| 释义 |
▪ I. pith, n.|pɪθ|
Forms: 1–2 piþa, 4–5 piþ, 4–7 pyth, pithe, 4– pith, (4 pidh, pight, put, 5–6 pytthe, 5 pyf, peth, Sc. picht, 5–7 pythe, 6 pit, Sc. pitht, 6–7 pitth(e). Mod. dialects have peth, peeth, piff, peff.
[OE. piþa, radically agreeing with MDu. pitte, MLG., LG., WFris., EFris., Da. pit pith of a tree or vegetable, kernel of a nut, etc. (cf. pit n.2):—WGer. type *piþon-, *piþþon-, represented only in the Low German group. The later development of sense is found only in Eng.]
1. The central column of spongy cellular tissue in the stems and branches of dicotyledonous plants; the medulla; applied also to the internal parenchymatous tissue of other stems, e.g. of palms, rushes, etc.; and to a similar tissue occurring in other parts of plants, as that lining the rind in certain fruits (e.g. the orange).
c888K. ælfred Boeth. xxxiv. §10 Þæt he onginð of þæm wyrtrumum, & swa upweardes grewð oð ðone stemn, & siððan andlang þæs piðan, & andlang þære rinde. a1200Sax. Leechd. III. 90 Eft nim ellenes piþan. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. i. (Bodl. MS.), Þe schafte of a tree..haþ some what wiþin as the piþþe. c1440Promp. Parv. 402/1 Pythe, medulla, vel pulpa. 1483Wardr. Acc. in Grose Antiq. Rep. (1807) I. 39 A roll of pytthes of risshes. 1542Boorde Dyetary xxi. (1870) 283 [Walnuts] doth comforte the brayne if the pyth or skin be pylled of. 1562[see pithy 1]. 1673–4Grew Anat. Trunks i. i. §35 Within the hollow of the Wood, stands the Pith. 1776Withering Brit. Plants (1796) III. 52 Subularia... Leaves..semi-cylindrical, full of pith. 1855Delamer Kitch. Gard. (1861) 119 In boiling ripe marrows,..take out the pith and seeds. 1884F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 198 The pith used by watch makers to clean their work is the pith of the elder. 1884Bower & Scott tr. H. A. de Bary's Compar. Anat. Veg. Organs Phanerogams & Ferns ix. 403 Only in a few woods does the pith become entirely empty and dried up. 1928Holman & Robbins Elem. Bot. iii. 54 The pith is made up of large-celled parenchyma. 1956F. W. Jane Struct. Wood iv. 74 The pith may be distinctive: thus, in oak it has, in section, the shape of a five-rayed star. 1976R. F. Lyndon in M. M. Yeoman Cell Division in Higher Plants viii. 297 In those cells which form the pith the cell cycle may no sooner get to minimum length than it begins to lengthen again as the cells mature.
2. The spinal ‘marrow’ or cord; in quot. 1653, the brain substance.
1594T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 357 The pith of the chine bone. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 289 Some..do twine out the pith of the back with a long wire. 1627May Lucan vi. 764 The pyth of Staggs with Serpents nourished Was mixed there. 1653H. More Antid. Ath. i. xi. (1712) 34 This laxe pith or marrow in Man's Head. 1741Compl. Fam.-Piece i. ii. 155 Take a Quantity of the Pith of an Ox. 1867F. Francis Angling i. (1880) 49 The bait consisting of..a bit of pith (bullock's marrow).
fig.1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 20 b, The Germanes..doo in steade of doung, cast vppon it a kinde of pith and fatnesse of the earth.
3. Applied to various other substances forming the inner part or core of something, and thus analogous to the pith of a tree; as
† a. The ‘crumb’ of bread. Obs. b. The core of various epidermal appendages, as feathers, horns, and hairs. † c. = diploe. Obs. rare. d. The imperfectly carbonized core of an iron rod.
a.c1450Bk. Hawkyng in Rel. Ant. I. 302 Take a white lof..and kut her almoste a too in the peth. 1579Langham Gard. Health (1633) 90 Apply the pith of Bread baked with Coliander seed. 1601Holland Pliny II. 280 They vse to lap it in the soft crum or pith of a loaf of bread.
b.14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 588/41 Ile, the pythe of a penne. 14..Nom. ibid. 703/36 Hoc ilum, the pyf of the penne. 1835–6Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 350/2 Both sides [of the shaft of a feather] ..enclose a..substance called the pith. 1840J. Buel Farmer's Comp. 71 The piths of horns, or the residue of..horns after the comb-maker has taken all that is fit for his use.
c.1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. iii. 81 In some places the Skull is simple, thin and pellucid, without any Pith.
d.1831J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 231 If [the carbonising process be] only partially effected the centre of the rod still exhibits its duller iron-like structure, or pith, as the workmen call it.
