| 释义 |
Moloch|ˈməʊlɒk|
[a. L. Moloch (Vulg.), Gr. Μόλοχ, Μολόχ (LXX), repr. Heb. ˈmōlek. It is believed that the true form of the name (or rather title) was ˈMelek king (cf. the name of the Tyrian god Melcarth, ‘king of the city’), but that the Jews after the Captivity pronounced it with the vowels of ˈbōsheth shame, in order to mark their horror of idolatry.
The Bible of 1611 has the name always as Molech, exc. in Amos v. 26, where it has ‘your Moloch’, though the Masoretic reading of the Heb. is malk⊇kem ‘your king’. The earlier Eng. versions spell the name Moloch after the Vulgate.]
1. The name of a Canaanite idol, to whom children were sacrificed as burnt-offerings (Lev. xviii. 21); represented by Milton as one of the devils. Hence (as appellative, but now always with capital M), applied to an object to which horrible sacrifices are made. Also attrib.
The Rabbinical story that children were burnt alive (being placed in the arms of the image, whence they fell into the flames) appears to be unfounded, but is popularly well-known, and has influenced the transferred use.
1667Milton P.L. i. 392 Moloch, horrid King besmear'd with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents tears. 1794Coleridge Relig. Musings 185 Thee to defend the Moloch Priest prefers The prayer of hate. 1799Sporting Mag. XII. 332 The moloch to whom her honour and happiness had been sacrificed. 1817Coleridge Statesm. Man. App. 10 The Molocks [sic] of human nature. 1838Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 394/2 More lives have been sacrificed to the Moloch of high pressure steam, than [etc.]. 1882Barlow Ultim. Pessimism 49 The trouble of rearing new victims for the Moloch of culture. 1868W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 237 This holocaust, this human incense, this Moloch-squeezing of innocents [a hot Sunday in school chapel].
2. The thorn-lizard or thorn-devil, Moloch horridus, native of Australia, one of the most grotesque and hideous of existing reptiles. Also attrib., as moloch-lizard (Ogilvie Suppl. 1855).[The mod.L. Moloch horridus (Gray 1841) was suggested by Milton's expression: see quot. 1667, sense 1.] 1845J. E. Gray Catal. Specim. Lizards Brit. Mus. 263 The Moloch, Moloch horridus, Gray. 1893Daily News 22 Dec. 5/4 Australia produces many curiosities..but few are greater oddities in..appearance than the Moloch lizard. Ibid., The Moloch is decidedly the most remarkable of recent additions to the Reptile House.
3. A Brazilian monkey, Callithrix moloch.
1875Encycl. Brit. II. 155 The Moloch Callithrix. 1893Roy. Nat. Hist. I. 173 Another Brazilian species is the Moloch titi (Callithrix moloch).
Hence ˈMolochship nonce-wd.
1661Cowley Govt. Cromwell Wks. (1688) 57 To set himself up as an Idol,..and make the very Streets of London like the Valley of Hinnom, by burning the bowels of men as a Sacrifice to his Moloch-ship. |