| 释义 |
labyrinthn. Origin: A borrowing from Latin. Etymon: Latin labyrinthus. Etymology: < classical Latin labyrinthus maze, especially that built in Crete by Daedalus, place from which one cannot escape, in post-classical Latin also complicated idea (4th cent.), system of cavities present within the petrous portion of the temporal bone (1559) < ancient Greek λαβύρινθος maze, complicated question or argument, of unknown origin (see note); compare Mycenaean Greek da-pu2-ri-to-jo (genitive). Compare Middle French laberinth, laberinthe, labarinte, laborinth, Middle French, French labyrinthe (1418 as labarinte), Catalan laberint (14th cent.), Spanish laberinto (late 14th cent.), Portuguese labirinto (15th cent. as †laberinto), Italian labirinto, †laberinto (14th cent. with reference to a maze in classical antiquity, and also to a complex and confusing situation; a1502 with reference to such a maze in the form of a garden); also Middle Low German labyrinthus, German Labyrinth (c1510).The traditional association of ancient Greek λαβύρινθος with the supposed Lydian word λάβρυς ‘axe’ (see labrys n.) is highly doubtful and the origin of this word remains unclear. I. Senses referring to a physical structure. 1. A structure consisting of a complex network of tunnels, paths, etc., deliberately designed or constructed so that it is difficult to find one's way through; a maze. Sometimes distinguished from a maze as consisting only of one convoluted path to the centre and back, rather than containing a number of dead ends.the world > space > shape > curvature > series of curves > [noun] > winding curve(s) > thing having > a maze or labyrinth > with reference to antiquity α. a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 9 (MED) Þis matir, as laborintus [L. labyrinthi], Dedalus hous, haþ many halkes and hurnes..wyndynges and wrynkelynges. c1450 (c1380) G. Chaucer (Fairf. 16) (1878) l. 1921 An house, that domus dedaly That laboryncus [read laboryntus; c1475 Bodl. laboryncus, 1483 Caxton laborintus] cleped ys Nas made so wonderlych, y-wis Ne half so queyntlych y-wrought. 1533 (new ed.) I. ccxxxviii. f. clxv Thys house after some wryters was named Labyrinthus or Dedalus worke. ?1573 L. Lloyd f. 178 Theseus..slue Minotaurus in the dennes of Labirinthus. 1624 T. Heywood iv. 168 The caue was called Labyrinthus. 1828 A. Herbert III. 265 Constructing the famous and impenetrable Labyrinthus of the harlot Venus. the world > food and drink > farming > gardening > garden > division or part of garden > [noun] > labyrinth 1549 W. Thomas f. 138v A laberinth or mase of boxe full of Cypre trees. 1575 J. Turler ii. xv. 169 Labirinthes and Mazes of Box tree, Iuis, and Mirtles. 1611 T. Coryate sig. Y6v I saw a fine Labyrinth made of boxe. 1666 S. Pepys 25 June (1972) VII. 182 Here were also great variety of other exoticque plants, and several Labarinths. 1710 No. 120 There was a particular Grove, which was called, The Labyrinth of Coquets. 1753 Suppl. Labyrinths are only proper for large gardens, and the finest in the world is said to be that of Versailles. 1787 A. Young Jrnl. 25 May in (1792) i. 7 The labyrinth [at Chantilly] is the only complete one I have seen, and I have no inclination to see another: it is in gardening what a rebus is in poetry. 1872 18 Apr. 323/1 This and every garden labyrinth is formed of walks about 5 feet wide, enclosed on each side by a hedge. 1924 12 51 The clipped hedges forming the Labyrinth in the gardens of Hampton Court Palace are of Hornbeam. 2007 L. Impelluso 34 The labyrinth of hedges in concentric circles with a May tree in the middle. 1837 B. Winkles 81 In the middle of the pavement of the nave is a plan of a labyrinth, a variety of intricate circles, executed in the blue stone of Senlis. 1894 3 101 It was customary, in the Middle Ages, to insert in the floor of the nave of certain cathedrals a labyrinth of black and white stones or coloured tiles. 1922 W. H. Matthews ix. 62 A labyrinth of rather striking design..was formerly in the pavement of the old Abbey of St. Bertin. 