| 释义 |
oasis|əʊˈeɪsɪs, ˈəʊəsɪs|
Pl. oases |-iːz|.
[a. L. oasis, a. Gr. ὄασις (Herod.), app. of Egyptian origin: cf. Coptic ouahe (whence Egyptian Arab. wāh) dwelling-place, oasis, f. ouih to dwell.
As to the quantity of the a in Gr. and L. there appears to be no direct evidence; but the tradition of the schools, and the preponderance of English usage, as well as the practice of the poets, make it long, oˈāsis; so also, Ger. and Sp. oˈāsis, It. oˈāsi. The pronunciation ˈōăsis is however used by many, esp. in Scotland and U.S.]
A name of the fertile spots in the Libyan desert; hence gen. a fertile spot in the midst of a desert.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage vii. i. 549 But were no lesse injurious to Oasis, and other Roman subjects. 1684tr. Zosimus's Hist. v. 321 Now this Oasis was a sad barren place, from whence no Man could ever return who was once carry'd into it. 1731Chandler tr. Limborch's Hist. Inquis. I. 17 They banished them into great Hoasis, a country in Egypt. 1816J. Scott Vis. Paris (ed. 5) 239 Near it is a model of the pyramids..accompanied by an oasis with its grove of palms, and a caravan of camels. 1838Econ. Vegetation 158 The garniture of the oases, or ‘isles of the desert’. 1841Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. 3 A waste of sand, in which are oases of different size and fertility. 1877A. B. Edwards Up Nile vii. 171 A little oasis of date palms indicating the presence of a spring.
fig.1800–24Campbell Poems, to Sir F. Burdett iii, England could not stand A lone oasis in the desert ground Of Europe's slavery. 1842Tennyson E. Morris 3 My one Oasis in the dust and drouth Of city life! 1868E. Edwards Ralegh I. xxv. 609 The one pleasant oasis amidst the dreary memories of a voyage.
Hence (irreg.) oˈasal, oaˈsitic, adjs., pertaining to, of the nature of, or resembling an oasis.
1888W. Boyd in Cambridge (Mass.) Press 15 Sept., Castle Hill looks like an oasal mountain in the midst of a desert of low sand-hills. 1896Pop. Sci. Monthly Feb. 465 Over⁓crowding of animal life in these oasitic areas. |