| 释义 |
tonic, a. and n.|ˈtɒnɪk|
[ad. Gr. τονικ-ός of or for stretching, f. τόν-ος: see tone n. Cf. mod.L. tonicus, F. tonique (16th c. in Godef. Compl.).]
A. adj.
1. Phys. and Path.
a. Pertaining to, consisting in, or producing tension: esp. in relation to the muscles.
tonic contraction, continuous muscular contraction without relaxation. tonic convulsion or tonic spasm, one characterized by such contraction (opp. to clonic). † tonic motion, a former term for a state of continuous tension in the muscles such as that which keeps the body erect (cf. quot. 1646 s.v. tonical 1).
1649Bulwer Pathomyot. ii. i. 83 Action without motion of the Muscle, is called a Tonique motion. 1666J. Smith Old Age (1676) 62 They [muscles] can perform adduction, abduction; flexion, extension; pronation, supination, the Tonick motion, circumgiration. 1756P. Browne Jamaica 381 Of worms or insects that have no solid props within themselves, but perform all their weakly motions by a mere tonic or muscular power. 1799Med. Jrnl. II. 340 The increased tonic motion of the vessels which the Stahlians..considered as the efficient cause of inflammation. 1830R. Knox Béclard's Anat. 135 Motions of tonic contraction, augmented in many places by the action of the elastic tissue. 1834J. Forbes Laennec's Dis. Chest (ed. 4) 375 We cannot regard the tonic spasm of the bronchi, or even perhaps of the air-cells, as impossible; since every muscle is susceptible of spasm. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 351 Tonic or clonic convulsions sometimes occur [in positive hæmorrhage].
b. Pertaining to, or maintaining, the tone or normal healthy condition of the tissues or organs (cf. tone n. 7). See also 2.
1684T. Burnet Th. Earth i. 207 The tone or tonick disposition of the organs whereby they perform their several functions. 1813J. Thomson Lect. Inflam. 65 Stahl's ideas respecting the tonic or vital action of the capillary vessels. 1855H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1873) I. i. v. 93 This pervading activity of the muscles is called their tonic state.
2. Med., etc. Having the property of increasing or restoring the tone or healthy condition and activity of the system or organs; strengthening, invigorating, bracing. (Of remedies or remedial treatment, and hence of air, climate, etc.) Also tonic water, a non-alcoholic carbonated drink containing quinine or another bitter as a stimulant of appetite and digestion; a drink or glass of this; tonic wine, weak, flavoured wine sold as a medicinal tonic.
1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 205 Their vapor..is found to be more tonic. 1800Med. Jrnl. IV. 160 A long course of steel, in conjunction with tonic bitters. 1867A. J. Wilson Vashti xxiv, Be sure she takes that tonic mixture three times a day. 1885G. Meredith Diana v, She spoke of the weather—frosty, but tonic. 1899Graphic 11 Mar. 320/1 (Advt.), His Holiness the Pope writes that he has fully appreciated the beneficent effects of this Tonic Wine. 1926Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 6 July 9/6 (Advt.), Schweppes famous British table waters. Soda water,..ginger beer, tonic water. 1958S. Hyland Who goes Hang? xi. 53 ‘What will there be to draft?’ asked Mrs. Kimmis..over the top of a tonic water. 1970G. Greer Female Eunuch 276 Perhaps she can try a glass or two of tonic wine? More likely her G.P. will..prescribe a happiness pill. 1982G. F. Newman Men with Guns x. 74 He drank gin swamped with Indian tonic water.
fig.1848Kingsley Saint's Trag. ii. ix, God brings thee The tonic cup I feared to mix. 1867H. Latham Black & White p. viii, One great benefit to be derived from a visit to America is its tonic effect upon the mind.
3. Mus.
a. Formerly applied to the key-note of a composition (tonic note), now called simply tonic (see B. 2); now (attrib. use of B. 2), Pertaining to or founded upon the tonic or key-note: as tonic chord, a chord having the tonic for its root; tonic pedal, the key-note sustained as a pedal (n. 4).
1760Stiles in Phil. Trans. LI. 773 Two modes with the same tonic note, the one neither acuter nor graver than the other, make no part of the old system of modes. 1867Macfarren Harmony (1892) 56 A tonic pedal..has the effect of confirming the conclusion indicated by a perfect cadence. 1880Stainer Composition §14 The third degree of the scale can form a portion of a tonic chord, or chord of the relative minor.
b. Tonic Sol-fa: name of a system of teaching music, esp. vocal music, introduced by the Rev. John Curwen about 1850, in which the seven notes of the ordinary major scale in any key are sung to syllables written doh, ray, me, fah, soh, lah, te (modifications of the older do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si: see these words and gamut), and indicated in the notation by the initials d, r, m, etc.; doh always denoting the tonic or key-note, and the remaining syllables indicating the relation to it of the other notes of the scale. Chiefly attrib. Hence Tonic Sol-faist |-fɑːɪst|, one who advocates or uses the Tonic Sol-fa system.
