| 释义 |
somebody, n.|ˈsʌmbədɪ|
Also 6–8 some body.
[f. some a.1 2 + body n. 13.]
1. a. A person unknown, indeterminate, or unnamed; someone, some person.
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 3785 Þou mayst be wroþe, sum body to chastyse, Þogh hate nat yn þy herte ryse. 1526Tindale Luke viii. 46 And Iesus sayd: Someboody touched me. 1592Ard. of Feversham iii. v, Soft, Ales, for here comes some body. 1623in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 149 If wee should goe away without leaving somboddie behynd us. 1710Addison Tatler No. 155 ⁋2, I heard some body at a Distance hemming after me. 1779Mirror No. 17, I cannot help expressing my suspicion, that Mrs. Rebecca Prune has got somebody to write her letter. 1841Browning Pippa Passes Poems (1905) 173 Take the pipe out of his mouth, somebody. 1891Freeman in W. R. W. Stephens Life & Lett. (1895) II. 428 That is just what I want some⁓body to do to me.
b. somebody else, some other person. Cf. someone else s.v. some one, someone pron. (and n.).
The older form of the possessive, somebody's else, has now given way to somebody else's (see else adv. 1 d).
1648Hexham ii, Yemandt anders, Some body else. 1655Owen Vindic. Evang. Wks. 1851 XII. 263 That blood was not Christ's, but somebody's else that He loved. 1716M. Davies Athen. Brit. II. 21 The Author of such Legal Formularies, tho' they had been rough-drawn by his Clerk or some Body else. 1718J. Fox Wanderer 86 To heighten their own Vanity, or some Body's else. 1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan II. 27 A kind of shadow, which made me feel as if I had seen it, before,..or somebody else, very much like him. 1860[see else adv. 1 d]. 1892Zangwill Bow Myst. 109 All the seats were numbered, so that everybody might have the satisfaction of occupying somebody else's.
(b) Also with sense ‘a rival for the affections’ in phr. there (or it) is somebody else.
1911G. B. Shaw Getting Married 200 You have never given me a real reason for refusing me yet. I once thought it was somebody else. There were lots of fellows after you. 1935D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night xii. 260 ‘I suppose,’ he said in a savage tone, ‘there's somebody else.’ 1946‘Brahms’ & ‘Simon’ Trottie True iii. 37 ‘I know what it is.’ Joe tried to stop himself but he couldn't. ‘There's somebody else.’
c. With article or pron.
1724Swift Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 74 Somebody in England empowered a second somebody to write to a third somebody here. 1786A. M. Bennett Juvenile Indiscr. V. 30 He was a somebody he was acquainted with. 1802–12Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) IV. 26 There is a somebody who is responsible for it, and that somebody is he. 1869Dunkin Midn. Sky p. ii, It has been the earnest desire of the author to be the ‘somebody’ of Carlyle. 1871Browning Balaustion 308 There spoke up a brisk little somebody.
d. Used as a substitute for a personal name. Also somebody-or(-the)-other.
1825Cobbett Rur. Rides (1853) 346 At Send, or Sutton,..there is a Baron somebody, with a De before his name. 1842S. Lover Handy Andy xxxii, Up came an aide-de-camp.., telling him that General Somebody ordered him to bring up his guns. 1867A. J. Wilson Vashti xviii, My boy thinks that the opinion of this Professor Von Somebody is oracular in musical matters. 1935D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night xii. 255 Mr. Somebody-or-the-other had undertaken..to climb every tree in St. Giles. 1976‘L. Black’ Healthy Way to Die iii. 29 The two girls..were the Daughters of Lord Somebody-or-other.
2. a. A person of some note, consequence, or importance. Freq. with depreciatory or sarcastic force.
a1566R. Edwards Damon & Pithias in Dodsley O. Pl. (1744) I. 229 Ere you came hyther, poore I was some body, The king delighted in me, now I am but a noddy. 1590J. Stockwood Rules Constit. 62 Schollers, which thinke them⁓selues som bodie. 1678Marvell Growth Popery 33 That they may be thought Some-body. 1704Pennsylv. Hist. Soc. Mem. IX. 345 A desire to be somebody..seems to be the rule of his life. 1755Mem. Capt. P. Drake II. iii. 88, I..hired a handsome Horse and Furniture, that I might look like somebody. 1835Court Mag. VI. 188/2 The woman who fancies herself somebody. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Manners Wks. (Bohn) II. 46 You must be somebody; then you may do this or that, as you will.
b. With a and pl.
1601Dent Pathw. Heaven 163 We see many, that think themselues some bodies,..which yet will be taken with it. 1647Trapp Expos. Luke vii. 28 They are somebodies in heaven, whatever men make of them. a1848Marryat Valerie x. (1856) 159 People who are somebodies. 1880Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Rebel of Family ii, Her dress was expensive, and she was evidently a Somebody. 1899Educat. Rev. Oct. 222 Which exasperates somebodies who feel they are treated as nobodies.
3. A person whose name is intentionally suppressed; occas., the Devil. somebody up there, God; a supernatural controlling power.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. i. 45, I would not (as they tearme it) praise it, but I wold some-body had heard her talke yesterday as I did. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxxviii, There is a deeper impression of Somebody's Hoof here. 1972Dict. Contemp. & Colloq. Usage 27/3 Somebody up there loves (hates) me, an expression attributing one's good or bad luck..upon being in the good or bad graces of an unseen power above. 1975J. Updike Month of Sundays xxx. 225 In the land of my parish, the shortest day of the year is approaching, and somebody's birthday, I think. 1977R. Perry Dead End i. 9 All I could do was..pray that somebody up there loved me. 1980Times 10 June 10/1 (heading) Somebody up there cares for me.
Add:4. W. Indies. Also s'mady, s'mody. A person; a human being.
1826C. Williams Tour through Island of Jamaica xxvi. 195 You wicked somebody. 1873C. Rampini Lett. from Jamaica 175 Bragging ribber nebber drown somebody. 1910Anderson & Cundall Jamaica Negro Proverbs & Sayings 28 John Crow say him a dandy man, but him put on bald head fe mek fas' s'mody fine fault wid him. 1918E. C. Parsons Folk-Tales of Andros Island, Bahamas (Mem. Amer. Folklore Soc.) 61 Dey set two sheet, an' fix it under bed like it was two somebody layin' down. 1961F. G. Cassidy Jamaica Talk viii. 168 In 1955 I heard the remark about a fruit: ‘S'mady can eat it’—that is, it is edible by human beings. |