| 释义 |
second sight
1. a. A supposed power by which occurrences in the future or things at a distance are perceived as though they were actually present.
1616Maitland Club Misc. II. 189 Be the secund sicht grantit to her..She saw Robert Stewart..and certane utheris with towis about thair craigis. a1700Evelyn Diary 16 Sept. 1685, There was something said of the second sight happening to some persons, especially Scotch. 1763Pastoral Cordial 11 Their Faith and firm Belief In Second Sight, and Mother Shipton. 1827Scott Highl. Widow v, These are Highland visions, Captain Campbell, as unsatisfactory and vain as those of the second sight. 1875A. Lang in Encycl. Brit. II. 204/1 Persons possessing the Celtic taishitaraugh, or gift of second-sight.
b. transf. and fig.
1711Countrey-Man's Let. to Curat 29 But the High-Church Doctors were not then Blessed with the second sight, as they have been of late. 1860Emerson Cond. Life viii. 178 When the second-sight of the mind is opened, now one colour or form or gesture, and now another, has a pungency [etc.].
2. The image or vision produced by the faculty of ‘second sight’.
1763‘Theophilus Insulanus’ Second Sight 35 From many cogent proofs, I am induced to think, that the Second Sight is not seen by the organ of the eye. Ibid. Index 187 Grant, Mr. James, his relation of a young man that saw the Second Sight.
3. Natural Magic. (See quot. 1883.)
1859L. Wraxall tr. Robert-Houdin's Mem. II. i. 4 Chance led me straight to the invention of second sight. 1883Cassell's Bk. Sports 923 Clairvoyance, or Second Sight, when applied to conjurers' tricks and private entertainments, is the art of telling the name and description of articles by a person whose eyes are blindfolded. 1902G. Faur in Encycl. Brit. XXX. 427/2 In recent years the mystery known as ‘Second Sight’ has been vastly improved.
4. attrib.
1700Dr. Hickes Let. in Pepys' Mem. (1870) 696, I asked this question, to know whether..these Second Sight folks were Seers or Visionists.
Hence second-sighted a., having the gift of second sight; † second-sightedness, the quality of possessing second sight; second-sighter, one who practises the power of second sight.
a1694in Aubrey's Misc. (1696) 154 These Events, which Second-sighted Men discover, or fore-tell. 1708Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. i. ii. (1743) 322 This quality of second⁓sightedness is not rare. 1820Shelley Maria Gisb. 137 She replies, Veiling in awe her second-sighted eyes. 1875A. Lang in Encycl. Brit. II. 204/2 The inyanga, or second⁓sighted man. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa xx. 460 You cannot see your own bush-soul, unless you are an Ebumtup, a sort of second-sighter. |