释义 |
▪ I. ‖ puna|ˈpuːnə| [Peruvian, in sense 1.] 1. A high bleak plateau in the Peruvian Andes; spec. (with capital initial) the table-land lying between the two great chains of the Cordilleras at an elevation of more than 10,500 feet.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage viii. i. (1614) 721 There are other Deserts in Peru, called Punas, where the Ayre cutteth off mans life without feeling. 1745P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 93 Vicunnas,..breeding..in cold and desert-Places, which they call Punas. 1860Gosse Romance Nat. Hist. 50 It snuffs the thin air..in those loftier ridges which the Peruvians term punas, where the elements appear to have concentrated all their sternness. 1885J. Ball in Jrnl. Linn. Soc. XXII. 6, I am inclined to place the lower limit of the Alpine zone on the puna at about 12,000 feet. 2. Difficulty of breathing arising from a too rarefied atmosphere; mountain sickness.
1842Dunglison Med. Lex., Puna, a sickness common in the elevated districts of S. America. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. xv. (1873) 322 The short breathing from the rarified atmosphere is called by the Chilenos ‘puna’. 1903Longm. Mag. July 218 José..was suffering from puna. 3. Comb. ˈPuna-ˌwind, a cold dry wind which blows from the Cordilleras across the Puna.
1890in Cent. Dict. ▪ II. puna, punahlite var. poon n.1, poonahlite. |