| 释义 |
nicety|ˈnaɪsɪtɪ|
Forms: 4–6 nyce-, 5– nice-; 4–5 nyse-, (5 Sc. nysse-), 5–6 nys-, 4 nise-; 5–7 nyci-, (6 nycy-), 6–8 nici-, 5 nisi-; also 4–6 -te(e, 5–7 -tie, (5 -tye).
[a. OF. niceté: see nice a. and -ty.]
I.
†1. Folly, stupidity; a foolish action. Obs.
a1366Chaucer Rom. Rose 12 Who so sayth, or weneth it be A jape, or elles nycete To wene that dremes after falle. 1390Gower Conf. III. 7 Bot thanne it were a nycete To telle you hou that I fare. 1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy i. vi, I might..be..noted eke of wilfull nycetye So folylye to voyde away my grace.
†2. Foolish or wanton conduct; wantonness.
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 4719 Þe bysshope..seyd..Þat he ne shulde make hys nycete Before the graces of þe charyte. c1330― Chron. (1810) 123 Oþer afterward left of þer nycete. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 167 Litel sauour of holynesse.., but nycete & pleye & goynge to þe tauerne & oþere vanytes. a1450Myrc 1321 Hast thou, by malys or by nyste, I-made any mon dronke to be? a1483Liber Niger in Househ. Ord. (1790) 16 Ordinances for the house⁓holde, to kepe the ministres thereof from any breche, out⁓rage, reproche, or nicetie.
†b. Licentiousness, lust. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 412 Than wold I suffre him doon his nycete. c1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 3762 Plato..dwelte in wildernesse, For to restreyne fleschely nycete.
†3. Reserve, shyness, coyness. Also pl. Obs.
c1374Chaucer Troylus ii. 1286 Lete be your nycete, and your foly, And spekith with hym in esyng of his hert; Let nycete not do yow bothe smert. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. ii. 3 So love does loath disdainefull nicitee. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. ii. iv. 162 Lay by all nicetie, and prolixious blushes That banish what they sue for. 1678Dryden All for Love Pref., Ess. (ed. Ker) I. 193 Nicety and affectation; which is no more but modesty depraved into a vice. 1696in Aubrey Misc. (1721) 198 Nay (says the Fellow) give over these Niceties, for he will be your first Husband. 1757E. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (1767) I. 200 Lady O― was the only confidante made upon that occasion,..on account of salving appearances to her nicety.
†4. Sloth, idleness, indolence. Obs. rare.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 281 He was i-putte doun for grete nysete [L. inertia] and i-made a clerk. Ibid. V. 227 [The Romans] chargede þe Britouns to leve of un⁓manhede, and nysete [L. ignavia]. c1440[see nicehead].
†5. Excessive refinement or elegance in dress or manner of living. Obs.
a1450Knt. de la Tour (1868) 165, I shalle telle you..of a knightes doughter that lost her mariage bi her nisite. c1520Treat. Galaunt (1860) 16 The noble course of nature, nycete hath deuoured. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 87 b, The robe or cope, and the tubbe of Diogenes, did..vpbraide to the riche and welthie folkes their nycytee and their delices. 1603B. Jonson Wks. (1616) 875 In his garbe he fauours Little of the nicety In the sprucer courtiery. 1652Culpepper Eng. Physic. 76 Pride and Ignorance..preferring nicity before health.
†b. Luxuriousness. Obs. rare.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 104 b, To an ethnike philosopher it seemed nycitee..that an ethnike or gentile should haue his shooes dooen on by his servaunte. 1650Earl of Monmouth tr. Senault's Man bec. Guilty 22 If we sleep, tis rather out of too much nicety than of necessity.
6. a. Delicacy of feeling, scrupulosity, punctiliousness.
1693G. Stepny in Dryden's Juvenal viii. 203 Nay when his Year of Honour's ended, soon He'll leave that nicety, and mount at Noon. 1711Steele Spect. No. 97 ⁋2 It prevail'd only among such as had a Nicety in their Sense of Honour. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ., Case of Delicacy, As there was no other bed-chamber in the house, the hostess, without much nicety, led them into mine. 1816Scott Old Mort. Introd., A fanciful nicety it was on the part of my..friend. 1850L. Hunt Autobiog. iv. I. 179 He had declined taking orders, from nicety of religious scruple.
b. Fastidiousness.
1723Steele Consc. Lovers i. i, What is it all of a sudden offends your Nicety at our House? 1797Jane Austen Sense & Sens. (1813) I. 232 My own nicety, and the nicety of my friends, have made me..an idle, helpless being. We never could agree in our choice of a profession.
†c. Critical taste. Obs. rare—1.
1780Johnson in Boswell Life (1831) IV. 342 Sir, I beg to have your judgment, for I know your nicety.
d. Scrupulous care, particularity.
1718Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess of Mar 10 Mar., The houses of the great Turkish ladies are kept clean with as much nicety as those in Holland.
