| 释义 |
heroic, a. and n.|hɪˈrəʊɪk|
[ad. L. hērōic-us, Gr. ἡρωϊκός pertaining to heroes, f. ἥρως hero. Cf. F. héroïque (15th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to a hero or heroes; characteristic of, or suitable to the character of a hero; of a bravery, virtue, or nobleness of character, exalted above that of ordinary men.
a. Of actions, qualities, etc.
1549Compl. Scot. 2 Ȝour heroyque vertu is of mair admiratione, nor vas of valeria the dochtir of the prudent consul publicola. 1596Spenser F.Q. v. i. 1 But evermore some of the vertuous race Rose up, inspired with heroicke heat. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 75 Requested..his death might be given him, by such a Heroicke hand as his, rather then perish by the rascall multitude. 1671Milton Samson 1711 Samson hath quit himself Like Samson, and heroicly hath finish'd A life heroic. 1713Steele Guardian No. 20 ⁋4 There is something sublime and heroick in true meekness and humility. 1802Wordsw. Sonn., ‘Milton! thou shouldst be living’, The heroic wealth of hall and bower. 1834L. Ritchie Wand. by Seine 153 The choir of the cathedral..is rich in heroic dust. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 167 The heroic death of his father.
b. Of persons, etc.: Of the nature of a hero.
1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. v. 78 Whereas hee, From Iohn of Gaunt doth bring his Pedigree, Being but fourth of that Heroick Lyne. 1615J. Stephens Satyr. Ess. 84 To exceed the patterne of heroicke Ancestry. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 67 The Decans turn back, leaving their heroick Captaine Godgee slaine in the field. 1657R. Ligon Barbadoes 105 So noble and heroick a Bird. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 36 This would be to act over again the scene of the criminals condemned to the gallies, and their heroick deliverer. 1878Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. i. Carlyle 196 The distinction between the truly heroic ruler of the stamp of Cromwell, and the arbitrary enthusiast for external order, like Frederick.
2. Of or pertaining to the heroes of antiquity. heroic age or heroic time: that during which the ancient heroes existed; the period of Grecian history preceding the return from Troy; also transf.
1667Milton P.L. i. 577 The Giant brood Of Phlegra with th' Heroic Race..That fought at Theb's and Ilium. 1669Gale Crt. Gentiles i. iii. ii. 27 The ancient Mythologie, conteining fabulous narrations of the ancient Heroic times. 1697Dryden æneid vi. 881 Here found they Teucer's old heroic race. 1835Thirlwall Greece I. v. 123 The period included between the first appearance of the Hellenes in Thessaly, and the return of the Greeks from Troy, is commonly known by the name of the heroic age, or ages. 1850J. Leitch Müller's Anc. Art §410. 553 The heroic-ideal is expressed with highest force in Hercules..pre-eminently an Hellenic national hero. 1869Rawlinson Anc. Hist. 124 The simple hereditary monarchy of the heroic times. 1897W. P. Ker Epic & Romance i. 7 What the ‘heroic age’ of the modern nations really was, may be learned from what is left of their heroic literature, especially from three groups or classes,—the old Teutonic alliterative poems on native subjects; the French Chansons de Geste; and the Icelandic Sagas. 1912H. M. Chadwick Heroic Age v. 105 This carries us back..to what we may call the Russian Heroic Age. 1927E. V. Gordon Introd. Old Norse p. xxix, The Germanic heroic age of the fourth to seventh centuries. 1928W. W. Lawrence Beowulf & Epic Trad. 24 This was the usual procedure of a minstrel of the Heroic Age, who knew of all notable men about the circle of the seas. 1948K. Malone in English Studies XXIX. 170 All these passages serve to make our hero part and parcel of the heroic age of Germanic antiquity. 1965K. Sisam Struct. Beowulf 7 The doors of Heorot opened into the Heroic Age.
3. a. Relating to or describing the deeds of heroes; of a poem or poetry = epic; so heroic poet.
1581Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 28 The most notable [denominations of poesie] bee the Heroick, Lirick, Tragick [etc.]. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xi. (Arb.) 40 Such therefore as gaue themselues to write long histories of the noble gests of kings and great Princes entermedling the dealings of the gods, halfe gods or Heroes..they called Poets Heroick, whereof Homer was chief and most auncient among the Greeks, Virgill among the Latines. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 25 This Subject for Heroic Song. 1693Dryden Juvenal Ded. (1697) 26 An Heroique Poem is certainly the greatest Work of Human Nature. 1777Sir W. Jones Ess. Poetry E. Nations 185 In comparing Homer with the heroick poets who have succeeded him. 1838Arnold Hist. Rome (1846) I. vi. 100 The old heroic lays of Rome.
b. Of verse or metre: Used in heroic poetry. In Greek and Latin poetry it was the hexameter; in English, German, and Italian, the iambic of five feet or ten syllables; in French, the Alexandrine of twelve syllables.
1617Moryson Itin. i. 91 Andrew Morosini, who wrote the History of his time in Heroique Verse. 1693Dryden Juvenal Ded. (1697) 88 The English Verse, which we call Heroique, consists of no more than Ten Syllables. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. 267 In English we could commonly render one Greek heroic line in a line and a half of our common heroic metre. 1861F. Hall in Jrnl. Amer. Orient. Soc. VII 23 The third hemistich of the heroic measure.
c. Of the style or language used in heroic poetry; magniloquent, grand; hence, high-flown, exaggerated.
