| 释义 |
conception|kənˈsɛpʃən|
Also 3–4 concepcioun(e, -ciun, 3–6 -cion, 5 -tyown, 5–6 -cyon; 3 consepcioun, 5 -cion(e.
[a. F. conception (14th c. in Littré), ad. L. conceptiōn-em, n. of action f. concip-ĕre, concept- to conceive.]
1. a. The action of conceiving, or fact of being conceived, in the womb.
Occurs early in ecclesiastical use. Immaculate Conception: see immaculate.
a1300Cursor M. 220 (Cott.) Þe last resun of alle þis ron Sal be of hir concepcion. a1300Ibid. 11013 Fra sant iohn þe concepcion..till þe annunciaciun. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. x. 178 Careful Concepcion comeþ of such weddyng. 1398Trevisa Barth. De. P.R. vi. i. (1495) 186 Aege is spase of the lyfe of a beest and begynnyth from the concepcyon. c1440Gesta Rom. xlvii. 205 (Harl. MS.) He enterid..in to the wombe of oure seint marie the virgine; & þere he lay fro tyme of his consepcion vnto the tyme of his nativite. 1450–1530Myrr. our Ladye 5 So meruelous clene concepcion and holy byrthe. 1545T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 11 In tyme of conception of the seede. 1615Crooke Body of Man 232 Conception is nothing els but the wombs receiuing and imbracing of the seede. 1830R. Knox Béclard's Anat. 287 At the second month after conception..[the head] forms half the height of the body.
fig.1607Shakes. Timon i. ii. 115 Ioy had the like conception in our eies, And at that instant, like a babe sprung up.
b. attrib., as in Conception-day, the festival of the conception of the Blessed Virgin.
a1300Cursor M. 24934 (Gött.) Seruise..proper of þat concepcion day. c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 390 Þe Gospel on Nativyte and Consepcioun daies of Oure Ladi.
c. Order of the (Immaculate) Conception: name of a R.C. order of nuns.
1727Chambers Cycl. s.v. Religious of the order of Conception; see Theatins. 1800Archæol. XIII. 270. 1840 Ibid. XXVIII. 193 The late English Convent at Paris of the Order of the Conception, commonly called the Blue Nuns. Ibid. 194 The English Convent of nuns of the third order of St. Francis, called the Conception.
d. attrib., as conception-control (cf. birth-control).
1930Lambeth Conf. Encycl. Let. 44 The Conference records its strong condemnation of the use of any methods of conception-control from motives of selfishness, luxury, or mere convenience.
†2. transf. The generation or production of plants and minerals. Obs.
1664Evelyn Sylva (1679) 7 Stumps..sowre the ground, and poyson the Conception. 1667Milton P.L. vi. 512 Th' originals of Nature in thir crude Conception.
3. concr. That which is conceived:
a. The embryo, fœtus.
†b. Offspring, child (obs.).
a1400–50Alexander 388 Þis concepcion with kyngis sal be callid here-efter A verra victor a-vansid. 1526[see 7]. 1545T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 136 Whether the Conception be male or female. 1555Eden Decades 132. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 304 False conceptions or Moone-calues. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. ii. 4. 1649 Selden Laws Eng. ii. xxvi. (1739) 116 Henry the Eighth was a Conception in whom the two Bloods both of York and Lancaster did meet. 1821Southey Vision Judgem. iii, Some accursed conception..Ripe for its monstrous birth.
†4. Gram. The use of a masculine adjective with two or more substantives of different genders, or of a verb in the first or second person with two or more pronouns of different persons, on the principle that ‘the masculine conceives (i.e. comprises) the feminine’, etc.: see conceive 12. Obs.
1530Palsgr. Introd. 38 So moche attayne they towardes the parfection of the latine tonge..that they use also conceptyon, bothe in gendre and parsone. Ibid. 137 With their passyve participles, they use conception of gendres. Ibid. 299, 332, 391, 791.
5. a. The action or faculty of conceiving in the mind, or of forming an idea or notion of anything; apprehension, imagination.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 201 Swiftnes of þouȝtes and chaungynge of witte in þe concepcioun. 1592Davies Immort. Soul xxx. (1714) 106 As if Beasts conceiv'd what Reason were, And that Conception should distinctly show. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. viii. 315 The one being too weake for our conception, our conception too weake for the other. 1665Glanvill Sceps. Sci. vii. 37 Of as difficult conception, as the former. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xxv. 187 Its bounding heights were lovely beyond conception.
b. in my conception: to my apprehension, as I conceive of the matter.
1787Bentham Def. Usury ix. 85 In my conception, the reasoning..is just as applicable to the one sort of bargain as to the other. 1804Castlereagh in Owen Wellesley's Disp. 257 The benefit..of a Mahratta connection has..been in my conception always over-rated.
6. Philos.
a. In a general sense = prec.;
†b. applied by Stewart to reproductive imagination.
