| 释义 |
second hand, second-hand
[Cf. hand n. 10 c., F. de seconde main, and first hand.]
A. phr. (second hand.)
†1. In subst. use: The second in a series of persons through whose hands something passes; an intermediary, middleman. Obs.
1654–66Earl of Orrery Parthen. (1676) 492 His absence..made him but from second hands, and confusedly learn it. 1681–6J. Scott Chr. Life (1747) III. 49 He doth not mediate with him by a second-hand, or at a distance, but in his own Person. 1727A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. I. Pref. 14 Those Reports came..to him by Second or Third Hands.
2. In advb. phrases.
a. at second hand († also at the or a second hand, on the second hand): (to buy, receive, learn, etc.) from another than the maker, or original vendor (of goods), or the primary source (of information, etc.). In the 18th c. also (? after Fr.) to hear from second hand.
In the first quot. as may be a mistake for at; but perh. second hand may mean ‘second purchaser’.
1474Coventry Leet Bk. 401 Also the sise ys that no maner of man nor woman schall not stalle nor Regrate no markett..wher thorough the markett shuld be the Wers and the pore Comons gretely hurte to by as the ijde honde. 1588Nashe Anat. Absurditie Wks. 1904 I. 20 Whose thredde-bare knowledge beeing bought at the second hand, is spotted..and defaced through translaters rigorous rude dealing. 1589Hay any Work 44 The substance of the tale is true. I told you that I had it at the second hand. 1613Bodl. Day-bk. (MS.) lf. 18 A note of such Books as were bought at London of Jhon Edwards at second hand. 1634Peacham Gentl. Exerc. 62 So that I may say the eye receives the forme of the object at a second hand, as it were from the medium. 1654Sir E. Nicholas in N. Papers (Camden) II. 2 You have done wisely to decline the correspondence of Sir Marm. Langdale at a second hand, thro' the consul's conveyance. 1665Surv. Affaires Netherlands 132 Cathay, where they are forced to take their Rye, Hemp,..and Musk, on the second hand of the Chinois. 1680Dodwell On Sanchoniathon (1691) 12 He quoted him by memory, and at the Second hand. 1749Fielding Tom Jones iii. v, For, to say the truth, there is no kind of flattery so irresistible as this at second-hand. 1753Washington Jrnl. Writ. 1889 I. 481, I have heard from second-hand, that they intend to make no allowance for the fish we left there. 1833Marryat P. Simple iii, ‘Well, we don't want one of your father's sermons at second-hand,’ replied the midshipman.
†b. at the second hand: by a secondary operation. Obs.
1545T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 23 The meat & drinck which we dayly do eate, by dygestion, fyrst of y⊇ stomack, the fyne iuyce, therof is seperatyd from y⊇ drosse & grosser part, & then after at y⊇ second hand, the foresaid iuyce..attract..in to the lyuer.., there transmutid in to blud.
†c. by second hand: through an intermediary, through another person as agent. Obs.
1721Swift South Sea 70 When Stock is high, they come between, Making by second-hand their Offers.
†d. of second hand = second-hand a. 1. [a Gallicism].
1708Shaftesbury Let. Enthusiasm vi. 67 There is a sort of Enthusiasm of second hand.
B. adj. (second-hand.) [The phrase used attrib.] Obtained at second hand.
1. Not original or obtained from the original source; plagiarized or borrowed; imitative, derivative.
1654Whitlock Zootomia 143 If a man cloath his discourse in a Language that is not second hand English, or but one degree above..Caterwauling, why he is affected. 1738Swift Pol. Conversat. Introd. 46 The Waiting-Woman, who, if she hath been bred to read Romances, may have some small subaltern or second-hand Politeness. 1779Sheridan Critic i. i, Are you not called..a mock Mæcenas to second-hand authors? 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 397 You hold up, to chastise them, the second-hand authority of a king, who is only the instrument of destroying, without any power of protecting either the people or his own person. 1868E. Edwards Ralegh I. x. 163 Even of this second-hand knowledge there was very little. 1904R. J. Farrer Gardens of Asia 13 Second-hand impressions are as worthless as second-hand morality.
2. a. Not new, having been previously used or worn by another, as second-hand clothes, second hand books, etc.
