| 释义 |
modern, a. and n.|ˈmɒdən|
Also 6–7 moderne.
[ad. late L. modern-us (6th c.), f. modo just now (on the analogy of hodiernus that is of to-day, f. hodiē to-day). Cf. F. moderne, Sp., Pg., It. moderno, G. modern.]
A. adj.
†1. Being at this time; now existing. Obs. rare.
1500–20Dunbar Poems lxxxv. 5 Hodiern, modern, sempitern, Angelicall regyne! 1555Extracts Aberdeen Reg. (1844) I. 285 The next parliament, to be haldin..in name of our maist gracious quene moderne. 1597Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1876) I. 185 Hew, erle of Eglingtoune moderne. 1700Pennsylv. Archives I. 127 Being obliged to it by thy former as well as modern kindness. 1752Charter Soc. Antiq. Lond. 7 Wee have nominated..Martin Folkes, Esquire, to be the first and modern President of the said Society.
2. a. Of or pertaining to the present and recent times, as distinguished from the remote past; pertaining to or originating in the current age or period. spec. (the) modern Babylon: London; modern Greats: at Oxford University, the school of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
In Historical use commonly applied (in contradistinction to ancient and mediæval) to the time subsequent to the Middle Ages, and the events, personages, writers, etc. of that time. So modern history: see history 3 b.
1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. xv. 16 b, The writings of the auncient and moderne Geographers and Historiographers. 162.Bacon Let. to T. Matthew in Spedding Lett. VII. 429 For these modern languages will at one time or other play the bank-rowtes with books. 1656Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. ii. xxviii. (1674) 177 The women of this Modern Age had..need of amendment. 1676Ray Corr. (1848) 122 Much also he hath..taken out of some modern writer it hath not been my hap to see. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 275 There is another Aqueduct somewhat older, yet still modern. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey) Pref., Our English Tongue..may be said to equal, if not surpass all other Modern Languages. 1713Pope Guard. No. 4 ⁋2 The authoress of a famous modern romance. 1757J. H. Grose Voy. E. Indies 74 These last are of moderner date. 1757tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 400 Their country appears to have been situated..at a great distance from the modern Padua. 1774Mitford Ess. Harmony Lang. 260 The most admired modern masters. 1810E. D. Clarke Trav. Russia xxv. (1839) 120/1 Perhaps we are not authorised in considering the modern Greeks as legitimate descendants of the Getæ. 1835J. M. Wilson Tales of Borders I. 356, I proceeded to London... Months passed away, and I was still a wanderer upon the streets of the modern Babylon. 1847Disraeli Tancred III. v. v. 77 London is a modern Babylon. 1850Dickens Dav. Copp. xxxvi. 374 Bidding adieu to the modern Babylon. 1864Kirk Chas. Bold II. iv. i. 170 The close of the 15th century is universally recognized as..the starting-point..of Modern, in distinction from Mediæval, history. 1904A. Bennett Great Man viii. 79 The human tide which beats for ever on the shores of modern Babylon. [1909Wanted! A New School at Oxf. 4 It is a plan for, as it were, a modern-side Greats, based on Philosophy, but also..containing an admixture of certain other subjects.] 1922Joyce Ulysses 611 The sights of the great metropolis, the spectacle of our modern Babylon. 1925Times 15 July 19/3 The examiners in the Final Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (‘Modern Greats’) issued the following class list. 1935N. Mitchison We have been Warned ii. 146 He was..thinking what a rotten school Modern Greats was. 1971D. Scott A. D. Lindsay iii. 50 A new School of Politics, Philosophy and Economics—‘Modern Greats’.
b. Geol. and Zool. Belonging to a comparatively recent period in the life-history of the world.
1823Buckland Reliq. Diluv. 21 The modern hyæna is an inhabitant exclusively of hot climates. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 114 If such species be termed modern, in comparison to races which preceded them, their remains, nevertheless, enter into submarine deposits many hundred miles in length. 1873Dawson Earth & Man x. 248 The Modern Damans or Conies.
c. Prefixed to the name of a language to form a designation for that form of the language that is now in use, in contrast to any earlier form. In recent philology used technically to denote the last of the three periods into which it is customary to divide the history of living languages; distinguished from Old and Middle. modern English: see English n. 1 b.
