| 释义 |
Patagonian, a. and n.|pætəˈgəʊnɪən|
[See Patagon and -an.]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to Patagonia or its inhabitants (see B); hence, formerly, † Gigantic, huge, immense.
1767Jrnl. Byron's Voy. rd. World 24 + 5 The Patagonian system of education is quite gymnastic. 1786Wolcott (P. Pindar) Farew. Odes R. Acad. viii. 26 This year, of picture, Mister West Is quite a Patagonian maker. 1818Kirby & Sp. Entomol. II. 101 Seeing a number of ants carrying off a Patagonian centipede. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. xvii. 202 Their numbers were not as great, nor their size as Patagonian as some of us had been disposed to fancy.
2. Patagonian cavy, Patagonian hare, a large rodent, Dolichotis patagona, belonging to the cavy family and found in southern parts of South America; = mara1.
1833[see mara]. 1910Encycl. Brit. V. 586/2 A very different animal is the Patagonian cavy, or mara.., the typical representative of a genus characterized by long limbs, comparatively large ears, and a short tail. 1961G. Durrell Whispering Land i. 43 Small, desert-like areas seemed to be favoured by that curious animal, the Patagonian hare... They had blunt, rather hare-like faces, small, neat, rabbit-shaped ears, neat forequarters with slender forelegs. But the hindquarters were large and muscular in comparison, with powerful hind-legs. 1965D. Morris Mammals 226 The Mara, or Patagonian Cavy, is the most hare-like of all the rodents. 1971L. H. Matthews Life of Mammals II. vii. 205 When they run..they hop with a gait much resembling that of a rabbit—this gait, and the long ears and legs, have earned them the misnomer of Patagonian hare.
B. n. A South American Indian of a race inhabiting southern Patagonia, said to be the tallest known people (their stature, however, being much exaggerated by 17th and 18th c. travellers and romancers); hence, fig. † a giant, a gigantic specimen.
1767Jrnl. Byron's Voy. rd. World 24 + 15 A petty Patagonian, not seven and a half feet high. 1786Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ep. to Boswell 63 Two huge Patagonian pockets..Which Patagonians..Would fairly both his Dictionaries hold. 1871G. C. Musters (title) At Home with the Patagonians. |