| 释义 |
nadir Astron.|ˈneɪdə(r)|
Also 5 naddyr, 7 nadyr.
[= F., Sp., Pg., and It. nadir, ad. Arab. naḍīr opposite to, over against (also used as n.). In sense 2 used ellipt. for naḍīr es-semt ‘opposite to the zenith’.]
†1. A point in the heavens diametrically opposite to some other point, esp. to the sun. Const. of and to. (See also quot. 1727–38.) Obs.
c1391Chaucer Astrol. ii. §6 The nadir of the sonne is thilke degree þat is opposit to the degree of the sonne, in the 7 signe, as thus, euery degree of aries bi ordre is nadir to euery degree of libra by ordre. Ibid. §36 Þe bygynnyng of the 7 hows is nadir of the Assendent, & the bygynnyng of the 8 hows is nadir of the 2. 1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. iv. Columnes 644 In what bright starry Signe, th' Almighty dread Daye's Princely Planet's dayly billeted; In which his Nadir is. 1727–38Chambers Cycl. s.v., Sun's Nadir is the axis of the cone projected by the shadow of the earth; thus called, in regard that the axis being prolonged, gives a point in the ecliptic diametrically opposite to the sun.
2. The point of the heavens diametrically opposite to the zenith; the point directly under the observer. Also attrib.
c1495The Epitaffe, etc. in Skelton's Wks. 1843 II. 393 Creatures more maddyr In erthe none wandreth atweene senit and naddyr. 1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 40 Nadir [under the figure of the globe]. 1593T. Fale Art Dial. 6 Above C. let Zenith be written, beneath D. Nadir. 1604R. Cawdrey Table Alph. (1613), Nadir, the point directly vnder vs opposite to the Zenith. 1625N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. v. 103 If the earth..bee placed neere the Nadir or midnight point, they will appeare greater in the East or West. 1727–38Chambers Cycl. s.v. Zenith, The nadir is the zenith to our antipodes, as our zenith is the nadir to them. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 516 All circles drawn through the zenith and nadir, are perpendicular to the horizon. a1821Keats Hyperion i. 276 From the nadir deep Up to the zenith. 1859Tennyson Merlin & V. 347 May this hard earth cleave to the Nadir hell.
fig.a1631Donne Select. (1840) 172, I can see him in the nadir, in the lowest dejection, and see how he works upon Joseph in the prison. 1675Traherne Chr. Ethics 408 [Humility] hath a nadir beneath it, a lower point in another heaven. 1693Congreve Double-Dealer i. ii, You shall command me from the zenith to the nadir.
†b. nadir to, directly under. Obs. rare.
1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 5 Note, that only then, when wee are Nadyr to the Sunne, we have no shadow. Ibid. 43 Muskat is a Citie..almost Nadyr to the crabbed Tropique.
3. transf. The lowest point (of anything); the place or time of greatest depression or degradation.
1793H. Walpole Let. to H. More Wks. 1846 VI. 496 The nadir of contempt. 1837Hallam Hist. Lit. i. i. §4 note, The seventh century is the nadir of the human mind in Europe. 1865W. G. Palgrave Arabia I. 361 The land, then at its very nadir in every respect. 1882Farrar Early Chr. II. 221 The Jewish and the heathen world, each at the nadir of their degradation and impiety.
attrib.1814Sortes Horatianæ 63 The black-letter of antiquity..has now, I think, reached its nadir point. 1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. iii. xvi. (1872) I. 239 This..is about the nadir-point of the Brandenburg-Hohenzollern History.
Hence ˈnadiral a. rare—1. [F. nadiral.]
1891T. Hardy Tess xxv, Its transcendental aspirations..based on the geocentric view of things, a zenithal paradise, a nadiral hell. |