| 释义 |
orotund, a. (n.)|ˈɔərəʊtʌnd|
[f. L. phrase ore rotundo ‘with round, well-turned speech’ (lit. ‘with round mouth’) Horace A.P. 323, with contraction of ore ro- to oro-. This some have essayed to alter to ororotund, for ore- or orirotund.]
Characterized by greater fullness, clearness, and strength than ordinary speech: applied to the voice or utterance proper to good public speaking, recitation, or reading; also contemptuously to an inflated or pompous style of eloquence: magniloquent.
1792–9T. Gosse Autobiog. (MS. penes E. Gosse), In the winter evenings (1792) my brother Harry's wife..would read aloud therein in a manner both emphatic and orotund. 1827Rush Philos. Hum. Voice viii. (1833) 121 The Qualities of voice employed as the means of expression, are those of the Whispering, the Natural, the Falsette and the Orotund voices. 1840Penny Cycl. XVI. 472/1 The name of orotund..is given to that natural or improved manner of uttering the elements, which exhibits them with a fulness, clearness, strength, smoothness, and a ringing or musical quality rarely heard in ordinary speech. 1871‘M. Legrand’ Camb. Freshm. xxii. 365 Mr. Chutney would have..ejaculated, in orotund voice, ‘Alas!’ 1881Flor. Marryat Sister the Actress I. xviii. 149 Dreaming..of natural, falsetto and orotund voices. 1887Lowell Old Eng. Dram. (1892) 90. 1891 T. R. Lounsbury Stud. Chaucer III. vii. 196 In place of simple language we had a succession of orotund phrases.
b. ellipt. as n. (sc. voice, utterance).
1827Rush Philos. Hum. Voice viii. (1833) 121 Few persons have by nature, a pure orotund. 1888Cassell's Fam. Mag. Dec. 12/1 The deep-orotund is a very pleasing and effective acquisition, and may be cultivated with surprising success. 1889J. M. Robertson Ess. Crit. Method 245 Such an exclusive cultivation of the orotund as makes the bulk of his work a mere weariness of the flesh.
Hence oroˈtundity (also oro-rotundity); ororotundoism nonce-wd.
1831Croker Boswell's Johnson I. 196 note, The number of syllables, and oro-rotundity..of the sound of a word, can never add much. 1840G. Raymond in New Monthly Mag. LIX. 248, I..exclaimed, in all the ororotundoism I could summon to my aid, ‘Hear me’ [etc.]. 1892Blackw. Mag. Sept. 395 There is a pomposity, an ororotundity. 1909Cent. Dict. Suppl., Orotundity. 1922J. M. Murry Probl. Style 20 Wordsworthians were there to discover the hallmark of genius on his most insignificant orotundities. 1936‘M. Innes’ Death at President's Lodging ix. 167 D.C. was absorbed in his narrative now: the self-consciousness, the orotundity were gone. 1960Spectator 2 Sept. 347 Those thudding clichés, those meaningless orotundities. 1963Punch 16 Jan. 105/3 An orotundity which isn't meant to be funny. |