| 释义 |
particle, n.|ˈpɑːtɪk(ə)l|
Also 4 -ycle, 4–6 perticle, 5 -ykyll, 6 -ikcle.
[ad. L. particula, dim. of pars, part-em part: cf. particule.]
1. a. A small part, portion, or division of a whole. Now rare or Obs., or merged in 2.
1380Lay Folks Catech. (Lamb. MS.) 243 Eche on of þese thre partyes contenys many partyclys. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 192 Also blood leting is good þerfore, if oþere particlis acordiþ þerfore. 1567Earl Mar's Househ. Bk. in Chalmers Mary (1818) I. 178 Ane particle of beif. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 66 Persians..accounted the Sunne the greatest God, and worshipped the Fire as a particle thereof. 1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 7 (Horse Fly) You shall most fairly see..a pulsing particle (which certainly is the heart). 1745tr. Columella's Husb. xi. ii, One particle or degree of the Ecliptic. 1836Emerson Nature i, I am part or particle of God. 1881‘Mark Twain’ Prince & Pauper xxxi. 374 Now began a movement of the gorgeous particles of that official group.
b. A very small part of any proposition, statement, writing, or composition; a clause; an article of a formula.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 199 The thyrde particle of this first article of our fayth, is Creatorem celi et terre. 1563Ressoning Crosraguell & Knox E iij b, Of the formar pertikcle I mark twa heidis in speciall. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 156 Just when they are praying that particle. 1789T. Taylor Proclus' Comm. II. 102 Those who enunciated this proposition, and at the same time omitted the particle, having one side produced.
c. A small piece or plot of ground. local.
[1540: see particule 1.] 1839Wilson Tales Borders V. 330/2 Confiscation o' a' gudes, gear, chattels, particles, and pendicles. 1890A. W. Moore Surnames Isle Man 318 Small portions of land which, though not intacks, were, for some unknown reason, not included in the designation of Quartir⁓land, are called Particles..they are now on the same footing as the Quartirlands.
2. a. A very minute portion or quantity of matter; the smallest sensible, component part of an aggregation or mass; formerly often = atom or molecule; in Dynamics, a minute mass of matter which while still having inertia and attraction is treated as a point, i.e. as having no magnitude. In Physics now applied esp. to the constituents of atoms and to other sub-atomic entities (some of which are now regarded as likely to be composite in nature). Cf. alpha particle s.v. alpha 3 e, elementary particle s.v. elementary a. 6.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. x. iii. (Bodl. MS.) lf. 101 b/1 An element is semple and leste perticle of a bodie þat is compowned [orig. Elementum est..simpla & minima corporis compositi particula]. Ibid. viii. i. (1495) 295 Pertykyll. 1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. x. 88 The different effects, which fire and water have on us, which we call heat and cold, result from the so differing configuration and agitation of their Particles. 1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 57 Camphire (which spends it self by continually effluviating its own Component Particles). 1743Emerson Fluxions 263 To find the Motion of any Particle of the String as suppose of X the middle Point. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters I. 43 It is impossible..to comprehend the size or form of an elementary particle of water. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. II. 271 The oxide of copper combines easily with the greater part of the colouring particles precipitated by acids. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (1879) I. xiii. 373 Every particle of matter attracts every other particle. 1878Abney Photogr. (1881) 11 When we say particle we mean to convey the idea of the smallest visible quantity of matter. 1880E. Cleminshaw Wurtz' Atom. Th. 39 The particle..is a collection of a definite number of molecules in a definite situation, occupying a space incomparably greater than that of the volume of the molecules. 1898J. J. Thomson Discharge Electr. through Gases 189 The other theory..regards the cathode rays as marking the course of a stream of negatively electrified particles. a1901Besant Five Years' Tryst, etc. (1902) 117 Through the open windows..were borne black particles and a smell as of a bonfire. 1942H. Dingle Sub-Atomic Physics i. 12 We next assume that the atoms of all bodies are constructed from three kinds of particles—one positively electrified (the proton), one negatively electrified (the electron), and one unelectrified (the neutron). 1968M. S. Livingston Particle Physics iv. 77 By this time [sc. 1947] the definition of elementary particles had expanded to include more than the components of atoms. It now included particles created in nuclear decay processes, such as pions and muons..; it also included antiparticles, although the positron was the only example which had been observed... The list of elementary particles jumped to over 30 within the next 8 years. 1969Times 8 Jan. 12/2 This star..would consist entirely of the nuclear particles called neutrons. 1970P. H. A. Sneath Planets & Life i. 24 Modern physics has demonstrated the existence of a large number of ‘smaller’ subatomic particles, some of them very short-lived, and it has recently been suggested that they are all composed of yet ‘smaller’ particles, called quarks.
