| 释义 |
polygamous, a.|pəˈlɪgəməs|
Also 7 poli-.
[f. late Gr. πολύγαµος (see polygamic) + -ous.]
1. Practising or addicted to polygamy; of, pertaining to, or involving polygamy. Usually said of, or in reference to, a husband having several wives (distinctively expressed by polygynous), but including also the case of a wife having several husbands (polyandrous).
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 266 His daughter Fatima (the onely issue of this libidinous poligamous Prophet) married to Hali. [Not in Bailey, Johnson, Ash.]1828in Webster. 1835Sir J. Ross Narr. 2nd Voy. xxvi. 373 This strange polygamous family. 1885Sir J. W. Chitty in Law Times Rep. LIII. 712/2 The marriage was a Mahommedan and by consequence a polygamous marriage. 1894H. Drummond Ascent of Man 387 Even in a polygamous community it is usually only a minority who have more wives than one.
2. Zool. Having more than one, or several, mates of the opposite sex, as an animal; characterized by polygamy, as a species. Usually used as = polygynous: cf. 1.
1834R. Mudie Feathered Tribes Brit. Isl. (1841) I. 24 Other [Gallinidæ] are polygamous; or have a number of females united with one male. 1859Darwin Orig Spec. iv. (1860) 88 The war is, perhaps, severest between the males of polygamous animals.
3. Bot. Bearing some flowers with stamens only, others with pistils only, and others with both, on the same or on different plants; belonging to the Linnæan class Polygamia.
1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. i. xx. (1765) 64 Polygamous, such as either on the same, or on different Roots bear Hermaphrodite Flowers; and Flowers of either or of both Sexes. 1830Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 138 Flowers [of Pittosporeæ] terminal or axillary, sometimes polygamous. 1872Oliver Elem. Bot. ii. 206 The flowers of Common Ash are termed polygamous, because they are either staminate, pistillate, or hermaphrodite, and the different kinds of flowers may be upon the same or different trees.
Hence poˈlygamously adv.
1874T. G. Bowles Flotsam & Jetsam iv. (1882) 24 Their [women's] ideas are always married to themselves—and sometimes polygamously to somebody else besides. 1886Princeton Rev. July 47 The polygamously disposed party. |