| 释义 |
poltroon|pɒlˈtruːn|
Forms: 6 pultrowne, pultron, 6–7 pultrone, 6–8 poultron, 6–9 poltron, 7 poultroone, pultroon, poultran, -oun, 7–9 paltroon, 7– poltroon.
[a. F. poltron (also in 16th c. poultron) ‘a knaue, rascall..; dastard, coward; sluggard, lazie-backe, base idle fellow’ (Cotgr.), ad. It. poltrone ‘a poltron, an idle fellow, a base coward, a lazie, lither or slothfull sluggard, a lout’ (Florio 1611), whence also med.L. pultro, -onem (S. Francis c 1220, Du Cange), Sp. poltron, Pg. poltrão; f. It. poltro ‘sluggard, idle, lazie, slothfull’ (Florio) + -one: see -oon. The 16th c. spelling may have been influenced by med.L. Originally stressed ˈpultron; polˈtroon (after Fr.) appears in 1664.
It. poltro adj. was app. from † poltro couch, bed (Florio): cf. Milanese polter, Romagn. pultar resting-place, Venet. poltrona couch, Pg. poltrona large arm-chair, and It. † poltrare, poltrire, beside poltronare, poltroneggiare ‘to play the poltron,..to loll and wallow in sloth and idlenesse, to lye lazilie in bed as a sluggard’ (Florio). Poltro, polter, pultar, are referred by Diez to OHG. polstar pillow, bolster. The fantastic conjecture of the derivation of poltron from L. pollice truncus, ‘maimed or mutilated in the thumb’ (scil. in order to shirk military service), was offered by Salmasius, and long passed current as an ‘etymology’; it prob. gave rise in the 18th c. to the use in Falconry (sense 2).]
1. A spiritless coward; a mean-spirited, worthless wretch; a craven.
a1529Skelton Howe the douty Dk. of Albany 170 Suche a proude pultrowne. a1572Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 235 That pultron and vyle knave Davie was justlie punished. a1584Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 374 Fortune helps the hardie ay, And pultrones plaine repellis. a1592Greene Jas. IV, iii. ii, Poltron, speak me one parola against my bon gentilhomme, I shall [etc.]. 1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, i. i. 62 Patience is for Poultroones, such as he: He durst not sit there, had your Father liu'd. 1632Lithgow Trav. i. Table 509 A French Pultrone, playing the Palliard. 1664Butler Hud. ii. i. 232 They that..think one beating may for once Suffice, are Cowards, and Pultroons. 1678Ibid. iii. i. 346 And held my Drubbing of his Bones Too great an Honour for Pultrones. 1700Dryden Fables, Iliad i. 413 For who but a poltron, possess'd with fear, Such haughty insolence can safely bear? 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. (1812) I. 66 As arrant a poltroon as ever was drummed out of a regiment. 1809W. Irving Knickerb. (1861) 214 As did Homer make that fine fellow Hector scamper like a poltroon round the walls of Troy.
attrib.1645Hammond Serm. Acts xxiv. 25, Wks. 1683 IV. 521 Our hellish oaths and imprecations, (that pultroon sin, that second part of ægyptian plague of frogs and lice, and locusts). 1682Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. i. §36 He is like to be mistaken, who..relieth upon the Reed of narrow and poltron Friendship.
2. Falconry. (See quot.)
1727–41Chambers Cycl., Poltroon, in falconry, is a name given to a bird of prey, when the nails and talons of his hind-toes are cut off, wherein his chief force and armour lay; in order to intimidate him, and prevent his flying at great game.
Hence polˈtroonish a.; polˈtroonism; poltroonize v. intr., to play the poltroon.
1611Cotgr., Poltroniser, to pultronize it; to play the knave, scowndrell, coward. 1644S. Kem Messengers Preparation Ded. 2 It would conclude me guilty of Poultranisme, to feare the Sciopii and Pacientii heere, when not the Zosimi at Oxford. 1837Miss Sedgwick Live & let L. (1876) 205 Patience may be very Christian in you, but it is very poltronish in me. 1906Q. Rev. Apr. 363 Collinson—a weak, almost poltroonish creature. |