| 释义 |
contamination|kənˌtæmɪˈneɪʃən|
[ad. L. contāminātiōn-em, n. of action from contāmināre: see prec. Also in F. in 16th c.]
1. The action of contaminating, or condition of being contaminated; defilement, pollution, infection.
a. lit. (spec. the presence of radioactivity where it is harmful or undesirable.)
1599A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physicke 296/1 If so be anye man hadde anye Contamination in his bodye. 1806Med. Jrnl. XV. 501 The contamination of these glands. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6) I. v. 174 No surface contamination can reach the water. 1913Rutherford Radioactive Substances iii. 112 All sources of active matter should be kept in sealed vessels, in order to avoid possible radio-active contamination. 1950S. Glasstone Sourcebk. Atomic Energy xviii. 518/1 A problem which radiochemical investigations have..is that of preventing contamination of both equipment and personnel.
b. fig.
1620Bp. Hall Hon. Marr. Clergy 24 (T.) What was he that accused marriage..of contamination with carnal concupiscence? 1792Anecd. W. Pitt III. xliv. 195 Such a mode of warfare was..a contamination, a pollution of our national character. 1844Lever T. Burke xxx, That dreadful man, whose very presence is contamination.
c. The blending of two or more stories, plots, or the like into one.
1877Encycl. Brit. VII. 411/2 The Roman versions were probably terser than their originals, which they often altered by the process called contamination. 1909Nation (N.Y.) 22 Apr. 407/2 In ‘All Fools’, for example, we have a ‘contamination’, to use the technical term, of the ‘Heautontimoroumenos’ and the ‘Adelphi’, plus a sub-plot of Chapman's own invention.
d. Philology. The blending of forms, words, or phrases of similar meaning or use so as to produce a form, word, or phrase of a new type.
1888Strong tr. Paul's Princ. Lang. 160 By ‘contamination’ I understand the process by which synonymous forms of expression force themselves simultaneously into consciousness, so that neither of the two makes its influence felt simply and purely: a new form arises in which elements of the one mingle with elements of the other. Ibid., Contamination manifests itself partly in the phonetic form of single words, partly in their syntactical combination. 1890Strong et al. Hist. Lang. 142 We may lay it down that for analogy we must demand a sufficient number of examples on which to base a rule; while for contamination, a single form or construction may suffice. 1901Oertel Lect. Study Lang. 174 The structure of grammatical paradigms does not escape contamination. 1947E. Sturtevant Introd. Ling. Sci. xi. 110 Momentary hesitation between two possible linguistic responses is extremely common, and not infrequently it leads to a mingling of the two. Instances are..ruvershoes (rubbers × overshoes)... We call this process contamination. 1968Language XLIV. 475 Contamination is taken to be the process by which two linguistic forms..are crossed to produce a single new form.
e. Textual Criticism. A blending of manuscripts resulting in the occurrence in a manuscript or group of manuscripts of readings belonging to different lines of tradition.
1913F. W. Hall Compan. Class. Texts 130 The problem of relationship [of MSS.] is often rendered exceedingly complex by the tendency which is variously described as ‘contamination’, ‘mixture’, or ‘eclectic fusion’ of the different groups. 1960G. Kane Piers Plowman: A Version 21 Of the seventeen manuscripts twelve agree, apart from physical imperfections and two major contaminations.
2. concr. That in which contamination is embodied; an impurity.
1808Henry Epit. Chem. (ed. 5) 165 Nitrous gas, however, is a much more common contamination [of nitrous oxide]. |