| 释义 |
committee
(see below)
Also 6 commytte, comyttie, -ittie, 6–7 committie, 7 committey, -itie, -itty, -itte, comittee.
[Subst. use of late AFr. committe, committee pa. pple., substituted for F. commis, f. commettre to commit: cf. words like appellee, in which the suffix repr. F. é of the pa. pple. of 1st conj.; also trustee. The pronunciation was orig. (kɒmɪˈtiː), which is still retained in branch I, and in Scotland may be heard also in II. But the few verse quots. from 1606 onward have |kəˈmɪtɪ|, and this is the recognized pronunciation in II. Practically, the existing senses 2 and 3 have, through this distinction of accent, come to be distinct words.]
I. Applied to an individual: now |kɒmɪˈtiː|.
†1.
a. A person to whom some charge, trust, or function is committed; a commissioner, commissary. Obs. exc. as in d.
1495Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 16 The Kinges Committees or his patentees for the kepyng of the seid Toun. 1523Fitzherb. Surv. 23 The garden or his commytte or graunte shall tende, and offre mariage to the warde. 1579Fulke Confut. Sanders 547 The Bishop of Rome hath beene made the Committie of diuerse Councels, to receiue the subscription. 1598Barret Theor. Warres v. iii. 133 The Comittie, or Purueyour generall, who hath charge to prouide all Bastiments, prouision, and other necessarie things. 1606Warner Alb. Eng. xv. xcvi. 383 By great, by needy Mal-Contents, by Credulous, and Vitious, Work Romes Committees. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. i. 331 Nicholas Wotton..thrise chosen a Committee about peace between the English, French, and Scotish. 1623Cockeram, Committee, he to whom a matter is committed to be ordered or decided.
†b. One of a number of persons to whom a particular business is delegated; a member of a committee in sense 2. Obs.
1587Harrison England ii. viii. (1877) i. 178 The bill is put to certeine committees to be amended. 1618Sir R. Naunton in Fortesc. Papers 73 Mr. Comptroller, one of our fellow Comittees. 1628Coke On Litt. (1809) vii. 11 These committees when they meet, they elect one of them to sit in the chair in likenesse of the speaker.
†c. The title of each of the 24 directors elected annually by the East India Company to manage its affairs. Obs.
1681R. Knox Hist. Ceylon Ep. Ded., To the..Four and Twenty Committees of the Honorable the East-India Company. 1706Lond. Gaz. No. 4216/3 A General Court..to declare the Choice of the Governour, Deputy, and 24 Committees. 1858Beveridge Hist. India I. i. x. 228 The management was entrusted to seventeen directors, or, as they were then called, committees.
d. Court of Committees (of Guy's Hospital): a court of 21 members, whose duties are the financial management of the Hospital, and the appointment of new Governors.
1725Act 11 Geo. I (Guy's Hospital), The several persons herein-after named..are hereby declared to be the President, Treasurer, and one and twenty Committees of the said hereby erected Corporation. 1890Printed Notice, Guy's Hosp., Meetings of the Court of Committees will be held upon the following dates.
2. Law. A person to whom the charge of a lunatic or idiot is committed.
1765Blackstone Comm. i. viii. (R.), If he be found non compos, he [the Lord Chancellor] usually commits the care of his person..to some friend who is then called his committee. 1858Ld. St. Leonards Handy Bk. Prop. Law xvii. 118 The powers given by the Act..may be exercised by guardians for infants, by committees for lunatics. 1884Times 27 Oct. 4/5 She was the committee of the lunatic.
¶ 1607 Cowel Interpr. s.v., says ‘This word seemeth to be something strangely used in Kitchin, fol. 160, where the widow of the kings tenant being dead, is called the committee of the king’: but Kitchin Jurisd. (1598) has l.c. ‘et sa feme est committee le Roy’, translated (1653, p. 314) ‘and his Wife is committed to the King’.
II. Applied to a body: now |kəˈmɪtɪ|.
3. a. A body of (two or more) persons appointed or elected (by a society, corporation, public meeting, etc.) for some special business or function. (Cf. 1 b, which shows that each member was originally called a committee.)
