| 释义 |
preferential, a. (n.)|prɛfəˈrɛnʃəl|
[f. med.L. præferentia preference + -al1.]
A. adj.
a. Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of preference; showing or giving, receiving or enjoying, a preference.
1849H. Mayo Pop. Superstit. (1851) 76 Their preferential connection with this or that antecedent condition. a1860H. H. Wilson Ess. & Lect. (1862) I. 2 One division of some antiquity is the preferential appropriation of the four chief divinities to the four original castes. 1878Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xviii. 78 The king was allowed a ‘preferential’ claim on the public revenue. 1881J. Simon in Nature 18 Aug. 373/2 That joint at once becomes a place of preferential resort to the micrococcus. 1886Law Times LXXX. 148/1 Raising fresh capital by the issue of new shares, the dividends on which were to be preferential.
b. Pol. Econ. Of the nature of or characterized by import duties favouring particular countries, spec. in favour of trade between Great Britain and her colonies: see preference 6.
1903Egerton Origin & Growth Eng. Col. 189 When..the Canadian Government gave to English manufacturers a preferential treatment of 12½ per cent.,..the measure was received with genuine gratification in Great Britain. 1903J. Chamberlain Speeches 20 Oct. 90 Now I come to the most important of all questions to my mind raised by preferential tariffs. I advocate them because, in the first place, they will stimulate colonial trade. Ibid. 21 Oct. 111 This matter of Preferential tariffs was before both Conferences. 1904Edin. Rev. Apr. 279 (title) Preferential Duties and Colonial Trade. Ibid. 289 We have now dealt with the chief articles of commerce affected by preferential duties in the past.
c. preferential ballot, preferential voting, a form of voting found in various systems of proportional representation in which candidates are numbered in order of preference by the voter; the use of the alternative vote (see alternative a. 6).
1870Putnam's Mag. June 717/1 Mr. Hare's scheme is one which..may be called that of preferential voting. It ascertains the quota by dividing the whole number of voters by the whole number of representatives... This method, which we have called that of preferential voting, is also called by the Swiss reformers that of the electoral quotient. 1908Westm. Gaz. 20 Aug. 2/1 The State of Western Australia..is now attempting..preferential voting in a simple form. 1911Ann. Amer. Acad. Pol. & Social Sci. XXXVIII. 760 The preferential ballot for cities is a plan to restore majority elections and true representative government. 1926[see alternative vote s.v. alternative a. 6]. 1955C. R. Adrian Governing Urban Amer. iii. 61 During their heyday—the first and second decades of the present century—reformers sponsored other organizational and procedural changes: preferential voting, such as the Bucklin and Ware systems, which did not catch on, [etc.]. 1976J. Rogaly Parliament for People vi. 71 Two less satisfactory forms of preferential voting are the ‘second ballot’, used in France, and the ‘Alternative vote’.
d. Anthrop. Esp. in phr. preferential marriage, preferential mating: the preference within a tribe or kinship group for marriage to take place between persons standing in a particular relationship to each other, such as cross-cousins. Cf. prescriptive a. 4 b.
1909Cent. Dict. Suppl., Preferential marriage. 1920R. H. Lowie Primitive Soc. (1921) ii. 16 Among the Kariera of Western Australia the acquisition of a bride is complicated by certain rules of preferential mating. That is, a man is..practically obliged to mate with a particular type of cousin or some more remote relative. Ibid. 35 Cross-cousin marriage, levirate, and sororate are by no means the only terms of preferential mating. 1943E. J. & J. D. Krige Realm of Rain Queen ix. 145 We shall turn first to the preferential marriages. A marriage is obligatory or approved, or discouraged..according as it strengthens..or conflicts with the..edifice erected by the [payment of] cattle. 1968R. Needham tr. Lévi-Strauss's Elem. Struct. Kinship (1969) p. xxx, Societies which advocate marriage between certain types of kin adhere to the norm only in a small number of cases..hence the idea of calling such systems ‘preferential’, a name which..expresses the reality. 1971― Rethinking Kinship & Marriage p. lxviii, One should not ask whether a tribe has a prescriptive as opposed to a preferential marriage system.
e. transf. = preferred ppl. a. 5.
1926Carnegie Scholarship Mem. XV. 378 Since the smaller crystals grown in flat strips had no preferential orientation, none could be expected in the smaller round crystals. 1955T. L. Richards in H. S. Peiser et al. X-Ray Diffraction by Polycrystalline Materials xxi. 469 Preferential crystal growth in a definite crystal direction. 1968R. Rieger et al. Gloss. Genetics & Cytogenetics 161 Selective or preferential fertilization, fusion of germ cells of different genotypes from one or both sexes in combinations having nonrandom frequencies. 1977Lancet 9 July 92/2 The preferential production of the IgE and IgG4 classes might..be due to structural peculiarities in the sensitising allergens.
B. n.
a. A preferential tariff rate.
b. A preferential or privileged creditor or claim.
1903Westm. Gaz. 18 May 11/1 The creditors will have received..{pstlg}119,238, including {pstlg}669 paid to twenty-seven ‘preferentials’. Ibid. 15 Sept. 4/1 ‘Who can doubt that, but for the calamity of Mr. Chamberlain's secession, the Liberal Party would have given us ‘preferentials’ at that time?’ |