| 释义 |
Numidian, n. and a.|njuːˈmɪdɪən|
[f. L. Numidia the former name of a country in North Africa + -an.]
a. n. A native or inhabitant of Numidia.
b. adj. Of or belonging to Numidia. spec. Numidian crane, a grey and black crane, Anthropoides virgo, found in southern Europe, north Africa, and parts of Asia; = demoiselle 2 a.
1600Holland tr. Livy's Romane Hist. xxix. 731 Then the kingdome fell by descent, according to the custome and manner of the Numidians, unto Desalces the late kings brother. Ibid. xxx. 752 They would enlarge and set at libertie all the Numidian captives that lay in prison at Rome. 1614A. Gorges tr. Lucans Pharsalia iv. 156 The vagrant fierce Numidæans. 1697Dryden æneid iv. 57 And fierce Numidians there your Frontiers bound. 1757A. Butler Lives Saints III. 3 Certain false Numidian zealots. Ibid. 4 Seventy bishops, chiefly Numidians. 1766[see demoiselle 2 a]. 1836N. Isaacs Trav. E. Afr. II. xvii. 324 The wild sort [of birds] are easily obtained... The Crane (Numidion [sic] or Demoiselle), Baleari or Crowned Crane..are common. c1876E. Dickinson Poems (1955) III. 956 The Butterfly's Numidian Gown With spots of Burnish roasted on Is proof against the Sun. 1893A. Newton Dict. Birds 111 In Europe, besides the G[rus] communis already mentioned, we have as an inhabitant that which is generally known as the Numidian Crane or Demoiselle..distinguished from every other by its long white ear-tufts. 1905T. Hodgkin in L. Creighton Life & Lett. T. Hodgkin (1917) xi. 229, I wish I had come to this Numidian land when I was younger... Our Numidians long held Rome at bay. 1906Kipling Puck of Pook's Hill 147 ‘Was your nurse a—a Romaness too?’ ‘No, a Numidian... A dear, fat, brown thing.’ 1921Edin. Rev. July 105 A Numidian, riding bareback and stirrupless, is throwing a lasso at a wild ass. 1957Encycl. Brit. XVI. 615/1 Numidians were divided into two great tribes, the Massyli on the east, and the Massaesyli on the west... At the end of the [second Punic] war,..the Numidian kingdom surrounded Carthage except towards the sea. |