| 释义 |
▪ I. burden, burthen, n.|ˈbɜːd(ə)n, ˈbɜːð(ə)n|
Forms: α. 1 berðen, 2 byrðen, -þan, 3–4 byr-, birþin(e, -then(e, -thun, (borþon), 4 burþen, -on, 4–5 berthen, 5 birthan, byrthyn, borhtyn, 5– burthen. β. 2 byrden, 3 birden, -in, 4 byrdoun, 5 byrdune, -dyn(g, bir-, burdyne, 6 bordone, bir-, burding, burdayne, -eyne, -un, bourdon, Sc. buirdin, 2– burden.
[OE. byrðen str. fem. = OS. burthinnia:—WGer. type *burþinnja, an extension (with suffix -innja as in OE. rǽden) of *burþi- (see birth), f. stem. bur- of *ber-an to bear. The synonymous OHG. burdîn, Goth. baurþei, differ only in the suffix. The Eng. forms with d, which began to appear early in 12th c., may be compared with murder for murther, and dial. farden, furder, for farthing, further. The prevalent form is now burden, but burthen is still often retained for ‘capacity of a ship’, and also as a poet. or rhetorical archaism in other senses. Of the senses in Branch IV, some are derived from the Romanic bourdon2, influenced by the Eng. burden; others belong to the native word with more or less influence from bourdon. The fusion of the two words is so complete that it is not possible to treat Branch IV as an independent n.]
I. That which is borne.
1. A load.
αa1000ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 106 Sarcina, seam uel berðen. 1154O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1135 Wua sua bare his byrþen gold & syluer. c1205Lay. 25970 He bar uppen his rugge burðene [1275 borþone] grete. a1300Havelok 807 Gladlike I wile the paniers bere..They ther be inne a birthene gret. 1382Wyclif Numb. iv. 47 Berthens to be bore [1388 To bere chargis]. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. xxv, Bereris of heuy burþones. 1566T. Stapleton Ret. Untr. Jewell i. 4, I trust the burthen will sone be disburdened. 1703Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 45 All Ships, that take in their Burthen here. 1827Keble Chr. Y. 4 Oh! by Thine own sad burthen, borne So meekly.
βc1160Hatton Gosp. Matt. xxiii. 4 Hyo bindeð hefiᵹe byrdene þe man abere ne mæᵹ. c1175Lamb. Hom. 5 Ne ber hit nes nefre nane burdene. a1300Cursor M. 6830 If þu find of þin ill-willand vnder birdin his best ligand. c1440York Myst. xxxii. 114 Bring on his bak a burdeyne of golde. c1470Henry Wallace xi. 29 A Churll yai had, yat felloune byrdyngs bar. 1595Shakes. John ii. i. 92 With burden of our armor heere we sweat. 1733Pope Ess. Man iii. 203 Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend. 1850Prescott Peru II. 98 A light burden..was laid on his back.
2. fig.
a. A load of labour, duty, responsibility, blame, sin, sorrow, etc. the white man's burden: a rhetorical expression for the responsibility of the white for the coloured races.
αc971Blickl. Hom. 75 Swa sæt þonne seo unaræfnedlice byrþen synna on eallum þysum menniscan cynne. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xi. 30 Soðlice min ᵹeoc is wynsum, and min byrðyn [v.r. byrðen, Hatton berðene] is leoht. a1300Cursor M. 17338 Late us and urs þe birthen ber. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, iv. iv. 167 A greeuous burthen was thy Birth to me. 1744Berkeley Siris §119 Wks. 1871 II. 408 A nervous colic, which rendered my life a burthen. 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. (1812) I. 34 The folly of laying the burthen at my door. 1812J. Wilson Isle of Palms iv. 221 Hath she no friend whose heart may share With her the burthen of despair?
