| 释义 |
mutability|mjuːtəˈbɪlɪtɪ|
[a. F. mutabilité, ad. L. mūtābilitās: see next and -ity.]
1. Disposition to change, variableness, inconstancy.
c1374Chaucer Troylus i. 851 Now sith hire whiel by no way may soiorne, what wastow if hire mutabilite Ryght as þi seluen list wol don by the. 1412–20Lydg. Troy Bk. i. v. (1513) C j b, They saye that chaunge and mutabylyte Apropred ben to femynyte. a1548Hall Chron., Edw. IV 191 The Duke of Somerset, was incontinently, for his greate mutabilitie and lightnes, behedded at Exam. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. ii. vii. §1 It would argue mutability in God to revoke that Law, and establish another instead of it. 1711Addison Spect. No. 162 ⁋6 This Mutability of Temper and Inconsistency with our selves is the greatest Weakness of human Nature, so [etc.]. 1838Thirlwall Greece III. xviii. 77 He had himself experienced the mutability of the public taste. 1883L. Villari Machiavelli & Times ii. i. III. 242 Of his easy mutability we find proofs in two of the various Discorsi written by him [sc. Guicciardini].
2. a. Liability to change.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) III. 223 For truly the firste trawthe whiche is God may not be where mutabilite is founde. 1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 433 That heavenly kingdome, which is not subject to mutabilitie or chaunge. 1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. ii. §6 The law whereby he worketh is eternall, and therefore can haue no shew or cullor of mutabilitie. 1622Bp. Hall Contempl., O.T. xvi. iv, How slippery are the stations of earthly honors, and subject to continuall mutabilitie. 1791Cowper Yardley Oak 70 What exhibitions various hath the world Witness'd of mutability in all That we account most durable below! 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. xxvii. 389, I endeavoured to satisfy myself of the mutability which had been ascribed to them [i.e. the veins in glaciers].
b. An instance of this.
1549Compl. Scot. i. 20 Prosperus men prouidis nocht to resist the occasions of the mutabiliteis. 1598Yong Diana 67 What place is there so strong, where one may be safe from the mutabilities of time? 1648Chas. I Declar. 22 Nov. Wks. (1662) 293 It is the humour of those who are of this Weather-cock-like disposition to love nothing but mutabilities. 1711Shaftesbury Misc. Refl. ii. iii. Charact. III. 95 We Islanders, fam'd for other Mutabilitys, are particularly noted for the Variableness..of our Weather. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets iii. 78 Simonides moralizes upon the mutabilities of life. 1888Plumptre Ken I. p. xi. note, One could scarcely find a more striking instance of the mutabilities of history.
3. Biol. The tendency to undergo, or capacity for undergoing, mutation.
1908J. A. Thomson Heredity iii. 92 It is possible that the prolific multiplication in a new environment may have had something to do with the awakening of the impulsive mutability [in Œnothera lamarckiana]. 1916Genetics I. 606 (heading) Mutability in different species of Drosophila. 1929Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. XV. 834 That gene..does not influence the mutability of the miniature-gamma gene. 1958Nature 11 Oct. 984/1 The sites in each segment have been plotted in order of decreasing mutability for each mutagen. 1974Ibid. 9 Aug. 493/2 There was no significant difference in mutability between the two strains. |