| 释义 |
notable, a., n., and adv.|ˈnəʊtəb(ə)l|
Also 4 (6 Sc.) -abil(e, 5 -abille, 6 -abyll; 5 -abull(e, 6 -abul; 5 -abel.
[a. F. notable (13th c.) = Sp. notable, Pg. notavel, It. notabile, ad. L. notābilis, f. notāre to note: see -able.
Sheridan (1789) gives the pron. as |ˈnɒtəb(ə)l|, and this is retained by Walker, Smart, Webster, and Worcester, as the correct pron. in sense 4 b.]
A. adj.
1. Worthy or deserving of note for any reason, esp. on account of excellence, value, or importance; remarkable, striking, eminent.
a. Of things, actions, etc.
a1340Hampole Psalter lxv. 7 He þat lufis god, luf his neghbure, shewand til him þat is notabile for him. c1386Chaucer Doctor's T. 156 It is no fable, But knowen for a storial thing notable. 1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) V. 405 Hit was made open by the manifestacion of a notable signe. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 192/1 They..edefyed ouer thys holy corps a moche notable chyrche. 1538Starkey England ii. i. 151, I thynke in few yerys the pepul schold increse to a notabul noumbur. 1571Golding Calvin on Ps. ii. 8 David obteyned notable victories. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 38 A notable cordial water for comforting the head and heart. 1665Hooke Microgr. 155 Methinks Nature does seem to hint some very notable virtue or excellency in this Plant. 1712Steele Spect. No. 508 ⁋2 They support it by Acts of notable Oppression and Injustice. 1750Berkeley Wks. (1871) IV. 323 Learning continues to make notable advances in your College. 1775Sheridan Duenna i. i, So! a notable hour for one of my regular disposition. 1829Lytton Devereux i. ii, He would shake his head with a notable archness. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets i. 17 The first who achieved a notable success in the new and difficult art of Prose Writing.
Comb.1630Dekker 2nd Pt. Honest Wh. i. i. Wks. 1873 II. 97 This Lodouico is a notable tounged fellow.
b. Of persons. Also const. at (quot. 1677).
c1420Lydg. Assembly of Gods 897 Ther were notable and famous doctours. c1450Merlin 27 Ther myght noon knowe the cause why, but it were notable clerkes. 1535Coverdale Matt. xxvii. 16 At the same tyme he had a notable presoner called Barrabas. 1596Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 636/1 At the execution of a notable traytour at Limmericke. a1661Fuller Worthies xxiv. (1662) 73 You have mingled many Unworthies among them, rather Notorious than Notable. 1677Gilpin Demonol. (1867) 180 They have also a cunning of ascribing effects to wrong causes... Austin tells us the heathens were notable at this. 1711Shaftesbury Charac. i. ii. (1737) I. 62 The ablest Negotiators have been known the notablest Buffoons. 1798W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. V. 352 You summoned a meeting of your more notable creditors, relations, and friends. 1835Thirlwall Greece (1839) I. 429 The Megarian demagogues procured the banishment of many of the notable citizens. 1851Dixon W. Penn vi. (1872) 54 Fox and Loe were notable for the purity of their lives.
2.
†a. Easily noted; attracting notice; conspicuous. Obs.
1533Sir T. More Debell. Salem Wks. 945/1 The variaunce betwene priests & priests is more marked & more notable then any of y⊇ tother, because the priests go more abrod. 1580Fulke Stapleton Confut. ii. v. Wks. (Parker Soc.) II. 100 Their habit..Augustin in his virgins forbiddeth to be notable, or differing from other women. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iii. xiv. (1651) 125 To avoid such things as are more notable in themselves: as a rugged attire, hirsute head, horrid beard.
b. Capable of being noted or observed; noticeable, perceptible. Now Chem.
1551Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i. Defin., There is a notable and sensible angle..which euermore is made by the meetyng of two seuerall lynes. Ibid. No. 5 If your line be of any notable length, deuide it into fiue partes. And if it be not so long that it maie yelde fiue notable partes [etc.]. 1638–9Laws Maryland in Arch. Maryland I. (1883) 53 Drinking with excess to the notable perturbation of any organ of sence or motion. 1662Ray Three Itin. iii. 171 We did not observe any notable taste in it, neither would it tincture siluer. 1698Hearne Duct. Hist. (1714) I. 2 Chronology is the Regulation of Times, shewing by notable Signs or Tokens..the exact Time when every Action happen'd. 1818Accum Chem. Tests 109 Suppose..we wish to know whether it contains a notable quantity of oxide of manganese. 1857Miller Elem. Chem., Org. (1862) 536 The kernels of the peach, the plum, the cherry,..also yield this essence in notable quantities.
