| 释义 |
agitator|ˈædʒɪteɪtə(r)|
[a. L. agitātor, n. of agent, f. agitā-re: see agitate a. and -or.]
One who agitates. Specially:—
†1. Eng. Hist. An agent, one who acts for others (see agitate v. 5); a name given to the agents or delegates of the private soldiers in the Parliamentary Army 1647–9; in which use it varied with adjutator. Obs.
(Careful investigation satisfies me that Agitator was the actual title, and Adjutator originally only a bad spelling of soldiers familiar with Adjutants and the Adjutors of 1642. Adjutator has naturally seemed more plausible to recent writers unfamiliar with this old sense of ‘agitate,’ and the functions of the Agitators of 1647. J.A.H.M.)
1647(June 4) Two Lett. of Sir T. Fairfax to both Houses of Parlt., with the Advice of the Council of Warre..also the Petition of the private Souldierie of the Army..presented..by their severall Adjutators. [Signed] Edward Saxby, Edward Taylor, Adjutators of the Generals Regime[nt] of Horse, etc., etc. 1647(June 5) Solemn Engagement of the Army [Official paper printed under auth. of Gen. Fairfax] Upon a late Petition to the General from the Agitators in behalf of the soldiery. 1647(June 11) in Rushw. Coll. (1721) VI. xv. 556 The Agitators on the behalf of the Soldiers press'd to have the Question put. [So always in Rushw.] 1647Evelyn Mem. (1857) III. 6 The agitators are for certain reconciled with the army. 1650Fuller Pisgah Sight ii. xii. 250 Devills then dancing for joy, where once Angels (those holy Agitators) went up and down betwixt heaven and earth. c1650Sir T. Herbert Mem. (T.) Active and malevolent persons of the army, disguised under the specious name of agitators, being two selected out of every regiment, to meet and debate the concerns of the army. a1671Fairfax Short Mem. (1699) 207 Now the Officers of the Army were plac'd and displac'd at the will of the new Agitators. [So always in F.] a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. III. x. 33 The common soldiers made choice of three or four of each Regiment, most Corporals or Serjeants, few or none above the degree of an Ensign, who were called Agitators, and were to be as a House of Commons to the Council of Officers. [So always in Cl.] 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. x. 210 Those elective tribunes called Agitators, who had been established in every regiment to superintend the interests of the army (Note to Agitator: Some have supposed it to be a corruption of adjutator, as if the modern adjutant meant the same thing. But I find it always so spelled in the pamphlets of the time.)
2. One who keeps up a political agitation. After the Bolshevik Revolution freq. applied spec. to Communist agitators.
a1734R. North Examen (1740) i. iii. 195 The visible Agitators of all the Seditions and Troubles of King Charles the Second's Reign. 1780Burke Durat. Parl. (T.) Some leading man, some agitator. 1791T. Newte Tour in Eng. & Scot. 4 Talked of by certain political reformers and other agitators. 1828Ann. Reg. 123/1 Starting against him [Fitzgerald] their own great popish leader and agitator, Daniel O'Connell. 1852Emily Tennyson in Rev. Eng. Stud. (1964) XV. 402 Do not speak of him as an ‘agitator’... The word has come to have so evil a meaning, a sort of hysterical lady meaning if nothing worse. 1853Encycl. Brit. II. 240 The great agitator, Daniel O'Connell, was able to stir up the mass of the Irish nation. 1876Bancroft Hist. U.S. III. xvii. 261 He was by nature an agitator, and carried into the cabinet restless activity and the arts of cabal. 1920Independent 31 Jan. 161/1 Bolshevik Representative Klishke—‘Soviet Russia will not allow itself to be used as a dumping ground for agitators from America.’ 1931New Statesman 4 July 4/1 Mr. Winston Churchill, the notorious British agitator (we adopt the phraseology of the Morning Post when describing M. Bukharin and other distinguished Russians now in this country) has now decided that disarmament is impossible, because of the menace of Russia. 1934T. S. Eliot Rock i. 31 On the fore-stage, an agitator is addressing a tattered crowd. 1938Auden & Isherwood On the Frontier i. ii. p. 46 Col. Hussek. Tcha! Another lightning strike at the Docks!.. Mrs. Vrodny. I'm sure it's only due to Westland agitators. 1959Observer 29 Mar. 11/4 Mrs. Nora Jefferey said at the British Communist Party congress..that the Communist aim should be: Every member a propagandist and agitator.
3. An apparatus for shaking or mixing. In various techn. uses.
1809J. Dickinson Brit. Pat. 3191, Machinery for Making and Cutting Paper. Ibid. 7, B is an agitator consisting of a number of arms..and this being turned..keeps the stuff in motion. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 72 The agitator is then suspended to a spring R, and..the operator gives an alternating rapid movement, which agitates the solution. 1871B. Stewart Heat 51 By means of an agitator every part of this tube..may be brought to the same temperature throughout. 1937Times 13 Apr. xiii/4 The paint on arrival from the manufacturers is subjected to what is termed ‘agitating’ or mixing. When it enters the containers it meets two more agitators, one at the top and one at the bottom of the container. 1958Ibid. 2 June ix/5 Gas is used to boil the clothes and an electric agitator helps with the washing. 1958Listener 19 June 1006/2 Mechanical equipment such as valves, pumps, centrifuges and agitators in the radioactive section. |