| 释义 |
workaday, work-a-day, n. and a.|ˈwɜːkədeɪ|
Forms: α. 3 (Orm.) werrkedaȝȝ, werkedei, 4–5 werkeday(e. β. 6– workyday, 7– worky-day (6–7 workie-, 7 worki-, workey-). γ. 9 workaday, work-a-day.
[ME. werkeday (3 syllables), of uncertain origin: possibly f. gen. pl. (OE. weorca) of work n. + day n.1, but perh. more probably f. directly on these with assimilation to the trisyllabic sunnedei Sunday, messedei massday. The type workyday is due to the influence of holiday, and workaday presumably to that of nowadays.]
A. n. A day on which work is ordinarily done (distinguished from holiday); a work-day, working-day. Obs. or dial.
αc1200Ormin 11315 Forr ȝure wuke gifeþþ ȝuw Aȝȝ sexe werrkedaȝȝess. a1225Ancr. R. 18 Valleð to þer eorðe ȝif hit is werke dei, mit te Gloria Patri. 1387–8T. Usk Test. Love i. v. (Skeat) l. 104 After the seven werkedays of travayle. c1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 4971 In þe longe ȝere be werke daye[s] I-nowe. 1426Audelay Poems 80 On the werkeday ȝif that thou be About thi labor treuly. a1450Myrc Par. Pr. (1902) 893 For, a-pon þe werkeday, Men be so bysy in vche way.
β1550in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) II. i. xxvii. 218 That divers preachers within your diocess..do preach as well the worky days as the holy days. 1566Drant Horace, Sat. ii. F 5, On workyday I neuer coulde be taken With better meate..then roots or chimnye bacon. 1598–9B. Jonson Case is Altered iv. iii, Fellow Onion for thy sake I finish this workiday. 1603in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) II. 700 Sondaies, Holydaies, and workie days. 1653R. Flecknoe Misc. 127 He is one that makes alwayes Holy day for others, and worky-day for himself by taking upon him all the businesse. 1725Bourne Antiq. Vulg. xii. 116 We find a great Deference paid to Saturday Afternoon, above the other worky Days of the Week. 1789H. Walpole Let. to Mrs. H. More 20 July, What the common people call a worky⁓day. 1860W. White Wrekin xvii. 170 If our teacher ain't ashamed to stop and shake hands with us, o' worky-days.
γ1840Dickens Old C. Shop xlix, In the very clothes that he wore on work-a-days. 1883Harper's Mag. Jan. 238/2 Life was an unbroken work-a-day.
B. attrib. passing into adj. (cf. working day). Belonging to or characteristic of a work-day or its occupations; characterized by a regular succession or round of tasks and employments; of ordinary humdrum everyday life: freq. in phr. this workaday world.
β1554Bury Wills (Camden) 146 My worky day cassocke. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. i. ii. 55 Prythee tel her but a worky day Fortune. 1672Dryden Assignation iii. i, With such a Workiday-rough-hewn face too! 1751Miss Talbot Let. to Mrs. Carter 27 Sept., Oh this nasty worky-day world! 1877F. Jacox Scripture Prov. xlix. 545 In the common law of facts in this worky-day world.
γ1802Mrs. Radcliffe Gaston de Blondeville Posth. Wks. 1826 I. 6 The plain reality of this work-a-day world. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. xviii, The less of real, hard, struggling work-a-day life there is in that romance, the better. 1857Musgrave Pilgr. Dauphiné I. i. 8 Their work-a-day dress is a coarse brown or blue serge surtout. 1859Jephson Brittany xvii. 284 We cannot long indulge in day-dreams in this workaday world. 1874P. Russell Leaves Journalist's Note-bk. 53 Goswell-road is..one of the most work-a-day of London thoroughfares. 1898‘H. S. Merriman’ Roden's Corner xii. 128 He did not attempt to understand the lighter side of life, but took it seriously as a work-a-day matter. |