| 释义 |
ˈoff-beat, n. and a.
[f. off prep., off- 4 b + beat n.1]
A. n. Mus. An unaccented beat; = upbeat n. 1; spec. the second or fourth beat in common time; a heavy accent on these beats.
1928Grove's Dict. Mus. (ed. 3) V. 424/2 It is therefore in the nature of things that much music should begin on the offbeat. Ibid., It is convenient to confine ‘upbeat’ to the last of the bar, leaving ‘offbeat’ for any other note than the first. 1946A. Hutchings in A. L. Bacharach Brit. Music xvi. 205 A rhythmic figure..beginning on an off⁓beat so that its entry in another part will be effective and beget movement. 1958C. Wilford in P. Gammond Decca Bk. Jazz ii. 31 The pianist's left hand marks the beat firmly and unvaryingly, usually also with sharply staccato off-beats. 1973J. Wainwright Pride of Pigs 175 The washboard player tapped the off-beats with the tips of his thimbles.
B. adj.
1. Mus. Of, pertaining to, or comprising off-beats; having a marked rhythm on the off-beats. Also transf.
1927Melody Maker Sept. 926/2 In a thirty-two bar passage the rhythm might appear thus: Six bars ‘off⁓beat’, two bars ‘charleston’, six bars ‘four in a bar’, [etc.]. 1936Metronome Feb. 61/2 Off beat cymbal, sock cymbal. 1952J. Steinbeck East of Eden xvi. 151 Samuel Hamilton rode back home... Doxology's loud off-beat hoofsteps silenced the night people until after he had passed. 1959D. Cooke Lang. Mus. v. 263 Another ‘oom-pah’ bass without the ‘oom’ (the cheapest of jazz-rhythms, emphasized by off-beat side-drum taps). 1970P. Oliver Savannah Syncopators 15 Off-beat phrasing of melodic accents.
2. Unusual, unconventional; strange, eccentric. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
Occas. with even stress.
1938D. Baker Young Man with Horn i. iv. 35 He tried..to teach him to sweep with a utilitarian slant, all the strokes going in the same direction in such a way that..you inevitably have a pile of whatever it is, right there in front of your broom... But..Smoke would go right back into his off-beat swishing. 1951N.Y. Herald-Tribune 13 Dec. 34 The author..has a highly individual wit, a fey and off-beat slant on the process of making people laugh. 1958S. Ellin Eighth Circle (1959) ii. xiii. 140 One of those types who are a little offbeat when they talk to you. 1958Economist 13 Dec. 993/1 The most important postwar development has been the enormous popularity of the ‘off⁓beat’ greeting card, which was first introduced seven or eight years ago. 1959Observer 5 Apr. 11/4 It is the off⁓beat things, the eccentricities, that help give salerooms their perpetual appeal and surprise. 1960P. Carswell (title) Offbeat spirituality. 1963[see far-out a. b]. 1967Daily Tel. 16 Feb. 15/5 Suzanne Hywel, 23, looks off-beat but in fact has a yearning for the country that she left behind in Kent. 1976Times 9 Aug. 10/1 One of London's oldest adult education institutions ran an off-beat course for reviewing the arts.
Hence off-beatness, the quality of being ‘off-beat’; unconventionality.
1960Guardian 11 Oct. 7/2 There is no deliberate off⁓beatness about her. 1962J. M. Bernstein tr. Levi's Two-Fold Night i. 7 There is..a hint of ‘off-beatness’ in their conformism, which is the city's tradition. |