| 释义 |
quintessential, a. and n.|kwɪntɪˈsɛnʃəl|
[f. as quintessence n. + -ial: cf. essential and F. quintessenciel (16th c., Paré).]
A. adj. Of the nature of a quintessence; the purest or most refined of its kind.
1605Timme Quersit. Pref. 6 The æthereal and quintessential physick. 1681H. More Exp. Dan. v. Notes 157 Mere Quintessential Devils, such as consist onely of envy, pride and malice. a1711Ken Hymns Evang. Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 32 The..Flow'rs..all strove their quintessential Sweets to drain, Perfuming Earth. 1823Byron Juan ix. lxvii, A quintessential laudanum. 1887T. A. Trollope What I remember I. ii. 48 Eldon's quintessential Toryism.
B. n. The most essential part of a thing; a quintessential element.
1899‘Mark Twain’ in Harper's Mag. Sept. 529/1 These are the very quintessentials of good citizenship. 1916J. G. Huneker Ivory, Apes, & Peacocks 37 He, too, dreamed of quintessentials, of the sheer power of golden vocables and the secret alchemy of art.
Hence quintessentiˈality; quinteˈssentially.
1838New Monthly Mag. LIII. 304 A concentrated quintessentiality of them all. 1887T. A. Trollope What I remember I. xv. 315 Quintessentially German in manner. 1936Delineator CXXIX. 49/2 All of those early musicians in New Orleans were quintessentially swing players. 1958[see balding a.]. 1971Country Life 24 June 1584/3 Montgeoffroy is everything that is quintessentially French. 1978Language LIV. 275 That master negotiator and persuader, the quintessentially pragmatic Odysseus. |