b. A very small or the smallest conceivable portion or amount of something immaterial.
1620T. Granger Div. Logike 32 Performed by and in all actions, and things, to the least particle. 1742Young Nt. Th. vii. 824 This Particle of Energy divine. 1794Paley Evid. (1825) II. 384 They had never entertained a particle of doubt. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 361 No one who has a particle of understanding.
c. R.C. Ch. The portion of the Host given to each lay communicant.
1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v., Particles is also..used in the Latin church for the crums or little pieces of consecrated bread, called Μεριδες in the Greek church. 1847Card. Wiseman Unreal. Anglican Belief Ess. 1853 II. 406 The word ‘particle’ being equally applied to the Host given in lay-communion, and to the smallest visible fragment. 1853Dale tr. Baldeschi's Ceremonial 104 After which he receives the Sacred Particle.
3. Gram.
a. A minor part of speech, esp. one that is short and indeclinable, a relation-word; also, a prefix or suffix having a distinct meaning, as un-, -ly, -ness.
1533Udall Flowres 107 Compowned with theym selfes, they sygnifye as moche as if they were compowned with this partycle cumque, as quisquis, i. quicunque. 1535Joye Apol. Tindale (Arb.) 38 There thys particle (and) expowneth what yt is to come to Crist. 1611Florio, In, a Particle or Preposition locall and of priuation. 1668Wilkins Real Char. iv. vi. 452 Their words are not declined by Terminations, but by Particles, which makes their Grammar much more easie than that of the Latin. 1711Steele Spect. No. 147 ⁋3 Emphasis..improperly..placed on some very insignificant Particle, as upon if, or and. 1762Kames Elem. Crit. xviii. (1833) 305 Conjunctions, prepositions, articles, and such like accessories, passing under the name of particles. 1845Stoddart Gram. in Encycl. Metrop. (1847) I. 65/1 These inferior Parts of speech have been called particles: and, as such, are sometimes distinguished from words, and sometimes treated only as a separate class of words. 1868Gladstone Juv. Mundi ii. (1870) 54 To hold that it attains its initial vowel by junction with the particle α in its intensive or any other sense. 1924O. Jespersen Philos. Gram. 87, I therefore propose to revert to the old terminology by which these four classes [sc. adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections] are treated as one called ‘particles’. 1933O. Jespersen Essent. Eng. Gram. vii. 69 Some particles can be used in one capacity only, others may be used now as adverbs, now as prepositions, and now as conjunctions, others again in two of these capacities. 1935H. Straumann Newspaper Headlines 56 Particles, then, are all those words which cannot be looked upon as nominals, verbals, and neutrals. 1964A. S. C. Ross Essent. Eng. Gram. 18 English consists of words and particles. The main difference between these two things is that the class of words is very numerous and can be added to at will, whereas the class of particles is rather small and cannot be added to at will. 1965Eng. Stud. XLVI. 439 By ‘particles’ he [sc. A. S. C. Ross] means, not only prepositions, articles, indefinite pronouns, etc., but also prefixes, suffixes and inflectional endings. 1977M. Cohen Sensible Words i. 40 Particles..are the grammatical functions that serve what Arnaud called the reasoning and ordering operations of the mind.
b. The preposition-like word which forms part of a complex (phrasal) verb and which can be optionally separated from the verb in certain constructions. Also attrib.
