| 释义 |
Athenian, a. and n.|əˈθiːnɪən|
Also 6 Attenian.
[ad. L. Athēn-iensis a. and n. (whence OE. Athēniense n. pl., the Athenians), f. L. Athēnæ, Gr. ἀθῆναι Athens + -ian; cf. Gr. ἀθηναῖος Athenian.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to Athens, the leading city of ancient Greece, now the capital of Greece. Cf. Attic a. and n.1 Also transf. and fig.
1590Shakes. Mids. N. i. i. 12 Stirre vp the Athenian youth to merriments. 1673Milton Death of Fair Infant st. 2, l. 9 in Poems 17 Aquilo his charioter By boistrous rape th' Athenian damsel got. 1791Boswell Johnson I. 32 For an Athenian blockhead is the worst of all blockheads. a1822Shelley Homer's Hymn to Minerva 2 in Poet. Wks. (1907) 694 Athenian Pallas! tameless, chaste, and wise. 1840Lytton Let. in C. H. Shattuck Bulwer & Macready (1958) 157 The Scotch of Macfinch &c had better be looked over by one more learned than I am in that Athenian tongue. 1851R. W. Browne Hist. Class. Lit. II. xiv. 121 The Greek orator, or rather..the Athenian orator, for oratory flourished only in Athens, composed..his speech in private, before he delivered it. 1953D. F. Pocock tr. Durkheim's Sociol. & Philos. ii. 57 The Roman or the Athenian ideals were closely related to the particular organizations of these two cities.
B. n. A native or inhabitant of Athens; also (see quot. 1638) the speech of this people.
[c893ælfred tr. Orosius 78/22 Sona swa Atheniense wiston. a1490Skelton tr. Diod. Siculus I. 40 The Athenyensis conferme this oppynyon.] 1526Tindale Acts xvii. 21 All the Attenians an straungers whych were there gave them selves to nothynge els but other to tell or to heare newe tydynges. 1539Cranmer's Bible Acts xvii. 21 All the Athenians & straungers which were there. 1550T. Nicolls (title) The hystory writtone by Thucidides the Athenyan. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iv. ii. 31 If I tell you, I am no true Athenian. 1638R. Brathwait Barnabees Jrnl. sig. B5 To Oxford came I... Each thing ther's the Muses Minion, Queenes College-Horn speakes pure Athenian. 1643John Taylor Let. sent to London 13, I would have gone to a fellow that conjures with a paire of sheares and a Sieve, sure that grave Athenian would have told me all. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. VI. lxii. 255 The Athenians are still distinguished by the subtlety and acuteness of their understandings. 1877L. H. Morgan Ancient Soc. ii. xiv. 349 Bachoven has collected and discussed the evidence of female authority..among the..Athenians. |