| 释义 |
▪ I. Whig, n.2 and a.|hwɪg|
Forms: 7 whige, whigh, whigue, Sc. uhig, uig, 7–8 wig(g, 8 quig, 7–9 whigg, 7– whig.
[Origin unascertained; prob. shortening of whiggamer, whiggamore; the occurrence of sense 1 (if it belongs to this word) some years before the date of the ‘whiggamore raid’ points to the existence of whig in a general sense before that event.
The supposition that this word is identical with whig n.1 (cf. the following quots.) has no historical foundation.
1717De Foe Mem. Ch. Scot. iii. (1844) 68/2 The word is said to be taken from a mixt Drink the poor Men drank in their Wanderings compos'd of Water and sour Milk. 1721Wodrow Hist. Suff. Ch. Scot. ii. ii. I. 263 The poor honest People, who were in Railery called Whiggs, from a Kind of Milk they were forced to drink in their Wandrings and Straits. a1734North Exam. ii. v. §10 (1740) 321 This [sc. the name Birmingham Protestants] held a considerable Time; but the word was not fluent enough for hasty Repartee; and, after diverse Changes, the Lot fell upon Whig, which was very significative, as well as ready, being vernacular in Scotland, (from whence it was borrowed) for corrupt and sour Whey. Immediately the Train took, and, upon the first Touch of the Experiment, it run like wild Fire, and became general. And so the Account of Tory was ballanced, and soon began to run up a sharp Score on the other Side. ]
A. n.
†1. A yokel, country bumpkin. Obs. rare.
c1645Tullie Siege of Carlisle (1840) 3 And needs he [sc. Leslie] would retreat to Newcastle, till great Barwise set himself first into the water; and the rest, following him, so frighted y⊇ fresh water countrie whiggs, yt all of them answered the Motto, veni, vidi, fugi. c1655J. Gwynne Mil. Mem. Gt. Civil War ii. (1822) 90 Most of them were no souldiers, but countrey bumkins, there called Whigs.
2. An adherent of the Presbyterian cause in Scotland in the seventeenth century; applied orig. to the Covenanters in the West of Scotland who in 1648 wrested the government from the Royalist party and marched as rebels to Edinburgh; in later years, to the extreme section of the Covenanting party who were regarded as rebels. Hist.
‘By rigid Episcopalians, it is still given to Presbyterians in general; and, in the West of S[cotland], even by the latter, to those who, in a state of separation from the established church, profess to adhere more strictly to Presbyterian principles’ (Jamieson, 1808).
1657in Jas. Campbell Balmerino (1867) 213 Having fallen in among the Whigs of Kilmany. 1666Nicoll Diary (Bannatyne Club) 452 The Generall [Dalyell] having marched towards the West, he took and killed sindrie persones, callit The Whigs. 1666Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1666–7 (1864) 301 Now not one [sc. of the rebels] dares call himself a Whig. 1667Lond. Gaz. No. 121/1 We were informed that the Whigs had privately in the night stollen down the heads of 4 of the Rebels that were set up in Glasgow. 1679Lauderdale Papers (Camden 1885) III. 163 The Whiggs horse and foot fell in pell, mell, upon the Dragoons. 1683Claverhouse in Clavers, the Despot's Champion (1889) xii. 142, I am as sorry to see a man day, even a whigue, as any of themselfs. 1684Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm. 1903) II. 196 The bearer wil tell you the kindness the Whighs has for your lordship, which is no ill argument of your lordship's zeal in the King's service. a1699J. Kirkton Hist. Ch. Scot. (1817) 46 This was done at the Whiggs' Road, as was called. 1708in Brand Hist. Newc. (1789) I. 424 note, [In St. Andrew's Register, November 1708, this burying-ground for dissenters is called] the Quigs buring-place. a1715Burnet Own Time i. (1724) I. 43 Those in the west [of Scotland] come in the summer to buy at Lieth the stores that come from the north: And from a word Whiggam, used in driving their horses all that drove were called the Whiggamors, and shorter the Whiggs. 1875tr. Ranke's Hist. Eng. xvi. ix. IV. 121 Doubtless, in Scotland also, the republican tendencies appeared; for instance, in October 1680, the King and the Duke were excommunicated with due form;..These were, however, rather Anabaptist than Presbyterian views; their adherents were indeed called Whigs, but ‘wild Whigs’. 1888M. Morris Claverhouse ix. 159 The men of the hill-sides and moorlands of the West, the wild Western Whigs, who feared..the name of Claverhouse.
