluent dance, And lively fermentation, mounting. 1794R. J. Sulivan View Nat. I. 69 As soon as our continents were thus delivered from the waters, the fermentations..ceased.
†d. Iron-smelting: see quot. Obs.
1791Beddoes in Phil. Trans. LXXXI. 174 The hottest part of the mass begins to heave and swell..The workman calls this appearance fermentation.
2. fig. The state of being excited by emotion or passion; agitation, excitement, working. Sometimes (with more complete metaphor): A state of agitation tending to bring about a purer, more wholesome, or more stable condition of things.
c1660J. Gibbon in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. cxix. 9 A young man..in the highest fermentation of his youthful lusts. 1682Earl of Anglesey State Govt. in Somers Tracts II. 196 Predicting..the happy, future State of our Country; and that the then Fermentation would be perfective to it. 1752Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. 288 The minds of men being once..put into a fermentation. 1845S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. II. 161 Whether in such a state of fermentation, they would wait patiently. 1859Mill Liberty ii. 61 In the intellectual fermentation of Germany, etc. |