| 释义 |
frigidity|frɪˈdʒɪdɪtɪ|
[a. F. frigidité, ad. L. frīgiditāt-em, f. frīgidus: see frigid and -ity.]
1. a. The state or condition of being frigid; intense coldness.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. iv. 124 And in frigiditie [L. locis frigidis] Of seed and bayes make the semynary. 1630J. Taylor (Water P.) Fight at Sea Wks. iii. 37 Neither the parching heat of Lybia..or the benumming frigiditie of Groenland. 1659D. Pell Impr. Sea 274 There is such an intolerable frigidity in some parts under the Poles, as that they cannot bee discovered. 1795Gentl. Mag. 539/2 It had seemed probable that the intense frigidity of the winter would have destroyed the animalculæ.
b. In old Physiology: The quality of being frigid or producing frigidness: = coldness 1 b.
1574Newton Health Mag. 44 The great frigiditie and coldnesse of it [Purselayne]..maye be tempered and qualefied with Minte. 1610Healey St. Aug. Citie of God 438 Our Astronomicall divines say that Saturns frigidity proceedeth from these waters. 1634T. Johnson Parey's Chirurg. xxvi. vii. (1678) 633 If to the same frigidity remaining in Fruits, a certain humidity accrew. 1750tr. Leonardus' Mirr. Stones 100 As it is of an exceeding cold nature, it does, with its frigidity, convert the air..into water.
c. Lack of natural heat or warmth (of the body).
1631Gouge God's Arrows ii. i. 131 Before David died, such frigidity fell upon him, as with cloathes they could not keepe him warme. 1665Glanvill Scepsis Sci. xiv. 82 The frigidity of decrepit Age is as much its enemy.
2. transf. Want of generative heat; impotence. Now usu. lack of sexual response in a woman.
1586J. Ferne Blaz. Gentrie ii. 58 His 1. wife..was deuorced from him for cause of frigiditye. c1645Howell Lett. (1650) I. 4 His articulate lady, called so, for articling against the frigidity and impotence of her former Lord. 1645Milton Colast. Wks. 1738 I. 299 Why are we suffered to divorce Adulteries, Desertions, or Frigidities? 1658Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 992 Forasmuch as Eunuchs..make most noise and greater than young persons that are more hot, therefore frigidity cannot be the cause. 1897H. Ellis Stud. Psychol. Sex I. v. 113 The lad in this case..has recently consulted me for impotentia coeundi, manifesting a frigidity for women. 1903Ibid. III. 162 In dealing with the characteristics of the sexual impulse in women..we have also to consider the prevalence of frigidity, or sexual anæsthesia. 1963A. Heron Towards Quaker View of Sex 65 But ‘frigidity’..implies more than failure to have orgasm: it is the inability to enjoy love⁓making and penetration. 1970N. & Q. Dec. 450/2 This relation between sexual frigidity and wrath does not seem to occur in the standard popular treatments of the Sins.
3. fig.
a. Want of warmth of feeling or enthusiasm; apathy, coldness, indifference.
a1631Donne in Select. (1840) 220 This heat may ouercome my former frigidity and coldness. 1771Johnson Lett. to Mrs. Thrale 20 July, I dare neither write with frigidity nor with fire. 1841Myers Cath. Th. iii. xlv. 173 There is need that the frigidity of the Scholar be exchanged for the genial nature of the dweller in the open sunshine of heaven. 1860Holland Miss Gilbert xvii. 318 ‘She is not, sir’, replied Fanny with excessive frigidity. 1870Emerson Soc. & Solit., Success Wks. (Bohn) III. 128, I seek one who shall make me forget or overcome the frigidities..into which I fall.
b. Lack of imagination; deficiency in fire or spirit; flatness, insipidity; also quasi-concr.
1642Milton Apol. Smect. vi. 33 Having begun loftily..he falls downe to that wretched poorenesse and frigidity as to talke of Bridge street in heav'n. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. ix. 37 Driving at these as at the highest elegancies, which are but the frigidities of wit. 1763Fordyce in Four C. Eng. Lett. 286 The polite frigidity of the French drama. 1846Hawthorne Mosses i. i. 17 The frigidity of modern productions was characteristic. |