†3. notable goods, a legal term applied to testamentary goods when of a certain amount. Obs.
Various opinions on the precise import of the phrase are given by Swinburne.
1590Swinburne Testaments 222 What is ment by Notable goods, in this place, or when they are so to be tearmed, diuers authors haue bene of diuers opinions.
4.
†a. Of men: Industrious, energetic, businesslike. Obs. rare.
1666South Serm. (1823) I. 138 That such an one is a wise and a thriving, or, in the common phrase, ‘a notable man’. 1732Law Serious C. iii. (ed. 2) 37 Penitens was a busy, notable Tradesman, and very prosperous in his dealings.
b. Of women: Capable, managing, bustling; clever and industrious in household management or occupations.
In common use from c 1750, but now rare or obs. On the pronunciation see note above.
1718Free-thinker No. 121. 84, I remember to have heard of a notable Woman, who was thoroughly sensible of the intrinsick Value of Time. 1745Eliza Heywood Female Spect. No. 10 (1748) II. 192 Supposing her an excellent œconomist, in every respect what the world calls a notable woman. 1811L. M. Hawkins C'tess & Gertr. II. 370 Notable housewives have occasional ‘family rummages’. 1865Cornh. Mag. Oct. 409 Lady Cuxhaven, notable from girlhood, was using the blind-man's holiday to net fruit-nets. 1874J. H. Ewing Lob 34 Notable people complain, very properly, of thoughtless and untidy ones.
Comb.1866Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. II. 242 The little notable-looking brown hands, with the wedding-ring for sole ornament.
c. Of the nature of, connected with, household management or industry.
1787Generous Attachment II. 24 Engaged in every notable exercise which love and conjugal affection inspire. 1800E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. I. 74 She had learned to detest all needlework of the notable kind. 1835Motley Corr. (1889) I. iii. 60, I thought the whole scene at first too tidy, too notable, too housewifish. 1852Thackeray Esmond iii. ix, Both ladies were perfect housewives,..keeping a notable superintendence over the Kitchen.
B. n.
1. A noteworthy fact or thing. rare.
1483Caxton G. de la Tour e j, She gaf them these two notables to thende they shold know their faute. 1653H. Whistler Upshot Inf. Baptisme 17 Helping against you by many Notables in the very Text. 1705Addison Italy (R.), Varro's aviary is still so famous, that it is reckoned for one of those notables, which foreign nations record.
b. A person of eminence or distinction.
1815Southey in Q. Rev. XIII. 19 The notables of Egypt. 1823Scott Quentin D. xix, The notables of the town were fast assembling. 1878Gladstone Glean. (1879) I. 201 The straitened philosophy of a local notable.
transf.1892Hudson La Plata 221 Amongst the feathered notables..is the Crested Screamer from South America.
2. pl. During the Ancien Régime: a number of prominent men from the various estates of the realm of France, summoned by the king as a deliberative assembly in times of national emergency.
1568Grafton Chron. II. 482 All worthy nobles and estates of the same realme of Fraunce, as well spirituals as temporals, and also Cities, notables and commonalties. 1634W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. I) 4 This is a trueth..which you so solidly confirmed at the last assembly of Notables. 1789Hist. Europe in Ann. Reg. 201/1 Mr. Necker had at the beginning of winter summoned a new convention of Notables. 1792A. Young Trav. France 275 From the very commencement of the revolution, at the first meeting of the notables. 1845Encycl. Metrop. XIII. 8/1 It was thought advisable to calm such feelings by summoning an assembly of Notables, who met at Rouen late in the year. 1864Kirk Chas. the Bold I. vi. 317 An article..providing for the appointment of thirty-six ‘notables’.
transf.1818J. C. Hobhouse Italy (1859) II. 360 When Bonaparte, in the year 1801, convoked at Lyons the Notables of the Cisalpine Republic. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 471 An extraordinary meeting of the privy council, or rather an assembly of Notables, which had been convoked at Whitehall.
†C. adv. Notably. Obs. rare.
1586A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 82 Here ‘never die’ seemeth superfluous, and yet notable well adorneth the sentence. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 227 Some season of the year more notable hot then other. |