3. a. Applied to the Exclusioners (c 1679) who opposed the succession of James, Duke of York, to the crown, on the ground of his being a Roman Catholic. Hist. (Opposed to Tory A. 2.)
1679Wood Life (O.H.S.) II. 431 After the breaking out of the popish plot severall of our scholars were tried and at length were discovered to be whiggs, viz...Georg Reynell of C.C.C., looked upon as alwayes a round-head. 1681Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 124 The latter party have been called by the former, whigs, fanaticks, covenanteers, bromigham protestants, &c.; and the former are called by the latter, tories, tantivies, Yorkists, high flown church men. 1682Tories Confess. vi, What pimping Whig shall dare controule, or check the lawfull Heir. 1683[J. Norris] Murnival of Knaves 2 Whig and Tory..The one of Caledonian Race, T'other has an Hibernian Face. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 652 In 1678..he closed with the Whiggs, supposing that party would carry all before them. a1734[see etymology above]. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. xii. (1876) II. 439. 1905 C. S. Terry Pentland Rising 84 The..controversies which cleft the Whigs in 1679, to the paralysis of serious military achievement, were absent in 1666.
b. fig. A rebel.
1682Dryden Another Epil. Dk. Guise 22 When Sighs and Prayers their ladies cannot move, They rail, write Treason, and turn Whigs to love.
4. Hence, from 1689, an adherent of one of the two great parliamentary and political parties in England, and (at length) in Great Britain. (Opposed to Tory A. 3.)
Since the middle of the 19th century mostly superseded (exc. as a historical term) by Liberal (see liberal A. 5, B. 1 b), but used occas. since then to express adherence to moderate or antiquated Liberal principles.
1702Clarendon's Hist. Reb. I. Pref. p. viii, We have lived..to see the two great Parties, of late known by the Names of Whig and Tory, directly change their ground. 1704C. Leslie The Wolf Stript 82 A Whigg is a State-Enthusiast, as a Dissenter is an Ecclesiastical. 1713Guardian No. 1. ⁋4, I am, with relation to the government of the Church, a Tory, with regard to the State, a Whig. a1715Burnet Own Time i. (1724) I. 43 All that opposed the Court came in contempt to be called Whiggs. 1741Hume Ess., Parties Gt. Brit. 131 A Whig may be defin'd to be a Lover of Liberty, tho' without renouncing Monarchy; and a Friend to the Settlement in the Protestant Line. 1778Johnson 28 Apr. in Boswell, ‘And I have always said, the first Whig was the Devil.’ Boswell. ‘He certainly was, Sir. The Devil was impatient of subordination.’ 1791Burke (title) An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, in consequence of some late discussions in Parliament, relative to the Reflections on the French Revolution. 1844Disraeli Coningsby vi. iii, ‘I look upon an Orangeman,’ said Coningsby, ‘as a pure Whig.’ 1852Ld. J. Russell in S. Walpole Life (1889) II. 156 note, The term Whig..has the convenience of expressing in one syllable what Conservative Liberal expresses in seven; and Whiggism, in two syllables, means what Conservative Progress means in other six. 1883Sat. Rev. 21 July 67/2 The Gladstonian Moderate, the ‘Whig’ as he is locally called, has ceased to have a reason for existence in Irish politics. 1911B. Holland Spencer Compton II. 129 Until this moment [1886] the word ‘Whig’ was still in common use to denote a connection loosely bound together, the moderate Liberals, led by the chiefs of certain families of long standing. Since 1886, the word has been used in a purely historical sense, while ‘Tory’ has still a living meaning.
5. Amer. Hist.
a. An American colonist who supported the American Revolution.
1768New York Gaz. 14 Mar., (title of article) The American Whig. 1768Boston Gaz. 11 Apr. 3/1 On reading, in the American Mercury, an advertisement of a weekly paper to be published, under the title of A Whip for the American Whig; I could not help falling into a train of serious reflections, on the persecuting genius that inspires the high flying Tory party, in the episcopal church. 1775Thacher Mil. Jrnl. Amer. Rev. (1823) 12 The..majority..are united in resolution to oppose..the wicked attempts of the English Cabinet. This class of people have assumed the appellation of Whigs. 1775Johnson in Boswell 21 Mar., When the Whigs of America are thus multiplied, let the Princes of the earth tremble in their palaces. 1812Niles' Weekly Reg. 6 June 240/1 A great battle is said to have been fought about the 1st May, between the ‘whigs’ of Caracos and ‘tories’ of Coro, the latter being aided by some ‘regulars’ from Porto Rico. 1884A. Johnston Hist. Amer. Pol. (ed. 2) 6 As soon as independence was announced, in 1776, to be the final object of the contest, the names Whig and Tory lost, in America, whatever of British significance they had ever possessed.
b. A member of a party formed in 1834 from a fusion of the National Republicans and other elements opposed to the Democrats; it favoured a protective tariff and a strong national or central government, and was succeeded in 1856 by the Republican party. (See quot. 1905.)