1591Spenser Teares Muses 431 Whose living praises in heroick style, It is my chiefe profession to compyle. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. Pref. (1845) 21 The Style of his Georgicks, as well Noble (if not strictly Heroick) as that of his æneids. 1735Pope Prol. Sat. 109 One dedicates in high heroic prose, And ridicules beyond a hundred foes. 1888F. M. Peard His Cousin Betty I. v. 106 John's prowess was painted in heroic colours. 1897Westm. Gaz. 26 Aug. 3/1 We publish this..because it expresses in inflamed and heroic language a theory which..is becoming quite undeservedly popular among a certain class of politicians.
4. Having recourse to bold, daring, or extreme measures; boldly experimental; attempting great things.
1664Power Exp. Philos. 191 'Tis a Noble resolution to begin there where all the world has ended; and an Heroick attempt to solve those difficulties. 1836Gully Magendie's Formul. 117 Dr. Andrew Buchanan..has..shown how iodine may be given in most heroic doses without producing any of the disagreeable effects..on the digestive mucous membrane. 1880McCarthy Own Times IV. lviii. 257 The country was in a temper to try heroic remedies. 1887Goldw. Smith in Times (weekly ed.) 9 Dec. 7/2 Common⁓place reforms, which heroic legislation has overlooked.
5. In statuary: Of a size between life and colossal.
1794T. Taylor Pausanias III. 76 But in Haliartus there is..an heroic monument of Cecrops, the son of Pandion.
6. humorously. Unusually large or powerful.
1850L. Hunt Autobiog. II. xvii. 240 The men shaved themselves elaborately, cultivating heroic whiskers. 1875Hamerton Intell. Life i. iii. 20 His usual allowance was sixteen cups [of tea], all of heroic strength.
7. Comb. (parasynth.), as heroic-built, heroic-minded adjs.
1667Milton P.L. ix. 485 Her Husband..of limb Heroic built, though of terrestrial mould. 1678Butler Hud. iii. i. 1372 Condemn'd to whipping, but declin'd it, By being more heroic-minded.
B. n.
†1.
a. A man of heroic nature, a hero; esp. a personage of the heroic age, a demigod.
b. Applied to a cavalier or royalist. Obs.
1613Jackson Creed i. xi. §3 Many other particular circumstances of his [Homer's] gods assisting the ancient heroics. 1625Ibid. v. xxi. §4 Offering of sacrifices to the ancient heroics of Greece. 1667Waterhouse Fire Lond. 143 O Lord..raise up the spirit of the Nehemiahs and such other Heroicks. 1682A. Behn Round-heads i. i, Gill. Heavens, Madam, I'll warrant they were Heroicks. Lady L. Heroicks! Gill. Cavaliers, Madam, of the Royal Party.
2. a. Heroic verse: chiefly in plural.
1596Nashe Saffron Walden 4 When he was but yet a fresh-man in Cambridge, he..sent his accounts to his father in those ioulting Heroicks [Hexameters]. 1693Dryden Juvenal Ded. (1697) 82, I wou'd prefer the Verse of Ten Syllables, which we call the English Heroique, to that of Eight. 1737Pope Hor. Epist. ii. ii. 82 When this Heroicks only deigns to praise, Sharp Satire that, and that Pindaric lays. 1779–81Johnson L.P., Pope Wks. IV. 118 In heroicks, that may be admitted which ennobles, though it does not illustrate. 1807Southey Espriella's Lett. I. 3 Some new Cervantes..to write a mock heroic. 1814L. Hunt Feast Poets, etc. Pref. (1815) 14 The various and legitimate harmony of the English heroic.
b. pl. Sarcastically applied to high-flown or bombastic language, or sentiments thereby expressed.
1700Farquhar Const. Couple v. i, This is the first whore in heroics that I have met with. 1754Richardson Grandison (1781) I. xiv. 82 Miss Barnevelt took a tilt in heroics. 1847Tennyson Princ. Concl. 64 In mock heroics stranger than our own. 1862‘Shirley’ Nugæ Crit. vii. 308 Women, it is said, can write powerfully, but they cannot write moderately. They are always in hysterics or heroics. 1879Froude Cæsar viii. 83 He [Cæsar] had no sentimental passion about him; no Byronic mock heroics.
†3. A heroic poet. Obs.
a1680Butler Rem. (1759) I. 172 Virgil..To whom th' Heroics ever since Have sworn Allegiance as their Prince.
Hence † heˈroic v. nonce-wd., in to heroic it, to write in heroic verse; heˈroicism, heroˈicity, heˈroicness, heroic character or quality = heroism; heˈroicize v. trans., to make heroic; to exalt to the position of a hero; heˈroicly adv. = heroically.
1599Nashe Lenten Stuffe 23 Homer of rats and frogs hath heroiqut it. 1648W. Mountague Devout Ess. i. xiv. §3. 190 There is more happynesse in the one, but more Heroicknesse in the other. 1648Earl Westmoreland Otia Sacra (1879) 148 Things to whet, not try Thine own Heroicism by. 1671Milton Samson 1710 And heroicly hath finished A life heroic, on his enemies Fully revenged. 1673Rem. Humours Town 59 You throw away your glorious Precepts, whilst you talk of Heroickness, to an impertinent and groveling Generation. 1847Faber Life St. Rose of Lima p. xi, [A work] which treats of heroic virtue and what constitutes its heroicity. 1897Folk-Lore Mar. 49 At times, as in the case of Arthur..it has become wholly heroicised, and the semi-divine child has to conform to the heroic standard. |