1699M. Lister Journey to Paris 108 Another Book overwritten in a small Modern Greek Hand, about 150 years ago. 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. I. xxx. 275, I asserted that the modern Greek was as different from that spoke and written by the ancients, as the English used now from the old Saxon spoke in the time of Hengist. 1841Borrow Zincali I. ii. i. 235 The number of Persian, Sclavonian, and modern Greek words with which it [sc. the language of the ‘Gitános of Estremadura’] is chequered. 1900Clarke & Murray Dent's School Gram. Mod. French p. v, An attempt has been made to make this a grammar of modern French. 1927S. Jónsson Primer Mod. Icelandic p. v, The first suggestion that I should write a text book of modern Icelandic was made to me in 1917. 1971B. S. J. Isserlin Hebrew Word-Bk. 1 Grammatically modern Hebrew differs less from Biblical Hebrew than Old English does from Modern English. 1971N. Fisher Rise at Dawn x. 169 He was in Corfu and he speaks good modern Greek.
d. modern languages: as the designation of a department of study, ordinarily taken to include only the better-known living literary languages of Europe (sometimes merely French and German). Also attrib. in modern language master, modern school, modern tripos. Cf. quots. 162. and 1706 under sense 2 a.
1821H. C. Robinson Diary 3 Oct. (1967) 70 Sara Coleridge..has taught herself modern languages, and is said to have great talent. 1838Dubl. Univ. Cal. 55 Medals for Modern Languages. 1862Rep. Publ. Schools Comm. (1864) III. 257 (Eton) With respect to modern languages, they are not cared for much, are they? 1932Auden Orators i. i. 19 The really disgusted—the teacher of modern languages. 1961R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts xvii. 377 In modern-language teaching what is modern is the languages; in modern language teaching what is modern..is the teaching of languages.
e. With reference to secondary education, applied (in contradistinction to classical) to subjects of school instruction other than the ancient languages and literature. modern school, (a) in some English public schools, a separately organized division of the school in which ‘modern subjects’ form nearly the whole curriculum, Greek (and, usually, advanced Latin) not being taught; (b) a secondary modern school. modern side = modern school (a).
1862Rep. Publ. Schools Comm. (1864) IV. 281 There would be this danger;..that idle and incapable boys would wish to enter this modern school to get off Latin composition and Greek. 1881F. E. Hulme Town, Coll., & Neighb. Marlborough 91 In the modern school the subjects of instruction are mathematics [etc.]. 1887Pall Mall G. 7 Nov. 2/2 ‘Modern sides’ are either effective (as they all ought to be) or non-effective. If the former, there are scholarships in ‘modern subjects’ for them to win. 1905Macm. Mag. Nov. 78 [At Harrow] the Modern Side is not self-contained in the sense of having a separate staff. It has been thought that any attempt to group Modern Side boys together and apart under separate masters and tutors would be unwise. 1944Ann. Reg. 1943 62 Three main types of secondary schools—grammar, modern, and technical. 1957Listener 13 June 951/1 The 1944 [Education] Act had brought the modern school into being. 1975Times 29 Aug. 10/4 When university entrance is considered there is a 47 per cent advantage of the combined grammar and modern schools over the comprehensives.
f. absol. That which is modern. † upon the modern: ? peculiar to modern times.
1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) I. 165, I apprehend that this character is pretty much upon the modern. In all ancient or dead languages we have no term any way adequate, whereby we may express it. 1905Daily Chron. 21 Jan. 4/6 He rejoices in that inability to depict the modern which is the most convincing sign of the contemporary.
g. Typogr. Used to designate a group of type-faces developed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, distinguished by flat serifs, increased contrast between the thick and thin parts of the letters, and an effect of greater precision and vertical emphasis in use. Also modern-cut, modern-face(d) adjs.
