| 释义 |
ignorance|ˈɪgnərəns|
Also 4–6 ig-, ygnoraunce, (5 ignorence, 6 yngnorance).
[a. F. ignorance (12th c. in Littré) = It. ignoranzia, Sp. ignorancia, ad. L. ignōrāntia, f. ignōrānt-em ignorant.]
1. a. The fact or condition of being ignorant; want of knowledge (general or special).
a1225Ancr. R. 278 Sunne & ignorance, þet is, unwisdom & unwitenesse. a1340Hampole Psalter cxlv. 6 Þe blynd in ignoraunce he makis seand in wisdome. c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 32 He..þat synneþ of ignoraunce. 1490Caxton Eneydos xxviii. 110 Proserpyne..maketh theyr memorye to wexe feble and conuerteth it in to ygnoraunce. 1573J. Sandford Hours Recreat. (1576) 104 Marvell is the daughter of ignoraunce. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. iv. ii. 49–50 This house is as darke as Ignorance, thogh Ignorance were as darke as hell. a1635Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 15 It was the maxime that over-ruled the foregoing times, that ignorance was the mother of devotion. 1742Gray Ode Prospect Eton Coll. 99 Where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise. 1768Beattie Minstr. ii. xxx, Be ignorance thy choice, where knowledge leads to wo. 1862Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. II. v. 147 Much of the evil which exists in the world may be traced to mere ignorance.
b. Constr. of († in, or dependent clause).
1390Gower Conf. III. 79 Thou..of thy self hast ignoraunce. 1566Acts & Constit. Scotl. To Rdr. *iij, Thair is..na excusatioun to the man pretendand Ignorance of the Law. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 595 Oversights of Writers, through negligence or ignorance in forren names. 1847L. Hunt Men, Women & B. I. i. 1 The supposition is founded on an ignorance of the nature of the human mind. 1872Ruskin Eagle's Nest §16 National ignorance of decent art is always criminal.
c. With an and pl.: An instance or example of ignorance. rare.
1749C. Wesley in Bp. Lavington Enthus. Methodists (1754) I. ii. 76 That very weak Sermon..which is an Ignoratio Elenchi (an Ignorance of the Point in Question). 1758Blackstone Study of Law in Comm. I. (1809) 7 An ignorance in these must always be of dangerous consequence. 1817J. Scott Paris Revisit. (ed. 4) 62 Difficulties which the ignorances and violence of the people have frequently thrown in the way of their princes. 1881Modern Rev. Jan. 136 All falsities and ignorances are eliminated.
†2. With an and pl. An act due to want of knowledge; an offence or sin caused by ignorance.
c1425Prymer (E.E.T.S.) 62 [Ps. xxv. 7] Lord, remembre þou not þe trespassis of my ȝougþe, and myn ignorauncis. 1549Bk. Com. Prayer, Litany, That it may please thee..to forgeue us all our synnes, negligences, and ignoraunces. 1598Yong Diana 6 He neuer committed any ignorance, that might turne to the hurt or hinderance of his faith. 1611Bible 1 Esdras viii. 75 Our sinnes are multiplied aboue our heads, and our ignorances haue reached vp vnto heauen. [1841Trench Parables xxii. (1877) 377 Sin is oftentimes an ignorance.]
3. (In full the time or days of ignorance; tr. Arab. jāhilīyah state of ignorance, f. jāhil ignorant.) The period of Arabian history previous to the teaching of Muhammad.
1788Gibbon Decl. & F. V. l. 185 Of the time of ignorance which preceded Mahomet, seventeen hundred battles are recorded by tradition. 1895A. Menzies Hist. Relig. 213 The Arabs called the period before Islam the ‘time of ignorance’; in that period they considered their race had no history. 1904W. P. Ker Dark Ages 14 The student of heroic poetry may admire the temper of the Arabian Dark Ages—‘the Ignorance’. 1937P. H. Hitti Hist. Arabs vii. 87 The term jāhilīyah, usually rendered ‘time of ignorance’ or ‘barbarism’, in reality means the period in which Arabia had no dispensation, no inspired prophet, no revealed book. |