释义 |
propriety, n.|prəʊˈpraɪɪtɪ| Forms: 5–6 propriete, (-yete(e, 6 -ietee, -ietye, -yetie), 6–7 proprietie, 6– propriety. [ME. propriete, a. F. propriété (12th c. in Littré), ad. L. proprietāt-em: see property.] The quality of being proper, or that which is proper (in various senses of the adj.). †1. a. The fact of being owned by some one, or of being one's own, ‘ownness’; the fact of owning something, right of possession or use; ownership, proprietorship: = property n. 1. Obs. In quot. 1502 fig. in spiritual sense: cf. proprietary n. 2.
1486Petition to Hen. VII in Materials Hen. VII (Rolls) I. 297 An othre cope, with a cover gilt,..the propriete wherof rightfully belongith to oure..moder, the countesse of Richemond & Derby. 1502W. Atkynson tr. De Imitatione iii. xlii. 230 Stande thou..without all propryete, & thou shalt alway wyn. 1581–90in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) II. 412 They..can challenge no more proprietie in that grownde, then may euery seuerall Colledge of that Vniuersitie. 1652–62Heylin Cosmogr. iv. (1682) 47 The people..live like Beasts, without propriety so much as in their Wives or Children. 1671J. Flavel Fount. Life iv. 9 When men give, they transfer Propriety to another. 1707E. Chamberlayne Pres. St. Eng. iii. iv. (ed. 22) 297 Every Freeman hath such a full and absolute Propriety in his Goods, That no Taxes..legally can be imposed upon them, without their own Consent. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. xi. 309 The clergy themselves had never expected that their estates would revert to them in full propriety. †b. The fact of belonging or relating specially to a particular thing or person; peculiarity, particularity, specialty. Obs.
1625Bacon Ess., Unity in Relig. (Arb.) 425 The Doctor of the Gentiles [St. Paul] (the Propriety of whose Vocation, drew him to haue a speciall care of those without) saith [etc.]. a1648Ld. Herbert Hen. VIII (1683) 69 The Sweating Sickness (call'd for the propriety by which it seized on the English Nation chiefly Sudor Anglicus). †c. Path. (Of a pain or disease.) The fact of belonging specially to, or originating in, the part affected: see quot. 1657, and cf. idiopathy 2 a. Obs.
1615Crooke Body of Man 190 The stone of the Kidneyes is knowne or discerned from that of the bladder by The propriety of the paine, by the scituation, and by the dulnesse. 1655Culpepper Riverius vii. i. 146 The Breath is hindered by divers Causes, either by sympathy or propriety of parts. The hinderance of breathing by propriety, called Idiopathica, comes from the Lungs distempered. 1657Physical Dict. s.v., A pain by propriety is when the cause of the pain is in the part pained, as when the head-ach comes from the humors in the head it's called a pain by propriety; when it proceeds of vapors sent up from the stomach or any other part it's called head-ach by consent or sympathy. 2. †a. Something owned, a possession: = property n. 2. Obs. (exc. as in b).
1571Satir. Poems Reform. xxvii. 70 How þai..yitt posseidis that peoples proprietie. 1661Feltham Resolves ii. xlvi. (ed. 8) 274 How can he have a good conscience..that..takes away what is anothers just propriety? a1667Jer. Taylor Serm. Eph. v. 32–33 Wks. 1831 I. 327 So are the proprieties of a wife to be disposed of by her lord. a1711Ken Hymnarium Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 76 'Tis thy Propriety, and not my own. b. A piece of land owned by some one, a private possession or estate: = property n. 2 b. Obs. exc. in Amer. Hist.: cf. proprietary n. 7.
1661Feltham Resolves ii. lxxxii. (ed. 8) 365 It is the Hedge..which hinders from breaking into other mens propriety. 1690Andros Tracts II. 42 The Lands of Widdows and Orphans and other peoples proprieties. 1705Beverley Virginia i. §92 (1722) 65 The splitting the Colony into Proprieties, contrary to the original Charters. 1889Athenæum 3 Aug. 157/1 The lately established propriety of Nova Scotia was to be ceded to that power [France]. 1894Nation (N.Y.) 19 July 51/1 Early in 1774 he removed to Lenox, Mass., was at once elected clerk of that ‘Propriety’, and was sent as its delegate to the General Court of the Colony. 3. Proper or particular character; own nature, disposition, idiosyncrasy; essence, individuality; sometimes, proper state or condition. Cf. property n. 5. Now rare.