β1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 11959 For heuy byrdoun þat y of hem [sins] bere Y am confoundede. c1374Chaucer Boeth. 101 Þe burden of my sorwe. 1661Sir H. Vanes Politicks 13 The burden of an injury. 1885Gladstone in Christian World 15 Jan. 37/2 Sovereignty has been relieved by our modern institutions of some of its burdens. 1899Kipling White Man's Burden vi, Take up the White Man's burden—Ye dare not stoop to less. 1911H. G. Wells New Machiavelli i. iv. 128 We were all..Imperialists also, and professed a vivid sense of the ‘White Man's Burden’. 1922Joad Common-Sense Theology 135 Little nationalised Jingoes who are ready enough to adopt any parrot cry such as ‘The White Man's Burden’, or ‘The Kultur of the Fatherland’. 1966Observer 17 Apr. 10/6 In the seventies we can and should lay down the White Man's Burden with a clear conscience.
b. burden of proof, etc.: (onus probandi in Roman Law) the obligation to prove a controversial assertion, falling upon the person who makes it.
1593Hooker Eccl. Pol. iv. iv. §2 Wks. 1841 I. 360 The burden of proving doth rest on them. 1780Burke Sp. Econ. Ref. Wks. III. 313 The burthen of proof rests upon me, that so many pensions..are necessary for the publick service. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 152 The Roman Catholic divines took on themselves the burden of the proof.
c. An obligatory expense, whether due on private account or as a contribution to national funds; often with the additional notion of pressing heavily upon industry and restraining freedom of action.
1661Marvell Corr. xxi. Wks. 1872–5 II. 55 In the matter of your two companyes, if they be of any charge or burthen to you, he is willing to indulge you. 1741Middleton Cicero I. ii. 62 Without any burthen on the Province. 1769Robertson Chas. V, V. iv. 392 The addition of such a load to their former burdens, drove them to despair. 1813Wellington Let. in Gurw. Disp. X. 110 The burdens imposed shall be imposed with equality. 1863Fawcett Pol. Econ. iii. vi. 369 The burden of any fixed money payment. 1876Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxiv. 373 The King lays certain feudal burthens on his tenants in chief.
3. A ‘load’ (whether of man, animal, vehicle, etc.) considered as a measure of quantity. Now only applied to the carrying capacity of a ship, stated as a certain number of tons. Cf. 7.
α1388Wyclif 2 Kings v. 17 Graunte thou to me..that Y take of the lond the birthun of twei burdones. c1449Pecock Repr. ii. iv. 155 A man which stale sumtyme a birthan of thornis was sett in to the moone. 1560in Etoniana ii. 32 Fyve burthens of rushes to straw Mr. Durstons chamber. 1601Shakes. All's Well ii. iii. 215 A vessell of too great a burthen. 1813Wellington Let. in Gurw. Disp. XI. 505 Vessels of from fifteen to thirty tons burthen.
β1515MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., Payd for ij bordones off thornis for a hows. 1555Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 379 A shyppe of the burden of seuen score toonne. 1630Wadsworth Sp. Pilgr. iv. 33 This ship was of an 100 Tunne burden. 1871J. Q. Adams in C. Davies Metr. Syst. iii. 168 The burden of a ship, as a weight, is ascertained by the depth of the water she draws.
†4.
a. That which is borne in the womb; a child.
c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon (1885) 131, I see my ryche burden go to exyle. 1594T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 397 The veines whereby the burthen is nourished, may well be likened to small rootes, whereby plants are cherished. 1595Shakes. John iii. i. 90 Let wiues with childe Pray that their burthens may not fall this day. 1628Gaule Pract. The. (1629) 112 Mary's burden and vnweildinesse, might well haue excused her absence. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 767 That my womb conceiv'd A growing burden.
†b. at one burden: at one birth. Obs.
c1250Gen. & Ex. 1467 At on burdene ȝhe under-stod two ðe weren hire sibbe blod. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls Ser.) III. 43 Sche bare tweie children at oon burþen. 1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. i. 3 Further Judas had two children at a burden. 1572J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 83 b, Where many children are borne at one burdeyne. a1639W. Whately Prototypes i. iv. (1640) 17 Some are of opinion that Evah at every burden bare twinnes.
†5. What is borne by the soil; produce, crop.
1523Fitzherb. Husb. §12 Good grounde wylle haue the burthen of corne or of wede. 1669Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 11 It furnisheth the Owners thereof with a greater burthen of Corn, Pulse, or whatever is sown thereon.
