| 释义 |
▪ I. memoir|ˈmɛmwɑː(r), -wɔː(r), ˈmɛmɔɪə(r)|
Also 6 memoyr, memor, 7–9 memoire, (7 memoyre, mesmoire).
[a. F. mémoire masc., a specialized use, with alteration of gender, of mémoire fem., memory. The change of gender is commonly accounted for by the supposition that the word in this use is elliptical for écrit pour mémoire; Sp., Pg., and It. have memoria fem. in all senses.
The quasi-Fr. pronunciation, which is still most frequently heard, is somewhat anomalous, as the word is fully naturalized in use, and has been anglicized in spelling; its continued currency is prob. due to the fact that -oir is unfamiliar as an ending of English words.]
†1. A note, memorandum; record; pl. records, documents. Obs.
1567in 6th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. 643/2 Memoyr off the silwer veschell delyverit be me to the lard of Drumblanryk. 1580Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 335 Quhairof ordanis the said maser to deliver the said Johnne sum memor in write, quhilk gif he find different from his awin speking that then he pen and put in write the same his speking. 1659Wood Life 16 Sept. (O.H.S.) I. 283 Georg Wharton..did take notice of this matter in his almanack anno 1661,..but puts the memoire under the XI of Sept. which is false. 1727Arbuthnot Tables Anc. Coins, etc. 188 There is not in any Author a Computation of the Revenues of the Roman Empire, and hardly any Memoirs from whence it might be collected. 1755N. Magens Insurances II. 261 That the Master be provided with a Memoir of Signals from the Commander of the Convoy.
2. In diplomatic and official use: = memorandum. rare. † Also in pl. official reports of business done.
1696Phillips, Memoirs..are papers deliver'd by Embassadore to the Princes or States to whom they are sent, upon occasions of Business. 1700J. A. Astry tr. Saavedra-Faxardo I. 222 Examine diligently all the Qualities of your Subjects, and after having given them any Place, look now and then into their Actions, and not be presently taken with, and deluded by the Draught of their Memoirs. 1829Baroness Bunsen in Hare Life (1879) I. ix. 323 Charles, at his request, wrote a memoir on the subject of the negociations of Protestant Powers with the Court of Rome.
3. collect. pl.
a. A record of events, not purporting to be a complete history, but treating of such matters as come within the personal knowledge of the writer, or are obtained from certain particular sources of information.
1659Pearson Creed (1839) 282 note, Pontius Pilate kept the memoirs of the Jewish affairs, which were therefore called Acta Pilati. a1661Fuller Worthies, Devon. i. (1662) 260 But abler Pens, will improve these Short Memoires into a large History. 1746A. Collins (title) Letters and Memorials of State... Also Memoirs of the Lives and Actions of the Sydneys. 1762Sterne Tr. Shandy vi. xxxvi, The following memoirs of my Uncle Toby's courtship. 1769N. Nicholls in Gray's Corr. (1843) 97 Why then a writer of memoirs is a better thing than an historian. 1790Paley Horæ Paul. i. 1 To deliver the history, or rather memoirs of the history, of this same person. 1860Westcott Introd. Study Gosp. vii. (ed. 5) 347 Their whole structure..serves to prove that they [the Synoptic Gospels] are memoirs and not histories.
b. A person's written account of incidents in his own life, of the persons whom he has known, and the transactions or movements in which he has been concerned; an autobiographical record.
1673Evelyn Diary 18 Aug., Nor could I forbeare to note this extraordinary passage in these memoires. 1676Wycherley Pl. Dealer Ded., Your virtues deserve..a volume entire to give the world your memoirs, or life at large. 1700Prior Carmen Seculare 426 To write his own memoirs, and leave his heirs High schemes of government, and plans of wars. 1710(title) Memoirs of an Unfortunate Young Lady. 1818Syd. Smith Wks. (1867) I. 237 Any one who provides good dinners for clever people, and remembers what they say, cannot fail to write entertaining memoirs. 1841Elphinstone Hist. Ind. II. 117 His Memoirs are almost singular in their own nature.
4. A biography, or biographical notice.
1826Life Dr. Franklin i. 6 (Stanf.) The subject of our memoir was born at Boston in New England. 1839G. Taylor (title) Memoir of Robert Surtees Esq. 1866Cates Maunder's Biog. Treas. Pref., The space thus gained is more usefully occupied, partly by re-written and fuller notices of names more generally interesting, and partly by entirely new memoirs.
5. An essay or dissertation on a learned subject on which the writer has made particular observations. Hence pl. the record of the proceedings or transactions of a learned society.
a1680Butler Rem. (1759) I. 14 Whilst the chiefs were drawing up This strange Memoir o' th' Telescope. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 103, I shall here..relate what I have learned of some Islles of the Archipelago, where I have not been, as well by what has been told me, as by a memoire that hath come to my hands. 1731Bailey vol. II, Memoi'rs,..a journal of the acts and proceedings of a society, as those of the royal society, &c. 1787Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 247 A memoire on a petrifaction mixed with shells. 1845G. Busk Steenstrup's Altern. Gener. 102 Miescher's interesting memoir on the forms which the genus Tetrarhynchus passes through. 1865(title) Memoirs read before the Anthropological Society of London. 1863–4.
†6. A memento, memorial. Obs. rare—1.
a1711Ken Christophil Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 518 Of Friends whom Death lays fast asleep, They Memoirs keep.
7. Comb., as memoir-writer, memoir-writing.
1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 224 The raw memoir-writings and unform'd pieces of modern statesmen, full of their interested and private views. 1762Ann. Reg. ii. 32 Count Zinzendorf is celebrated for his profound ministerial abilities by all the memoir writers of the present age. 1860W. G. Clark Vac. Tour 44 When two memoir-writers had told the same tale, they [Suetonius and Tacitus] accept it and endorse it, without a suspicion that both may be lying.
▪ II. memoir(e
obs. forms of memory. |