| 释义 |
Caucasian, a. and n.|kɔːˈkeɪʃ(ɪ)ən, -zɪən|
[f. Caucasus, name of a mountain range between the Black Sea and the Caspian + -ian.]
A. adj. Of or belonging to the region of the Caucasus: a name given by Blumenbach (a 1800) to the ‘white’ race of mankind, which he derived from the region of the Caucasus.
1807W. Lawrence Short Syst. Compar. Anat. 1847Carpenter Zool. §141 Those nations (commonly termed Caucasian) which in the form of their skulls and other physical characters resemble Europeans. 1861Hulme Moquin-Tandon i. vi. 36 Three varieties or principal races—Caucasian, Mongolian, and Ethiopian. 1937C. W. Ferguson Fifty Million Brothers v. 76 At first it was said that the candidates must be ‘Caucasian’ but this evidently was aimed at Negroes, for Jews were later admitted. 1939A. Huxley After many a Summer i. i. 5 The first thing to present itself was a slum of Africans and Filipinos, Japanese and Mexicans... The population took on a more Caucasian tinge. 1967Economist 9 Sept. 892/3 The top business jobs in Hawaii tend to be reserved for ‘Caucasians’... Poorly-paid labour is not ‘Caucasian’ almost by definition.
B. n.
a. A native or inhabitant of the Caucasus.
1843J. C. Prichard Nat. Hist. Man xxiv. 253 The proper or aboriginal inhabitants of the Caucasian region are known..to consist of four distinct races... They are distinguished..as the western, middle, eastern, and southern Caucasians; the latter division including the Georgians. 1955J. Thomas No Banners xxx. 302 A hefty Caucasian orderly asked Henry: ‘What's wrong with your comrade?’ The Caucasian pulled a thermometer out of the mouth of another sufferer. 1961S. V. Utechin Everyman's Conc. Encycl. Russia 88 Caucasians,..in the wider sense it is applied to all the native peoples of the Caucasus, including both North Caucasus and Transcaucasia. In the narrower sense it denotes only those peoples of the Caucasus whose languages belong to the Caucasian or Japhetic..family.
b. A member of the ‘Caucasian’ family, an Indo-European; spec. a member of the ‘white race’, opp. one of other ethnic descent.
1958Lederer & Burdick Ugly American (1959) xv. 177 Colonel Edwin Hillandale of the U.S. Air Force..is the only living Caucasian who is a graduate of the Chungking School of Occult Sciences. 1964J. H. Roberts ‘Q’ Document (1965) vi. 152 She was quite obviously the only Caucasian in the crowd of formally dressed Japanese. 1967[see sense A above]. |