| 释义 |
unˈtouchable, a. and n.
[un-1 7 b.]
A. adj.
1. a. Incapable of being touched; immaterial.
1567J. Jewel Def. Apol. 239 Theophylacte saithe, The Body of Christe is Eaten; but the Godheade is not Eaten: bicause it is vntoucheable, and vncomprehensible vnto our senses. 1611Cotgr., Immateriel,..impalpable, vntouchable.
absol.1833S. Austin Char. Goethe I. 185 Differentializing the Unchangeable and Untouchable.
b. Beyond the reach of touch.
1622G. G. Creat. Praysing God 33 The vntouchable height of his [sc. God's] glory. 1886J. Parker Apost. Life II. 169 With the heavens above it, hell below it, an untouchable horizon round about it. 1890Hall Caine Bondman iii. i, Seas beneath of an untouchable depth.
c. fig. Unapproachable, unrivalled.
1867E. Yates Forlorn Hope xv, A worthy woman, untouchable in Mangnall, devoted to the backboard. 1884― Recoll. I. 189 In his day untouchable as a romantic actor.
2. a. Exempt from touch; that one may not touch.
1607S. Collins Serm. (1608) 46 Euery mans conscience is as free and as vntouchable as anothers before God, one price was paid for all. 1647Trapp Comm. Jas. iii. 7 Sons of Belial, untamable, untractable, untouchable. 1661Feltham Resolves II. lxvi. 327 Were not their Persons Sacred, that is, by the Laws of God and Man, untouchable as to prejudice. 1737Gentl. Mag. VII. 35/1 Her Majesty's Foot hitch'd in the Stirrup, and the Horse dragg'd her along.., but the untouchable Foot retain'd the grave Spaniards from intermedling in so delicate an Affair. 1879J. Hingston Austral. Abroad ix. 101 The graves..are held as sacred and untouchable by the present owners.
b. spec. That cannot legally be interfered with or made use of.
1734Swift in Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) I. 524, I hope the young lady has an untouchable settlement. 1815Zeluca I. 263 Your own untouchable property. 1874W. R. Greg Rocks Ahead 45 Declaring this peasant's farm inalienable,..untouchable for any debt.
3. a. Too bad, unpleasant, defiling, etc., to touch. spec. of Hindus: see sense B; also transf. from this sense.
1873Mrs. Whitney Other Girls x, Fried potatoes, or whatever else was economical and untouchable. 1909Indian Spectator 23 Oct. 843/2 Persons in mourning are..considered to be defiled and untouchable for some days. 1910Times 29 July 5/6 In non-essentials Brahmanism soon found it expedient to relax the rigour of caste obligations, as for instance to..travel even in their own country in railways..without incurring the pollution of bodily contact with the ‘untouchable’ castes. 1943G. Muff Let. in Times 8 July 5/5 There was a gulf between the public school and the elementary school—a caste system; when all the while we knew the child of the worker was neither ‘untouchable’ nor belonged to a depressed class. 1963T. & P. Morris Pentonville ii. 27 The work of the general work cleaners is of ‘untouchable’ status and is frequently given to the Maltese and ‘blacks’ for this reason. 1979A. Brink Dry White Season iii. vii. 237 He is untouchable, protected by the entire bulwark of his formidable system.
B. n. A Hindu of a hereditary low caste, contact with whom was regarded as defiling members of higher castes. Also transf. and fig. Cf. Harijan.
Use of the term, and the social restrictions which accompany it, were declared illegal in the constitution adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India in 1949 and of Pakistan in 1953.
1909Indian Spectator 23 Oct. 843/2 Our untouchables were not clean. 1911Times 2 Feb. 5/5 When it is remembered in what manner the lower classes are treated in daily life it may appear strange that the higher castes should be so..alarmed at the prospect of the untouchables ceasing to be regarded as Hindus. 1920Asiatic Review XVI. 172 The term ‘untouchable’, as a name for the ‘depressed classes’, or ‘outcastes’, is a revival of the most ancient designation of these people. 1926in N.E.D. s.v. untouchable adj. 1928Daily Express 22 May 10/2 Those in Whitehall may go on thinking there is something extremely meritorious in treating Russia as a diplomatic untouchable. 1931, etc. [see Harijan]. 1960,1969[see Eta, eta3]. 1975Guardian 27 Jan. 5 Five hundred Untouchables—low caste Indians—marched on Downing Street yesterday. 1978N. J. Crisp London Deal vi. 104 ‘Well, I've become a non-copper.’ ‘You mean you've been suspended?’.. ‘A modern untouchable.’ 1981G. Priestland Priestland's Progress vi. 93 The Indian untouchable who becomes a Christian often has to pay a heavy price for his liberation.
Hence unˈtouchableness, the state or condition of being untouchable.
1909Times of India (Mail ed.) 23 Oct. 19/3 The Hon. Mr. Ghokale..thought if only the untouchableness went, it would be a comparatively easy matter to help these classes. 1916Indian Review Feb., in M. K. Gandhi Coll. Works (1964) XIII. 232 This miserable, wretched, enslaving spirit of ‘untouchableness’. 1970Daily Tel. 7 Feb. 9/6 It [sc. Verdi's ‘Macbeth’]..had to overcome our strong proprietorial feelings about the untouchableness of Shakespeare.
Add: unˈtouchably adv.
1909S. V. Ketkar Hist. Caste in India I. v. 86 The Mahār caste, which is a large but untouchably low caste. 1986J. Viorst Necessary Losses iv. 51 The happy illusion of being untouchably safe. |