4. fig. The central or inward part; hence, the essential or vital part (of anything); spirit, essence, substance, quintessence. So pith and marrow.
c897K. ælfred Gregory's Past. C. ix. 55 Smeaᵹeað ðeah & ðeahtiᵹað on hiera modes rind moniᵹ god weorc to wyr⁓canne, ac on ðam piðan bið oðer ᵹehyded. c1400Rom. Rose 7172 Now haue I you declared right The menyng of the bark and rynde..But now at erst I wole bigynne To expowne you the pith withynne. 1434Misyn Mending of Life 123 So þou may cum to þe pith of lufe. 1526Tindale Heb. viii. 1 Of the thynges which we have spoken this is the pyth. 1551T. Wilson Logike (1580) 10 The pith of this worde Habitus, can hardely be vttered with one worde in this our tongue. 1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 183 b, Herein consisteth the whole pithe of our controuersie. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. i. iv. 70. 1635 N. R. Camden's Hist. Eliz. i. 93 The very pith and marrow of sweet speech. a1831A. Knox Rem. (1844) I. 80 The very pith and marrow of Mr. Wesley's views. 1877Symonds Renaiss. It., Fine Arts (1897) III. ii. 42 Within the great cities the pith of the population was Latin.
†b. to the pith, thoroughly, to the very core.
1577–87Holinshed Chron. III. 1127/2 Shortlie after..she performed hir promise to the pith.
5. a. Physical strength or force; vigour, toughness; might, mettle, ‘backbone’.
a1300Cursor M. 22793 (Edin.) It semis al again kind Þat mannis molden fleis and banis..Haf piþe [v.r. pith] and lif, als þai hauid ar. c1375Ibid. 7090 (Fairf.) Þorou his hare his strenght was made Atte xx. mens pith he hadde. c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 475 But Age allas..Hath me biraft my beautee and my pith. 1456Sir G. Haye Law Armys (S.T.S.) 287 In thair awin propre pythe, and vertu of corps and strenthe of membris. c1475Rauf Coilȝear 863 Thay preis furth properly thair pithis to prufe. 1545R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 112 Brasse, iron or style haue theyr owne strength and pith in them. Ibid. 117 Newe ale..wil sone lease his pith. 1601Bp. W. Barlow Serm. Paules Crosse 17 A man of Sampsons pith. 1681S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 56 We'll both defend with all our pith. 1763Churchill Epist. to Hogarth 33 Should love of Fame..Spur thee to deeds of pith. 1823Byron Juan vii. xviii, 'Mongst them were several Englishmen of pith, Sixteen called Thompson, and nineteen named Smith. 1886Stevenson Kidnapped ii. 12 This [curse]..took the pith out of my legs.
b. Force, vigour, energy (of words, speech, etc.).
c1526Frith Disput. Purgatory (1829) 102 Some man will think mine arguments to be of small pith. 1548Udall Erasm. Par. Luke Pref. 13 He shall fele a certain vertue and pith such as he shall not fele the lyke in any other bookes. 1563Mirr. Mag., Blacksmith x, In wyt he had so little pyth. 1828Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 209 Cool vigour and laconic pith. 1876Spurgeon Commenting 2 Matthew Henry..is usually plain, quaint, and full of pith.
6. Substance, substantial quality (of words, writings, etc.). ? Obs.
c1407Lydg. Reson & Sens. 4882 So ful of pith is the matere That swich a book in Romaunce Was neuer yet made in Fraunce. a1529Skelton Col. Cloute 58 It hath in it some pith. 1586T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. 192 With the whistling of lips or hands..shepheards cause their sheepe to arise, or lie downe, bicause they understand not an articulate or distinct speech, that hath some pith in it. 1590[J. Greenwood] Confer. Pref. A ij, If thou finde not such pith or substance in the matters discussed.
