| 释义 |
ˈfoliot
[? a. OF. foliot.
The OF. word is recorded only as meaning watch-spring; but according to Hatz.-Darm. it is derived from the vb. folier to play the fool, to dance about, and so may have had other meanings related to this vb. Cf. the surname Foliot, known from 12th c. in Eng. How Burton obtained the word there is nothing to show; he evidently connects it with It. folletto, = F. (esprit) follet, hobgoblin, properly a dim. of fol foolish. Can it be a misprint for follet?]
†1. ? Foolish matter. Obs. rare.
a1250Owl & Night. 866 Ne singe ih hom no foliot.
†2. A kind of goblin. Obs. rare.
1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. i. ii, Another sort of these [devils] there are, which frequent forlorn houses, which the Italians call foliots. [He refers to Cardano De rerum var. xvi. (1581) 1123 Dæmon est familiaris, uocant folletos.]
3. [Fr., 14th cent.: see etym. note.] A type of clock escapement consisting of a bar with adjustable weights on the ends. (Disused.)
1899F. J. Britten Old Clocks & Watches 23 Froissart has left a descriptive eulogium of a clock, written in 1370... In this the controlling medium is referred to as a ‘foliot’, which was doubtless the straight armed balance with weights. 1948A. L. Kroeber Anthropol. (ed. 2) xi. 453 The first clock escapements, large and heavy, were of the type called ‘foliot balance and verge escape’. 1958New Scientist 11 Dec. 1481/1 (caption) The Dover Castle clock, showing the verge-and-foliot escapement. 1962E. Bruton Dict. Clocks 152 Many years ago it had been converted to pendulum. In 1956 it was restored to foliot..and set going again inside the cathedral. |