释义 |
Occident, n. and a. Chiefly poet. and rhet.|ˈɒksɪdənt| Also 5 occydent, occidente, occedente, -entt. See also occient. [a. F. occident (12th c. in Godef. Compl.), ad. L. occident-em setting, sunset, the west, orig. pr. pple. of occidĕre to fall towards, go down, set, f. ob- (ob- 1 a) + cadĕre to fall. Opposed in all uses to Orient.] A. n. 1. That quarter or region of the sky in which the sun and other heavenly bodies set, or the corresponding quarter or region of the earth; the west. Now rare.
c1386Chaucer Man of Law's T. 199 O firste moeuyng crueel firmament..that..hurlest al from Est til Occident. a1420Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 4056 With þi riȝt honde, thow þe orient Shuldest han touchid..And with þi lift honde, eke þe occident. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 387 b/1 The sonne mone sterres and planettes..moeue fro thoryent to thoccidente. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, iii. iii. 67 His [the sun's] bright passage to the Occident. 1607Rowlands Guy Earl Warw. 38 Ere Phœbus in the Occident decline. 1632Lithgow Trav. vii. 320 Towards the occident, it ioyneth with the great Lake. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Equinoctial Occident, that point of horizon where the sun sets, when entering aries, or libra. Estival Occident, that point of the horizon where the sun sets at his entrance into the sign cancer, when the days are longest. Hybernal Occident, that point of the horizon where the sun sets, when entering the sign of capricorn; at which time, the days, with us, are shortest. 2. That part of the earth's surface situated to the west of some recognized part; western countries, the West; i.e. originally, the countries of Western Europe or of the Western Empire, or of Europe as opposed to Asia and the Orient; also, in mod. use, a poetic appellation of America or the Western Hemisphere.
1390Gower Conf. III. 104 Ther ben of londis fele In occident. 1477Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 97 In two yeres he [Alexander] sought alle thorient and occident. 1552Lyndesay Monarche 4265 All Princis of the Occident Ar tyll his grace obedient. 1588A. King tr. Canisius' Catech. 81 Greik and latin, Orient and Occident dois bear irrefragabl testimonie yat thair can na exception be maid. 1689Def. Liberty agst. Tyrants 155 Constantine and Licinius governed the Empire together, the one in the Orient, the other in the Occident. 1871Joaquin Miller Songs of Sierras, Tall Alcalde (1872) 197 Thou Italy of the Occident! †B. adj. Situated in the west, western, occidental.
1513Douglas æneis vii. Prol. 25 Mars occident, retrograide in his speir. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 3 In Iona yle within the occident se. Ibid. II. 695 The Ylis in the occident se. |