| 释义 |
Abyssinian, a. and n.|æbɪˈsɪnɪən|
Also 7 Abissian, 7–8 Abassin, 7–9 Abyssin(e).
[f. Abyssinia, the name of a country in East Africa (now officially called Ethiopia) + -ian.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to Abyssinia, its Christian church, its inhabitants or their language. Also transf.
1638W. Chillingworth Relig. Protestants Answ. 2. 105 This therefore we deny both to your and all other Churches of any one denomination, as the Greek, the Roman, the Abyssine. a1666J. Evelyn Diary 18 Jan. an. 1645 (1955) II. 301 Divers China, Meerian, Samaritan, Abyssin & other Oriental books. 1686[W. Wake] Def. of Exposition of Doctr. Ch. Eng. 78 The Grecian, Armenian, Abassine Churches..have..differed from the Church of Rome. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. III. xxxiii. 351 Their names are honourably inscribed in the Roman, the Habyssinian, and the Russian calendar. a1806Wordsworth Prel. vi. 592 Como,..a darling bosom'd up In Abyssinian privacy. 1816Coleridge Kubla Khan in Christabel etc. p. 57 It was an Abyssinian maid And on her dulcimer she play'd. 1928E. Sitwell Five Poems 16 Rich trees And Abyssinian glooms have fostered these.
b. Abyssinian cat, a breed of domestic cat having long ears and short brown hair ticked with grey; also ellipt.; Abyssinian gold = talmi.
1876G. Stables Cats, (caption) Abissinian..brought from Abissinia at the conclusion of the war. 1893J. Jennings Domestic or Fancy Cats ii. 16 In size, the Abyssinian resembles the self-coloured English cat. 1959Chambers's Encycl. III. 168/2 Abyssinians..are speckled black and grey, differing from tabbies in having no pattern on the body... There is no ground for supposing that this breed originated in the country after which it is named.
1890Abyssinian gold [see talmi]. 1933E. A. Smith Working Prec. Met. xx. 381 Copper Zinc Alloys..Abyssinian Gold.
B. n.
a. An inhabitant of Abyssinia.
b. A member of the Abyssinian Christian church.
1621T. Mun Discourse Trade 16 The great quantitie of gold & some siluer..yearely brought thither from the Abissians countrie in Ethiopia. 1671A. Woodhead Consid. Counc. Trent xvi. 294 Ethiopians, or Abyssines, agreeing in this Point with the Roman. 1735S. Johnson tr. Lobo's Voy. to Abyssinia Pref. p. ix, He neither exaggerates overmuch the Merits of the Jesuits..nor aggravates the Vices of the Abyssins. 1737R. Challoner Cath. Chr. Instr. viii. 109 'Tis the Practice..of the Cophts or Egyptians, and of the Abassins or Ethiopians, who all use in their Liturgies their ancient Languages. 1753E. Chambers Cycl. Suppl., The Abyssinians are a branch of the Copts, or Jacobites; with whom they agree in admitting only one nature in Jesus Christ, and rejecting the council of Chalcedon. 1845J. C. Prichard Nat. Hist. Man (ed. 2) xi. 103 Hairs of a Negro..and of some Abyssinians..were..viewed both as transparent and opaque bodies. 1936Discovery June 170/1 The Abyssinians—essentially Hamitic in origin—are nowadays much mixed with Semites and Negroes. 1957Encycl. Brit. I. 73/1 Although the country is now officially described as Ethiopia, the terms ‘Abyssinia’ and ‘Abyssinians’ have been retained as being more properly descriptive of the land and people whether from the ethnological, historical or geographical points of view.
Add:[A.] [b.] Abyssinian banana = ensete n.
1881Gardeners' Chron. 2 Apr. 434/3 (heading) The *Abyssinian Banana in Jamaica. 1989Atlantic Sept. 28/1 Seven to eight million Ethiopians eat the starchy center of the stem of the ensete, or Abyssinian banana. |