1834Niles' Weekly Reg. 12 Apr. 101/2 In New York and Connecticut the term ‘whigs’ is now used by the opponents of the administration when speaking of themselves, and they call the ‘Jackson men’ by the offensive name of ‘tories’. 1839Congress. Globe Jan., App. 105/1 In 1796,..Whig..was synonymous with Democrat,..or, in the Federal language of the times, was fit for the common people;..but now for political effect, the same party have taken the term Whig to themselves. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. iii. liii. II. 340 The majesty and beneficent activity of the National government..was generally in fact represented by the Federalists of the first period, the Whigs of the second, the Republicans of the third. 1905A. Johnston's Amer. Pol. Hist. II. 239 His [sc. James Watson Webb's] newspaper, the Courier and Enquirer, had originally supported Jackson, and had been driven into the opposition by the President's course. In February, 1834, he baptized the new party with the name of ‘Whig’, with the idea that the name implied resistance to executive usurpation, to that of the Crown in England and in the American Revolution, and to that of the President in the United States of 1834.
B. adj. That is a Whig; of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a Whig or Whigs: holding the opinions or principles of a Whig.
1681T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 32 (1713) I. 205 Oh there's a thick Disguise they say upon Affairs, and unless you have a pair of Whig-spectacles, there's no seeing through it. 1683Dryden Vind. Dk. Guise 22 As for Knave, and Sycophant, and Rascal, and Impudent, and Devil, and old Serpent,..I take them to be only names of Parties: And cou'd return Murtherer and Cheat, and Whig-napper. 1683Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 279 Commenting on several proceedings of those called the whig party. 1719T. Gordon Char. Indep. Whig (ed. 2) 19 Let them not..give up Whig Boroughs into Jacobite Hands. 1732P. Walker Cargill in Biogr. Presbyt. (1827) II. 100 They said ‘Take up the old damn'd Whig-Bitch.’ 1768Boston Gaz. 21 Mar. 3/1 May the best of Heaven's Blessings ever attend the Whig Cause. 1818Scott Br. Lamm. x, Free and safe as a whig bailie on the causeway of his own borough, or a canting presbyterian minister in his own pulpit. 1837Syd. Smith Let. Archd. Singleton Wks. 1859 II. 276/2 Lord John Russell, the Whig leader. 1839Whittier Pr. Wks. (1889) II. 323 The late Whig defeat in New York. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. iii. liii. II. 333 The other section, which called itself at first the National Republican, ultimately the Whig party. 1912G. O. Trevelyan Geo. III & Fox I. 292 A rallying point for the hardy Whig militiamen of the Carolinas.
C. Comb., as Whig-Radical n. and adj.; Whig-defeating, Whig-hunting adjs.; Whig historian, a historian who interprets history as the continuing and inevitable victory of progress over reaction; Whig history, history written by or from the point of view of a Whig historian. † Whigland (obs. slang), the land of Whigs, esp. Scotland; hence † Whiglander, a native or inhabitant of ‘Whigland’.
1682T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 65 (1713) II. 152 A Cause-confounding, *Whig-defeating..Dispensation.
1924G. B. Shaw Saint Joan Pref. p. x, Her [sc. Joan's] ideal biographer..must understand the Middle Ages..much more intimately than our *Whig historians have ever understood them. 1980H. Trevelyan Public & Private 149 George Macaulay Trevelyan..was essentially a Whig historian, thus continuing the family tradition derived from his father and his kinsman Macaulay.
1931H. C. Butterfield Whig Interpretation of Hist. i. 6 The truth is that there is a tendency for all history to veer over into *whig history. 1973Listener 28 June 869/1 Macaulay..wrote consciously Whig history: yet..enunciated the principles of historical criticism which explains why Whig history is a distortion.
1905C. S. Terry Pentland Rising 2 The familiar *Whig-hunting duty of Claverhouse.