1852J. Curwen (title) Pupils' Manual of the Tonic Sol-Fa Method of teaching to sing; and the Tonic Sol-Fa School Music. 1883American VI. 174 At the annual meeting in London..of the Tonic Sol-Fa College.
1881Broadhouse Mus. Acoustics 372 We agree most cordially with our friends the tonic sol-faists. 1895Daily News 30 Dec. 5/2 So many of the Welsh are Tonic Solfaists.
4. a. Pertaining to musical tone or quality.
1795Mason Ch. Mus. i. 42 This solemn instrument [the organ]... In point of tonic power, I presume, it will be allowed preferable to all others.
b. Pertaining or relating to tone or accent in speech; indicating the tone or accent of spoken words or syllables; characterized by distinctions of tone or accent. tonic accent (= F. accent tonique), the stress-accent of a word.
1849Jrnl. Indian Archipelago III. 668 The influence of this habit of the tonic languages is still largely impressed on their Malay-Polynesian and Turonian descendants and congeners. 1859S. W. Williams (title) A Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese language in the Canton dialect. 1867Howells Ital. Journ. 72 In their divine language, and with that ineffable tonic accent which no foreigner perfectly acquires. 1868Max Müller Stratif. Lang. 42 The Thibetan is..tonic and monosyllabic. 1894A. H. Keane in Church Mission. Intell. Oct. 723 Thus the monosyllable pa will be toned in six or more different ways to represent so many original dissyllables, pada, pake, pana, pasa, pata..and some of the Chinese and Shan dialects have..as many as ten or twelve such tones... Hence these languages are now called isolating and tonic rather than isolating and monosyllabic. 1896― Ethnol. xii. 324 A far more important feature than the length of the words is their tonic utterance.
B. n.
1. a. Med. A tonic medicine, application, or agent.
[1693tr. Blancard's Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Tonica, those things which being externally applied to, and rubb'd into the Limbs, strengthen the Nerves and Tendons.] 1799Med. Jrnl. II. 116 When..the hectic symptoms were subdued, and only weakness remained, tonics completed the cure. 1875H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 54 Substances..which, when taken internally, act upon the nutrition of the various tissues so as to restore lost tone... Such substances are known as tonics. 1897Badminton Mag. IV. 380 My hair tonic costs eight-and-sixpence a bottle.
b. fig. An invigorating or bracing influence.
1840Clough Early Poems i. 8 The tonic of a wholesome pride. 1868Farrar Silence & V. viii. (1875) 136 It is the strongest of moral tonics.
c. Tonic water.
1935,1949[see gin and tonic s.v. gin n.2 2 a]. 1972M. J. Bosse Incident at Naha ii. 108 We all had vodka and tonics.
2. Mus.
a. = key-note n. 1.
tonic major or tonic minor: that key (major or minor) which has the same key-note as a given key (minor or major).
1806J. W. Callcott Mus. Gram. ii. iv. 131 The Tonic Minor must have in its Signature another flat. 1889E. Prout Harmony i. §12 The first note of the scale is called the Tonic, or Key-note. This is the note which gives its name to the scale and key.
b. The principal key of a musical composition or passage; the home key.
1896G. Grove Beethoven & his Nine Symphonies 8 The Coda which closes the first movement, after repeating in the tonic the phrase already quoted as No. 5, combines the wind instrument passage with the first subject. 1923E. Evans Beethoven's Nine Symphonies I. 177 At the third portion we have a new treatment of the first part of the same subject..leading to a triumphant cadence in C as tonic. 1961A. Hopkins Talking about Symphonies i. 20 The key you start in is called the ‘Tonic’. 1979D. R. Hofstadter Gödel, Escher, Bach v. 130 With the inversion of the theme for our melody, we begin in D as if that had always been the tonic—but we modulate back to G after all, which means that we pop back into the tonic, and the B-section ends properly.
Hence ˈtonic v., trans. to act as a tonic upon, to invigorate, ‘brace up’; to administer a tonic to; whence ˈtonicking vbl. n.
1825New Monthly Mag. XV. 199/1 It tonicked the sedentary stomach into unwonted vigour. 1889Mrs. C. Praed Romance Station 126 She needed..tonicking;..her blood didn't nourish her brain properly.
Add:[B.] [2.] c. Phonetics. The syllable of a tone-group which carries the primary accent; = nucleus n. 12 a.
1962A. C. Gimson Introd. Pronunc. Eng. vii. 141 The first column..shows vowels in a place more than one syllable removed from the tonic. 1964M. A. K. Halliday et al. Linguistic Sci. ii. 46 The foreign visitor who wants a ticket to ‘Oxford Street’ or ‘Tottenham Court Road’ must get the tonic in the right place. 1977[see tone-group s.v. tone n. 11]. 1981Language & Speech XXIV. 9 When the information focus is realized on a contrasted element, or a ‘new’ element that is not recoverable from the preceding discourse, the information focus is consistently identified as the tonic of the utterance. |