1808C. Stower Printer's Gram., (heading) Specimens of modern-cut printing types, from the founderies of Messrs. Fry and Steele, and Messrs. Caslon and Catherwood. 1819R. Austin in A. F. Johnson Type Designs (1934) iii. 97 The modern or new fashioned faced printing-type at present in use was introduced by the French, about 20 years ago. 1874G. Simpson in Geo. Eliot Lett. (1956) VI. 44 Tinted paper ought never to be used with modern faced type. It suits ancient face only. 1894Amer. Dict. Printing & Bookmaking 379/2 Modern faces, these are those kinds of Romans which have been cut since the beginning of the century. 1902T. L. De Vinne Pract. Typogr.: Treat. Title-Pages 234 Of modern-cut types we have many varieties. 1926S. Morison Type Designs 31 The main distinguishing characteristic of the modern-face is that the serif is thinner, longer and more refined than in the old-face. The difference as between the stem and the hair-line is more marked, and the general note of ‘modern’ is that of extreme precision and a certain perpendicularity. 1934A. F. Johnson Type Designs iii. 73 During the eighteenth century the design of our roman types underwent a radical change, resulting in the style which we know as modern face, the type of the nineteenth century and still the type used in our newspapers and most of our books. 1972P. Gaskell New Introd. Bibliogr. 210 By the second decade of the nineteenth century English printers were using modern face almost exclusively.
h. Of a movement in art and architecture, or the works produced by such a movement: characterized by a departure from or a repudiation of accepted or traditional styles and values. Cf. abstract A. 4 d.
[1849Art Jrnl. XI. 69/3 Between this society and one begun some years ago for the encouragement of modern Art and native artists, there should be no rivalry.] 1895R. Muther Hist. Mod. Painting I. 10 Because this distinction between the eclectic and the personal, the derived and the independent, has not yet been carried out with sufficient strictness..it has hitherto..been found so difficult to discover the distinctive style of modern art. 1927C. Bell Landmarks 19th-Cent. Painting 5 Géricault and then Delacroix were the new influences in France; in England the innovator was Constable. From these points of departure you can trace the whole glorious history of modern art. 1929H. R. Hitchcock Mod. Archit. xvii. 201 There is..little to compare with the unconsciously ‘modern’ work of those architects who continued the English tradition. 1938O. Lancaster Pillar to Post 74 When, shortly after the War, the Modern Movement..was first brought to public notice it led to a natural and healthy reaction against the excessive ornament..of the previous generation. 1958S. W. Cheney Story Mod. Art (rev. ed.) p. v, I have accepted here the broadest traditional usage of the term ‘modern art’ as covering the course of creative invention since 1800. 1972P. M. Bardi Archit. xix. 117/1 The flight of refugees from the Nazis..scattered the pioneers of the Modern movement across western Europe and America. 1973Times 19 June 14/4 A Child of Six Could Do It, [an exhibition of] cartoons about modern art at the Tate.
i. In full, modern first (edition). A bookseller's term for the first edition of a book published after about 1900. Also absol. or as n.
1922M. Sadleir Excursions in Victorian Bibliogr. 7 The dapper expert in ingenious moderns with his prefaces, his cancel-titles, [etc.]. 1952J. Carter ABC for Bk.-Collectors 122 Modern firsts, a category widely employed but..impossible to define with any precision, since its use among antiquarian booksellers is, and probably always will be, quite unstandardised. At present (1951) it commonly extends as far back as 1900, and will often include books published before that date if their author's hey-day was after it. 1968Bertram Rota Ltd. Catal. No. 158 (verso front cover), We are always pleased to receive offers of modern first editions and private press books in fine state. 1973Directory of Dealers Secondhand & Antiquarian Bks. Brit. Isles 1973–75 240 E. H. Bucknall..modern first editions. 1975Bibliognost Aug. 5 The chance that someone will find a simple first edition of a modern author is slim, because [John F.] Fleming's firsts are very special... Each would be priced well above the average cost of ‘moderns’.
3. a. Characteristic of the present and recent times; new-fashioned; not antiquated or obsolete. In spec. phrases: modern convenience, an amenity, device, fitting, etc., such as is usual in a modern house; freq. pl.; cf. con.; modern dance, a free expressive style of dancing distinct from classical ballet (see quots.); hence modern dancer, modern dancing vbl. n.; modern jazz, jazz of a type which originated during and after the war of 1939–45.