1673Wycherley Gentl. Dancing-Master v. 94, I will have no little, dirty, second-hand Charriot new forbish'd, but a large, sociable, well painted Coach. 1698Crowne Caligula i. 4 Second-hand cloaths he may as proudly wear. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 18 July (1815) 251 The traitor..dazzled her with his second-hand finery. 1833Act 3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 46 §82 All persons so dealing in second-hand articles without being first duly licensed. 1862(title) The Library Circular of New and Second-Hand Books. 1892Zangwill Childr. Ghetto I. 74 But a second-hand son-in-law of 22 is superior to many brand-new ones.
¶b. Said jocularly of food, with various notions.
1694Motteux Rabelais iv. lxvii, The Cupboard wherein second-hand-meat is kept [the bowels]. 1853R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour xlvii. (1893) 250 The cook sent him a most moderate dinner, smoked soup, second-hand fish, scraggy cutlets, and sour pudding. 1862Mayhew Lond. Labour IV. 408/2 Miss Betsey would..enjoy whatever poultry or meat had not been touched; but anything that had been cut, anything ‘second-hand’, that dainty and haughty young lady would instruct her sister Kitty to give to the poor beggars. 1885Pall Mall Gaz. 8 Sept. 12/1 What is technically called a ‘second-hand joint’, that is one that has had all its choice parts sliced off.
c. absol. or quasi-n. A second-hand book.
1905Westm. Gaz. 21 Oct. 18/2 If a book..doesn't get a good sale within the first two months, it is no good as a second-hand. 1966J. B. Priestley Salt is Leaving i. 6 He might be going off to some auction sale—y'know, to buy some more secondhands.
3. second-hand bookseller, second hand clothier, etc.: one dealing in second-hand goods. So second-hand bookselling, second hand bookstall, second hand shop, second hand store, etc.
1656Heylin Surv. France 148 They call it their Library; for my part, I should have thought it to have been the warehouse of some second hand Bookseller. 1795J.-B. Lechevalier Let. in W. B. Stevens Jrnl. 24 Sept. (1965) iii. 306 The old Plates, Plaisters, Sermons, Pieces of Iron, Brass and Copper that you purchased lately in that second hand Shop. 1862Library Circular July 158 Advt., Messrs. Tinsley Brothers,..Wholesale, Retail, and Second-hand Booksellers. 1875L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) 115 Here there were all sorts of things..old iron stalls, second-hand book stalls. 1886C. E. Pascoe Lond. of To-day xxxix. (ed. 3) 330 The head of the second-hand bookselling trade of London. 1904Dialect Notes II. 421 You can get most anything at the second-hand store. 1942Tee Emm (Air Ministry) II. (recto rear cover), They may even end up on a second-hand bookstall. 1981Country Life 16 July 205/1 A book very well worth looking out for in second-hand shops.
fig.1902Daily Chron. 3 Jan. 3/3 The modern second-hand dealers in popular criticism.
4. quasi-adv. = at second hand.
1849Robertson Serm. Ser. i. x. (1855) 181 Maxims learned second-hand by rote and not by heart. 1910S. Cook in Expositor Aug. 115 Babylonian culture could continue to reach Canaan secondhand.
Hence secondˈhandness; also (rare) secondˈhandiness, appearance of being second-hand.
a1849H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) II. 120 The staleness of their method and the second-handiness of their costume. 1886Farrar Hist. Interpr. 225 Four serious drawbacks of overhaste, second-handness, vehement prejudice and incessant vacillation.
▸ secondhand smoke n. the smoke from another person's cigarette, etc., esp. as inhaled involuntarily (particularly by a non-smoker); cf. passive smoke n. at passive adj. and n. Special uses.
1891Cambr. City (Indiana) Tribune 15 Oct. 4/1 (heading) *Secondhand smoke... It wasn't long before Ira declared that he got just as much enjoyment from his smoke at secondhand. 1896Forest & Stream 9 May 377/3 As I do not smoke, the Judge would invariably inflict upon me a second-hand smoke by getting to windward of me. 1933Los Angeles Times 8 Apr. ii. 8/2 She is..forgetful of the fact that the second-hand smoke really poisons the nonsmokers who have to inhale it. 2007Globe & Mail (Toronto) 16 Mar. a15/2 They measured for levels of cotinine—a breakdown product of nicotine—which is a standard scientific test for gauging contact with second-hand smoke. |