| 释义 |
Utopia|juːˈtəʊpɪə|
[mod.L. (More, 1516), f. Gr. οὐ not + τόπ-ος a place: see -ia1, and cf. Eutopia. Hence It., Sp., Pg. Utopia, F. Utopie.]
1. An imaginary island, depicted by Sir Thomas More as enjoying a perfect social, legal, and political system.
1551(title), A fruteful and pleasaunt Worke of the beste state of a publyque weale, and of the newe yle called Utopia; written in Latine by Syr Thomas More knyght [publ. 1516], and translated into Englyshe by Raphe Robynson. 1570Foxe Bk. Martyrs (ed. 2) 1156/2, I do not..thinke, that..there is any such fourth place of Purgatory at all (vnles it be in M. Mores Vtopia). 1607A. Brewer Lingua ii. vi, I remember in the Country of Utopia, they use no other kind of artillery. 1625Bacon Ess., Usury (Arb.) 544 So as that Opinion must be sent to Vtopia. 1685Crowne Sir C. Nice i. Dram. Wks. 1874 III. 270 He will find it is a dream fit for nothing but Utopia. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. 66 Once upon a time,..in the land of Utopia, there was a dialogue between an oak and a cedar. 1725[Mrs. E. Haywood] (title), Memoirs of a certain Island adjacent to the Kingdom of Utopia. 1751J. Brown Shaftesb. Charac. 65 But of this infallible race I know none, except the inhabitants of Utopia. 1818[see Cacotopia]. 1837Macaulay Ess., Lord Bacon (1897) 402 An acre in Middlesex is better than a principality in Utopia. 1895Lupton More's Utopia 115 Plate, Reduced facsimile of the woodcut of the Island of Utopia.
transf.1802–12Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. Wks. 1843 VI. 206 The law is an Utopia—a country that receives no visits, but [etc.].
b. transf. Any imaginary, indefinitely-remote region, country, or locality.
1610Th. Th[orpe] Healey's St. Augustine's City of God Ded., Then [in translating Hall's Mundus Alter et Idem, he treated] of a deuised Country scarse on earth, now of a desired Citie sure in heauen; then of Vtopia, now of Eutopia. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xii. 132 Some say it liveth in æthiopia, others in Arabia, some..in Utopia, for such must that be which is described by Lactantius. 1684J. P. tr. J. Ludolphus' Hist. Ethiopia (ed. 2) 46 Ignorant where this River rises,..whether in Asia, in Africa, or in Utopia. a1779Warburton Div. Legat. ii. §4 Wks. 1788 I. 206 A fabulous relation of a voyage to the imaginary island of Panchæa, a kind of ancient Utopia.
2. A place, state, or condition ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 708 The reports of this his voyage savour more of an Vtopia, and Plato's Commonwealth, then of true Historie. 1642Chas. I in Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1692) I. 727 That new Vtopia of Religion and Government into which they endeavour to transform this Kingdom. 1691Norris Pract. Disc. 177 To contemplate all this not..as an uncertain Reversion, or imaginary Vtopia, but as a state that will shortly and certainly be. 1738Warburton Div. Legat. I. 272 No romantic impracticable Utopia. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1792) II. 113 But the law-suits..will not permit me to go in search of my Utopia. 1818Shelley Julian 179 ‘Aye, if we were not weak—and we aspire How vainly to be strong!’ said Maddalo: ‘You talk Utopia.’ 1871Morley Condorcet in Crit. Misc. Ser. i. 78 To find adequate gratification in the artificial construction of hypothetical utopias. 1883Manch. Exam. 22 Nov. 5/2 Ingenious speculators who hope to reach Utopia by the nationalisation of the land.
b. An impossibly ideal scheme, esp. for social improvement.
a1734North Lives II. 364 Young men, for want of experience,..create Utopias in their own imagination, and calculate according to their present fancy. 1843Marryat M. Violet xliii, These are not the wild utopias of a heated imagination. 1869Lecky Europ. Mor. I. 180 Averse to all enthusiasm, mysticism, utopias, and superstition.
3. Comb., as Utopia-maker, Utopia-monger.
1821Edin. Rev. XXXV. 320 The fantastic brain of some Utopia-monger. 1901Glover Life & Lett. in 4th C. 362 The general satire,..no doubt a fling at the Utopia-makers.
Hence Uˈtopia-ize v. intr., to conceive or form impossibly ideal schemes. nonce-wd.
1853Mrs. Gore Dean's Daughter III. 57 A Virginia Hargreave, born to Utopia-ise over a Bostonian tea-table, concerning triumphs to be achieved. |