1995 May 79/1 All are ‘walking the labyrinth’, an ancient mystical practice that is now being rediscovered as a technique for exploring the spiritual and psychological challenges of contemporary life. 2005 (Nexis) 19 Dec. f4 The meditation with the labyrinth changed the surroundings and let people focus on themselves. 2010 (National ed.) 24 Mar. a20 (caption) Based on a labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral in France, the canvas maze is a walking meditation and can be thought of as a questing pilgrimage. 1902 3 243 After two weeks several crabs were given on an average four trials per day in the labyrinth. 1941 10 Nov. 85/1 I had no desire to spend the rest of my life studying the reactions of rats lost in labyrinths. 1961 W. Shepherd (title) Mazes and labyrinths: a book of puzzles. 2007 C. Fernández-Vara in F. von Borries et al. i. 74 Physically, labyrinths and mazes are bounded spaces to be traversed; their main purpose is to delay the walker as he goes from point A to point B. the world > space > shape > curvature > series of curves > [noun] > winding curve(s) > thing having > a maze or labyrinth 1577 R. Stanyhurst Treat. Descr. Irelande iii. f. 12v/1, in R. Holinshed I In the further ende of this field is there a hole,..a Laberinth reachyng two large myles vnder the earth. 1596 W. Raleigh (new ed.) 39 We might haue wandred a whole yeere in that laborinth of riuers. 1615 H. Crooke 465 A mazey laberynth of small veines and arteries. 1650 T. Fuller ii. ii. 78 Some were devoured by beasts, others famished as lost in the labyrinths of the forest. 1730 E. Wright I. 7 We pass'd along a perfect Labyrinth of winding Vales, which brought us to a little Town. 1777 R. Watson I. xiii. 413 Leyden lies..in the midst of a labyrinth of rivulets and canals. 1843 E. Bulwer-Lytton I. i. iv. 60 He suddenly halted..to find himself entangled in a labyrinth of scattered suburbs. 1873 J. A. Symonds xii. 400 The labyrinth of peristyles and pediments in which her children dwell. 1905 E. Wharton viii. 139 The representatives of the press were threading their way..through the labyrinth of wedding presents. 1963 P. White 14 May (1994) viii. 231 Our first experience of monasteries was in a Russian one.., an enormous labyrinth of neglected buildings. 2001 Autumn 20/3 The old walled parts..are labyrinths of small alleyways where most of the souks are found. 3. the world > life > the body > sense organ > hearing organ > parts of hearing organ > [noun] > labyrinth 1578 J. Banister viii. f. 105 The fift payre of sinewes..entereth the blynd bone & laberinthe sited in the temporall bone. 1638 A. Read (new ed.) .iii. xi. 458 About the end of this cavity directly against the tympanum, there are two perforations called fenestellæ, or little windowes: wherof the one is ovall, the entrance to the labyrinth. 1683 A. Snape iii. xiv. 139 The oval Window, by which sounds pass out of the first Cavity into the second called the Labyrinth. 1712 P. Blair in (Royal Soc.) 27 125 I search'd for the Labyrinth, or Lineæ Semilunares, but could find none. 1766 A. Walker v. 28 This vibration..is so increased, that in making its way up the labyrinth, it gives a shock to the auditory nerves inserted in it. 1803 tr. J. Burdin III. 253 In the bodies of some old men, who had continued deaf for several years, the osseous labyrinth has been found empty. 1873 St. G. Mivart ix. 393 A labyrinth composed of three semicircular canals is also almost universal. 1913 J. W. Jenkinson vii. 161 The auditory vesicle—which will develop into the labyrinth or internal ear—is formed, like the lens of the eye, by invagination of the nervous layer of the ectoderm. 1954 (News of World) 217/1 The sense of balance was acquired early in the history of creation through a tiny organ situated behind each ear and named the Labyrinth. 