| 释义 |
helpmeet|ˈhɛlpmiːt|
[A compound absurdly formed by taking the two words help meet in Gen. ii. 18, 20 (‘an help meet for him’, i.e. a help (help n. 2) suitable for him) as one word.
Already in the 17th c. the Scripture phrase is found with the two words improperly hyphened; which led the way to the use of help-meet, helpmeet, without ‘for him’. But its recognition as a ‘word’ is chiefly of the 19th c.: it is unknown to Johnson, Todd, Richardson, and to Webster 1832. In the 17th c. they used more grammatically meet help, meet-help: cf. sweet heart, sweetheart.]
A fitting or suitable helper; a helpmate: usually applied to a wife or husband.
[1382Wyclif Gen. ii. 18 Make we to hym help like hym. [1388 an help lijk to hym silf]. Ibid. 20 an helper like hym. 1535Coverd. ibid. an helpe, to beare him company. 1611Bible ibid. I will make him an helpe meet for him (marg. Hebr. as before him). 1885(R.V.) an help meet for (or answering to) him. ]
1673Dryden Marr. à la M. iv. i, If ever woman was a help-meet for man, my Spouse is so. 1696Feltham's Resolves, etc. On Eccl. 322 An help-meet for man [ed. 1661 an help meet for man.] 1718Entertainer No. 15 ⁋6 Socrates had the like Number of Helpmeets; and Athenæus concludes it was no Scandal in those Times. 1739R. Bull tr. Dedekinds' Grobianus 174 Or on your Help-meet let the Blame recoil. 1766Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) I. iv. 142 What..if, hoping to find a help meet, we should wed our ruin? 1805E. de Acton Nuns of Desert I. 22 Much more passed on this subject between Selwyn and his helpmeet. 1849Clough Amours de Voy. i. vii. 150 But for Adam there is not found an help-meet for him. 1863Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. i. 31 His piteous anguish to his help-meet in crime—‘Oh, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!’ 1870Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 2) I. App. 716 No help-meet for him is found. 1873Smiles Huguenots Fr. ii. ii. (1881) 363 A true helpmeet for him, young, beautiful, rich, and withal virtuous. 1881M. E. Herbert Edith 19 Mrs. Murray was the model of all that is contained in the old-fashioned word of ‘help-meet’ to her husband.
transf.1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 249/2 Gutta percha..has..sufficient specialities to render it a valuable help-meet to its elder brother [caoutchouc]. |