| 释义 |
formula|ˈfɔːmjʊlə|
Pl. formulæ, -as.
[a. L. formula, dim. of forma form n. Cf. F. formule.]
1. a. A set form of words in which something is defined, stated, or declared, or which is prescribed by authority or custom to be used on some ceremonial occasion.
[1581E. Campion in Confer. iv. (1584) Ee ij b, The Formula of the second covenant, is Christ. Charke. You vnderstand not..what Formula is.] a1638Mede Wks. (1672) i. xxii. 83 What is the meaning of this Formula [of the Jews—‘Let his memory be blessed’]? 1685Lond. Gaz. No. 2031/2 The Lord Register reading the Formula, the Lyon King at Arms..Fenced the High Court of Parliament. 1723Act 9 Geo. I, c. 24 §8 All Papists..shall..make and subscribe the Declaration called the Formula, as the same is recited in an Act of Parliament of Scotland [of 1700]. 1752J. Louthian Form of Process (ed. 2) 51 Before inclosing of the Assize, the Clerk, by Order of the Court, leaves a Formula with them for their Direction. 1792Burke Let. to Sir H. Langrishe Wks. 1842 I. 555 You have sent me several papers..I think I had seen all of them, except the formula of association. 1798Edgeworth Pract. Educ. (1811) II. 23 The grammatical formulæ may then by gentle degrees be committed to memory. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 318 Forcing the Brahmins..to repeat the Mohammedan formula of faith. 1892Speaker 3 Sept. 293/2 The excellent scholastic formula Transeat, meaning either ‘Not proven’, or ‘Nothing to the purpose’.
b. In recent use, after Carlyle, often applied more or less disparagingly, e.g. to rules unintelligently or slavishly followed, to fettering conventionalities of usage, to beliefs held or professed out of mere acquiescence in tradition, etc.
Carlyle's use of the word was clearly suggested by the words used of Mirabeau by his father, ‘Il a humé toutes les formules’. This really meant that M. had unreflectingly ‘swallowed’ the watchwords, or cant phrases of his revolutionary friends; but Carlyle mistranslated humé by ‘swallowed up, made away with’, and frequently alludes to the passage as thus misinterpreted. Carlyle's use of formula, however, though suggested by a mistake, is in itself a very natural development from the ordinary sense.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. ii. i. (1872) 58 Man lives not except with formulas; with customs, ways of doing and living. 1861Kingsley Lett. (1878) II. 132 Men who try to speak what they believe, are naked men fighting men quilted sevenfold in formulae. 1871Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue §649 The man of formulas often directs, and sometimes practically determines the action of his superior. 1874H. R. Reynolds John Bapt. iv. iv. 252 They bound the religious life of their disciples with ever stiffening formulæ which left no room for the free play of the conscience.
c. A form of words serving to reconcile different aims, opinions, or points of view.
1905Asquith in Westm. Gaz. 9 Oct. 2/3 The recovery of freedom of negotiation, the reloading of the big revolver, the summoning of an open conference, and all the other temporising formulæ of the Balfourian school. 1928Galsworthy Swan Song I. i. 5 We shall sit and glower at each other, and use the word ‘formula’ at stated intervals. 1940Wodehouse Quick Service i. 18 It was plain that this girl and he were poles apart and could never hope to find a formula. 1971A. Bullock 20th Cent. 51/1 At the Yalta Conference (February 1945) verbal formulae were found to disguise growing differences between the Russians and the Anglo-Americans.
d. Literary Criticism. In various technical and semi-technical uses (see quots.).
