| 释义 |
ambiguous, a.|æmˈbɪgjuːəs|
[f. L. ambigu-us doubtful, driving hither and thither (f. ambig-ĕre, f. amb- both ways + ag-ĕre to drive) + -ous.]
The objective meanings, though second in Latin, seem earliest in Eng.
I. Objectively.
1. Doubtful, questionable; indistinct, obscure, not clearly defined.
1528More Heresyes iv. Wks. 1557, 247/2 If it wer nowe doutful & ambiguous whether the church of Christ wer in the right rule of doctrine or not. 1573Murray Let. in Wodrow Soc. Misc. (1844) 289 Cairfull for the gude ordour of the Kirk in thingis ambiguouss. c1800K. White Contempl. 133 Faint ambiguous shadows fall. 1851Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. 2. v. §10 Even the most dexterous distances of the old masters..are ambiguous.
2. Of words or other significant indications: Admitting more than one interpretation, or explanation; of double meaning, or of several possible meanings; equivocal. (The commonest use.)
1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 1557, 437/1 This englishe word knowledge is ambiguous and doubtfull. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie (1869) 267 The ambiguous, or figure of sence incertaine, as if one should say Thomas Tayler saw William Tyler dronke, it is indifferent to thinke either th'one or th'other dronke. 1671Milton P.R. i. 435 Answers..dark, Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding. 1752Johnson Rambl. No. 192 ⁋8 The gentlemen..irritated me with ambiguous insults. 1853Maurice Proph. & Kings xvii. 288, I do not rest anything upon tenses. Every reader of the prophets must feel how ambiguous they are. 1867A. J. Ellis E.E. Pronunc. i. i. 25 The Welsh alphabet..having only one ambiguous letter, y.
3. Of doubtful position or classification, as partaking of two characters or being on the boundary line between.
1603Florio Montaigne (1634) 294 Mungrell and ambiguous shapes. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 473 Ambiguous between sea and land The river-horse and scaly crocodile. 1756Hume Hist. Eng. II. xx. 20 His character became fully known. and was no longer ambiguous to either faction. 1839Murchison Silur. Syst. 418 Stratified rocks of ambiguous character.
II. Subjectively.
†4. Of persons: Wavering or uncertain as to course or conduct; hesitating, doubtful. Obs.
1550Nicols Thucyd. 175 (R.) People that be ambiguous or doubtefulle. 1649Milton Eikon. 239 Thus shall they be too and fro, doubtfull and ambiguous in all thir doings.
5. Of things: Wavering or uncertain in direction or tendency; of doubtful or uncertain issue.
1612Shelton Don Quix. I. ii. v. 90 That she do favour and protect him in that ambiguous Trance which he undertakes. 1813Scott Rokeby i. xii, The eddying tides of conflict wheeled Ambiguous. 1850Mrs. Browning Prometh. Bound Poems I. 184 Do not cast Ambiguous paths, Prometheus, for my feet.
6. Hence, Insecure in its indications; not to be relied upon.
1756Burke Subl. & B. Wks. 1842 I. 26 The taste, that most ambiguous of the senses.
7. Of persons, oracles, etc.: Using words of doubtful or double meaning.
1566Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 370 To no point wald sche answer directlie; bot in all thingis sche was..ambigua. a1700Dryden (J.) Th' ambiguous god, who rul'd her lab'ring breast. a1725Pope Odyss. i. 490 Antinous..Constrain'd a smile and thus ambiguous spoke. 1864Swinburne Atalanta 1500 What mutterest thou with thine ambiguous mouth. |