| 释义 |
▪ I. alter, v.|ˈɔːltə(r)|
Forms: 4–5 altere, 6 altar, 6–7 altre, 4– alter.
[a. 14th c. Fr. altére-r (Pr. or It. alterar) ad. med.L. alterā-re, f. alter other.]
1. a. To make (a thing) otherwise or different in some respect; to make some change in character, shape, condition, position, quantity, value, etc. without changing the thing itself for another; to modify, to change the appearance of.
c1374Chaucer Troylus iii. 1787 Love..alterid his spirit so withynne. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. x. (1495) 314 The ouer bodyes of heuen altere and chaunge thyse nether thynges. 1509Fisher Fun. Serm. Wks. 1876, 304 [The body] anone begynneth to putrefye..The ayre dothe alter it. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. iv. i. 219 No power in Venice Can alter a decree established. 1605Camden Rem. 14 The English-Saxon conquerors altred the tongue. 1691Luttrell Brief. Rel. (1857) II. 301 Several of the Irish forces that intended at first to goe for France, have alter'd their minds. 1756Burke Vind. Nat. Soc. Wks. I. 25, I am obliged to alter my design. 1833Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 373 The heat which alters the strata. 1872Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 164 Fashion in shoes..was quite altered after the Crusades.
b. transf. To geld or spay (an animal). U.S. and Austral.
1821T. B. Hazard Nailer Tom's Diary (1930) 555/2 Worner Knowles oltered my four Boar Piggs. 1895Australas. Pastoralists' Rev. 15 Aug. 295 For this reason bulls were rarely altered (castrated) till they were four or five years old.
2. intr. (for refl.) To become otherwise, to undergo some change in character or appearance.
1590Greene Mourning Garm. (1616) Pref. 4 Such as alter in a moment, win not credit in a moneth. 1611Bible Dan. vi. 12 The law of the Medes and Persians which altereth not. 1769Junius Lett. xxxv. 154 Human nature..is greatly altered for the better. 1879Lubbock Sci. Lect. i. 30 Both insects and flowers are continually altering in their structure.
†3. trans. To affect mentally; to disturb. Obs. (Cf. the dial. to put about.)
1542Henry VIII Declar. in Compl. Scotl. 194 We..suffered our selfe to be somewhat altred by his wordes and fayre promyses. 1615Chapman Odyss. ix. 96 Then began the bitter Fate of Jove To alter us unhappy. a1674Milton (in Webster), I suppose them..not a little altered and moved inwardly in their minds.
†4. intr. To administer alterative medicines. Obs.
1656Ridgley Pract. Physic 331 Afterwards we must purge, alter, and that often. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. xix. 764 Some practitioners..always alter and never Purge.
▪ II. alter, n. Psychol.|ˈɔːltə(r), ˈæltə(r)|
[L., another.]
Something (esp. another person) regarded as existing outside the self; the objects and experience of the world viewed as distinct from and interacting with oneself. Cf. alter ego and ego 4.
1897J. M. Baldwin Social & Ethical Interpretations in Mental Devel. i. 11 All the things I hope to learn..are now, before I acquire them, possible elements of my thought of others, of the social alter, or of what considered generally we may call the ‘socius’. 1909W. M. Urban Valuation ix. 267 The dramatic tendency in the characterisation of the self and the alter. 1934H. C. Warren Dict. Psychol. 10/2 Alter, the individual's conception of other beings as distinct from himself. 1977A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory x. 336 Ego may try to control the ‘situation’ in which alter is placed, or try to control alter's ‘intentions’. |