| 释义 |
ordeal|ˈɔːdiːəl, ˈɔːdiːl, ɔːˈdiːl|
Forms: 1 ordál, -dél; (4 ordal), 6–7 ordale, ordell, (6 ordele, 7 ordael, -deale), 7– ordeal.
[A mod. (16th c.) repr. of OE. ordál, -dél, a Comm. Teutonic word: in OFris. ordêl, urdêl, OS. urdêli (MDu. ordeel, MLG. ordêl, Du. oordeel), OHG. urteili (MHG. urteile, urteil, mod.Ger. urteil) (all neut., but in OHG., MHG. also fem.) judgement, judicial decision; thence med.L. ordālium, ordēla, OF. ordel (Diez), F. ordalie. The n., of which the OTeut. type would be *uzdailjom, is a nominal compound, belonging to a compound vb. of Goth. type *uzdailjan, in OHG. artailan, irteilan, MHG. and Ger. erteilen, OS. adêljan, OE. adǽlan, lit. ‘to deal out’, ‘allot in shares’; hence ‘to allot or adjudge to one his share, decide, give judgement’. The n. has come down in the cognate langs. in the general sense of ‘judgement, judicial decision’, but in OE. had become restricted, in historical times, to ancient modes of trial which survived from an earlier stage of society.
The word has not been found in ME., except in a single instance in Chaucer's Troylus (perh. from Latin or French). Its modern historical use began c 1575, partly as an Englishing of med.L. ordālium, partly as an adaptation of the OE. word. The true repr. of OE. ordál would be ordole; the received spelling ordeal appears 1605 in Verstegan, who associates the word with deal ‘part’ (OE. dǽl). ‘Or is heer vnderstood for due or right, deal, for parte, as yet wee vse it, so as ordeal, is asmuch as to say as due-parte, and at this present it is a word generally vsed in Germanie, & the Netherlands, in stede of dome or iudgement’ (Dec. Intell. iii. 63). Ignorance of the etymological relationship has led to the pronunciation or-de-al, as in boreal, cereal, lineal.]
1. An ancient mode of trial among the Teutonic peoples, retained in England till after the Norman Period, in which an accused or suspected person was subjected to some physical test fraught with danger, such as the plunging of the hand in boiling water, the carrying of hot iron, walking barefoot and blindfold between red-hot ploughshares, etc., the result being regarded as the immediate judgement of the Deity. Hence applied to analogous modes of determining innocence or guilt, still practised in various parts of the East, and in traditional societies generally.
With the exception of wager of battle, which is sometimes included in the class, the various forms of ordeal were abolished in England 1215–19.
c915Laws of Edward i. c. 3 Eac we cwædon be þam mannum, þe man-sworan wæran..þæt hy siððan að-wyrðe næron, ac ordales wyrðe. c920Laws of Edw. & Guthr. c. 9 Ordel and aðas syndan tocwedene freols-daᵹum and riht fæsten-daᵹum. c1000Laws of æthelred iii. c. 4 Gange to anfealdum ordale oþþe ᵹilde iii-ᵹylde. c1374Chaucer Troylus iii. 997 (1046) Wher so yow lyste by ordal or by oth. 1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 278 A new church, that he had erected..for the execution of iudgments by the Ordale. 1596Spenser F.Q. v. i. 25 This..right Can hardly but by Sacrament be tride, Or else by ordele, or by blooddy fight. 1599Thynne Animadv. 66 A tryall by fyre, whiche is but a species of the ordell; for ordalium was a tryall by fyre and water. 1647N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. xxxvii. (1739) 55 A second sort of Evidence was that of Ordeale. 1660R. Coke Power & Subj. 158 The trial of the Ordal. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. xxvii. 342 The most antient species of trial was that by ordeal; which was peculiarly distinguished by the appellation of judicium Dei. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xx, If any one of the suspected household refuse to submit to the ordeal of bier-right? 1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. iii. 50 During the administration of the ordeal by poison in Madagascar.
2. fig. Anything to which recourse is had as a test, or which itself severely tests character or endurance; a trying experience, a trial.
1658Cleveland Rustick Ramp. Wks. (1687) 391 The Ordale of the Sword justified Cæsar, and condemned Pompey, not his Cause. 1807Med. Jrnl. XVII. 149 One fifth of the whole number vaccinated has been subjected to this severe ordeal. 1809W. Irving Knickerb. vii. vi. (1849) 407 Adversity..has been wisely denominated the ordeal of true greatness. 1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 561 Then ensued A Martin's summer of his faded love, Or ordeal by kindness. 1892‘F. Anstey’ Voces Pop. Ser. ii. 80 The ladies in the carriages bear the ordeal of public inspection.
3. attrib. and Comb., as ordeal fire, ordeal trial, etc.; ordeal-bean, the poisonous calabar-bean.
1647Cowley Mistr., Written in Juice of Lemon iv, Be not discourag'd, but require A more gentle Ordeal Fire. 1678Butler Hud. iii. i. 52 Who might, perhaps, reduce his Cause To th' Ordeal Tryal of the Laws. 1774J. Adams Wks. (1854) IX. 339 Politics are an ordeal path among red hot ploughshares. 1861Wilson & Geikie Mem. E. Forbes i. 26 The ordeal rocks, on which nuns suspected of breaking their vows had their innocence tested, or rather their guilt prejudged. 1885Chambers' Jrnl. 3 Oct. 626 The ordeal or Calabar bean of Africa. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 490 The intelligent native..squares the common-sense factor by bribing the witch-doctor who makes the ordeal drink. |