| 释义 |
noblesse|nəʊˈblɛs|
Forms: 3–4 noblesce, 5–8 -less, 5–6, 8 -les, 5 -lisse; 4 -lesse.
[a. OF. noblece, -esce, -esse, = Prov. noblessa, -eza, Sp. nobleza, Pg. nobreza, obs. It. nobilezza:—Rom. type *nobilitia: see noble a. and -ess2.
Common in ME. and frequent down to the 17th cent. In later use mainly, if not entirely, a direct re-adoption from F.]
1. Noble birth or condition; nobility, nobleness.
a1225Ancr. R. 166 Þe ueorðe reisun is preoue of noblesce & or largesse. a1366Chaucer Rom. Rose 1108 Upon the tresses of Richesse Was sette a cercle for noblesse. c1384― H. Fame i. 471 Yet sawgh I neuer suche noblesse Of ymages. c1407Henry Scogan Moral Ballad 73 Here may ye see that vertuous noblesse Cometh not to you by way of auncestrye. 1470–85Malory Arthur ix. xxxi. 387 Whan sir Tristram beheld the noblesse of these xx Knyghtes he merueiled of their good dedes. 1538Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) II. 118 The good affection whiche I bere towardes her for her vertues wisedome and noblesse. 1594Kyd Cornelia ii. 297 True noblesse neuer doth the thing it should not. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xii. (1623) 707 It being a thing perpetuall and solemne not to fight without those signes of Noblesse. 1653Jer. Taylor Serm. for Year i. iii. 38 His arms of honour are extinguished, the noblesse of his Ancestours is forgotten. 1709Mrs. Manley Secret Mem. (1720) III. 227 Had he had a Nobless of Soul.., what might he not have done? 1887Ruskin Præterita II. 210 The noblesse of thought which makes the simplest word best.
†b. As a form of address. Obs.
1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy i. vii, We praye to your hygh noblesse To our purpose for to condiscende. 1425Rolls of Parlt. IV. 271/2 Ye protestation made by Sir Wauter Beauchamp..by your noblesse amitted and graunted.
2. The nobility; persons of noble rank.
1598Dallington Meth. Trav. S iv, The French Noblesse, glorying in their Armes, call themselves The Arme of their countrey. 1615G. Sandys Travels (1637) 1 The Princes of the blood discontented, the noblesse factious. 1666Dryden Ann. Mirab. Pref., That advantage..which the noblesse of France would never suffer in their peasants. 1683Temple Mem. Wks. 1720 I. 405 A Scum of the mean People, that hated and spoil'd the Noblesse of the Province. 1753Scots Mag. Oct. 481/1 In France one of their noblesse must not marry a roturiere. 1796Michell Princ. Legis. 153 A very few years ago, the opinions..of Europe were decidedly in favour of a monarchy, a noblesse and a census. 1813Sporting Mag. LXI. 243 Some of the first families of our Noblesse. 1846Grote Hist. Greece II. ii. iii. (1849) 370 The abundance of corn and cattle from the neighbouring plains sustained..a proud and disorderly noblesse. 1898Bodley France I. i. iii. 170 Few of the local noblesse under the old Monarchy bore titles. |