| 释义 |
shibboleth|ˈʃɪbəlɛθ|
Forms: 4 s(h)ebolech, 6, 7 schiboleth, 7 schibboleth, 7–9 shiboleth, 7– shibboleth.
[a. Heb. shiˈbbōleth; in the Vulgate transliterated sciboleth.
The word occurs with the senses ‘ear of corn’ and ‘stream in flood’; in the passage now referred to the LXX and Vulgate give the former rendering; mod. commentators prefer the latter, on the ground that on this view the selection of the word is naturally accounted for, as the slaughter took place ‘at the fords of Jordan’. Cf. sibboleth v.]
1. The Hebrew word used by Jephthah as a test-word by which to distinguish the fleeing Ephraimites (who could not pronounce the sh) from his own men the Gileadites (Judges xii. 4–6).
1382Wyclif Judges xii. 6 Thei askiden hym, Seye thanne Sebolech [1535 Coverdale Schiboleth, 1611 Shibboleth],..the which answerde, Shebolech [1388 Thebolech, 1535 Siboleth, 1611 Sibboleth]. 1671Milton Samson 289 In that sore battel when so many dy'd Without Reprieve adjudg'd to death, For want of well pronouncing Shibboleth. 1844Elphinstone Hist. India II. 73 As some endeavoured to conceal their character, recourse was had to a test like the Jewish Shiboleth.
2. transf.
a. A word or sound which a person is unable to pronounce correctly; a word used as a test for detecting foreigners, or persons from another district, by their pronunciation.
1658Cleveland Rustick Rampant 36 They had a Shibboleth to discover them, he who pronounced Brot and Cawse for Bread and Cheese had his head lopt off. 1660Fuller Mixt Contempl. xxxviii. 62 It [the word trespasses] is a shiboleth to a child's tongue, wherein there is a confluence of hard consonants together. a1661― Worthies, Essex (1662) i. 335, R. was Shiboleth unto him, which he could not easily pronounce. 1827Scott Two Drovers i, In attempting to teach his companion to utter, with true precision, the shibboleth Llhu, which is the Gaelic for a calf. 1863Hawthorne Our Old Home, Consular Exper. I. 44 The best shibboleth I ever hit upon lay in the pronunciation of the word ‘been’. 1873Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue §138 (ed. 2) 139 The TH with its twofold value is one of the most characteristic features of our language, and more than any other the Shibboleth of foreigners.
b. A peculiarity of pronunciation or accent indicative of a person's origin.
1663[J. Heath] Flagellum or O. Cromwell 123 There were slain [at Worcester] in Field and in Town,..and in pursuit some 3000, and some 8000. taken prisoners in several places, most of the English escaping by their Shiboleth. 1701De Foe Trueborn Engl. i. 136 The Customs, Sirnames, Languages, and Manners, Of all these Nations..Whose Relicks..ha' left a Shiboleth upon our Tongue; By which..you may distinguish Your Roman-Saxon-Danish-Norman English. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XIII. 112/1 The commonalty [of Northumberland] are..remarkably distinguished by a kind of shibboleth or whurle, being a particular way of pronouncing the letter R.
c. loosely. A custom, habit, mode of dress, or the like, which distinguishes a particular class or set of persons.
1806A. Hunter Culina (ed. 2) 192 Custard and apple-pie is the Shibboleth by which an Alderman may be known. 1837Howitt Rur. Life i. iv. (1862) 40 The sportsman's shooting-dress is a shibboleth, which introduces him alike to his superiors, to his fellows, and his inferiors. 1885Dodge Patroclus & Penelope 10 The newly fledged equestrian who makes them [the English hunting-rig and crop] his shibboleth, and who discards as ‘bad form’ any deviation upon the road from what is eminently in place after hounds. 1902Gosse in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 10) XXXIII. 819/2 Joseph and his Brethren became a kind of shibboleth—a rite of initiation into the true poetic culture.
3. fig. A catchword or formula adopted by a party or sect, by which their adherents or followers may be discerned, or those not their followers may be excluded.
1638E. Norice New Gospel 3 His followers sequestring themselves to such as were their own way,..gave themselves to mirth and jollity,..as if it were the only Shibboleth whereby to be discerned from the miserable Legalists that held mourning and sorrow for sinne. 1687Dryden Hind & P. iv. 1076 For them..Their Foes a deadly Shibboleth devise: By which unrighteously it was decreed, That none to Trust, or Profit should succeed, Who would not swallow first a poysonous wicked Weed. 1771Wesley Serm. xliv. Wks. 1829 VI. 63 But here is the shibboleth: Is man by nature filled with all manner of evil?.. Allow this, and you are so far a Christian. Deny it, and you are but a Heathen still. 1784Cowper Let. to Newton 21 Feb., The mere shibboleth of a party. 1809Scott Fam. Lett. (1894) I. v. 146 Knaves and fools invent catch-words and shibboleths to keep them [‘honest’ persons] from coming to a just understanding. 1862J. Skelton Nugæ Crit. ix. 424 The age..strives to emancipate itself from the fetters of party shibboleths. 1874H. R. Reynolds John Bapt. vi. §3. 394 Christians were ready to insist upon the insensate Shibboleth, ‘Except ye be circumcised..ye cannot be saved’.
b. The mode of speech distinctive of a profession, class, etc.
1829Southey Sir T. More (1831) II. 231 She has assumed the garb and even the shibboleth of the sect. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 400 To that sanctimonious jargon, which was his shibboleth, was opposed another jargon not less absurd. 1884Graphic 25 Oct. 437/3 Not given to talk stable, as is too often the case with racing men, but putting off the shibboleth of the turf with his race-glasses.
Add:[3.] [a.] Hence, a moral formula held tenaciously and unreflectingly, esp. a prohibitive one; a taboo.
1930N. Coward Private Lives ii. 54 All the futile moralists... Laugh at them... Laugh at everything, all their sacred shibboleths. 1940W. Faulkner Hamlet iii. i. 169 Eating..things which the weary long record of shibboleth and superstition had taught his upright kind to call filth. 1963J. Moynahan Deed of Life iii. i. 98 Lilly remians an annoying little man,..who may be refreshingly free from the duller middle-class shibboleths, but..is also unpleasantly self-conscious and humorless. 1977C. McCullough Thorn Birds xvii. 412 She was untroubled by shibboleths like hitting below the belt. 1988F. Spalding Stevie Smith ii. 36 From the Anglo-Catholic point of view, the 1914–18 war helped break down a number of shibboleths. |