| 释义 |
inventor|ɪnˈvɛntə(r)|
Also 6 -our, (-ure), Sc. -ar, 6–9 -er.
[a. L. inventor, agent-n. from invenīre to come upon, invent. Cf. F. inventeur (1454 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
One who invents.
†1. One who finds out, a discoverer (whether by chance, or by investigation and effort). Obs.
1509Barclay Shyp of Folys 7 b (8 a), Esculapius which was fyrst Inuentour of Phesyke. 1541R. Copland Galyen's Terapeut. 2 F iij b, To shewe that Hippocrates hath ben inuentour..of all other thynges that is for to be knowen to hym that ought to hele an vlcere well. 1546Langley Pol. Verg. de Invent. i. xvii, The inuentours of Herbes medicinable. 1570Billingsley Euclid i. xv. 24 Thales Mileseus..was the first inuenter of this Proposition. 1684Ray Corr. (1848) 139, I am not sure that Mr. Newton was the first inventor of that plant. 1726Freind Hist. Med. II. 315 Dr. Willis, the first inventor of the nervous system.
2. One who devises or contrives; a contriver, designer; now, usually, One who devises something fictitious or false, a fabricator. † Formerly, also, a founder, institutor (obs.).
1513More in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 807 Although king Richarde harde often of these..malicious saiyngs..he durst not wyth strong hande be on the first inventors revenged. 1552Huloet, Inuentour of false accusations, and tales, sycophanta. 1557N. T. (Genev.) Rom. i. 30 Inuenters of euyl thynges, disobedient to father and mother. 1570Buchanan Admonit. Wks. (1892) 24 Counsalours of tratouris, inuentaris of tressoun. 1594T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. 353 Some say that the Lydians were the first inventers of games. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 586 Heere also lived the first Heremites (the first..of which was Antony, an Egyptian, inventor of this order). 1685Stillingfl. Orig. Brit. i. 8 These Inventers of History have still given out, that they met with some Elder Writers, out of whom they have pretended to derive their Reports. 1882Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cxix. 23 When we suffer from a libel it is better to pray about it than..even to demand an apology from the inventor.
3. One who devises or produces something new (as an instrument, an art, etc.) by original contrivance; the originator of a previously unknown method or means of doing something; ‘the first finder-out’. (The prevailing sense.)
1555Eden Decades To Rdr. (Arb. 49), Of the mazes cauled Labyrinthi, or of horryble great Images cauled Colossi..and..other portentous inuentions, the which..brynge rather a fame to theyr inuentoures, then trewe glorye. 1570Dee Math. Pref. 34 A certaine Instrument: which by the Inuenter and Artificer..was solde. 1623–4Act 21 Jas. I, c. 3 §6 [Statute of Monopolies] Lettres Patente..to the true and first Inventor and Inventors of such Manufactures. 1738Warburton Div. Legat. I. Ded. 6 Applauses due to the Inventers of the Arts of Life. 1798Ferriar Illustr. Sterne ii. 26 Its author is no more thought of than the inventor of the compass. 1827Hare Guesses Ser. i. (1847) 34 Xerxes promist a great reward to the inventer of a new pleasure. a1859Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxiii. V. 37 He was the inventor of Exchequer Bills; and they were popularly called Montague's notes. |