| 释义 |
▪ I. ‖ morgue1|mɔrg|
[Fr., of unknown origin.]
A haughty demeanour, haughty superiority, pride.
1599Jas. I βασιλ. Δωρον (1603) 116 Neither looking sillely, like a stupide pedant, nor vnsetledlie, with an vncouth morgue, like a new-comouer Caualier. 1614Bp. Forbes Def. Lawf. Ministers Ref. Ch. 65 A vaine..bravado, which to offer vs with a newe and high morgue, our adversaries have newlie bene animated, by their late supplement of fresche forces from beyond sea. 1829Scott Anne of G. xxix, Prudence..induced him to wave the morgue, or haughty superiority of a knight and noble towards an inferior personage. 1863M. Arnold Lett. 2 Dec., An amiable family, and with nothing at all of the English morgue. 1893F. Adams New Egypt 59 That official morgue, that narrow and unsympathetic self-satisfaction which has done us such incalculable harm in our dealings with other races.
▪ II. morgue2
(mɔːg, ‖ mɔrg)
[a. Fr.]
1. The name given to a building in Paris, in which the bodies of persons found dead are exposed, in order to be identified. Hence (esp. in the U.S.), any building or room used for the same purpose.
1821Sporting Mag. VIII. 69 ‘The Morgue’ where those who die by accident or self-murder are carried—a small building in Paris. 1885Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 4 May 1/7 The body was taken to the morgue.
attrib.1883Pall Mall G. 28 Nov. 3/1 He was a morgue-keeper [in New York].
2. slang.
a. In a newspaper office, the collection of material assembled for the future obituaries of persons still living.
1903E. L. Shuman Practical Journalism 103 This can be done with the aid of the ‘morgue’ or cabinet of biographical and obituary materials that is maintained in every wide-awake newspaper office. 1925B. Benefield Chicken-Wagon Family 94, I have written a column of assorted obituaries after having dug up enough material in the ‘Transcript's’ ‘morgue’ for six columns. 1951A. C. Clarke Sands of Mars xi. 136 In a score of newspaper offices, the copy culled from the Morgue began to be set up in type. 1964Listener 5 Nov. 732/2 The Raker begins in a newspaper obituary department, usually known as the Morgue. 1971L. M. Harrod Librarians' Glossary (ed. 3) 433 Morgue, a collection of obituary notices of famous living people kept up to date in newspaper offices. 1975J. Symons Three Pipe Problem xviii. 187 The Banner morgue was unusually comprehensive, and it contained some interesting material about Haynes.
b. Hence a ‘library’ of cuttings, photographs, and information in a newspaper office, film studio, etc., often including sense 2 a. Also attrib.
1918H. Croy How Motion Pictures are Made viii. 200 To make sure that the details are true, a studio has filed away in its morgue photographs of the life it wishes to depict. 1923G. C. Bastian Editing Day's News 10 The person in charge of the newspaper files, clippings, and pictures [is] called the ‘morgue librarian’. 1927Amer. Speech II. 238/2 A ‘morgue’ is a necessary department of a newspaper... Here photographs and engravings of prominent men, obituaries prepared in advance, pictures of buildings, ships, and even animals, and reference clippings on every conceivable subject are filed away ready for instant use. 1937Nat. Geogr. Mag. Feb. 148/2 Beside his [sc. Jack London's] California laurel desk, with its oil burning..lamp..is preserved his neat ‘morgue’, as writers call their reference library. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §606/2 Parts of Studio... morgue, the film filing room. 1962Listener 12 July 57/1 Cartoonists in the United States rely for day-to-day material on newspaper morgues and wire-photographs. 1972Times 16 May (Wall Street Suppl.) p. vii/2 Over to the New York Times for background material from their morgue: yes, the library is officially called that.
3. Comb. morgue-like, resembling a morgue (sense 1); morgue-man, the man in charge of a morgue (sense 2).
1913Cassell's Magazine of Fiction & Pop. Lit. June 50/1 The long deserted tables, shrouded in black covers, would have seemed *morgue-like to a casual observer. 1947G. Greene Nineteen Stories 28 Her large morgue-like mouth was full of blackened teeth.
1912Outlook (N.Y.) 14 Sept. 84/1 In some newspaper offices the *morgue man and his assistants..work inside of steel cages. 1935T. E. Lawrence Let. 4 Feb. (1938) 851 Let us now pass to the epitaph. Yes, Hogarth did the morgue-men a first sketch of me in 1920, and they are right to overhaul their stocks. |