| 释义 |
necessary, a. and n.|ˈnɛsɪsərɪ|
Forms: 4–7 necessarie (5 -ari, 6 -arye, nessarre, nessesary, 7 nesesary), 4– necessary.
[ad. L. necessārius, f. necesse needful: see -ary. Cf. It. necessario, Sp. necesario, F. nécessaire (13th c.). See also necessaire a., necessar a. In early use the pl. form of the adj. sometimes occurs.]
A. adj.
I.
1. a. Indispensable, requisite, essential, needful; that cannot be done without. Also const. to or for (a person or thing) and with inf. Phr. necessary evil.
In 16th and early 17th c. use freq. approaching the sense of ‘useful’ without being absolutely indispensable.
1382Wyclif Eccl. xxxix. 31 The bygynnyng of necessarie thing to the lif of men. 1387–8T. Usk Test. Love iii. iii. (Skeat) l. 42 Bicause this mater is good and necessary to declare. a1400–50Alexander 125 Þen takis to him tresour..And oþire necessari notis as nedis to his craftis. 1462Paston Lett. II. 16 Remembryng divers maters..necessary for the wele of his sowle. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §1 Than is the ploughe the most necessaryest instrumente that an husbande can occupy. 1547W. Baldwin Treat. Morall Phylosophie iii. xv. sig. O5v A woman is a necessary euyll. 1583Golding Calvin on Deut. cxxvi. 775 Were there no greater and necessarier things to speak of than young birdes? 1617Moryson Itin. i. 174, I prepared all things necessary for my journey. c1645Howell Lett. (1650) I. 329 They advance trade wheresoever they come,..and so are permitted as necessary evils. 1671Milton Samson 90 Since light so necessary is to life. 1704Swift T. Tub ii, Obedience was absolutely necessary, and yet Shoulder-Knots appeared extremely requisite. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 24 ⁋2 What more can be necessary to the regulation of life..? 1765Johnson in Shakes. Plays I. Pref. p. lxix, Notes are often necessary, but they are necessary evils. 1776T. Paine Common Sense 1 Society in every state is a blessing, but Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one. 1815C'tess Granville Let. 18 July (1894) I. 54 The humiliation of now having him is great, but he is reasonable about it and thinks it a necessary evil. 1832H. Martineau Life in Wilds iv. 47 Food is the most necessary of all things. 1863Country Gentleman 16 Apr. 254/3 The manuring of the vines is regarded as ‘a necessary evil’. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 12 Change and alternation are necessary for the mind as well as for the body. 1927E. O'Neill Marco Millions i. iv. 51 Don't waste pity. Her kind are necessary evils.
b. it is necessary that or with inf. Also ellipt. with omission of the complement.
c1386Chaucer Manciple's Prol. 95 It is necessarie..good drink we with us carie. c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. iv. (1885) 118 Trewly it is veray necessarie that thay be alwey grete. a1533Ld. Berners Huon lxxxiv. 264 It is not necessarye to requyre me of this. 1582N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. i. lxv. 133 We fought in open fielde, where it was necessarie there should be many. 1649Bp. Reynolds Hosea vi. 91 It is necessarie for us to draw nigh unto God. a1699A. Halkett Autobiog. (Camden) 2 Wch. I have by mee to produce if itt were nesesary. 1747Wesley Prim. Physick (1762) p. xvii, It was necessary to have a variety. 1776Trial of Nundocomar 27/2 Is it necessary that such a writing as this be confirmed by witness? 1841Lane Arab. Nts. I. 86 When he had continued this exercise as long as was necessary.
†c. Commodious, convenient. Obs. rare.
1540–1Elyot Image Gov. 40 b, He caused..the houses to be not onely clensed, but also made more ornate and necessary. 1547–8in E. Green Somerset Chantries (1888) 25 The same Scolehowse..no doubte is [the] most bewtyfull and most necessarie place of all that shire.
d. necessary condition = condition n. 4; cf. sufficient condition.
1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. ix. 136, I began to ask myself; is a system of philosophy..possible? If possible, what are its necessary conditions? 1859Mill On Liberty i. 9 The consent of the community..was made a necessary condition to some of the more important acts of the governing power. 1949A. Pap Elem. Analytic Philos. x. 212 If a sufficient condition is complex—as it almost invariably is—then it may consist in a conjunction of necessary conditions. 1965E. J. Lemmon Beginning Logic i. 28 Whenever it is the case that only if P then Q, P is a necessary condition for Q.
2. Of persons, esp. servants: Rendering (certain) necessary or useful services; in later use only necessary woman (now arch.).
