| 释义 |
omniscient, a.|ɒmˈnɪʃənt, -ɪənt|
[ad. mod.L. omnisciens, -ent-em, substituted for med.L. omniscius (omniscious) under the influence of omniscientia (see prec.), the substituted element being L. sciens, -ent-em pr. pple. ‘knowing’. Grotius De Ver. Rel. Chr. uses both omniscius and omnisciens. So F. omniscient (1737 in Hatz.–Darm.).]
1. Knowing all things, all-knowing, infinite in knowledge.
a. Strictly: esp. of God.
1604R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Omni-scient, knowing all things. c1615Bacon Adv. to Villiers Wks. 1879 I. 510 By no means trust to your own judgement alone; for no man is omniscient. 1700Dryden Palamon & Arc. iii. 1054 This law the Omniscient Power was pleased to give, That every kind should by succession live. 1781Cowper Truth 227 With averted eyes the omniscient Judge Scorns the base hireling. 1857H. Miller Test. Rocks iv. 154 Inspiration does not make men omniscient.
b. Hyperbolically: Having universal or very extensive knowledge.
1791Boswell Johnson 5 Apr. an. 1776 note, A gentleman..from his extraordinary stores of knowledge,..stiled omniscient. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) x. 251, I was roused by a very pleasant meeting with the most omniscient of mountaineers.
2. absol. or as n. An omniscient being or person: spec. (with the), the Deity, God.
1794Coleridge Destiny of Nations iv, Those blind omniscients. 1856R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. 232 This divine order, which the Omniscient hath established and maintains.
Hence omniˈscientist, one who purports to be, or is alleged to be, omniscient; omniscientness = omniscience.
1727Bailey vol. II. 1932 R. A. Knox Broadcast Minds ii. 20 (heading) The omniscientists. Ibid. 21 We are all omniscientists now, at least in ambition... It only remains that we should pride ourselves on knowing something about everything. 1948A. O'Rahilly Relig. & Sci. iv. 32 We stand..opposed to the usurpations and truculent dogmatism of the omniscientists. |