1590Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons 8 b, Without composing them of diuers sorts of weapons, according to the moderne vse. 1598Barret Theor. Warres Gloss. 251 Moderne warre, is the new order of warre vsed in our age. 1605B. Jonson Volpone iii. iv, He has so moderne, and facile a veine, Fitting the time, and catching the court-eare. 1676G. Etherege Man of Mode i. i, Bell. He thinks himself the Pattern of modern Gallantry. Dor. He is indeed the Pattern of modern Foppery. 1701De Foe True-born Eng. 24 But England, Modern to the last degree Borrows or makes her own Nobility. 1859[see dish-lift s.v. dish n. 10]. 1872Howells Wedd. Journ. (1892) 79 They conjectured..flavours of Tennyson and Browning in his verse, with a moderner tint from Morris. 1885Academy 24 Jan. 53/1 Perhaps Gray is at his modernest in the ‘Ode on Vicissitude’,..if not most modern of all in that final quatrain of the Elegy which Gray's feeling for unity expunged. 1885J. Payn Talk of Town I. 130 A writing on the wall, which, albeit it was not in modern characters, needed..no interpreter. 1898Westm. Gaz. 26 Jan. 3/2 Against such foes, men with the modernest artillery and highest explosives are utterly powerless. 1912E. L. Urlin Dancing Anc. & Mod. p. xv, Modern dances..[are] derived from some primary human instinct, such as Worship, Mimicry, Love, or War... Modern dancing begins where..the art survives solely on account of the pleasure it gives to the performer, or to the spectator. 1926Times 6 May 1/6 (Advt.), Superior accommodation in lady's quiet house..all modern conveniences. 1933J. Martin Mod. Dance 2 There are as many methods and systems of modern dancing as there are dancers. Ibid. 3 By the modern dance we..imply by a method of negation those types of dancing which are neither classic nor romantic. 1937E. St. V. Millay Conversation at Midnight i. 15 Peace and Quiet poured down the sink, In exchange for a houseful of ‘modern conveniences’. 1955D. Gillespie in Shapiro & Hentoff Hear Me Talkin' to Ya xix. 300 No one man or group of men started modern jazz. 1957G. B. L. Wilson Dict. Ballet 188 Modern dance, the term used to designate a variety of styles which are not founded on the danse d'école (i.e. the Classical ballet). Ibid. 189 Modern Dance claims to make much use of ‘natural movements’ and it is also a reflexion of a state of mind. 1961Metronome Apr. 12 By the 1950's ‘modern’ jazz, as the more advanced developments were termed, had to free itself both from esoteric tendencies within jazz itself and from over-dependence on Western European classical traditions. 1968J. Winearls Mod. Dance (ed. 2) 9 The title ‘Modern Dance’ distinguishes those kinds which have been invented, developed, or adapted from various sources during the past half-century and which are clearly marked by an expressive style quite different from that of other forms such as National, Folk, Musical Comedy or Ballet. Ibid., Modern Dancers consider that Ballet cannot deal satisfactorily with all possible dance-subjects.
b. in disparaging use.
1753Richardson Grandison (1811) V. xiii. 83 You..are not a modern woman; have neither wings to your shoulders, nor gad-fly in your cap: you love home.
c. Her. in France modern: see quot. 1893.
1889P. O. Hutchinson in Notes & Gleanings (Exeter) II. 50/2 The French arms are represented as ‘France Modern’. 1893Cussans Her. (ed. 4) 223 Henry the Fourth:..three Fleurs-de-lys were substituted for a field semé, for the Arms of France. This alteration..constituted what is commonly known as France modern.
†4. Every-day, ordinary, commonplace. (Frequent in Shaks.) Obs.
1591Lodge Catharos H 3, It..maketh him blinde and inconsiderate in matters aswell moderne, as necessarie to his saluation. 1595Shakes. John iii. iv. 42 Then..would I..rowze from sleepe that fell Anatomy..Which scornes a moderne Inuocation! 1600― A. Y. L. ii. vii. 156 The Justice, With eyes seuere and beard of formall cut, Full of wise sawes and moderne instances. 1610B. Jonson Alch. iv. i, Why, this is yet A kind of moderne happinesse, to haue Dol Common for a great lady.
5. Comb. with adjs. and pa. pples., as modern-bred, modern-built, modern-looking, modern-made, modern-minded, modern-practised, modern-sounding. Also modern-day, modern-dress, modern-style (attrib.).
1808H. More Cœlebs I. i. 9 The mind of a true *modern-bred lady.