1425Rolls of Parlt. IV. 306/1 Clerks necessaries beyng in ye service of ye Prince. 1501in Letters Rich. III. & Hen. VII (Rolls) I. App. A. vii, That no persone.., except he be a necessary officier, ride befor out of the company of the said princesse. 1599Nashe Lenten Stuffe (1871) 60 Those that be his stewards, or necessariest men about him. 1607Shakes. Cor. ii. i. 91 You are well vnderstood to bee a perfecter gyber for the Table, then a necessary Bencher in the Capitoll. 1679–88Secr. Serv. Money Chas. & Jas. (Camden) 194 Late necessary woman to King Charles the Second. 1711Swift Jrnl. to Stella 9 Nov., I want a necessary woman strangely; I am as helpless as an elephant. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 325 A most necessary handy Fellow as could be desir'd. 1762Chron. in Ann. Reg. 98/2 Attendants on..the prince of Wales,..Wet nurse,..Dry nurse,..Necessary woman. 1899Tit-Bits 1 Apr. 10/2 The most interesting member of all the [Queen's] kitchen staff is, perhaps, the ‘necessary woman’.
3. necessary house, a privy. So necessary place, necessary stool, necessary vault. Now dial.
1609N. Field Woman is Weathercock iv. i, She shew'd me to a necessarie vault. 1611― Amends for Ladies ii. iv, I met her in the necessary house. 1667Primatt City & C. Build. 93 The digging of Vaults for the Necessary-house. 1697C'tess D Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 232 There being no necessary places in their Houses. 1761Nicholls in Phil. Trans. LII. 267 He appeared to have just come from his necessary-stool. 1789Brand Newcastle I. 176 In the wall of the western front have been several necessary-houses. 1828Bentham Mem. & Corr. Wks. 1843 X. 582 Written pleadings are of no more use in a court than they would be in a necessary-house.
4. Of actions: Requiring or needful to be done.
1601Shakes. Jul. C. ii. i. 178 This shall make Our purpose Necessary, and not Enuious. 1655S. Ashe Funeral Serm. Gataker 49 Constant retirement..made the choice..a necessary act of prudence. 1716Jeffery Pref. Sir T. Browne's Chr. Mor., Where an Oversight had made the Addition or Transposition of some words necessary. 1771Junius Lett. lxiv. (1788) 336 In this sense the levy of ship-money..was not necessary. 1819Shelley Cenci iii. ii. 8 Still doubting if that deed Be just which is most necessary. 1858Greener Gunnery 156 We never saw it done,..but the Doctor decribes it as a necessary proceeding.
II.
5. a. Inevitably determined or fixed by predestination or the operation of natural laws; happening or existing by an inherent necessity.
c1374Chaucer Boeth. v. pr. iv. (1868) 164 Þilke þinges þat ne han non endes and bytidynges necessaryes. 1387–8T. Usk Test. Love iii. iv. (Skeat) l. 40 God than..al these thinges, as they arne spontanye or necessarie, seeth. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iii. i. 87 By the necessarie forme of this, King Richard might create a perfect guesse. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. ii. iii. (1651) 258 Columbus did not find out America by chance:..it was contingent to him, but necessary to God. a1676Hale Prim. Orig. Man. (1677) 37 Otherwise we must of necessity make all successes in the World purely natural and necessary. 1720Waterland Eight Serm. Pref. 20 We are not indeed to expect the Word necessary existence (a School Term, and none of the most proper). 1784Cowper Task ii. 192 Of causes, how they work By necessary laws their sure effects. 1826Whately Logic 290 It is ‘mathematically Necessary’ that two sides of a triangle should be greater than the third. 1875E. White Life in Christ iii. xxiii. (1878) 339 The identification..of the Necessary Being with the vanishing phantasmal shadow.
b. Of mental concepts or processes: Inevitably resulting from the constitution of things or of the mind itself.
1551T. Wilson Logike (1580) 31 b, The other called infallible reasons, or rather necessarie argumentes, must by all reason be euermore true. 1628T. Spencer Logick 157 A necessary axiome, is when it is alwayes true, and cannot be false. 1656Stanley Hist. Philos. v. (1701) 180/1 Syllogism [is divided] into the Apodeictick, which concerneth necessary ratiocination [etc.]. 1705Stanhope Paraphr. II. 264 The Connexion..is not so close and necessary, as will warrant us from the Former certainly to infer the Latter. 1856Ferrier Inst. Metaph. 20 A necessary truth or law of reason is a truth the opposite of which is inconceivable. 1878J. Cook Transcendentalism i. 19 The ideas of space and time are called in philosophy necessary ideas.
c. Inevitably determined or produced by a previous condition of things.
1860Westcott Introd. Study Gosp. i. (ed. 5) 78 Active speculation followed as a necessary result. 1872J. L. Sanford Estim. Eng. Kings 336 He was quite as incapable..of perceiving its necessary issues.
6. Of actions:
a. Determined by force of nature or circumstances.
1387–8T. Usk Test. Love iii. iv. (Skeat) l. 27 If a man wol sinne, it is necessarye him to sinne. 1706Stanhope Paraphr. III. 529 The first Motions of Anger seem to be mechanical and necessary. 1855Abp. Thomson Laws Th. §122 The necessary action, where all the motives are on one side.
b. Enforced by another; compulsory.
1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. vi. §51 In the following words, he taketh away all necessary Oaths (and leaveth none but voluntary). 1677W. Hughes Man of Sin ii. vii. 115 Such Penance, were it voluntary, deserveth greatly to be admired at; but when 'tis necessary, and upon a Prince, is worthy of utmost detestation.