7. Importance, gravity, weight; esp. in phrase of (great) pith and moment, or the like (after Shakes.).
1602Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 86 Enterprizes of great pith and moment. 1624Bedell Lett. vi. 104 Neither is there any place..of speciall pith, that hath not beene obserued. 1826J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 91, I hae a secret to communicate, a secret o' some pith and importance. 1830J. W. Croker in C. Papers (1884) II. xv. 85 We have seen the scruples..of one..cabinet minister alter the whole course of enterprises of great pith and moment.
8. attrib. and Comb., as (in sense 1) pith-ball, pith-cavity, pith-cell, pith-coat, pith-cylinder; (in sense 2) pith bait, pith marrow, pith pudding; pith-like adj.; pith-drawn a. (see quot.); pith fleck, in certain woods, a small dark patch made by parenchyma cells filling cavities left by insect larvæ; pith hat, a helmet-shaped sun-hat made of the dried pith of the Indian Solah or Spongewood of Bengal (æschynomene aspera), hence called pith-hat-plant (Miller Plant-n. 1884); pith helmet = pith hat; so pith-helmeted adj.; pith paper, a paper made from the pith of various plants; pith-plant, the Chinese rice-paper tree (Aralia or Fatsia papyrifera); pith ray = medullary ray s.v. medullary a. 2 b; pith-ray fleck = pith fleck; pith-tree, a leguminous tree (æschynomene elaphroxylon) of tropical Africa, having soft white pith-like wood; pith-work, articles made of pith, esp. of æschynomene aspera.
1812Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. 126 Two gilt *pith balls, suspended upon strings of silk. 1849Noad Electricity (ed. 3) 14 A cylinder of brass, supported on a glass stand, and furnished with a pith ball electroscope.
1875Huxley & Martin Elem. Biol. (1877) 79 The medullary or *pith-cavity in the centre of the section.
Ibid., The *pith-cells, around the central cavity.
1871Kingsley At Last xiii, Two or three blows with the cutlass, at the small end of the nut, cut off not only the *pith-coat, but the point of the shell.
1884Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 308 The *pith-cylinders of the shoots..are only connected by narrow medullary rays.
1703T. S. Art's Improv. i. 19 Trees..Rift or Cleft, or *Pith-drawn, as some call it, by falling too soon, viz. before they are Sawn asunder.
1890W. Somerville tr. Hartig's Timbers 77 *Pith-flecks, darkish-coloured patches met with in some woods. 1911Forestry Q. IX. 244 Pith flecks or medullary spots are small, brown, half-moon shaped patches appearing..on the cross sections of many of our woods. 1956F. W. Jane Struct. Wood x. 236 Rotary cut birch..has a most attractive figure, due largely to the very numerous pith flecks which it contains. 1970Panshin & de Zeeuw Textbk. Wood Technol. (ed. 3) I. x. 366 Pith flecks, or medullary spots, are confined to hardwoods.
1884J. Macdonald in 19th Cent. June 1002 With nothing on but their ungainly *pith-hats.
1889T. A. Guthrie Pariah i. i, Who's the man who goes about in a *pith helmet? 1917Harrods Gen. Catal. 643/3 Lady's Pith Helmet. Pith body, covered white drill. 1934G. B. Shaw Too True to be Good ii. 50 He wears a pith helmet with a pagan. 1971Country Life 15 July 141/2 Who..buys a Cawnpore Tent Club pith helmet with quilted khaki cover? 1976Evening Post (Nottingham) 15 Mar. 6/3 Has anybody a pith helmet..? Members of Aspley Methodist Church, who are to put on a pantomime ‘The Sleeping Beauty’..would be glad to borrow one for their show.
1916‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 190 Half-forgotten illustrations in the papers of *pith-helmeted infantry in the Boer War.
1866Treas. Bot. s.v. æschynomene, The *pith-like stem of æ. aspera is..used in India..for making hats, bottle-cases, swimming jackets [etc.].
1655Moufet & Bennet Health's Impr. (1746) 199 *Pith-Marrow, running all along from the hinder Brain..to the End of the Back-bone or Chine of Beasts.
1834G. Bennett Wanderings II. 75 The *pith plant is procured from Oan-nāām, near the province of See-chuen.
