| 释义 |
contingence|kənˈtɪndʒəns|
[f. L. type *contingentia (perh. in med.L.), f. contingent- contingent: see -ence. (In F. app. from c 1600: see Littré.)]
I.
1. Touching, contact. angle of contingence: the infinitesimal angle between the circumference of a circle and its tangent, or between two tangents to a curve at consecutive points. line of contingence: = contingent or tangent line.
1561Eden Arte Navig. ii. xvi. 43 b, Call it the line of contingence. 1570Billingsley Euclid iii. Introd. 81 The angle of contingence is the least of all acute rightlined angles. 1656Hobbes Six Less. Wks. 1845 VII. 195 An angle of contingence hath its quantity as well as that which is called simply an angle. 1873B. Williamson Diff. Calc. (ed. 2) xvii. §219 The total curvature of an arc of a plane curve is measured by the angle through which it is bent between its extremities—that is, by the external angle between the tangents at these points, assuming that the arc in question has no point of inflexion on it. This angle is called the angle of contingence of the arc.
fig.1641R. Brooke Eng. Episc. i. v. 29 As..it is in the point of Contingence, every thing is either True or False.
†2. Contiguity; nearness of nature, affinity; = contingency 2. Obs.
1612Drayton Poly-olb. i. Notes 18 Like kindnesse as wee reade of twixt the Troians and the Romanes..which was louing respect through contingence of bloud.
II.
3. The coming to pass of anything without predetermination, freedom from necessity; chance; happening by chance; = contingency 3.
c1530Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 32, I haue seene folys leevyng contyngence, accuse them-selfe infortunat, of whom the wyse man seledom complaynith. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iv. ii. i. (1651) 687 They attribute all to natural causes, contingence of all things. 1754Edwards Freed. Will ii. iii. 45 Contingence is blind, and does not pick and choose for a particular Sort of Events. 1779–81Johnson L.P., Dryden He delighted to talk of liberty and necessity, destiny and contingence. 1882–3Schaff Encycl. Rel. Knowl. III. 2306 The liberty of indifference or of contingence which had been charged upon the Arminians.
†4. = contingency 4. ? Obs.
1660Jer. Taylor Worthy Commun. i. iv. 85 To heap together many rare contingences and miraculous effects of the holy Sacrament. 1677Hale Contempl. ii. 158 A Thousand Contingences, may take away all my Wealth. 1754Richardson Grandison (1781) V. xvii. 97 This is a contingence, and must be left to time. 1829I. Taylor Enthus. vi, The common contingences of physical life. |