| 释义 |
occidental, a. and n.|ɒksɪˈdɛntəl|
[a. F. occidental (14th c. in Littré), ad. L. occidentāl-is western, f. occident-em: see Occident and -al1. Opposed in all uses to oriental, but less used.]
A. adj.
1. Belonging to, situated in, or directed towards, that part or region of the heavens in which the sun sets; of or in the west, western, westerly; spec. in Astrol. said of a planet when seen after sunset, or when in the western part of the sky.
c1391Chaucer Astrol. i. §5 The remenant of this lyne..is cleped the west lyne, or the lyne occidentale. 1594Blundevil Exerc. iii. ii. xx. (1636) 416 Their shadow is..sometime orientall, and sometime occidentall. 1601Shakes. All's Well ii. i. 166 Ere twice in murke and occidentall dampe Moist Hesperus hath quench'd her sleepy Lampe. 1647Lilly Chr. Astrol. xix. 114 To be Occidentall is to be seen above the Horizon, or to set after the ☉ is downe. 1794Sullivan View Nat. II. 411 On the oriental and occidental halves of the enlightened hemisphere of that planet. 1807J. Barlow Columb. i. 154 Which..hail'd thee first in occidental day.
fig.1611Bible Transl. Ded., Vpon the setting of that bright Occidentall Starre, Queene Elizabeth of most happy memory. [With allusion to 2.]
2. Belonging to, found in, or characteristic of, western countries or regions of the earth (i.e. usually, those west of Asia; also formerly, Western Europe or Christendom; occas., America or the Western Hemisphere); belonging to or situated in the West; Western. Also, of, belonging to, or characteristic of, the western United States.
1553Becon Reliques of Rome (1563) 140* The Occidentall or weast churches thorow out all Europe. 1581Marbeck Bk. of Notes 243 This constitution..was neuer..receiued in the vniuersall Church, but onelie in this our Occidentall Church. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. vii. (Arb.) 28 Learned men, who wrote about the time of Charlemaines raigne in the Empire Occidentall. 1659Bp. Walton Consid. Considered 127 The Oriental and Occidental Jews. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Corn, The Smell is not so disagreeable as that of the occidental Civet. 1809E. A. Kendall Travels Northern Parts U.S. II. 28 Among the natural forest-trees, are the button-wood or occidental plane, the spruce-fir and the locust-tree. 1846Knickerbocker XXVII. 471 ‘I.L. of this vicinity,’ writes an occidental correspondent, ‘had carried the knife for a long time.’ 1862Dana Man. Geol. 584 Both the oriental and occidental Continents. 1933E. C. Jaeger Calif. Deserts v. 57 The occidental harvester (P[ogonomyrmex] occidentalis) is a large, reddish ant building conspicuous mounds of pebbles.
3. Applied to precious stones of inferior value and brilliancy, as opposed to oriental a. 4: see quot. 1747.
1747Dingley in Phil. Trans. XLIV. 505 There are some of an inferior Class and Beauty... These are commonly called by Jewellers Occidental Stones: They are mostly the Produce of Europe..and are so named, in Opposition to those of a higher Class, which are always accounted Oriental, and supposed to be only produced in the more Eastern Parts of our Continent. 1796Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 254 Occidental Topaz..Exposed to a moderate heat..is said to become red, and then becomes ruby of Brazil. Ibid. 256 Occidental or Brazilian Sapphire. 1860C. W. King Antique Gems i. (1866) 43 These occidental stones are of a deep, rich hue, but have very little brilliancy.
B. n. (Often with capital initial.)
1.
†a. A western country or region. Obs.
b. A native or inhabitant of the West.
1587Holinshed Descr. Brit. i. x. in Chron. I. 39/1 The Iles that lie about the north coast of..Scotland..are either occidentals, the west Iles [etc.]. 1857W. M. Thomson Land & Book ix. 115 That comparative inactivity which distinguishes Orientals from Occidentals. 1875Lowell Spenser Pr. Wks. 1890 IV. 282 For us Occidentals he has a kindly prophetic word.
2. An artificial language, based chiefly on the Romance languages, invented by E. J. de Wahl (1867–1948), an Estonian, in 1922.
1926Encycl. Brit. III. 906/2 Mr. E. de Wahl..finally produced Occidental, ‘comprehensible at first sight to 10,000,000 educated Europeans without preliminary study’. To write or speak it is less easy than to read it, variety being dearly bought by the introduction of irregularities. 1928O. Jespersen Internat. Lang. i. 26, I have read articles and received letters, chiefly in Ido, but also in Esperanto and Occidental, written from not a few countries. 1934S. Robertson Devel. Mod. Eng. (1936) iv. 89 Jespersen now feels that there are enough points of similarity among the leading projects looking toward an international language—including Esperanto,..Occidental, and his own creation, Novial—to justify the hope that a single adequate International Auxiliary Language will some day emerge. 1949M. Pei Story of Language (1952) vi. iii. 441 The twentieth century has continued the tradition [of creating artificial languages], with..Occidental.., Monding, and a host of others. |