| 释义 |
verisimilitude|vɛrɪsɪˈmɪlɪtjuːd|
Also 8–9 veri-similitude.
[a. obs. F. verisimilitude (1549), or ad. L. vērī similitūdo, vērisimilitūdo, f. vērī similis, vērisimilis, f. vērī, gen. of vērum truth, and similis like. Cf. Sp. verisimilitud, Pg. verisimilitude, It. verisimilitudine.]
1. The fact or quality of being verisimilar; the appearance of being true or real; likeness or resemblance to truth, reality, or fact; probability.
In very frequent use from c 1850.
1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1031 If we wil use the rule of probability and verisimilitude. 1654R. Flecknoe Ten Years Trav. 30 Truth has no greater Enemy than verisimilitude and likelihood. 1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. 64 Verisimilitude and Opinion are an easie purchase; and these counterfeits are all the Vulgars treasure. 1727Warburton Tracts (1789) 83 Was it but Falshood's Mask of Veri-similitude that we doated after. 1764Reid Inquiry vi. §19 His conjectures have more verisimilitude than dogmatic theories. 1826Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 289 A depth of tenderness in her large black eyes..gave a great verisimilitude to her representation of the lovelorn damsel. 1870J. H. Newman Gram. Assent ii. vii. 221 They are nothing more to me than..judgments on the verisimilitude of intellectual views, not the possession and enjoyment of truths. 1892Stevenson & Osbourne Wrecker i, To add a spice of verisimilitude ‘college paper’ had an actual marketable value.
b. esp. Of statements, narrative, etc.
1671Milton Samson, Of Tragedy, The Plot,..which is nothing indeed but such œconomy, or disposition of the fable as may stand best with verisimilitude and decorum. 1733G. Cheyne Eng. Malady i. vi. §1 (1734) 48 If what I have advanc'd..have any Truth or Verisimilitude. 1777Robertson Hist. Amer. II. v. 60 They would appear..so extravagant, as to go far beyond the bounds of that veri⁓similitude which must be preserved even in fictitious narration. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. xvii. (1882) 165 The characters..have all the verisimilitude and representative quality that the purposes of poetry can require. 1858Merivale Rom. Emp. lv. (1865) VII. 2 We must accept in the main the verisimilitude of the picture they have left us of this arch⁓tyrant. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 422 The traditional form was required in order to give verisimilitude to the myth.
2. A statement, etc., which has the mere appearance or show of being true or in accordance with fact; an apparent truth.
1783Ld. Hailes Antiq. Chr. Ch. iv. 141 Perhaps, the author had no farther view, than to state the Academical verisimilitudes on each side of the controversy. 1797J. Lawrence in Monthly Mag. (1819) XLVIII. 112/1 The advantages of sophistry are infinitely beyond those of real truth; because a fortunate and well-sounding verisimilitude is so adapted to the comprehension of nine-tenths of mankind. 1821Lamb Elia i. Old Benchers Inner T., Henceforth let no one receive the narratives of Elia for true records! They are, in truth, but shadows of fact—verisimilitudes, not verities. 1850L. Hunt Autobiog. vii. (1860) 128, I felt..that there was more truth in the verisimilitudes of fiction than in the assumptions of history. |