6. In Mining and Metallurgy. (See quot.)
1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 329 In proportion to the quantity of lime and ore that is added to the standard quantity of the coke, the furnace is said to carry a greater or less burthen. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Burden (Cornw.) i. The tops or heads of stream-work, which lie over the stream of tin. 2. The proportion of ore and flux to fuel in the charge of a blast-furnace. 1944Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CL. 419 We are operating at present on a burden of 60% brown Northampton ore and 30% carbonate ore. 1952Gloss. Welding & Cutting Metals (B.S.I.) 43 Burden, the layer of melt and fused metal above the welding zone in submerged-arc welding.
II.
7. The bearing of loads, as in beast of burden, ship of burden (= merchant-ship).
αa1300Cursor M. 5520 Halds þam..In birtþin, bath to bere and drau. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 557 Which before Tall Ships of Burthen on its Bosom bore. 1740Johnson Sir F. Drake Wks. IV. 440 Peruvian sheep, which are the beasts of burthen in that country. 1803Wellington in Gurw. Disp. II. 199 Every animal..of the description of a beast of burthen.
β1653Urquhart Rabelais i. l, With nine thousand and thirty eight great ships of burden. 1789Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France II. 385 Dogs drawing in carts as beasts of burden. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola ii. xxx. (1880) I. 370 To do the work that was most like that of a beast of burden.
III. 8. Used in the Eng. Bible (like onus in the Vulgate) to render Heb. massā, which Gesenius would translate ‘lifting up (of the voice), utterance, oracle’; the Septuagint has ῥῆµα, λῆµµα, ὅραµα. But it is generally taken in English to mean a ‘burdensome or heavy lot or fate’.
α1388Wyclif Zech. xii. 1 The birthun [1382 charge] of the word of the Lord on Israel. 1535Coverdale Zech. xii, The heuy burthen which the Lorde hath deuysed for Israel.
β1611Bible Isa. xiii. 1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the sonne of Amoz did see. 1865Swinburne Ballad of Burd. 1 The burden of fair women.
IV. Senses showing confusion with bourdon2.[The earliest quotation for bourdon2 shows that word already confused with this. Apparently the notion was that the bass or undersong was ‘heavier’ than the air. The bourdon usually continued when the singer of the air paused at the end of a stanza, and (when vocal) was usually sung to words forming a refrain, being often taken up in chorus; hence sense 10. As the refrain often expresses the pervading sentiment or thought of a poem, this use became coloured by the notion of ‘that which is carried’ by the poem; its ‘gist’ or essential contents.] †9. The bass, ‘undersong’, or accompaniment: = bourdon2 1. Obs.
α1593Shakes. Lucr. 1133 Burthen-wise I'll hum on Tarquin still, While thou on Tereus descant'st. 1600― A.Y.L. iii. ii. 261, I would sing my song without a burthen, thou bring'st me out of tune. 1833I. Taylor Fanat. ii. 46 The burthen of the dull echoes that shake the damps from the roof of his cavern.
β1591Shakes. Two Gent. i. ii. 85 Heauy? belike it hath some burden then? Lu. I: and melodious were it, would you sing it. c1840Longfellow Terrest. Paradise vi, Foliage that made monotonous burden to their [birds'] rhymes.
10. The refrain or chorus of a song; a set of words recurring at the end of each verse.
α1598Bacon Sacred. Medit. x. 123 As it were a burthen or verse of returne to all his other discourses. 1610Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 380 Foote it featly heere and there, and sweete Sprights beare the burthen. Burthen dispersedly, Harke, harke, bowgh wawgh. 1659Hammond On Ps. cvii. heading 543 Having a double burthen, or intercalary verse oft recurring. 1774T. Warton Eng. Poetry i. 26 It has a burthen or chorus. 1838E. Guest Eng. Rhythms II. 290 Burthen..the return of the same words at the close of each stave.
β1777Sir W. Jones Poems Pref. 13 A lively burden at the end of each stanza. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. iv. iii. 304 At intervals, in place of a burden, they imitated the braying of an ass. 1868Helps Realmah vii. (1876) 167 Realmah had joined in the burden of the Ainah's song.
