| 释义 |
pixie|ˈpɪksɪ|
Also pixy, and dial. pisky, -ie, pisgy, etc.: see Eng. Dial. Dict.
[Origin obscure.]
a. In local folk-lore a name for a supposed supernatural being akin to a fairy. Also transf.
(In popular use in the s.w. of England from Cornwall to Wiltshire and Dorset. A meadow on the Thames above Oxford is named on the Ordnance Map Pixey Mead. Used by Scott in The Pirate, quot. 1822 (whence inserted by Jamieson and in subseq. glossaries) as a Shetland word, but no local evidence has been found there either for pixie or nixie. Rietz has a Swed. dial. pysk, pyske, ‘small fairy, dwarf’, cf. Norw. pjusk ‘a little insignificant person’; but, with the disappearance of the supposed Shetland use, it is difficult to see how this could be connected with the s.w. Eng. word.)
c1630T. Westcote Devon. (1845) 433, I shall..be thought to lead you in a pixy-path by telling an old tale. 1659[see pixy-led]. 1746Exmoor Scolding (E.D.S.) 130 Tell me o' tha Rexbush, ye teeheeing Pixy. 1793Coleridge Songs of Pixies i, Whom the untaught Shepherds call Pixies in their madrigal. Fancy's children, here we dwell. 1822Scott Pirate xxiii, If a pixie, seek thy ring; If a nixie, seek thy spring. 1836A. E. Bray Tamar & Tavy (1879) I. x. 163 The pixies are certainly a distinct race from the fairies,..[they] will invariably tell you, if you ask them what pixies really may be, that these native spirits are the souls of infants, who were so unhappy as to die before they had received the Christian rite of baptism. 1837Howitt Rur. Life vi. vii. (1862) 478 The Pixies may possibly still haunt those caves and dens in Devonshire where Coleridge..saw them. 1891‘Q.’ (Quiller Couch) Noughts & Crosses 175 In this corner of the land where (they say) the piskies still keep.
b. Short for pixie cap, hat, etc.
1960Harper's Bazaar Oct. 114 Fur pixie.
c. attrib. and Comb. (often local, as in the names of plants), as pixie-like adj.; pixie cap, a pointed hat resembling that in which pixies are traditionally depicted; pixie cape, a cape with an attached pixie hood; pixy glove, the thistle; pixie hat = pixie cap; pixie hood, a pointed hood; so pixie-hooded a.; pixy-path, a path by which those who follow it are bewildered and lost; pixie-pear, (a) the haw; (b) the hip of the wild rose (Britten & Holl.); pixy puff, various species of puff-ball, Lycoperdon, as L. giganteum and Bovista; pixy-ridden a., plagued or possessed by pixies; pixy-ring, (a) = fairy-ring; (b) (see quot. 1891); pixy stool, a toadstool or mushroom.
1828*Pixie cap [see Kilmarnock 1]. 1943F. Urquhart in Penguin New Writing XVI. 90 She was wearing a crimson waterproof pixie-cap which was almost the same colour as her pretty, round face. 1960M. A. Sindall Matey vii. 89 Brown woollen pixie caps.
1973Listener 23 Aug. 244/2, I knew that I did not look my best in my mackintosh with its *pixie cape.
1858E. Capern Ball. & Songs 128 Rejoicing where the *pixy glove Will soon hang out its crest.
1954G. Durrell Three Singles to Adventure v. 106 On his sleek black head was perched an absurd *pixie hat constructed out of what once used to be velvet.
1940C. Milburn Diary 23 Dec. (1979) 75 Two little pixie-like children in green overall garments, complete with *pixie hoods. 1950B. Pym Some Tame Gazelle viii. 89 They stood in the doorway,..wearing mackintoshes, and that wet-weather headgear so unbecoming to middle-aged ladies and so incongruously known as a ‘pixie hood’. 1955E. Bowen World of Love ix. 163 Maud, in wet weather rendered still more terrible by a pixie hood. 1961Guardian 28 Nov. 7/1 The worthies of the village in ornamented pixie hoods. 1978M. Butterworth X marks Spot i. i. 22 An old lady in a plastic pixie hood.
1949E. Coxhead Wind in West i. 15 Two *pixie-hooded small boys.
1940*Pixie-like [see pixie hood above]. 1963Times 16 May 14/6 The men wear a curious conical hat..which gives them a curious pixy-like appearance, while frequent recourse to chewing qat has wizened their faces and for all I know stunted their growth. 1979J. Wainwright Reluctant Sleeper v. 69 Those ridiculously large spectacles, and that equally ridiculous pixie-like face.
c1630*Pixy-path [see a].
1870Lady Verney L. Lisle x. 117 Allays after them blackberries and *pixie-pears.
a1847MS. Gloss. Devon in Halliwell, *Pixy-puff, a broad species of fungus. Pixy-rings, the fairy circles.
1879Elworthy Gloss. Exmoor Scolding, *Pixy-rided, to guard against which [horses being ridden by pixies] a horseshoe is nailed against the stable-door.
1893Daily News 28 Sept. 4/7 A girl..is ‘*pixy-ridden’ —pots and jugs begin to jump out of her hand, chairs run after her, flitches of bacon join the dance.
a1847*Pixy-rings [see pixy-puff]. 1886Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Pixy-rings, round which they dance on moonlight nights. 1891J. H. Pearce Esther Pentreath iii. x. 235 A rudely drilled stone with a bit of coloured ribbon run through it—a piskie-ring, or spinning-whorl, in fact.
1787Grose Provinc. Gloss., *Picksey-stool, a mushroom. Devonsh. 1870Lady Verney L. Lisle xiii. 155 There's a fairies' ring and no end o' pixy-stools on the knap yonder.
Hence ˈpixyish [-ish1] a., resembling that of a pixie.
1962V. Connaught Secret Heart of Princess Alexandra x. 101 As she splashed by them, Alexandra appeared to take a pixyish glee in noting their discomfort. 1977J. Aiken Last Movement viii. 167 Her narrow, pixyish Irish face. |