| 释义 |
infelicity|ɪnfɪˈlɪsɪtɪ|
[ad. L. infēlīcitās, f. infēlīx unhappy: cf. obs. F. infélicité (15th c.).]
1. The state of being unhappy or unfortunate; an unhappy condition or state of affairs; unhappiness, misery; bad fortune, ill luck, misfortune.
1382Wyclif 2 Macc. viii. 35 Nychanore..cam to Antioche, hauynge heiȝist infelicitee [gloss or most wretchidnesse], of the deeth of his oost. c1450tr. De Imitatione iii. xxiii. 92, I morne and bere myn infelicite wiþ sorowe. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 350 For so is your power depoverished, and Lordes and great men brought to infelicitee. 1652–62Heylin Cosmogr. To Rdr. 1 Being, by the unhappiness of my Destiny, or the infelicity of the Times, deprived of my Preferments. 1759Johnson Rasselas xxviii, You surely conclude too hastily from the infelicity of marriage against its institution. 1825Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Barbara S―, That pure infelicity which accompanies some people in their walk through life.
b. A particular case or instance of bad fortune; an unfortunate circumstance or event; a misfortune; a cause or source of unhappiness.
1577Fenton Gold. Epist. 2 When God administereth to vs diseases, sorowes, deaths, and infelicities. 1651Hobbes Govt. & Soc. x. §16. 163 The government comes to be administred in a Democraticall manner, and..thence arise those infelicities which for the most part accompany the Dominion of the People. 1682H. More Annot. Glanvill's Lux O. 189 It is the infelicity of too many, that they are ignorant. 1732Neal Hist. Purit. I. 81 So that his death was not an Infelicity to the Church. 1891Spectator 7 Mar., These infelicities of travel were of frequent occurrence, and endured with cheerfulness.
2. The quality of not being happily suited to the occasion or circumstances; unlucky inaptness or inappropriateness; with pl. an unhappily inappropriate expression or detail of style.
1617Hales Gold. Rem. (1673) 10 With how great infelicity or incongruity soever it be. 1659Hammond On Ps. cxx. heading paraphr., A complaint of the infelicity of such companions. 1823Lamb Elia Ser. i. Oxf. in Vac., Peradventure the Epiphany, by some periodical infelicity, would, once in six years, merge in a Sabbath. 1879Church Spenser 33 The beginnings of that great critical literature, which in England, in spite of much infelicity, has only been second to the poetry which it judged. Mod. A work marred by its infelicities of style. |