7. Precision, exactitude, accuracy, minuteness.
1660Barrow Euclid Pref., Some may have demonstrated most of these Propositions with more nicety. 1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iv. (1723) 204 With that exquisite Nicety as to express even the smallest and finest Lineaments of them. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 155 ⁋2 Those who can distinguish with the utmost nicety the boundaries of vice and virtue. 1787Best Angling (ed. 2) 123 If it is a proper fly for the season, and you cast it with a nicety, the fish is your own. 1832Babbage Econ. Manuf. xi. (ed. 3) 83 Some nicety will be required in these operations. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage 92 If the sea was running high the utmost nicety in steering..would be essential.
b. A (specified) degree of precision.
1748Phil. Trans. XLV. 114 They would be able to a very great Nicety to ascertain the absolute Velocity of Electricity. 1830Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 127 The pendulum affords a means of subdividing time to an almost unlimited nicety. 1866― Fam. Lect. Sci. 101 We know to a great nicety, by actual measurement of the earth's circumference, that its diameter is 7912½ miles.
c. Phr. to a nicety, precisely, exactly, as closely or completely as possible.
1795Burke Lett. Wks. IX. 418 These things play the Jacobin game to a nicety. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. iii, Fitting on his gloves to a nicety. 1862Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xi. iii. III. 64 All was arranged and concerted to a nicety.
8. The quality of requiring careful consideration or management; delicacy, difficulty, subtlety.
1707Lond. Gaz. No. 4330/2 A Thing of too great Nicety and Difficulty to be accomplish'd in any other..Reign. 1782Priestley Corrupt. Chr. I. i. 103 The orthodox began to divide upon questions of great nicety. 1812Chron. in Ann. Reg. 45 The learned judge told the jury that this was a case of great nicety. 1845McCulloch Taxation ii. iv. (1852) 178 The question..is one of considerable nicety and difficulty. 1869J. Martineau Ess. II. 99 Matters of the utmost depth and nicety.
b. The point in which accuracy or precision is required or which is difficult to hit.
1727De Foe Eng. Tradesman iii. (1841) I. 19 The nicety of writing in business consists chiefly in giving every species of goods their trading names. 1827D. Johnson Ind. Field Sports 72 The great nicety is, to fix the bow, so that the arrow may fly quite horizontally. 1833J. Holland Manuf. Metal II. 290 Few of the scale makers, it seems, of his day, knew in what the nicety of a balance consists.
II.
9. Something choice, elegant, or dainty; an elegance or refinement.
1436Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 172 The commodites and nycetees of Venicyans and Florentynes. 1611Rich Honest. Age (Percy Soc.) 15 Some foolish nicities that were vsed amongst women in his time. 1675A. Huyberts Corner-Stone 16 The new Nicities serve for nought but ostentation and discourse. 1719Free-thinker No. 118 ⁋8 Mr. Gibbons could not have carved his Niceties with a Hatchet. a1864Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1879) I. 10 Clean linen and other niceties of apparel.
b. Something nice or dainty for eating.
1755Johnson s.v., Niceties, in the plural, is generally applied to dainties or delicacies in eating. 1793Friendly Addr. Poor 13 Niceties do little towards filling the bellies of a hungry family. 1825Mrs. Cameron Honest Penny (Houlston Tracts I. No. 10. 7) There were stuck up for sale apples, oranges, mintcakes, tarts, and many niceties of the same sort.
10. A nice or minute distinction; a subtle point or refinement in theory or practice.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xxii. (Arb.) 258 The terme, though not greatly pertinent to the matter, yet not vn⁓pleasant to knowe for them that delight in such niceties. 1631Star Chamb. Cases (Camden) 55 The Court would not rayse nycities out of the pardon and frame a third offence. 1652R. Saunders Balm to heal Rel. Wounds Ep. Ded. 2 When Satan is so busie..there is no time to stick at nicities. 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 63 There's no standing upon Niceties..with Fellows that have the Constitution of a Horse. 1788Burke Impeachm. W. Hastings Wks. XIII. 6 Not upon the niceties of a narrow jurisprudence, but upon the enlarged..principles of state morality. 1834Macaulay Ess., Pitt (1851) 295 These were niceties for which the audience cared little. 1880T. A. Spalding Eliz. Demonol. 16 Until the masses are more educated in theological niceties than they are at present.
b. A minute point or detail; a point or feature in which great precision or accuracy is involved.
1649Milton Eikon. 141 Above these twenty yeares he hath bin ruining the people about the niceties of his ruling. 1699Pomfret Dies Novissima 36 'Tis not for you to ask, nor mine to say, The niceties of that tremendous day. 1754Sherlock Disc. (1759) I. viii. 229 It will not be worth my Pains..to enter into the Niceties of this Controversy. 1775Johnson Let. to Mrs. Thrale 17 June, Her present qualifications for the nicities of needle-work being dim eyes and lame fingers. 1839Hallam Hist. Lit. ii. i. §8 In the present state of philology there is incomparably more knowledge of grammatical niceties. 1875Chamb. Jrnl. 23 Jan. 54 Young women..do not know the niceties of legal proof. |