1925Grattan & Gurrey Our Living Lang. xii. 80 When, therefore, such words [as in He has run up a bill] differ clearly from the ordinary adverb, it is advisable to give them a more precise label: Verbal Particles. 1957N. Chomsky Syntactic Struct. vii. 76 Further investigation of the verb phrase shows that there is a general verb + complement..construction that behaves very much like the verb + particle construction. 1964Katz & Postal Integr. Theory Ling. Descr. (1965) iii. 41 The particle inversion transformation..inverts the particle of a certain set of complex verbs with their Noun Phrase objects. 1968Jacobs & Rosenbaum Eng. Transformational Gram. xiii. 102 Some sentences contain words known as verb particles in their verb phrases. Ibid. 103 When question sentences containing verb particles are generated, the particle must remain in its original position. Ibid. 104 The transformation responsible for introducing a particle segment into the structure is called the particle segment transformation, or more simply, the particle transformation. Ibid. 106 The particle movement transformation is normally optional. 1968R. W. Langacker Lang. & its Struct. 118 The Particle Shift rule..separates a verb and a particle by placing the particle after the following direct object noun phrase. 1974McArthur & Atkins Dict. Eng. Phrasal Verbs 5 Phrasal verbs..are, usually, combinations of simple, mono⁓syllabic verbs (put, take, get etc.) and members of a set of particles (on, up, out etc.).
4. attrib. and Comb., as particle-size; particle-accelerating, particle-like adjs.; particle accelerator = accelerator e; particle physics, the branch of physics concerned with the properties, relationships, and interactions of sub-atomic particles; so particle physicist. See also sense 3 b above.
1947Electronics Dec. 82/1 An electrostatic particle-accelerating machine called a Van de Graaf generator. 1959Sunday Times 5 Apr. 8/6 The particle-accelerating machines of the nuclear physicist. 1975Nature 2 Oct. 360/2 Work has thrived on the use of pulsed sources, including particle-accelerating machines, for neutron diffraction experiments.
1946Physical Rev. LXX. 91/1 (heading) Particle accelerators as mass analyzers. 1968Times 21 Dec. 13/7 Bubble chambers..are used in conjunction with powerful particle accelerators—machines that produce beams of high energy particles—to study how subatomic particles interact. 1977D. Bagley Enemy xvii. 145 Microbiology isn't like atomics; you don't need a particle accelerator costing a hundred million.
1959G. Troup Masers ii. 14 The ‘wave-like’ aspects of radiation have been stressed rather more than the ‘particle-like’ aspects. 1973Sci. Amer. Oct. 104/2 Dirac called his hypothetical particlelike holes positrons. 1977Ibid. Apr. 116/1 Allowance must be made for wavelike properties, such as interference, diffraction and polarization, and for particlelike properties, such as the momentum carried by a beam of light.
1969New Scientist 24 Apr. 171/1 What the high-energy particle physicists are witnessing..is evidently a yet further spectrum of some kind. 1971Ibid. 5 Aug. 334 Even particle physicists and molecular biologists would be hard put to point to new discoveries, insights and ideas rivalling those in the field of astronomy..since 1961.
1946Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. XC. 44/2 Some of the outstanding experimental problems in elementary particle physics—problems concerned with electrons and positrons, nuclear explosions, neutrino physics, and most of all with the meson. Ibid. 47/1 Elementary particle physics..will get sources of energetic particles and use these sources to study the transformations of the elementary particles. 1962Livingston & Blewett Particle Accelerators p. v, Phenomena in nuclear physics and high-energy particle physics. 1969New Scientist 24 Apr. 171/1 In 20th century particle physics there has been a continuous progression from the world of the atom,..through the MeV world of nuclear physics..to the present perplexing phenomena of the GeV world created by the big particle accelerators.
1946Nature 21 Dec. 908/2 Particle-size in silts and sands. 1966D. G. Brandon Mod. Techniques Metallogr. v. 249 There is very little to be said about the quantitative analysis of particle-size or grain-size distributions.
Hence (nonce-wds.) † ˈparticle v. trans., to connect by a particle or conjunction; ˈparticled a., composed of particles, particulate.
1650Hollingworth Exerc. Usurped Powers 48 If they be not the same persons, how come they to be thus particled together? 1883C. Morris in Nature 14 June 148/2 An ether whose condensation yields particled matter. |