1750E. Smith Compl. Housewife (ed. 14) 131 To make a *Pith Pudding. Take a quantity of the pith of an ox [etc.].
1902G. S. Boulger Wood 22 The whole mass of xylem is traversed radially by *pith-rays. 1928Holman & Robbins Elem. Bot. iii. 54 In stems in which the vascular tissue does not form a continuous cylinder, the bundles are separated by pith rays. 1953K. Esau Plant Anat. xv. 343 The spaces among the strands..are occupied by parenchymatic ground tissue. These plates of tissue can be designated as pith rays or medullary rays. 1970Panshin & de Zeeuw Textbk. Wood Technol. (ed. 3) I. v. 179 Since all wood rays originate in the cambium, such terms as pith rays and medullary rays, frequently encountered in literature on wood, should not be used, because they imply that wood rays consist of the same kind of tissue as the pith.
1913Circ. U.S. Forest Service No. 215 (title) *Pith-ray flecks in wood. 1925Eames & MacDaniels Introd. Plant Anat. vii. 187 Pith-ray flecks are, unfortunately, sometimes explained as normal features of wood structure.
1864J. A. Grant Walk across Afr. p. xv, Ambadj; native name for the *pith-tree. 1884Miller Plant-n., Pith-tree, of the Nile, Herminiera Elaphroxylon. 1887C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 313 Ambash or Pith-tree of the Nile... The wood is very light, and in the form of small logs is used by the natives to assist them in crossing rivers. 1961F. R. Irvine Woody Plants of Ghana 360 Ambatch or Pith Tree of Nile Land... By rivers and in swamps in open country.
▪ II. pith, v.|pɪθ|
Also 5 (9) peth.
[f. prec. n.]
†1. ? To provide with pith, give pith or vigour. Obs. rare—1.
14..Tundale's Vis., Circunsision 93 Hit is also myghty, it pethys fayre Ageynis wanhope and disperacyon.
2. trans. To pierce or sever the ‘pith’ or spinal cord of (an animal), so as to kill it or render it insensible; spec. to slaughter (cattle) in this way.
1805European Mag. June 482 The practice of slaughtering cattle by puncturing the medulla spinalis, or as it is now called, pithing cattle, is extending through all parts of the Kingdom. 1806Home in Phil. Trans. XCVI. 359 In the common mode of pithing cattle the medulla spinalis only is cut through, and the head remains alive. 1875Huxley & Martin Elem. Biol. (1877) 203 The pulsation of the heart..should be studied in a Frog rendered insensible by chloroform or by being pithed. 1886P. Clarke New Chum xiii. (ed. 2) 184 ‘Now then, shall we peth it or shoot it?’ says our butcher pro tem. 1895Tablet 5 Jan. 22 To pith is to remove the brain with a gutting knife, and then to pass—say—a stiff clean wire up the spinal canal to break up the marrow.
3. To remove or extract the pith from. Also fig.
1852Ld. Haddo in Mem. x. (1866) 175 [We] fish, paddle in the water, or pith rushes till dinner. 1903G. B. Shaw Man & Superman Pref. p. xxxiv, And yet..the respectable newspapers pith me by announcing ‘another book by this brilliant and thoughtful writer’. 1913― Quintessence of Ibsenism (completed ed.) 192 The very first thing the theatrical wiseacres did with it [sc. A Doll's House] was to effect exactly this transformation [sc. a happy ending], with the result that the play thus pithed had no success. 1935― Let. 25 July in To a Young Actress (1960) 163, I entirely approve of Peter's escaping [from a public school] before he is pithed and turned out as a political and moral gentleman several centuries out of date.
Hence pithed |pɪθt| ppl. a.; pithing |ˈpɪθɪŋ| vbl. n., also attrib. as in pithing-pole, a pole having a sharp blade at one end, for pithing cattle.
1831Youatt Horse ix. 153 The operation is called pithing, from the name (the pith) given by butchers to the spinal marrow. 1864H. Falconer in Reader 5 Mar. 302/2 It divides into two long diverging arms (like the legs of a pithed frog). 1886P. Clarke New Chum xiii. (ed. 2) 184 Up jumps Tom on the bar overhead with a long pething-pole..and with one plunge sends the cruel point with unerring aim into the spinal cord. |