| 释义 |
sententious, a.|sɛnˈtɛnʃəs|
Forms: 5 sentencyowse, 6 -cyous(e, -ci(o)us, sententius, -ouse, 6– sententious.
[f. L. sententiōsus (Cicero), f. sententia sentence n.: see -ous. Cf. F. sentencieux, OF. sententieux (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
†1. Full of meaning; also, of persons, full of intelligence or wisdom. Obs.
c1440Promp. Parv. 453/1 Sentencyowse, or full of sentence, sentenciosus. 1503Hawes Examp. Virt. Prol. 5 O vertuous Lydgat moche sentencyous. 1509― Past. Pleas. xiv. (Percy Soc.) 53 The boke of fame, whiche is sentencyous He [Chaucer] drewe hym selfe. 1513Douglas æneis vi. Prol. 75 He is ane hie theolog sentencius. 1579E. K. Gloss. to Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Nov. 83 This is a notable and sententious comparison. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. i. 3 Your reasons at dinner haue beene sharpe & sententious. 1622Peacham Compl. Gent. vi. 43 Let your stile..bee..sententious, yea better furnished with sentences then words. 1648Crashaw Delights of Muses Wks. (1904) 135 Teares have Tongues, Sententious showers, o let them fall.
2. Of the nature of a ‘sentence’ or aphoristic saying.
1542Udall tr. Erasmus (title) Apophthegmes that is to saie, prompte, quicke, wittie and sentencious saiynges, of certain Emperours [etc.]. 1671Milton P.R. iv. 264 Brief sententious precepts. 1752Johnson Rambler No. 205 ⁋1 Sometimes [he] uttered grave reflections, and sententious maxims. 1841D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 676 The depth of sentiment was contracted into sententious epigrams. 1908Q. Rev. Apr. 341 Many sententious and quasi-proverbial lines are ascribed to him [Menander].
3. Of discourse, style, etc.: Abounding in pointed maxims, aphoristic. In recent use sometimes in bad sense, affectedly or pompously formal.
1509Hawes Past. Pleas. viii. (Percy Soc.) 29 To make of nought, reason sentencious, Clokynge a trouthe wyth colour tenebrous. 1579–80North Plutarch, M. Cato (1595) 373 His grace..in speaking..was pleasant and yet graue:..sententious, and yet familiar. 1624Gataker Wife in Deed 1 It hath this preeminence aboue most, if not all, the Bookes in the Bible; that many of them are Sententious, this consisteth all of Sentences. For what are Diuine Prouerbs, but select and choise Sentences. 1681Dineley Jrnl. in Trans. Kilkenny Archæol. Soc. Ser. ii. II. 22 [The Irish language] is sharp and sententious, with quick apothegmes, and proper allusions. 1747Doddridge Life Col. Gardiner 175 [He] only replied, in his Sententious Manner, ‘We have an Eternity to spend together’. 1770Langhorne Plutarch, Brutus ⁋4 In Greek he affected the sententious and laconic way [of speaking]. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. l. V. 187 Their wit [was] strong and sententious. 1782F. Burney Cecilia vi. i, The truth of this speech palliating its sententious absurdity, made Cecilia give up her faint attempt to soften him. 1833Macaulay Ess., War Succ. Spain ⁋3 Lord Mahon is also a little too fond of uttering moral reflections in a style too sententious and oracular. 1850W. Irving Mahomet xxxix. (1853) 192 His ordinary discourse was grave and sententious. 1855Kingsley Westw. Ho! ii, A long sententious letter, full of Latin quotations. 1858G. Macdonald Phantastes vii. (1878) 117 The sententious remarks of a pompous child. 1883Fortn. Rev. Feb. 260 A person of gentlemanly bearing, small abilities, and sententious wisdom.
4. Of persons: Given to the utterance of maxims or pointed sayings. Now often in bad sense, addicted to pompous moralizing.
1598–9B. Jonson Case Altered i. v. 289 Come, you are so sententious, my lord. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. v. iv. 66 By my faith, he is very swift, and sententious. 1630R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlem. (1641) 5 This indifferencie towards fortune is excellently described by the sententious Seneca. 1700Congreve Way of World ii. v, Sententious Mirabell! Pr'ythee don't look with that violent and inflexible wise Face. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. ii. §7 Sallust was a sententious pedant. 1796F. Burney Camilla V. 114 You grow so horrid sententious. 1823Scott Quentin D. Introd., The Marquis de Hautlieu..was as short and sententious as French politeness permitted. 1880M. E. Braddon Just as I am xxxvi, He was a sententious person.
†5. Of a symbol: Expressive of a whole sentence; opposed to verbal. Obs.
1586J. Ferne Blaz. Gentrie 149 The matter whereof these armes do consist is the same that the auncient Hieroglyphiques weare with the ægiptians, or the sententious Emblemes to the Greekes. 1701Grew Cosmol. Sacr. ii. vi. 68 The making of those Figures being tedious..put Men first upon contracting them..instead of Sententious Marks, to think of Verbal; such as the Chineses still retain.
†6. Of composition: Consisting of detached sentences. Obs.
1771Luckombe Hist. Printing 250 The first word of a new paragraph..is commonly put in Small Capitals... But this rule may be very well laid aside in matter which is too sententious and which would take up more Small Capitals than an ordinary..Fount could supply. Ibid. 386 Others are so sententious in their writing that they break off almost at every place that will admit of a Full-point. |