7. Of agents:
a. Impelled by the natural force of circumstances upon the will; having no independent volition.
1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxi. §13 Agents that have no Thought, no Volition at all, are in every thing necessary Agents. 1774Wesley Wks. (1872) X. 462 They all agree, that man is not a free but a necessary agent. 1871R. H. Hutton Ess. (1877) I. 53 That a necessary being should give birth to a being with any amount, however limited, of moral freedom.
b. Compelled by practical necessity, or by some law or regulation.
1724Swift Drapier's Lett. iii. Wks. 1751 VIII. 337 The Necessary Receivers [of Wood's halfpence] will be Losers of two Thirds in their Salaries or Pay. a1768Erskine Inst. Sc. Law (1773) 146 Servants are..either necessary or voluntary. Those may be called necessary whom the law obliges to work. 1880Muirhead Gaius ii. 153 A necessary heir is a slave instituted with gift of freedom; so called because in every case, whether he will or not, he straightway on the testator's death becomes free and heir. 1893Fowler Hist. C.C.C. (O.H.S.) 42 The ‘necessary regents’ among the Masters, that is, those Masters of Arts who had not yet completed two years from the date of that degree.
III. †8. [After L. use.] Closely related or connected; intimate. Obs. rare.
1382Wyclif Job vi. 13 There is not helpe to me in me; also my necessarie men [L. necessarii] wenten awei fro me. 1655Stanley Hist. Philos. iii. (1701) 81/2 Such as seek after Sordid Gain, and neglect their necessary Friends.
B. n.
1. That which is indispensable; an essential or requisite:
a. in pl.
a1340Hampole Psalter xxxiii. 9 God..hight til his lufers þaire necessaris. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xx. 248 Ȝe shal haue bred and clothes, And other necessaries i-nowe. 1415E.E. Wills (1882) 23, I woll that..my wyfe haue all the necessaries. 1489Caxton Faytes of A. i. xii. 31 Shot and all other deffensable necessaryes. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §19 To cary wodde and other necessaryes. 1592Greene Conny Catch iii. 28 He came vp to London to prouide himselfe of such necessaries as the Cuntry is not vsually stored withall. 1663Gerbier Counsel 25 The materials, and all necessarys as they are brought in. 1711Steele Spect. No. 114 ⁋5 The Care of Superfluities is a Vice no less extravagant, than the Neglect of Necessaries. 1788Priestley Lect. Hist. iii. xv. 124 The articles of their expence must be the necessaries of life. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) VI. 345 If a man devises lands..to provide his children with necessaries. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 348 The money to buy the necessaries of their household.
b. in sing.
1516Galway Arch. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. V. 397 No man..shall not lende galley, botte, nor barque.., nor no furnitors or necessary to them appertayninge. 1663Gerbier Counsel e 3 b, From the least that lives to the greatest Building is a main necessary. 1682A. Behn City Heiress ii. i, That damn'd Necessary call'd Ready Money. 1724Swift Drapier's Lett. i, Your Bread and Clothing, and every common Necessary of Life. 1771F. Burney Early Diary (1889) I. 135 She denied herself every necessary. 1833H. Martineau Loom & Lugger i. iv. 60 A foreign article, be it a necessary or a luxury. 1884American VII. 339 The cost of this necessary [salt] since the duty was imposed upon it.
c. attrib., as necessaries-man, one who supplies necessaries to a vessel to enable her to continue the voyage; necessary money (see quot. 1867).
1866Law Rep., Adm. & Eccl. I. 305 A necessaries-man has until institution of suit no claim upon a Vessel. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 495 Necessary Money..formerly allowed to pursers for the coals, wood, turnery-ware, candles, and other necessaries provided by them.
†2. A near friend or kinsman. Obs. rare—1.
1382Wyclif 2 Macc. iv. 3 By summe necessaries (or niȝ freendis) of Symount man-sleayngus weren don.
†3.
a. pl. Necessary expenses. Obs. rare—1.
c1449Pecock Repr. iii. xi. 347 Her endewing so myche schranke..that it was aftirward ouer litle to supporte her necessaries.
†b. A necessary action. Obs. rare.
1596Harington Metam. Ajax D 5 b, There is no obscenitie..in words concerning our necessaries: but now for the place where these necessaries are to be done.
4. A necessary house. (See A. 3.)
1756Connoisseur No. 120 ⁋6 The Connoisseurs in Architecture, who build.. necessaries according to Palladio. 1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 223 Strewing them in the bottoms of poultry and pigeon houses, dung heaps, and necessaries. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 412 A necessary might easily be constructed in connection with the liquid manure tank. 1877–in various dial. glossaries.
5. With the.
a. That which is needful; spec. the necessary funds or money.
1772C. Hutton Bridges 84 To make the convenient give place to the necessary when their interests are opposite. 1897Daily News 6 Sept. 3/6 A fund..for the purpose of providing the ‘necessary’ in order to bring test cases.
b. That which is necessarily determined.
1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 97 So far as..we possess the ideas of the necessary and the universal. |