| 释义 |
persuasion|pəˈsweɪʒən|
Also 6–8 persw-; 4 -cioun, 6 -cion, -tio(u)n.
[ad. L. persuāsiōn-em, n. of action from persuādēre to persuade: perh. through F. persuasion (14th c. persuacion in Oresme, persuacioun in Gower).]
1. The action, or an act, of persuading or seeking to persuade; the presenting of inducements or winning arguments; the addressing of reasonings, appeals, or entreaties to a person in order to induce him to do or believe something.
1382Wyclif Gal. v. 8 Forsoth this persuacioun, or softe mouynge, is not of hym that clepide ȝou. 1477Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 133 Ther may no persuasions nor holsom counseil auaile. 1555Eden Decades 24 Seduced by theyr perswasions and prouocations. 1595Shakes. John v. v. 11 The English Lords By his perswasion, are againe falne off. 1697Potter Antiq. Greece i. iii. (1715) 10 These, he, by his Persuasions, appeas'd. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. xlv. (1869) II. 674 The arts of persuasion were tried without success. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. v. 472 Promises and persuasions being unavailing, they tried threats. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. I. iv. 257 By force or persuasion, he gained over to his side the Princes of Aquitaine.
†b. Something tending or intended to induce belief or action; an argument or inducement. Obs.
c1384Chaucer H. Fame ii. 364 How thenketh the my conclusyon... A goode persuasion Quod he hyt is. c1450tr. De Imitatione iii. vii. 72 He wil not bileue þe wily persuasions of þe enemy. 1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 695/2 An other that serueth more honest, or that hath better perswasions, than he. 1598–9[E. Forde] Parismus i. (1661) 42 A sufficient perswasion to all that the Prince..was murdered. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia iii. 63 For his relation we gaue him many toyes, with perswasions to goe with vs.
c. Power of persuading, persuasiveness.
1601Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 383 Ist possible that my deserts to you Can lacke perswasion? 1759Sterne Tr. Shandy I. xix, Persuasion hung upon his lips, and the elements of Logic and Rhetoric were so blended up in him. 1858Lytton What will he do viii. i. note, No printer's type can record his decorous grace, the persuasion of his silvery tongue. 1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. v. 166 For teaching there is required a persuasion as well as for advocacy, though of a different kind.
2. a. The fact or condition of being persuaded, convinced, or assured of something; conviction, assurance, full belief.
1534More in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. II. 51 The knowledge of your trew graciouse persuation in that behalfe. 1601Dent Pathw. Heaven 242 In the verie Elect, and in those which are growen to the greatest perswasion. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 152 Perswasion in me grew That I was heard with favour. 1777Priestley Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. Pref. 8 My doubts were..converted into a full persuasion. 1855Brewster Newton II. xx. 221 He intimated to Newton..his persuasion of Flamsteed's fitness for the work.
b. With pl. That of which one is persuaded; what one is led to believe; a belief, conviction.
c1510More Picus Wks. 14/1 This is a very deadly & monstrous perswacion, which hath entred, the mindes of men. a1687Petty Pol. Arith. (1690) Pref., Examin the following Perswasions, which I find too currant in the World. 1737Waterland Eucharist 175 My Perswasion..is, that the Passage relates not at all to the Eucharist. 1860W. Collins Wom. White i. viii, It will always remain my private persuasion that [etc.].
3. spec. Religious belief or opinion; a form or system of religious belief, a creed. Rarely used for political opinion. Hence,
b. A body of persons holding a particular religious belief; a sect, a denomination.
In Hebrew persuasion or Jewish persuasion, often loosely or humorously put for ‘race’; hence app. the humorous use in c.
[1588Marprel. Epist. (Arb.) 24 The said Iohn Cant. hath many things in him, which euidently shew a catholike perswasion.] 1623Donne Encænia Ep. Ded., Any matter of Controuersie betweene vs and those of the Romane Perswasion. 1656A. Wright Five Serm. To Chr. Rdr., Those of the Episcopal perswasion. 1662Bk. Com. Prayer Pref., All his Subjects of what perswasion soever. 1684Scanderbeg Rediv. ii. 16 Their then received Religion (which was as still it is, the Lutheran Perswasion). 1687Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 404 Persons of the congregational persuasion in the citty of Norwich. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. viii. 104 The Church of England.—The clergy of her Persuasion. 1779Sheridan Critic ii. ii, While we, You know, the Protestant persuasion hold. 1794Paley Evid. i. v. §3 (1817) 93 The exertions of the Founder [of Christianity] and his followers in propagating the new persuasion. 1807–8Syd. Smith Plymley's Lett. ix, I detest that state of society which extends unequal degrees of protection to different creeds and persuasions. 1813Hobhouse Journey (ed. 2) 622 Many of them, being of the Roman Catholic persuasion. 1862Trollope Orley F. xiii, Nor at first sight would it probably have been discerned that he was of the Hebrew persuasion. 1879M. Arnold Irish Cath. Mixed Ess. 101 Men of any religious persuasion might be appointed to teach anatomy or chemistry. 1888Saintsbury Ess. Eng. Lit. (1891) 184 His political satires would have galled Tories,..and could hardly be read by persons of that persuasion with such complete enjoyment.
b.1727Swift What passed in London Wks. 1755 III. i. 190 All the different persuasions kept by themselves. 1844S. Wilberforce Hist. Prot. Episc. Ch. Amer. (1846) 308 A field of battle on which each persuasion sought to obtain the mastery. 1863G. J. Whyte-Melville Gladiators III. 11 These were the Essenes, a persuasion that reject pleasure as a positive evil.
c. slang or burlesque. Nationality; sex; kind; sort; description.
[1863Alford in Gd. Words 199 We constantly read of the ‘Hebrew persuasion’, or the ‘Jewish persuasion’. I expect soon to see the term widened still more, and a man of colour described as ‘an individual of the negro persuasion’.] 1864Daily Tel. 1 Apr. 5 Brawny, vituperative-tongued females, of the Irish persuasion. 1885‘F. Anstey’ Tinted Venus vii. 78 She said she thought it was..a gentleman in the hair⁓cutting persuasion. 1890Amer. Naturalist XXIV. 236, I have a canary of the feminine persuasion. 1902R. Hichens Londoners 33 A sinister moustache of the tooth-brush persuasion. 1903B. Harraden Kath. Frensham 28 A dark little man, evidently of French persuasion, came into the room. Mod. (humorous.) No one of the male persuasion was present. |