| 释义 |
specimen|ˈspɛsɪmən|
Also 7, 9 dial. speciment.
[a. L. specimen, f. specĕre to look, look at. Cf. F. spécimen, Sp. especimen.
The Latin pl. specimina was fairly common in the latter half of the 17th c.]
†1. A means of discovering or finding out; an experiment. Obs.—1
1610W. Folkingham Art of Survey i. viii. 17 For deprehending and finding out the taste of the Earth, Vergil prescribes a generall Specimen for triall of salt and bitter soyles.
†2. A pattern or model. Obs.
1619R. Jones Resurrection Rescued (1659) 67 Our Resurrection shall be like our Saviour's: His and ours make a mutual Aspect; His the Specimen, and ours the Complement. 1647H. More Poems 60 It so weakens and disables men That they of manhood give no goodly specimen. 1697Observ. Money & Coin 2 Some Brittish Princes did Coyn some pieces both of Gold and Silver, of which he there exhibits to us the Specimina.
3. An example, instance, or illustration of something, from which the character of the whole may be inferred.
1659Bp. Walton Consid. Considered 291 These specimina of his candor and love of truth. 1683Cave Ecclesiastici, Greg.-Naz. 282 He had scarce given a Speciment of his Learning. 1700Dryden Fables Pref. (1721) 21 You have here a specimen of Chaucer's language. 1780Mirror No. 97, The conversations of which I have given you a specimen. 1829Jas. Mill Hum. Mind (1869) I. 133 It is one of those specimens of clear and vigorous statement..in which the Analysis abounds. 1847Emerson Repr. Men, Shaks. Wks. (Bohn) I. 357 Our English Bible is a wonderful specimen of the strength and music of the English language. 1863D. G. Mitchell Sev. Stor. 4 It is a fair specimen of what the Roman stationers could do.
4. a. A single thing selected or regarded as typical of its class; a part or piece of something taken as representative of the whole.
1654Whitlock Zootomia 493 Any one may sooner finde a fault, than mend it, in any Specimens, or performances of Art. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 99 Things..of which they had brought specimens. 1765Museum Rust. IV. 239 English workmen, who have made specimens of the several articles of equal goodness with those of the Dutch. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. vii. 128 We cannot judge of this concealed genius by many specimens we have of her correspondence. 1853Maurice Proph. & Kings xix. 335 A very memorable chapter of Micah's prophecy,..which our Church has chosen as a specimen of the whole book. 1887Lowell Democracy, etc. 96 It was not a bringing of the brick as a specimen of the house.
b. spec. An animal, plant, or mineral, a part or portion of some substance or organism, etc., serving as an example of the thing in question for purposes of investigation or scientific study.
1765Museum Rust. IV. 126, I have found and send a specimen of another yellow trefoil. 1797Phil. Trans. LXXXVII. 383, I covered one side of a specimen of Iceland crystal, three inches deep, with black paper. 1802M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) II. 112 Very busy in putting up a box of [botanical] specimens for Mr. Paykull. 1827Faraday Chem. Manip. xvi. (1842) 431 Such portions of valuable fluids or solids..intended for specimens. 1854Ronalds & Richardson Chem. Technol. (ed. 2) I. 121 This determination of the amount of coke yielded by any specimen of coal. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 192 In different specimens, however, the lava exhibits great variations.
transf.1844S. Wilberforce Hist. Prot. Episc. Ch. Amer. (1846) 5 The native thus cruelly kidnapped was not the only specimen they gathered. 1850H. Martineau Hist. Peace v. xi. (1877) III. 414 He will stand in history as a specimen—dry and curious—but in no way as a vital being.
c. With adjs. denoting the value of the example as a type.
1841D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 463 These complimentary sonnets..are not the happiest specimens in our language of these minor poems. 1849Parker Introd. Stud. Gothic Archit. v. 197 Lincoln college chapel is also a very favourable specimen of Jacobean Gothic. 1856Delamer Fl. Garden (1861) 2 If we can show finer and more remarkable specimens than our neighbours, so much the better.
5. Of persons as typical of certain qualities or of the human species. Also colloq. or slang with derogatory force, chiefly with defining adj., as a bright, poor (etc.) specimen.
(a)1817Cobbett Pol. Reg. XXXII. 92 Mr. Hickman and Mr. Young..are new specimens of the spirit and the talent, which the times and the cause of freedom have brought forth. 1842S. Lover Handy Andy xxi, Growling was looking on in amused wonder at this specimen of vulgar effrontery, whom he had christened ‘The Brazen Baggage’, the first time he saw her. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvi. III. 703 They were perhaps the two most remarkable specimens that the world could show of perverse absurdity.
