| 释义 |
continuity|kɒntɪˈnjuːɪtɪ|
[a. F. continuité (16th c.), ad. L. continuitāt-em, f. continu-us: see -ity.]
The state or quality of being continuous.
1. Of material things: The state or quality of being uninterrupted in extent or substance, of having no interstices or breaks; uninterrupted connexion of parts; connectedness, unbrokenness.
1543[see 5]. 1570Dee Math. Pref. D j, Fyre and Ayre..will descend, when..their Continuitie should be dissolued. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 38 Inflaming the body, loosing the continuity of the parts. 1615Crooke Body of Man 307 Now there is no continuity betweene the vmbilicall veine and the hollow veine. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. i. 55 Continuity of parts is the cause of perspicuity. 1727–51Chambers Cycl., Continuity is usually defined, among schoolmen, the immediate cohesion of parts in the same quantum. 1804Wellington in Gurw. Disp. III. 59 The continuity of the frontier. 1813Bakewell Introd. Geol. (1815) 52 Sometimes the continuity of rocks and strata is..broken. 1855Bain Senses & Int. i. ii. §17 (1864) 46 The continuity of the cord with the brain is necessary.
2. a. Of immaterial things, actions, processes, etc.: The state or quality of being uninterrupted in sequence or succession, or in essence or idea; connectedness, coherence, unbrokenness.
1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1356 All that shall be, hath a stint and dependance of that which is, by a certeine continuitie, which proceedeth from the beginning to the end. 1751Harris Hermes vii. (1786) 101 We may gain some idea of Time, by considering it under the notion of a transient continuity. 1820W. Irving Sketch Bk. I. 10 In travelling by land there is a continuity of scene, a connected succession of incidents that carry on the story of life. 1842W. Grove Corr. Phys. Forces Pref. (ed. 6) 16 The continuity of attention necessary for the proper evolution of a train of thought.
b. law or principle of continuity: the principle that all change, sequence, or series in nature is continuous, and that nothing passes from one state to another per saltum.
The phrase originated with Leibnitz. In 1687 he laid down as a general principle, that where there is continuity between data, such that one case continually approaches and at length loses itself in another, there will be a corresponding continuity in results or properties. For example, it is a property of the ellipse that all rays from the one focus are reflected from the curve to the other; in the parabola all such rays reflected at the curve are parallel; if there be given a series of ellipses continually approaching the parabola by the continuous increase of distance between the foci, the focal radii of these will continuously approach the relation of parallelism, so as at length to differ from it by less than any assignable amount. This was according to Leibnitz ‘a principle of general order’, having its origin in the mathematical infinite, absolutely necessary in Geometry, but holding good also in Physics, because the Sovereign Wisdom, the source of all things, acts as a perfect Geometer, and according to a harmony that admits of no addition. In 1702 he referred to this principle as ‘the law of continuity’, and claimed that it operates in all natural phenomena; and in his Nouveaux Essais, he declared it to be part of his ‘Law of Continuity’ that everything in nature goes by degrees, and nothing per saltum.
[1687Leibnitz Lettre à Mr. Bayle Wks. Erdm. 104. 1690 ― Lettre à Mr. Arnauld ibid. 107 Chacune de ces substances contient dans sa nature legem continuationis seriei suarum operationum. 1702― Repl. aux Refl. de Bayle ibid. 189/2 Qu'il ne se rencontre jamais rien, où la loi de la continuité (que j'ai introduite, et dont j'ai fait la première mention dans les Nouvelles de la République des Lettres de Mr. Bayle), et toutes les autres règles les plus exactes des Mathématiques soient violées. a1716― Nouv. Ess. iv. xvi, Tout va par degrés dans la nature et rien par saut, et cette règle, à l'égard des changements, est une partie de ma loi de la continuité.] 1753Chambers Cycl. Suppl. s.v., An eminent mathematician has supposed what he calls a law of continuity to obtain in the universe, by which law every thing that is executed or done in nature, is done by infinitely small degrees. 1812–6Playfair Nat. Phil. (1819) I. 271 When bodies, whether solid or fluid, act on one another by impulse or percussion, in such a manner that their action is subject to the law of continuity. 1830Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 189 It prevents a breach of the law of continuity between transparent and opake bodies. 1841J. R. Young Math. Dissert. ii. 74 That the angle changes at once from 90° to zero, is to admit so palpable a violation of the principle of continuity..that, etc. 1862Mulcahy Mod. Geom. (ed. 2). 1878Tait & Stewart Unseen Univ. (1880) p. xii, We endeavour to show..that immortality is strictly in accordance with the principle of Continuity (rightly viewed).
c. equation of continuity, in Hydrodynamics: the equation connecting the rate of change of density of a fluid within any closed surface constantly full of fluid with the flow of fluid through the surface.
1836T. Webster Equilibr. & Motion of Fluids. 1880Haughton Phys. Geog. iii. 141. 1882 Minchin Unipl. Kinemat. §93.
3. The state or quality of being continuous in time; uninterrupted duration. rare.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. xiii, Wee need not have recourse unto any starre but the Sunne and the continuity of its action. 1840Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile Poems 1850 I. 27 Their stedfast continuity of gaze. 1841Brewster Mart. Sc. ii. iv. (1856) 146 A painful disease, which had its origin in the severity and continuity of his studies.
4. a. quasi-concr. A continuous or connected whole; a continuous or unbroken course or series. (Of material or immaterial things.)