1811Jane Austen Sense & Sens. III. vi. 111 Cleveland was a spacious, *modern-built house. 1905Daily Chron. 28 Dec. 4/4 Most of these furnaces are modern built.
1909Westm. Gaz. 5 July 2/3 No one can fail to be impressed by the seriousness of *modern-day cricket. 1965Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Nov. 1075/4 Philip Bummidge is a modern-day Hamlet.
1885J. K. Jerome On the Stage 64 For ordinary *modern-dress parts, we had to use our own things entirely.
1849J. Forbes Physician's Holiday vi. (1850) 58 The church is..more *modern-looking than the rest of the town.
1899Daily News 27 Mar. 2/7 The allegation was that the punches had been forged and used upon *modern-made silver-plate to represent antique goods.
1907Dublin Rev. July 191 The author is at times betrayed into making Neri almost impossibly *modern-minded. 1970Guardian 15 Jan. 12 Nigeria needs to prove that it is stable, modern-minded and representative.
1754A. Murphy Gray's-Inn Jrnl. No. 86 Many of his Turns did not allude to *modern-practised Life.
1903Daily Chron. 10 June 7/1 A piece with the more *modern-sounding title of ‘The Court of Comfort’.
1883‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississippi 427 Inviting *modern-style pleasure resorts. 1927Melody Maker Aug. 781/2 The voice again is heard together with trumpet and saxophones alternating in a modern-style extemporisation. 1975Guardian 20 Jan. 8/3 Modern-style choreography.
B. n. (Chiefly in pl.)
1. a. One who lives in or belongs to the present time; one who belongs to a modern as contrasted with an ancient period or epoch.
1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. ii. 2 b, The Iles Baleares, so aunciently called: but by the modernes Maiorque and Minorque. 1609B. Jonson Silent Wom. iv. ii, He must have Seneca read to him, and Plutarch, and the ancients; the moderns are not for this disease. 1717Prior Alma i. 520 Some in ancient books delight; Others prefer what moderns write. 1784Europ. Mag. May 366/2 No modern has been heard to play an adagio with greater taste and feeling. 1812T. Taylor Diss. Philos. Aristotle (title-p.), The insufficiency also of the Philosophy that has been substituted by the Moderns for that of Aristotle is demonstrated. 1840Penny Cycl. XVII. 2/1 (Organ), In point of touch, and mechanism generally, the moderns are far superior to their predecessors. 1888W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 539 The old moderns, say Chaucer, Spenser and Le Sage.
b. transf. applied to a thing.
1735J. Price Stone-Br. Thames 14 Description of many fine Bridges..in Italy wherein the finest among the Moderns is the Farnesian. 1975Country Life 2 Jan. 37/2 In the visual arts the Walker Art Centre houses a world-famous collection of moderns.
2. One whose tastes or opinions are modern; a member of the modern school of thought in relation to any subject.
1897Mag. of Art 283 It will be deemed old-fashioned by the latest of moderns. 1905J. Orr Probl. O.T. xii. 453 note, Most of the moderns deny the supernatural character of prophecy.
▸ modern dress n. contemporary clothing; spec. costumes for a theatrical production in a style from the period of performance rather than that of a play's setting or time of writing.
1688W. Canning Gesta Grayorum Ep. Ded., The Language it self is all that Age could afford; which, allowing something for the *Modern Dress and Words in Fashion, is not beneath any we have now. 1707D. Defoe Caledonia ii. 20 And when the Characters we shall compare, A Northern Highland-man's a Christian there. Polite his Manners, and his Modern Dress, Is Beauty all, when match'd with Ugliness. 1854Chambers's Jrnl. 1 124 She looked like a Greek statue that had come alive, and by mere contact classicised its modern dress. 1899Times 29 Nov. 6/2 Aynsworth and Sneer as Dangle and Kerr appeared in modern dress, which was somewhat unusual. 1979Whig-Standard (Kingston, Ontario) 31 Mar. 6/2 It is mainly for this reason that Ayatollah Khumaini has called upon Iranian women to trade their modern dress for the Burka. 2001Guardian 22 Oct. i. 16/1 One of the most appealing qualities of Rennie Harris's hip-hop version of Romeo and Juliet is that it has none of the self-conscious hipness of Shakespeare performed in modern dress. |