单词 | ad absurdum |
释义 | ad absurdumadv.adj. A. adv. To the point of absurdity; so as to demonstrate that the consequence of making a particular assumption is something absurd or contradictory; (also more generally) to an absurd or extreme degree. Cf. reductio ad absurdum n. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > absurdity, incongruity > [adverb] stultitiously1536 preposterously?c1550 absurdly1559 ridiculously1563 fore-backwardlya1586 nonsensically1648 ad absurdum1656 nonsensely1656 fancifully1664 laughably1763 ridiculous1827 laughingly1843 dottily1937 1656 J. Evelyn Ess. 1st Bk. T. Lucretius Carus De Rerum Natura 146 This our Carus refells by a plain deduction ad absurdum. 1659 O. Walker Some Instr. Art of Oratory i. 6 Suppositions and Reduction ad absurdum, are diligently to be sought out. 1734 G. Berkeley Analyst §25.41 Why any other apagogical Demonstration, or Demonstration ad absurdum should be admitted. 1787 J. Rogers Dialogues between Students at College iv. 89 These are arguments ad absurdum. 1857 G. G. Scott Remarks Secular & Domest. Archit. xi. 240 A mere piece of idle purism readily reducible ad absurdum. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 26 May 3/3 I have composed for your irresistible museum of chess freaks an example of pinning ad absurdum. 1937 J. P. Marquand Late George Apley xvi. 191 This statement of George Apley's..reduced the situation ad absurdum, since Ransome could no longer be considered as a serious possibility. 1985 Jrnl. Symbolic Logic 50 368 So it remains to prove (+), which we do by reduction ad absurdum. 2003 Fangoria Oct. 73/2 The way he sneers at Nolan's suggestion that he may have learned anything from watching Citizen Kane or the films of John Ford ad absurdum. B. adj. (attributive). Designating a method of demonstrating the falsity of a hypothesis by showing that the consequence of assuming it to be true is something absurd or contradictory; relating to or characteristic of such a hypothesis or demonstration. ΚΠ 1809 London Med. & Surg. Spectator Jan. 45 The ad absurdum extreme of inference from Brown's fundamental datum would be the reduction of all medicines into one. 1836 T. Wyse Educ. Reform i. 214 The professed employment of the ‘ad absurdum’ argument. 1861 Times 28 Dec. 7/2 An ad absurdum reduction of the doctrine. 1926 Jrnl. Hygiene 25 344 We attempted to settle the matter by a resort to the ad absurdum method. 2006 J. D. Bleich Bioethical Dilemmas II. i. 54 The statement is made in an ad absurdum vein. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021). < adv.adj.1656 |
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