1681T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 45 (1713) II. 39 The Territories of *Whigg⁓land. 1683[J. Norris] Murnival of Knaves 16 Patron of all Dissenters, and The Demogorgon of Whigland. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Whig-land, Scotland.
1682Ballad, Happy Ret. Old Dutch Miller i, I am so Zealous for *Whiglanders Crew, I'l cure their Distempers with one Turn or Two.
1820J. Rickman Extr. Life & Lett. 10 Feb. 215 The address of the Yorkshire *Whig Radicals.
Hence (mostly humorous or contemptuous nonce-wds.) ˈWhiggarchy |-ɑːkɪ| [Gr. ἀρχή rule], government by Whigs; ˈWhiggess, a female Whig; ˈWhiggify v., trans. to make Whig or whiggish (so ˌWhiggifiˈcation); Whiˈggissimi [jocular f. with L. superl. ending], extreme or absolute Whigs; ˈWhiggize v., intr. to act like a Whig, play the Whig; Whiggoˈlogical a., relating to Whig principles; ˈWhiglet, ˈWhigling, a small or petty Whig (also attrib.); Whiˈgocracy [-cracy], government by Whigs; concr. a body of Whig rulers; ˈWhigship, the personality or quality of a Whig; † ˈWhigster [-ster], a contemptuous appellation for a Whig.
1712–13Swift App. to Cond. Allies Wks. 1841 I. 437/1 That they will not recognize any other government in Great Britain but *Whiggarchy only.
1776Pennsylvania Even. Post 2 Jan. 3/2 A reasonable *Whiggess scorns all implicit faith in the state as well as the church. 1839Lady Lytton Cheveley v, Whigesses always make their ‘début’ later than other girls.
1832J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. Sept. 387 We were all along against the *whiggification of the Tory System.
1682‘Philanax Misopappas’ Tory Plot ii. 3 If he preach up nothing but Hell and Heaven, and a good Life,..D - - - me, says he, this Fellow's *Whiggefi'd. 1835Fraser's Mag. XI. 364 They may aid..in whiggifying some of the propositions of the government. 1841Tait's Mag. VIII. 484 A whiggified Radical is a jobber.
1725Swift Let. to Sheridan 25 Sept., Because they are above suspicions, as *Whiggissimi and Unsuspectissimi. 1832J. Rickman Extr. Life & Lett. 18 Apr. 294 Whigs, Whiggamores, Whiggissimi.
1832J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. XXXII. 708, I don't like a Whig..but..I have even less affection for a *Whiggizing Tory.
1817Q. Rev. Oct. 135 Mr. Bentham will no doubt be thankful for so striking an illustration of his *whiggological theories.
1681T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 36 (1713) I. 232 Some tolerable Reasons why the little *Whiglets engag'd themselves in such an Affair. 1821Blackw. Mag. X. 221 You have made some of the Radicals and Whiglets, both of Edinburgh and Glasgow, feel.
Ibid. 3 Tears of joy and gratitude at beholding the *whiglings placed so near his Majesty's seat of honour. 1834Oxf. Univ. Mag. I. 41 The carping jibes of Whigling envy. 1883J. Wilson Ess. Hist. & Biogr. xvi. 289 The whole breed of Radicals, and Whiglings, and Cockneys.
1836Fraser's Mag. XIII. 568 Any of the *Whigocracy.
a1796Burns Stanzas on Naething 37 Her *whigship was wonderful pleased. 1846Landor Imag. Conv., Johnson & John Horne (Tooke) Wks. I. 166/1 People of your cast in politics are fond of vilifying our country. Is this your whigship?
1683Romulus & Hersilia Prol., Now I dare swear, some of you *Whigsters say, Come on, now for a swinging Tory Play.
▪ II. Whig, v.2
[f. Whig n.2]
trans. To behave like a Whig towards; intr. to play the Whig.
1681T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 39 (1713) I. 258 They will Whig us bravely indeed, if by the Pretences of the Fear of Popery and Arbitrary Government, Flanders and Germany should..fall into the Scale of France. 1695in C. Mackay Jacobite Songs (1861) 43 Say, was it foul, or was it fair, To come a hunder mile and mair, For to ding out my daddy's heir, And dash him wi' the whiggin o't. 1816Scott Old Mort. xxxvi, I think he will hardly neglect the parade of the feudal retainers, or go a-whigging a second time. 1832Lytton in Life, etc. (1883) II. viii. i. 280 They Whigged everything they touched. They gauged and docketed all the objects of Poetry. |