1456Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 29 As sais the maister of proprieteis of bestis, A scorpioun is as a worm of the erde. 1483Caxton G. de la Tour F v, I shall telle yow thensample of the lyon and of his propryete. 1549Compl. Scot. v. 32 To paynt ande discriue the origyne ande propriete of the varld. 1604Shakes. Oth. ii. iii. 176 Silence that dreadfull Bell, it frights the Isle, From her propriety. 1643Milton Divorce ii. ix. Wks. 1851 IV. 85 It holds a strange and lawlesse propriety from all other works of God under heaven. 1659Pearson Creed v. 511 We are presented with three Particulars: First, the Action itself,..‘he rose again’. Secondly, The verity, reality, and propriety of that Resurrection, ‘he rose from the dead’. 1795[see proprium 1 b]. 1876Mozley Univ. Serm. vii. (1877) 156 This propriety, or characteristic in the individual, which he receives from a Divine source, is a sacred deposit with him. †4. A quality or attribute; esp. an essential or distinctive quality; a characteristic, a peculiarity: = property n. 5. Obs.
1456Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 63 He was bathe honest and honourable,..and full of all gude proprieteis. 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xv. xxxiii. (1886) 383 Salomon..had full and perfect knowledge of all their proprieties. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 718 A secret propriety of this ground. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage i. (1614) 5 All the proprieties of God are infinite as they are immanent in Himself. 1678Hobbes Decam. viii. 101 To tell you the several proprieties of the Magnet. 1700J. A. Astry tr. Saavedra-Faxardo I. 55 Impatience is as it were a Propriety of Power. 1868Bushnell Serm. Living Subj. 13 Proprieties of the incarnation. †5. a. The special character, or a special characteristic, of a language; peculiarity of diction, idiom. Often, with mixture of sense 6: Correctness or purity of diction. Obs.
a1568R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 87 In..Cæs. Commentaries..is seene, the vnspotted proprietie of the Latin tong. 1587Golding De Mornay viii. (1592) 108 The Punicke tongue was but a kinde of seuerall proprietie of the Hebrew. 1621T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 5 A word, which according to the Idiom and propriety of the language wherein he spake, may be translated liues. 1690Locke Govt. i. iv. §31 'Tis pity the Propriety of the Hebrew Tongue had not used Fathers of Men, instead of Children of Men. 1739Wks. Learned I. 140 The neglect of acquainting our youth..with the Proprieties and Beauties of their Mother Tongue. 1746–78(title) An Exmoor Scolding, in the Propriety and Decency of Exmoor Language. †b. The proper, strict, or literal sense of a word; strictness of meaning, literalness. Obs.
1641Wilkins Math. Magick ii. i. (1648) 145 In its stricture and propriety, it is onely appliable unto fresh inventions. 1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. Disc. vi. 15 The word ἀπειθεια which in propriety of language signifies mis⁓persuasion. 1656[J. Sergeant] tr. T. White's Peripat. Inst. 378 God, therefore, cast..a sleep upon Adam: the Propriety is, and He made a sleep fall. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 451 If we add that the propriety of this word Jupiter, does not express a Divine, but only a Humane force. 6. Fitness, appropriateness, aptitude, suitability; appropriateness to the circumstances or conditions; conformity with requirement, rule, or principle; rightness, correctness, justness, accuracy. (Cf. proper a. 4, 9.)
1615R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 69 Displaying resolution in thy eye Courtship in cloths, in speech propriety. 1659Hammond On Ps. vii. 40 But that was in the businesse of Absalom,..to which this Psalm hath no propriety. 1729Butler Serm. Pref., Wks. 1874 II. 8, I shall not..justify the propriety of preaching..Discourses so abstruse as some of these are. 1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 429 Propriety of language is the selection of such words as the best usage has appropriated to those ideas, which we intend to express by them. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 223 They..appointed a committee to consider the propriety of impeaching Arlington. 1870Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 2) II. App. T 609 In some manuscripts..the propriety of the title is formally disputed. 7. Conformity with good manners or polite usage; correctness of behaviour or morals; becomingness, decency. the proprieties: the things that are considered proper; the details of conventionally correct or proper conduct. Also, to play propriety, to ensure correct moral behaviour, act as a chaperone.
[1782F. Burney Cecilia v. xiii, Such propriety of mind as can only result from the union of good sense with virtue.] 178.Burns Addressed to Lady whom Author feared he had offended, Propriety's cold cautious rules Warm fervour may o'erlook. 1799H. More Fem. Educ. (ed. 4) I. 76 The decorums, the proprieties, the elegancies, and even the graces, as far as they are simple, pure, and honest, would follow as an almost inevitable consequence. 1836T. Hook G. Gurney II. v. 290 She talked of some elderly body, in the shape of an aunt, who was to accompany her, and play Propriety. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Manners (Bohn) II. 50 The keeping of the proprieties is as indispensable as clean linen. 1865Trollope Belton Est. xi. 118 Her taste for decency of demeanour and propriety of life. 1877V. Lush Jrnl. 13 Feb. (1975) 187, I invited a few of the Choir here after practice, with Mrs Scott and Mrs Lloyd to play propriety and we had a very jolly evening. 1925I. Smith Marriage in Ceylon 137 Angela..had felt it would not be ‘the thing’ to accept hospitality of the man who in a few days' time would be her husband without someone to ‘play propriety’. |