| 释义 |
pivotal, a.|ˈpɪvətəl|
[f. pivot n. + -al1.]
1. a. Of, pertaining to, of the nature of, or constituting a pivot; being that on which anything turns or depends; central, cardinal, vital.
1844M. Hennell Social Syst. 198 It is..the fatal characteristic of civilized industry..to have for pivotal motive nothing but the fear of death from hunger. 1875Whitney Life Lang. ii. 16 About this pivotal fact all the other matters involved fall into position as..auxiliary. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. I. i. xxvi. 397 It..makes the issue of the election turn on the voting in certain ‘pivotal’ States. 1925Times 5 Jan. 4/3 Young's passes..were..much too high to enable Kittermaster, as the pivotal player, to pave the way for a scoring position. 1927Peake & Fleure Priests & Kings 134 A new feature, however, was the use of door-slabs of stone set with pivotal hinges. 1930Daily Express 6 Oct. 2/6 Pivotal shares were occasionally in moderate demand. 1953[see film editor s s.v. film n. 7 c]. 1965New Scientist 6 May 383/3 Dædalus feels that the time is ripe for another OK word. He has had difficulty in deciding on one with the right ring of vague pomposity about it, but has decided on ‘pivotal’. He hopes that it ultimately will become synonymous for ‘important’ or ‘interesting’. He asks all his readers to include it in articles, papers, research reports and the like, confident that the elite of New Men who read New Scientist will suffice to launch this new word on a glorious and pivotal career. 1969Z. Hollander Mod. Encycl. Basketball 211 (heading) The pivotal era. 1973Amer. Speech 1969 XLIV. 281 The uniqueness of black folk speech seems to rest in the pivotal position it occupies in the rural community, sharing phonological features with cultivated blacks and whites, grammatical features with white folk speakers, and lexical forms with all members of both castes. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 13 Nov. 4/5 The pardon of Richard Nixon was pivotal, it seems, to those independents who made up their minds at the last minute and turned to Jimmy Carter. 1977N.Y. Rev. Bks. 28 Apr. 29/3 (Advt.), Here is a penetrating, pivotal study of the astonishing relationships between Shakespeare's dramatic use of time and modern views on how any time⁓sense shapes human experience and behavior.
b. pivotal man, a man considered to have an important part to play in the re-establishment of industry and commerce after the war of 1914–18, and hence eligible for early demobilization; also ellipt. as n.
1918Daily Mail 29 Nov. 3/2 Men who are essential to the building up and expansion of trade..are officially described as ‘pivotals’. Ibid., These are the pivotal men who will prepare the way for the hundreds of thousands who are to follow on general demobilization. Ibid., The commerce of the City of London has been allotted a given number of pivotal men. Ibid. 11 Dec. 5/1 A pivotal man is an essential man in an industry or occupation on which the re-establishment of other industries depends. 1920F. Watson Pandora's Young Men iii. 22 She found Blinkhorn in some out-of-the-way depot in France and managed to have him demobilised as a pivotal man. 1922Encycl. Brit. XXX. 214/2 The release of ‘Pivotal Men’..met with much opposition.
2. Math. Being or involving a pivot (sense 3 e); pivotal condensation, the evaluation of a determinant by the use of pivoting on determinants of successively lower orders.
1924Whittaker & Robinson Calculus of Observations v. 71 We prepare the determinant for our subsequent operations by multiplying some row or column by such a number p as will make one of the elements unity, and put 1/p as a factor outside the determinant. This unit element will henceforth be called the pivotal element. 1939A. C. Aitken Determinants & Matrices ii. 47 A determinant of order n being reduced by a first pivotal condensation to one of order n—1, the latter in its turn can be reduced by a second pivotal condensation to one of order n—2, and so on. 1952D. R. Hartree Numerical Anal. viii. 158 The coefficient ajk..is called the ‘pivotal coefficient’ or ‘pivot’ for this elimination; it is the coefficient, in the pivotal equation, of the variable to be eliminated. 1963N. Macon Numerical Anal. v. 59 It is of some interest to calculate the number of arithmetical operations required for the evaluation of a determinant of order n when pivotal condensation is used. 1971[see pivot n. 3 e]. 1973A. M. Cohen et al. Numerical Anal. viii. 136 We add suitable multiples of equation (8.17α) to equations (β), (γ), and (δ) to reduce the coefficients of x1 in them to zero... Equation (α), which remains unaltered, is called the pivotal equation.
3. Linguistics. Of, pertaining to, or based upon pivot grammar or pivot words (see pivot n. 6 b).
1963M. D. S. Braine in Language XXX. 4 Do it, push it, close it, etc...appear to exemplify the same kind of pivotal construction as the previous combinations discussed, except that now the pivot is in the final position. Ibid. 10 The pivotal type of construction continues long after the first five months, and new pivot words develop. 1970L. M. Bloom Lang. Devel. 223 The two relational aspects of language appear to be related to the two descriptions of children's speech as ‘telegraphic’ and ‘pivotal’. 1971Jrnl. Speech & Hearing Disorders XXXVI. 42 How does the child progress from using pivotal utterances to using utterances that reflect the complex interrelation of rules that is the essence of adult phrase structure?
Hence ˈpivotalism, the policy of releasing ‘pivotal men’ from active service before others; ˈpivotally adv., in a pivotal manner; as on a pivot.
1887Sci. Amer. 12 Feb. 98 The stanchion is pivotally held between the floor..and any stationary upper beam by two bolts. 1919W. S. Churchill in D. Cooper Haig (1936) II. xxvii. 406 Indiscipline and disorganisation would arise in the Army if pivotalism, i.e. favouritism, were to rule in regard to the discharge of men. 1922Encycl. Brit. XXX. 215/1 Pivotalism..was called ‘favouritism’. |