| 释义 |
nemesis|ˈnɛmɪsɪs|
Also Nemesis.
[a. Gr. νέµεσις (f. νέµειν to give what is due), righteous indignation, just resentment, also personified as ‘the goddess of Retribution, who brings down all immoderate good fortune, checks the presumption that attends it,..and is the punisher of extraordinary crimes’.]
1. The goddess of retribution or vengeance; hence, one who avenges or punishes.
1576Gascoigne Philomene (Arb.) 114 She calles on Nemesis.., The Goddesse of al iust reuenge. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iv. vii. 78 Is Talbot slaine, the Frenchmens only Scourge, Your Kingdomes terror, and blacke Nemesis? 1642H. More Song of Soul iii. ii. xiii, Thus sensuall souls do find their righteous doom which Nemesis inflicts. 1818Byron Ch. Har. iv. cxxxii, Thou, who never yet of human wrong Left the unbalanced scale, great Nemesis! 1867Emerson Nemesis, In spite of Virtue and the Muse, Nemesis will have her dues.
2. Retributive justice; an instance of this.
divine Nemesis (sometimes personified as in sense 1) is common in the 17th cent.
1597Bacon Coulers Good & Evill Ess. (Arb.) 149 Expecting..that Nemesis and retribution will take holde of the authours of our hurt. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. v. 161 It must..find a severe Nemesis arising out of its guilty conscience. 1664H. More Myst. Iniq. xix. 72 Penalties inflicted by that Nemesis that is interwoven in the very Law of Nature thus transgressed. Ibid. Apol. 530 Intangling themselves in those unavoidable trains of the Divine Nemesis. 1733W. Crawford Infidelity (1836) 164 Guilt naturally produces a fear of the divine Nemesis. 1859Bucknill Psychol. Shaks. 21 It is a pathological Nemesis of guilt. 1867Jebb Sophocles' Electra Introd. 8 The nemesis which overtook Clytaemnestra.
Add:[1.] b. Hence, a persistent tormentor; a long-standing (usu. unconquerable) rival or enemy. N. Amer.
1933J. M. Mitchell in Calif. Hist. Soc. Q. XII. 318 (title) Antonio Melendrez, nemesis of William Walker in Baja California. 1961in Webster s.v., The baseball team was defeated by the first-rate pitching of its old nemesis. 1975Business Week 13 Jan. 78/3 Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo.., long-time nemesis of the oil companies. 1988Fortune 10 Oct. 11/3 Even IBM, Job's old nemesis, has had a tough time cracking Sun's stronghold.
3. Astron. With capital initial. A hypothetical small dark star postulated in a model proposed to explain the supposed cyclical nature of terrestrial mass extinctions, according to which the star orbits the Sun in a highly eccentric orbit which causes it to disturb the Oort cloud approximately every 26 million years, sending a shower of comets into the inner solar system.
1984M. Davis et al. in Nature 19 Apr. 717/2 If and when the companion is found, we suggest it be named Nemesis, after the Greek goddess... We worry that if the companion is not found, this paper will be our nemesis. 1984N.Y. Times 25 Dec. i. 36/1 If the Nemesis theory is right, and huge asteroids wipe out much of the life on Earth every 26 million years, where are the craters? 1985Nature 7 Feb. 503/3 On present evidence, the Nemesis hypothesis is both contrived and unworkable. 1986Monthly Notes R. Astron. Soc. CCXVIII. 19 In evolving from its original orbit to the present day, Nemesis should have undergone at least of order 103 revolutions, which by its implication for the Oort Cloud and the cratering record seems to rule out the hypothesis. 1988New Scientist 29 Sept. 65/3, I am sorry to say that almost all astronomers would today agree that Nemesis is dead. |