| 释义 |
‖ cacoethes|kækəʊˈiːθɪs, -ˈiːθiːz|
[L., a. Gr. κακόηθες ill habit, propensity, ‘itch’, subst. use of neuter of κακοήθης ill-disposed, f. κακο- bad + (ἦθος) ἦθε- disposition, character. (The Gr. (and L.) plural was cacoēthē.)]
a. An evil habit.
b. An obstinate or malignant disease.
c. An ‘itch’ for doing something, as in the insanabile scribendi cacoēthes (incurable passion for writing) of Juvenal.
1563–87Foxe A. & M. I. 657/1 Such is the malady and cacoethes of your pen, that it beginneth to bark, before it hath learned well to write. 1601Holland Pliny II. 142 Gangrenes and those morimall vlcers called Cacoethe. 1603H. Crosse Vertues Commw. (1878) 139 This cacoethes, or ill custome..incroacheth so vpon the good maners of men. 1713Addison Spect. No. 532 ⁋1 Juvenal terms [this distemper] a Cacoethes, which is a hard word for a disease called in plain English, ‘The itch of writing’. This Cacoethes is as epidemical as the small pox. 1726Monro Anat. (1741) 128 Unless the Patient labours under a general Cacoethes. 1836Fraser's Mag. XIV. 578 One half of it was cacoëthes of building, the other half cacoëthes of painting. |