Hence, in the usage of Parliament, or other legislative assemblies:
Committee of the whole House: the whole of the members sitting as a committee to consider the details of a measure which has been ‘committed’, or for kindred purposes, as in the Committee of Supply, Committee of Ways and Means; hence the phrases to resolve itself into a committee, to go into committee, to be in committee, etc. select committee or special committee: one consisting of a small number of members, selected to investigate a special matter. standing committee: a permanent committee appointed to deal with all matters within a particular sphere, during the existence of the body appointing them. joint committee: one composed of members nominated by two or more distinct bodies, such as the Houses of Lords and Commons, in order to arrange the terms of joint action, adjust differences, etc.
1621H. Elsing Debates Ho. Lords (1870) 39 The wholl House a Comittee, the same being adjourned ad libitum. 1626Meade in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 327 III. 225 The Commons having chosen a Committee of Eight..to deliver some fourteen Articles against him unto the Lords. 1640Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. 18 Dec. vi. 21 This grand Committee..did authorize a Sub-committee. 1643Declar. conc. Ireland 33 The examination of Colonell Audley Mervin given..unto a select committee of the House of Commons. 1675Ogilby Brit. Introd. 4 The East India Company..Regulated by a Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Committee of 24 Assistants. 1733Swift Legion Club, Let them form a grand committee, How to plague and starve the city. 1753Scots Mag. Aug. 388/2 The house having resolved itself into a committee of the whole house upon the..bill. 1801Med. Jrnl. V. 356 The subscribers met, and named a Committee of administration to regulate the expences. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) III. xv. 143 In June 1689 a special committee was appointed to inquire into the miscarriages of the war in Ireland. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 552 The motion of the Marquis of Lansdowne for going into Committee on the Bill. 1871Ruskin Munera P. Pref. (1880) 11, I had the honour of being on the committee..for the victualling of Paris after her surrender. 1880McCarthy Own Times IV. lviii. 285 Many nights of discussion were occupied in committee.
†b. A meeting or session of such a body. Obs.
1637–50Row Hist. Kirk (1842) p. xx, I was to go to Edinburgh to attend the committey of the Parliament. 1666Pepys Diary 14 June, Away to White Hall to a Committee for Tangier; where the Duke of York was, and Sir W. Coventry, and a very full committee. 1712E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 124 This Day a Committee was held. 1742H. Walpole Lett. H. Mann 22 Jan. I. 78 The night of the Committee, my brother had got invalids at his house.
III. attrib. and Comb., as committee chamber, committee day, committee meeting, committee room; † committee cut (see quot.); committee-man, a member of a committee; committee-woman, a woman member of a committee or committees.
1660Trial Regic. 44, I was admitted into the *Committe-chamber.
1691Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 743 They mostly had short hair, which at this time was commonly called the *Committee cut.
1640–1Kirkcudb. War-Comm. Min.-bk. (1855) 84 Johne Gordone..undertakes to produce his sone..at the next *Committie day.
1654Whitlock Zootomia 90 Truly the Carter and *Committee-man, must be fain to tast of the same kettle. 1663Flagellum or O. Cromwell (1672) 31 The chief Committee-man of the Association. 1809Kendall Trav. I. v. 27 The deputies..were anciently called committee-men.
1883Lloyd Ebb & Flow II. 123 My father is gone to a *committee meeting.
1772Town & Country Mag. 93 Passing a *Committee-room, where only one member was holding a committee.
1853Mrs. Gaskell Let. 6 Dec. (1966) 255 One or two of the more ‘cautious’ lady visitors,—*committee-women, or whatever they call themselves. 1868W. Collins Moonstone II. ii. vii. 188 A venerable committee-woman at the Mothers' Small-Clothes. 1965J. Porter Dover 3 vi. 66 Dame Alice was an experienced committee woman and never used one word if ten would do.
Hence (nonce-wds.) coˈmmittee v. trans., to furnish with a committee; coˈmmitteeing vbl. n., the procedure of a committee; coˈmmitteeism.
1845Carlyle Cromwell (1871) V. 39 Caballings and Committeeings. 1864Reader 23 Jan. 95 Mere encouragement of committeeism and private blatancy. 1889Home Missionary (N.Y.) Dec. 372 They are officered and committeed from their own number. |