1601Holland Pliny II. 423 Running throughout one continuity without interruption. a1619M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. ix. §3 (1622) 296 All magnitudes and continuities are deduced from one originall prick. 1644Milton Areop. (Arb.) 70 When every stone is laid artfully together, it cannot be united into a continuity, it can but be contiguous in this world. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 219 A chain that ascends in a continuity of links.
b. A part continuous with something else. rare.
1809W. Irving Knickerb. (1861) 248 The New-Netherlands..a continuity of the territory taken possession of..by the Pilgrims, when they landed on Plymouth Rock.
5. solution of continuity: the fact or condition of being or becoming discontinuous; fracture, rupture, breakage, ‘break’. Orig. used of wounds, etc. in an animal body; thence also in other senses.
1543Traheron tr. Vigo's Chirurg. (1586) 12 The heart can not suffer solution of continuitie without death. 1661Bramhall Just Vind. ii. 14 Schisme is an exteriour breach, or a solution of continuity in the body Ecclesiastick. 1707Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 77 The Solution of Continuity may hinder the Juice from mounting. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. 24 With what address this temporary solution of [historical] continuity is kept from the eye. 1877Tyndall in Daily News 2 Oct. 2/5 We are brought without solution of continuity into the presence of problems, which..lie entirely outside the domain of physics.
6. a. Cinemat. A detailed scenario for a cinema film; also, the maintenance of consistency or a continuous flow of action in successive shots or scenes of a cinema or television film. orig. U.S.
1921Collier's 25 June 26/3 It is a hobby of mine never to pay no attention to a continuity, as it only gets a man balled up. 1926G. F. Buckle Mind & Film i. 18, I am deliberately using the word scenario here instead of continuity (which is the correct name for the working script) in order to avoid confusion when discussing faults in the scenario which result in bad continuity in the film. 1927, etc. [see sense 7 below]. 1930Times 12 July 4/6 Mr. Knoblock became joint author..of the scenario of the talking film and he also wrote the ‘continuity’ or stage directions. 1940F. Scott Fitzgerald Let. 11 May (1964) 116 I've written a really brilliant continuity..it seems to be a last life line that Hollywood has thrown me. 1940War Illustr. 12 Jan. p. ii/2 Touching this matter of ‘continuity’—to use a word from film-technique. 1951‘J. Wyndham’ Day of Triffids vi. 116 Sandra is our professional remembrancer—continuity is her usual work.
b. A series of linking announcements, interpolations, or the like in a radio programme or broadcast; the maintenance of a continuous sequence in broadcasting (see quot. 1941).
1934B.B.C. Year-Bk. 107 The Ceremony of the Keys is a good example of a broadcast which requires elaborate technical arrangements to ensure ‘continuity’. 1941B.B.C. Gloss. Broadc. Terms 7 Continuity, (1) structure of verse or prose, linking sections of a dramatic or of a magazine programme; (2) announcements or interlude material filling intervals between programmes in a sequence of programmes. 1968Listener 4 Jan. 28/2 All the Best..is..full of limp interviews and badly written continuity.
7. attrib., as continuity announcement, continuity announcer, continuity clerk; continuity girl Cinemat., a woman who is responsible for ensuring that there are no discrepancies of detail between linked scenes filmed at different times; continuity studio (see quot. 1941); continuity suite (see quot. 1962); continuity title, an explanatory title inserted into a film to ensure continuity; continuity writer, a writer of continuity titles.
1962A. Nisbett Technique of Sound Studio i. 17 The output of individual studios is..linked together by..*continuity announcements. Ibid., *Continuity announcer.
1927Sunday Express 29 May 10 Promising to let her be a *continuity clerk if she did not get ahead as an actress.
1933‘I. Hay’ & ‘A. Armstrong’ Orders are Orders ii. 46 Meet Miss Marigold, my secretary and *continuity girl. 1937M. Robinson (title) Continuity girl. 1944R. Manvell Film i. vi. 68 The director is the admitted co-ordinator of the actors' work, with the continuity girl killing the details. 1970Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 3 July 23 The world of folding chairs, megaphones and continuity girls is put firmly behind him when he turns to domestic film-making.
1941B.B.C. Gloss. Broadc. Terms 7 *Continuity studio, small studio from which an announcer, supervising the running of a sequence of programmes, makes opening and closing announcements and interpolates interlude material when required.
1957B.B.C. Handbk. 52 The machines are started and stopped by remote control..from a *continuity suite in the case of reproductions. 1962A. Nisbett Technique of Sound Studio 246 Continuity suite, a centre through which programmes are routed or where they are reproduced to build a particular service ready for feeding to a transmitter.
1953K. Reisz Film Editing 279 *Continuity title, title designed to bridge a break in the pictorial continuity.
1921Moving Pict. Stories 9 Dec. 28/2 He knows that the *continuity writer is going to make certain changes. 1928Sunday Express 18 Mar. 4/3 The necessity for such titles as ‘Time went on, and brought changes in the circus’ would bring most continuity writers into disgrace.
▸ continuity equation n. Physics = equation of continuity at 2c.
1871Ld. Rayleigh in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 161100 If u, v be the component velocities, the *continuity equation is du / dx + 1 / r d(rv) / dr = 0. 1960McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. VII. 402/1 For an incompressible fluid, the continuity equation..is div v = 0; hence, combining this relation with irrotationality gives Laplace's equation, div (grad ϕ) = 0. 2005Jrnl. Environmental Managem. 76 293 The hydrodynamic model was developed on the foundation of the continuity equation, the momentum equation, and the mass-balance equation for salt. |