1888A. S. Cook Judith p. lii, Rime and various forms of assonance are occasionally employed by Old English poets, sometimes for the purpose of uniting more closely the two halves of the same line,..rarely in formulas or compounds within the same hemistich. 1903L. F. Anderson Anglo-Saxon Scop 39 Grein gives four examples of the occurrence of the formula [‘singan and secgan’] in Anglo-Saxon. 1921B. Tarkington Let. 26 Mar. (1959) 49 The formulas that have prevailed are now all familiar to the audience. 1932M. Parry in Harvard Stud. Class. Philol. XLIII. 8 Each idea to be expressed in the poetry has its formula for each metrical need. 1934H. J. Rose Handbk. Gk. Lit. ii. 31 There are embedded in it [sc. the style of Homer] many formulae, epithets and turns of expression which strongly indicate..the existence of an age of balladry before the date of the epics. 1935A. C. Bartlett Larger Rhet. Patterns Anglo-Saxon Poetry 91 Although not every Anglo-Saxon poem has a formal introductory passage, there is a type of opening sentence which occurs so often as to allow its being called a formula. 1953Speculum XXVIII. 446 The unlettered singer ordinarily composing rapidly and extempore before a live audience, must and does call upon ready-made language, upon a vast reservoir of formulas filling just measures of verse. 1958T. B. L. Webster From Mycenae to Homer iii. 89 Homer preserves much of this manner [sc. of second-millennium poetry] in his noun-epithet formulae, typical scenes, formulae for opening and closing of speeches, refrain lines, etc. 1965M. Hodgart Faber Bk. Ballads 14 A formula is a theme expressed in identical or almost identical words and metre. 1967C. L. Wrenn Study of O.E. Lit. iii. 47 Andreas, a heroic hagiographical poem of the early ninth century, begins with exactly the same exordial formula..as does Beowulf. 1971English Studies LII. 350, I..fail to see why syntactic, idiomatic and even single semantic units must be called ‘formulas’ because they occur in OE poetry.
2. A prescription or detailed statement of ingredients; a recipe.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Formula..a Physician's Prescription or Bill appointing Medicines to be prepared by an Apothecary. 1792W. Yonge in Beddoes Calculus (1793) 34, I am very glad to hear of your intention to publish your formula. 1801Med. Jrnl. V. 546 My formula has been, the tincture joined with the dec. lin. so as to administer from fifteen to twenty or thirty drops to children..twice or thrice within the twenty-four hours. 1830M. Donovan Dom. Econ. I. 293 White Currant Wine May be made according to the same formula.
3. a. Math. A rule or principle expressed in algebraic symbols.
1796Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. Pref. 6 An algebraic formula. 1836Emerson Nature, Idealism Wks. (Bohn) II. 163 In physics..the memory..carries centuries of observation in a single formula. 1850Daubeny Atomic Theory v. (ed. 2) 156 A general formula for calculating the specific heat of each class of compounds. 1864Bowen Logic i. 25 The algebraist easily recalls to mind a few brief formulas.
b. Chem. An expression of the constituents of a compound by means of symbols and figures.
1846G. E. Day tr. Simon's Anim. Chem. II. 480 If..the formulæ for the morbid deposits are calculated in relation to C48, their connexion with the formula for protein will be more obvious to the eye. 1853W. Gregory Inorg. Chem. (ed. 3) 266 So that MR is the general formula for a mono⁓basic salt. 1881Williamson in Nature No. 618. 414 Thus chloro-carbonic acid was represented as a compound of carbonic acid with carbonic chloride, and..the formula was made to contain the formulæ of those bodies.
c. In general scientific use, a group of symbols and figures containing a condensed tabulation of certain facts. dental formula: see dental. Hence sometimes used for the set of facts that might be expressed by a formula.
1855Bain Senses & Int. ii. iv. §9 Each species of animal has its particular formula of ordering the legs in walking.
4. Motor Racing. The class or specification of a racing car, usu. expressed in terms of engine capacity. Also attrib.
1927Autocar 20 May 850/2 Half an hour later we knew for certain that we had won the race on formula. 1939Motor Sport June 181/1 Last year..Indianapolis was run under the Grand Prix formula laid down by the A.I.A.C.R., specifying engine limits of 3-litres supercharged and 4½-litres unsupercharged. 1958Times 31 Oct. 15/4 There is little doubt that the new Grand Prix formula recommended by the C.S.I. will be accepted by the F.I.A. at their next meeting. 1965Listener 3 June 841/1 This was the weekend of the Monaco Grand Prix, when the faded Edwardian pensions seemed stunned and shaken by the noise of Formula One racing engines.
▸ orig. U.S. A drink given to infants as an alternative to breast milk, typically based on cow's milk or soya and now usually sold as a powder to be reconstituted with water.
1901Harper's Bazaar 9 Mar. 658/2 [The milk] is brought to me warm directly from the cow when I am ready to prepare the child's food. Is it really necessary to cool it before making up the formula? 1933H. Washburn So you're going to have Baby v. 83 You will learn to mix the formula as rapidly as possible before the nine or ten o'clock morning feeding. 1981Sci. Amer. Aug. 52/1 The code..limits the advertising of formula as a substitute for breast-feeding. 1996New Idea June 76/3 Formula will always be available and generations of little Aussies have been raised on it and are doing quite nicely. |