| 释义 |
polygamy|pəˈlɪgəmɪ|
Also 6–8 poli-.
[ad. F. polygamie (a 1564 Calvin in Godef.), ad. eccl. Gr. πολυγαµία, f. πολύγαµος often married, polygamous; f. πολυ-, poly- + γάµος marriage.]
1. Marriage with several, or more than one, at once; plurality of spouses; the practice or custom according to which one man has several wives (distinctively called polygyny), or one woman several husbands (polyandry), at the same time. Most commonly used of the former.
a1591R. Greenham Wks. (1599) 29 Poligamie was not very hurtfull, so long as it was within Lamech his house. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 41 Though Poligamy be permitted among them, (I meane the hauing of many wiues for one man). 1768Blackstone Comm. IV. xiii. 163 Polygamy can never be endured under any rational civil establishment. 1857Gladstone Glean. VI. l. 79 Among the Greeks of Homer we find no trace of polygamy. 1906N. W. Thomas Kinship Organisation 108 This state is constituted by the union of several men with several women. It may be distinguished as before, into primary and secondary polygamy.
b. fig.: esp. applied to plurality of benefices.
1638R. Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. III.) 63 Monsier..shall send you word, whether he persist in his pernicious design, to bring Polygamie into France... I meane whether he have a good word from those nine Sisters to all whom he hath offered his Services. 1710Burnet Autobiog. ii. (1902) 501 For the heaping up of benefice upon benefice that were well endowed,..I openly declared against such as I found possessed of them as..living in a spirituall poligamy. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life iv. v. (1876) 165 A sort of polygamy to have different pursuits.
2. Zool. The habit of mating with more than one, or several, of the opposite sex; usually, one male with several females (polygyny), as in gallinaceous birds.
1890in Cent. Dict.
†3. Bot. The condition of being polygamous; see polygamous 3. Obs. rare.
1793Martyn Lang. Bot. s.v. Polygamia, This term Polygamia or Polygamy, as applied to a compound flower,..signifies that several distinct flowers (called Florets) are included in one common calyx. |