| 释义 |
rectitude|ˈrɛktɪtjuːd|
[a. F. rectitude (Oresme, 14th c.), ad. late L. rectitūdo, f. rect-us: see rect a. and -tude.]
1. The quality or fact of being straight; straightness. Now rare or Obs.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 213 Equalite of complexion was in hit,..rectitude of stature, and pulcritude of figure. 1578Banister Hist. Man iv. 47 Perfect sight is had of nothing..but the rectitude of the apple of the eye. 1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. ii. 153 That which is straight shews at once both its owne rectitude, and the crookedness of the contrary. 1685Boyle Enq. Notion Nat. vi. 203 If with your Hand you force it a little from its Rectitude, as soon as you remove your Hand, it will endeavour to regain its former straightness. 1729G. Shelvocke Artillery iv. 199 These Slips..will by their own natural Spring and Energy recover their Rectitude when left at liberty.
fig.a1687Petty Pol. Arith. v. (1691) 94 And perhaps [these impediments] are but the warpings of time, from the rectitude of the first Institution.
b. Straight line; direction in a straight line.
1578Banister Hist. Man i. 36 The first part of the heele..departyng wholly from the straight lyne, or rectitude of Tibia. 1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 7/2 The Chirurgiane..searchinge for him [the bullet] accordinge to the rectitude of the wounde. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 179 When the spine is in rectitude with the thigh. 1758J. S. Le Dran's Observ. Surg. (1771) 49, I resolved to make another Aperture,..following the Rectitude of the Fibres. 1867Howells Ital. Journ. iii. 23 One may walk long through the longitude and rectitude of many of her streets.
2. Moral straightness or uprightness; goodness, integrity; virtue, righteousness.
a1533Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1559) H h ij b, By the rectitude of his iustice. 1633Prynne 1st Pt. Histrio-m. vii. iii. 593/2 The obscene jests of Stage-players and other vanities, which are wont to soften a Christian soule from the rigour of its rectitude and uprightnesse. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ iii. ii. §7 Goodness..imports the necessary rectitude of the Divine Nature. 1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. i. iii. iii. 55 There is no..Rectitude, Piety or Sanctity in a Creature thus reform'd. 1771Burke Lett., to R. Shackleton (1844) I. 254 A man of singular piety, rectitude, and virtue. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. v. (1858) I. 459 The king was assured of the rectitude of the motives on which he had himself acted. 1879Farrar St. Paul I. 269 In the decision of momentous questions rectitude of heart is a far surer guarantee of wisdom than power of intellect.
3. Correctness of the (intellectual or artistic) judgement, or of its conclusions.
1651Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxvii. 158 Private Iudgement..according to the rectitude, or errour thereof [etc.] 1756Burke Subl. & B. Introd., A rectitude of judgment in the arts, which may be called a good taste. 1809Syd. Smith Wks. (1867) I. 182 There is something extremely contagious in greatness and rectitude of thinking. a1871Grote Eth. Fragm. i. (1876) 22 Without the possibility of any standard for distinguishing fallacy from rectitude.
4. Correctness of nature, procedure, or application. Also with pl., an instance of this.
1656Stanley Hist. Philos. v. (1701) 183/1 The rectitude of names is by a certain imposition not temerarious or casual, but seemingly to follow the nature of the things themselves. 1691Hartcliffe Virtues 291 That universal Rectitude of all the faculties of the Soul, by which they stand apt and disposed to their receptive Offices and Operations. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. ix. §6 (1819) 117 They perceive a result, but they think little of the multitude of concurrences and rectitudes which go to form it.
†5. A right. Obs. rare—1.
1660R. Coke Power & Subj. 190 If any man by force holds the Rectitudes of God [etc.].
Hence rectitudiˈnarian, one who practises rectitude in conduct; rectiˈtudinous a., characterized by rectitude or self-righteousness; also as n.
1671True Nonconf. 308, I heartily pray the Lord, to make all of you, indeed, rectitudinarians. 1897Westm. Gaz. 26 Jan. 2/1 Notoriously and unctuously rectitudinous. 1906F. S. Oliver Alexander Hamilton v. ii. 381 The rectitudinous inquisition that is enjoyed under the freedom of the press. 1966‘W. Cooper’ Mem. New Man i. ii. 27 We were both wearing soberly rectitudinous dark clothes. 1978N.Y. Rev. Bks. 18 May 23/1 It is not so much an appetite for hypocrisy as for the sententious and rectitudinous—for ‘expressin' right’—that is a vital impulse in the American folk character. |