释义 |
not-life [not adv. 14 d.] Inanimate matter, esp. as contrasted with that which contains life. So not-living a. and n.
1869T. H. Huxley in Fortn. Rev. 1 Feb. 140 The assumption of the existence in the living matter of a something which has no representative or correlative in the not living matter which gave rise to it. 1895Churchman No. 185. 251 Science..affirms that not-life can never under existing conditions produce life. 1943J. S. Huxley Evolutionary Ethics i. 7 The scientific study of change, of becoming, of the production of novelty, whether of life from not-life, of a baby from an ovum. 1953Massingham & Hyams Prophecy of Famine iii. 57 The harmony..between the living creature..and the not-living habitat itself. Ibid. viii. 169 A short-circuiting of the life-cycle in terms of not-life. 1964Gould & Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 607/1 Birth rituals..signifying the separation of the infant from the world of the dead (or not-living) and his aggregation to that of the living. |