(b)1837Dickens Pickw. ii, ‘Here you are, sir,’ shouted a strange specimen of the human race. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 328 Where one continually sees magnificent specimens of human beings.
(c)1854Thoreau Walden (1884) 163 There were some curious specimens among my visitors. 1908R. Bagot A. Cuthbert ii. 15 What was her husband about?.. He must have been a poor specimen.
†6. A brief and incomplete account of something in writing; a rough draught or outline serving to show the chief features. Obs.
1665Hooke Microgr. Pref. 2 b, Some specimen of each of which Heads the Reader will find in the subsequent delineations. 1672Life Mede in M.'s Wks. (ed. 3) p. xxx, To the same effect he had express'd himself in an early Specimen or first Draught of his Thoughts.
7. (See quot.)
1819Act 59 Geo. III, c. 90 §10 Whereas it is usual for the Officers of Excise to leave on the Premises of the Traders and Manufacturers under their Survey, certain Books or Papers commonly called Specimens, for recording therein the Entries in the Books of such Officers of the state of the Manufactory [etc.].
8. attrib., passing into adj. (freq. hyphened): Serving as, or intended for, a specimen; typical.
Freq. in recent use and often applied to plants, fish, etc., of an exceptionally large size or fine quality.
1860Adler Prov. Poet. xviii. 421, I have..produced such specimen-quotations as will serve to give us an idea of the decadence of this poetry. 1870Hist. Sketch Anderston Ch. 9 These specimen facts speak of marvellous changes. 1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 251 The highest assay made from specimen rock was $2,000 per ton. 1877Academy 3 Nov. 428/1 The specimen chapter here given us is on Guicciardini's embassy to Spain in 1511. 1896Daily News 7 Sept. 7/5 A number of ‘specimen’ fish have lately been caught in the Thames.
b. Comb., as specimen-hunter, specimen-monger, etc.; specimen-book, a book of specimens or samples; specimen-box, a portable box or case specially adapted for carrying botanical or other specimens; specimen page, a page submitted by a printer as a sample setting for a book; specimen tree, a tree planted on its own, away from other plants of a similar size.
1871W. Blackwood Let. 19 Sept. in Geo. Eliot Lett. (1956) V. 190, I also send you by Book Post a *specimen Book from which you will..be able to select the colour for the paper cover. 1896T. L. De Vinne Moxon's Mech. Exerc., Print. 404 The specimen-book of the Enschedé foundry.
1897E. L. Voynich Gadfly I. ii. 21 Arthur brought out his *specimen box and plunged into an earnest botanical discussion.
1896Westm. Gaz. 4 Nov. 4/1 It used to be a favourite resort of the entomological *specimen hunter.
1864C. P. Smith Our Inherit. in Gt. Pyramid 18 The hammers of tourists and the axes of *specimen-mongers.
1835Dickens Let. 9 Dec. (1965) I. 102, I have received neither *specimen page nor proofs. 1877W. Pater Let. 30 Jan. (1970) 27 Dear Mr. Macmillan..Of the two specimen pages, I enclose the one I think preferable. 1926S. Unwin Truth about Publishing ii. 37 As soon as the printers' estimate and specimen page are received and have been checked, the estimate has to be completed by the addition of the cost of paper, binding and other items. 1975J. Butcher Copy-Editing ii. 13 Specimen pages are intended to show solutions to all the general typographical problems that the printers will meet in the book.
1933A. Osborn Shrubs & Trees for Garden xxiv. 119 Weeping trees are unsuitable for grouping, but very valuable for planting as *specimen trees on the lawn. 1961E. Waugh Unconditional Surrender iii. ii. 230 Guy took to walking..in the public gardens... There were winding paths, specimen trees, statuary. 1980Amat. Gardening 25 Oct. 15/1 It makes a shapely specimen tree as well as being good for making a hedge or screen.
Hence ˈspecimenify v. trans., to select as a specimen or instance; ˈspecimenize v. trans., to show a specimen or sample of; to collect or preserve as a specimen.
1821Lamb Lett. (1888) II. 34 The line you cannot appropriate is Gray's sonnet, specimenifyed by Wordsworth..as mixed of bad and good style. 1832Blackw. Mag. XXXII. 812 A conceited coxcomb..tormented the birds, and poked the beasts, specimenizing fantastically his ‘universal knowledge’. 1894E. H. A[itken] Naturalist on Prowl 173, I noticed a lovely little silvery spider, and resolved to specimenize it. |