1640Hobbes Hum. Nat. xi. (R.), All evidence is conception, and all conception is imagination, and proceedeth from sense. 1725Watts Logic i. i. (1822) 10 If I were to distinguish them, I would say, perception is the consciousness of an object when present; conception is the forming an idea of the object whether present or absent. Ibid. ii. (1736) 143. 1739 Hume Treatise iii. vii. When after the simple conception of any thing we wou'd conceive it as existent, we in reality make no addition to or alteration on our first idea. 1785Reid Int. Powers iv. i. Wks. 368/1 Conception is often employed about objects that neither do, nor did, nor will exist. Ibid. iv. iii. 375/2, I take imagination in its most proper sense to signify a lively conception of objects of sight. 1792Stewart Elements iii. Wks. II. 144 By Conception, I mean that power of the mind which enables it to form a notion of an absent object of perception, or of a sensation which it has formerly felt. 1874Wallace Hegel's Logic i. 4 The specific phenomena of feeling, perception, desire and will, as far as they are known, may be in general described under the name of Conception.
c. The forming of a concept or general notion; the faculty of forming such.
[Cf. Boethius In Prædicam. Wks. (1546) 129 Genera et species non ex uno singulo intellecta sunt, sed ex omnibus singulis mentis ratione collecta vel concepta.]
1830Coleridge Ch. & St. 12 A conception consists in a conscious act of the understanding, bringing any given object or impression into the same class with any number of other objects or impressions by means of some character..common to them all. 1837Sir W. Hamilton Logic vii. (1866) I. 120 Conception..expresses the act of comprehending or grasping up into unity the various qualities by which an object is characterised. 1860Abp. Thomson Laws Th. §40 Conception, or the power of forming general notions.
7. a. That which is conceived in the mind; an idea, notion.
In the first two quotations with an allusion to sense 3.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 294 Whiche sayd spirituall chyldre ben the spirytuall concepcyons of the mynde. 1651Hobbes Leviath. i. i. 3 There is no conception in a mans mind, which hath not..been begotten upon the organs of Sense.
1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 26 The true and safe conceptions which we ought to have as touching the Gods. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. i. i. §3 Words being for no other end but to express our conceptions of things. 1692Dryden tr Evremont's Ess. Pref. 5 There is..a justness in his conceptions which is the foundation of good writing. 1736Butler Anal. i. ii, As impossible..as for a blind man to have a conception of colours. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 73 ⁋6, I had not enlarged my conceptions either by books or conversation. 1842Dickens Lett. (1880) I. 59, I can give you no conception of my welcome here.
†b. What is merely conceived, a mere fancy.
1604Shakes. Oth. iii. iv. 156 Pray heauen it bee..no Conception, Nor no Iealious Toy, concerning you.
†c. An opinion, notion, view. Obs.
1678Marvell Corr. Wks. 1872–5 II. 607 Your further conceptions intimated in yours of the 8th.
8. Philos.
a. In a general sense = 7.
1640Hobbes Hum. Nat. i. §7 There [are] in our minds continually certain images or conceptions of the things without us. 1739Hume Treatise ii. i. Wks. I. 334 'Tis universally allow'd, that the capacity of the mind is limited, and can never attain a full and adequate conception of infinity. 1762Kames Elem. Crit. (1833) 476 When I describe a picture..to another, the idea he forms of it is termed a conception. a1863Whately Commpl.-bk. (1864) 92 It is a conception, not perception, that we have of anything not in actual present existence.
b. A general notion, a concept; sometimes called a general conception.
‘The Conception (Begriff) is opposed to the Intuition, for it is an universal representation, or a representation of that which is common to a plurality of objects’ (tr. Kant's Logic in Reid's Wks. 987).
1785Reid Int. Powers v. ii. Wks. 393 General terms..do not signify any individual, but what is common to many individuals; therefore we have distinct conception of things common to many individuals—that is, we have distinct general conceptions. a1834Coleridge Lit. Rem. III. 34 A conception of the understanding, corresponding to some fact or facts, quorum notæ communes concapiuntur, the common characters of which are taken together under one distinct exponent, hence named a conception, and conceptions are internal subjective words. 1856Mill Logic II. 192 We get the conception of an animal..by comparing different animals. 1856Meiklejohn tr. Kant's Crit. Pure R. 24 Space is no discursive, or as we say, general conception [Begriff] of the relations of things, but a pure intuition [Anschauung]. 1889Caird Philos. Kant I. 289 The object of a conception is universal, of a perception, individual.
9. a. Origination in the mind; designing, planning.
1822J. Imison Sc. & Art II. 396 In the conception of this ideal picture, all the little circumstances should be contrived, etc. 1857Heavysege Saul (1869) 382 Prompt my deeds Shall be henceforth, and close on the conception.
b. Something originated in the mind; a design, plan; an original idea (as of a work of art, etc.); a mental product of the inventive faculty.
[1587Golding De Mornay v. 51 The reasonable life hath his conceptions and breedings..We commonly terme the doings or actions thereof by the name of Conceptions or Conceits, after which maner the learned sort do cal their bookes their Children.] 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 312, I haue a young conception in my braine. 1843Prescott Mexico v. vi. (1864) 314 It was a bold conception, that of constructing a fleet to be transported across forest and mountain before it was launched. 1883F. Wedmore in 19th Cent. XIII. 223 The element of satire that underlies Shakespeare's conception of the part of Benedick.
†c. The spontaneous framing and utterance of prayer: cf. conceived 2 b. Obs.
1661Grand Debate 57 Conceptions of Prayer by a publick person..are not to be rejected as private Conceptions.
†10. A fanciful expression, a conceit. Obs.
1693Dryden Juvenal Ded. (J.), He..is full of conceptions..and witticisms..below the dignity of heroic verse. |