| 释义 |
prepotency|priːˈpəʊtənsɪ|
[ad. L. præpotentia superior power, f. præpotent-em: see prepotent and -ency.]
1. a. The quality of being prepotent; superior power or influence; predominance, prevalence.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. v. 187 If there were a determinate prepotency in the right [hand]. 1651Howell Venice 178 Prepotency of plundring did facilitat the way to dispossesse me of mine own. 1815Zeluca I. 135, I shall not fall into the sullens at his present prepotency. 1887Edin. Rev. CLXV. 307 The destruction of that Russian prepotency.
b. Psychol. The quality inherent in a particular stimulus or response that makes it prepotent (cf. next).
1928Psychol. Rev. XXXV. 420 What response the animal will make at a given moment depends upon the prepotency of the stimuli. 1953B. F. Skinner Sci. & Human Behav. xiv. 220 When two responses are strong at the same time, only one can be emitted. The appearance of one response is called ‘prepotency’.
2. Biol. The prepotent power of a parent organism to transmit special characteristics to offspring.
1859Darwin Orig. Spec. viii. 274 The prepotency runs more strongly in the male ass than in the female. 1868― Anim. & Pl. II. 71 The subject of prepotency is extremely intricate—from its varying so much in strength, even in regard to the same character, in different animals. 1877― Forms of Fl. vi. 258 The prepotency of pollen from another individual over a plant's own pollen. 1893Nat. Observ. 8 Apr. 523/2 Attributed to the Anglo-Saxon prepotency of transmission in the racial struggle. |