| 释义 |
indistinguishable, a.|ɪndɪˈstɪŋgwɪʃəb(ə)l|
[in-3.]
Not distinguishable; that cannot be distinguished.
1. a. Incapable of being discriminated or recognized as different from something else, or from each other; of which the difference cannot be perceived. Also as n.
1658Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus iii. 51 The true seeds of Cypresse and Rampions are indistinguishable by old eyes. 1847Lewes Hist. Philos. (1867) II. 359 The simultaneousness of the two sensations renders them indistinguishable. 1882G. Allen in Knowledge No. 19. 403 So after a short time they became as indistinguishable from the true Celts, as Normans and Danes in England have become indistinguishable from the rest of the community. 1903Daily Chron. 24 Nov. 4/5 All this contention and uncertainty might be avoided if we abolished..the artificial distinction between two indistinguishables. 1949H. W. B. Joseph Lect. Philos. Leibniz ii. 23 There will be a perpetual substitution of indistinguishables.
b. transf. Of which the parts are not distinguishable; of indeterminate shape or structure.
This is perh. the meaning in the Shakes. quot., where the word is used of Thersites, ? in reference to his deformity.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. i. 33 You ruinous But, you whorson indistinguishable Curre. 1873Black Pr. Thule (1874) 1 The sea and the air and the sky seemed to be one indistinguishable mass of whirling and hurrying vapour.
2. That cannot be clearly perceived (by the senses or the mind); not discernible; imperceptible.
1642Answ. Observ. agst. King 10 The Scales of the Votes dancing indistinguishable whether they leane. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1837) III. 110 The silent and..indistinguishable lapse of time. 1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 527 The pulse of the arteries of a paralytic arm was quite indistinguishable. 1847J. Wilson Chr. North (1857) I. 244 Indistinguishable to the eye.
Hence indistinguishaˈbility, indiˈstinguishableness, the quality or character of being indistinguishable.
1731Bailey vol. II, Indistinguishableness..uncapableness to be distinguished. 1855H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1872) II. vi. vi. 52 The true interpretation of equality is indistinguishableness. 1885F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sc. ii. 41 Here we mean a different thing by the word same. We mean indistinguishability. 1891Monist I. 488 Shading off from perfect likeness or indistinguishableness to just recognisable affinity. |