| 释义 |
penultimate, a. and n.|pɪˈnʌltɪmət|
[f. pene-, L. pæne almost + ultimate, after L. pænultim-us: see prec.]
A. adj. Last but one; next before the last of a series of things. (Chiefly in scientific and technical use.)
b. Occurring on the last syllable but one: cf. B. a.
1677Plot Oxfordsh. 15 They [sounds of an echo] next strike the ultimate secondary object, then the penultimate and antepenultimate. 1709Barnes in Hearne Collect. 8 Feb. (O.H.S.) II. 167 Thanks for your penultimate rhapsody. 1727–41Chambers Cycl., Penultima, or Penultimate, in grammar, denotes the syllable, or foot, immediately before the last..Hence antepenultimate is that before the penultimate, or the last but two. 1813Byron Br. Abydos ii. xx. note, One more revise—positively the last..—at any rate, the penultimate. 1834McMurtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 249 The penultimate whorl forms..a depression which gives the aperture more or less of the figure of a crescent. 1881Mivart Cat 99 The penultimate phalanx of each digit..is hollowed out on its outer side.
b.1862Marsh Lect. Eng. Lang. 380 The great frequency of ultimate and penultimate accentuation.
B. n. The last member but one of a series: spec.
a. Gram. The last syllable but one of a word.
b. Whist. The lowest card but one of a suit.
c. Math. (see quot. 1872).
[1727–41: see A.] 1823Crabb Technol. Dict., Penultimate, the last syllable but one in a word. 1846in Worcester. 1872Cayley Coll. Math. Papers VIII. 526, I have had occasion to consider..the form of a curve about to degenerate into a system of multiple curves; a simple instance is a trinodal quartic curve about to degenerate into the form x2y2 = 0, or say a ‘penultimate’ of x2y2 = 0. 1876C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. 313 He..also leaned to long penultimates in Phrygia and Libya. 1876A. Campbell-Walker Correct Card Gloss. (1880) 13 Penultimate, the.—Beginning with the lowest card but one of the suit you lead originally, if it contains more than four cards. |