| 释义 |
artefact, n. and a.|ˈɑːtɪfækt|
Also arti-.
[f. L. arte, abl. of ars art + factum, neut. pa. pple. of facere to make. (Cf. Sp., Pg. artefacto, It. artefatto, adj. and n.)]
A. n. Anything made by human art and workmanship; an artificial product. In Archæol. applied to the rude products of aboriginal workmanship as distinguished from natural remains.
1821Coleridge in Blackw. Mag. X. 256 The conception of all these, as realized in one and the same artéfact, may be fairly entitled, the Ideal of an Ink-stand. a1834Coleridge Lit. Rem. III. 347 A lump of sugar of lead lies among other artefacts on the shelf of a collector. 1884G. S. Hall Diestemey's Teaching Hist. 8 School artifacts, mistaken for perplexities inherent in the subject itself. 1890D. G. Brinton Races & Peoples ii. 75 This is shown..by the presence of artefacts and shells from the Pacific in old graves on the Atlantic coast. 1922Class. Q. XVI. 24 The shadows seem to be real till their originals are exposed as the paltry artefacts they are. 1925Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Aug. 529/1 The distribution of artifacts. 1927G. Murray Class. Tradition 243 Poetry..is an ‘artifact’—I mean, it is a thing made.
b. In technical and medical use, a product or effect that is not present in the natural state (of an organism, etc.) but occurs during or as a result of investigation or is brought about by some extraneous agency.
1908Practitioner LXXXI. 383, I must quote a case of dermatitis artefacta, which was hardly hysterical... The alternatives for diagnosis..were (1) Some local pyodermic infection. (2) A trophic lesion (?). (3) An ‘artefact’. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 52/2 Artefact (Zoology), any apparent structure which does not represent part of the actual specimen, but is due to faulty preparation. 1943Electronic Engin. XVI. 189/3 The reverse kick [on the cathode-ray oscilloscope]..was not to be expected on theoretical grounds... This artefact is probably unimportant. 1946Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Sept. 22 The recognition of artefacts, such as those due to circulatory or respiratory changes..comes with experience. 1947Electronic Engin. XIX. 82/2 An amplifier which will be free from the annoying ‘artefacts’ which are so often due to self-generated input stage noise. 1961Brit. Med. Dict. 138/2 Artefact. In histology, a misleading appearance in a preparation caused by some form of contamination, or by physical or chemical changes induced by manipulation or the reagents employed in making the preparation. In electro-encephalography, any wave that has its origin elsewhere than in the brain. In dermatology, a self-induced lesion.
c. transf.
1934Toynbee Stud. Hist. III. iii. 156 It is a mere accident..that the material tools which Man has made for himself should have a greater capacity to survive..than Man's psychic artif[a]cts. 1949Foreign Affairs XXVII. 384 The police power of a government cannot be a pure political artifact.
B. adj. Made by human art and workmanship. rare.
1909J. A. Stewart Plato's Doctr. Ideas 179 The rêverie-image of an object natural or artefact. |