11. fig. The chief theme; leading idea; prevailing sentiment.
1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 121 What is the Burden of my Song, and is the onely sure Cure. 1793Burke Observ. Cond. Minority Wks. VII. 247 This was the burthen of all his song—‘Every thing which we could reasonably hope from war, would be obtained from treaty.’ 1847L. Hunt Men, Wom. & Bks. I. xi. 199 The burden or leading idea of every couplet was the same. 1862Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. xx. 386 Mercy and justice..is the burden of the whole Prophetic Teaching. 1879Froude Cæsar xi. 126 The burden of what he said was to defend enthusiastically the conservative aristocracy.
V.
12. attrib. and Comb., as in burden-band, burden-bearer, burden-bearing, burden-board, burden-carrying, burden ship.
1855Whitby Gloss., *Burdenband, a hempen hayband.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong., Crocheteur..a *burthen bearer. 1833H. Martineau Charm. Sea iv. 45 The burden-bearers must find their account in..a medium of exchange.
1793Holcroft tr. Lavater's Physiog. xl. 209 Nothing but *burden-bearing patience in the eyes [of the camel and dromedary].
1768Tucker Lt. Nat. I. 475 Ale-drinking, *burthen-carrying, fish-selling rhetoricians.
1658Ussher Ann. vi. 424, 50 *burden-ships of their friends shut in by the beaked ships of Eumenes.
VI.
13. pl. The floor boards of a rowing boat; side burdens, the side seats in a rowing boat.
1857P. Colquhoun Comp. ‘Oarsman's Guide’ 29 The flooring is termed burthens. Ibid. 31 Side burthens are extra thwarts laid in provisionally to carry sitters: burthens are the bottom boards. 1898Ansted Dict. Sea Terms 37 In boats the burdens are the footwalings.
▪ II. burden, burthen, v.|ˈbɜːd(ə)n, -ð(ə)n|
Forms: α. 6– burthen. β. 6 burdon, bourdain, 6– burden.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To lay a (material) burden on; to load.
1570Levins Manip. 61 To burden, onerare. 1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 419 The colt that's backed and burthened being young. 1621Bargrave Serm. Selfe-Policy (1624) 2 Coffers burdned with the aboundance of silver and gold. 1830Lyell Geol. I. 299 Glaciers..burdened with alluvial debris.
b. fig. To load, encumber, oppress, lay a burden on, tax (memory, conscience, resources, etc.).
1541Elyot Image Gov. 153 b, Bourdainyng theim with continuall labours. 1610Shakes. Temp. v. i. 199 Let vs not burthen our remembrances, with A heauinesse that's gon. 1637Sc. Prayer Bk., Ceremonies, Which..did burden mens consciences without any cause. 1727Swift Gulliver iv. ix. 316 Without burthening their memories. 1832H. Martineau Homes Abr. ii. 34 Without burthening the parish. 1868E. Edwards Ralegh I. xxi. 459 Burdened with variety of pursuits and duties.
†2. To charge (a person) with (an accusation); to lay as a charge upon (a person). Obs. or arch.
1559Declar. of Doctrine in Strype Ann. Ref. I. i. viii. 114 Elias the prophet was burthened with false doctrine, and to be a disturber of the commonwealth. 1577Holinshed Chron. II. 14 Manie writers burthen King William for the procuring of Stigand his deprivation. 1580North Plutarch 721 One of the Tribunes..burdened him [Clodius] that he had prophaned the holy Ceremonies. 1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 276 b, You must..convince all these patcheries to be falsly burdened upon your Church. 1590Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 209 This is false he burthens me with⁓all. [1779Johnson L.P. Wks. 1816 X. 21 Too studious of truth to have them burdened with a false charge.]
†3. to burden out: to outweigh. Obs. rare.
1668Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. 375 Whether..they have in them any weight, wherewith to burthen out Opinion.
Hence ˈburdening vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. v. 10 Weake Shoulders, ouer⁓borne with burthening Griefe. 1641R. Brooke Eng. Episc. ii. v. 82 A Synod hath a commanding and burdening Power. |