2011 Aug. 23 The labyrinth (fluid-filled channels in the inner ear) gives the brain information about head movement to help us balance. the world > life > the body > structural parts > bone or bones > skull > parts of skull > [noun] > bones of nose 1678 (Royal Soc.) 12 977 These odorant particles, which run with the Air into the Nose, in smelling, might not all forthwith pass off from thence into the breast: Nature by this Labyrinth, made by the windings of the Lamellæ, hath taken care to give them an arrest and longer stay. 1686 (Royal Soc.) 15 1043 I observed in this Bird..that they want that Vessel or Ampulla situate in the very Angle of the divarication of the Wind-pipe, which..we are wont to call the Labyrinth of the Trachea. 1774 O. Goldsmith V. 13 It is sometimes also seen that the wind-pipe makes many convolutions within the body of the bird, and it is then called the labyrinth. 1811 at Unguis Os It also covers part of the labyrinth of the nostrils. 1888 Labyrinth, a name given to the cells in the lateral masses of the ethmoid bone... L., olfactory, the contorted structure formed by the upper end of the middle turbinate bones. 1916 16 Dec. 1028/2 The kidneys on section are enlarged and icteric; the cortex bulges and the labyrinths are frequently conspicuously yellow. 1986 M. B. V. Roberts (ed. 4) xiv. 221 Each gland..consists of a small end sac.., which is connected to a larger sponge-like cavity, the labyrinth. 2003 S. Donnelly in R. C. Roach et al. vi. 77 (caption) The production of erythropoietin is confined to a small area at the tips of the juxta-medullary region of the cortical labyrinth. 1831 H. McMurtrie tr. G. Cuvier II. 166 Family X. This family is distinguished by labyrinthiform pharyngeals... Anabas, Cuv. It is in this genus that we find the greatest degree of complication in these labyrinths. 1847 III. 986/1 This bony labyrinth, therefore, so carefully enclosed on all sides,..receives water equally with the branchiæ whenever the fish opens it mouth. 1920 Nov. 222/1 Day..thoroughly examined both the climbing fish Anabas and other fin bearers having a labyrinth organ. 1966 No. 3. 606/2 This ‘labyrinth organ’ comprises a chamber containing four bony lamellae covered highly vascularized, modified branchial epithelium. 2005 Jan. 11/1 The anabantids..have gills, but can also breathe air, using a lung-like organ called a labyrinth. 1839 A. Ure 727 Labyrinth, in metallurgy, means a series of canals distributed in the sequel of a stamping-mill; through which canals a stream of water is transmitted for suspending, carrying off, and depositing, at different distances, the ground ores. 1856 7 230 The basins of classification..comprise..a recess (labyrinth) consisting of twelve or fifteen basins in masonry 1 metre in length. 1938 28 May 1166/1 The latest method [of sampling industrial dusts]..is called the labyrinth, and consists of an assembly of baffles in a conduit through which the dusty air is drawn. 1973 20 962 An electrode having an appearance similar to a rat-maze in which the fluid passed through a labyrinth in contact with a circular gold electrode. 2005 340 260/2 Baffle plates are fitted to the lid of the condenser to make a labyrinth for Cd vapor. II. Figurative senses. the world > action or operation > difficulty > types of difficulty > [noun] > difficulty or complexity > instance of the world > relative properties > order > disorder > confusion or disorder > entanglement or entangled state > complication or complexity > [noun] > a complicated state of affairs c1450 ( J. Walton tr. Boethius (Linc. Cathedral 103) 204 Do ȝe skorne or elles play, And haue [me] to þis laberynt [L. labyrinthum] ibroght? Youre resouns weyuen [y]e so wondirly, In maner like þe hous of Dydalus. 1548 f. xlvij When the Earle was thus..escaped all ye daungerous labirinthes and snares that were set for him. ?a1560 L. Digges (1571) i. xxx. sig. Iivv The Geometer..without practise..shall fall into manyfoulde errours, or inextricable Laberinthes. 1609 W. Shakespeare ii. iii. 2 How now Thersites? what lost in the Labyrinth of thy furie? View more context for this quotation 1642 E. Dering xvi. 74 We shall run our selves into a..Labyrinth of words, and lose the matter. 1703 II. viii. 434 Till they could find some expedient to explicate and disintangle themselves out of this Labyrinth, they made no advance towards the recruiting or supplying their Armies. 1756 E. Burke 79 The more deeply we penetrate into the Labyrinth of Art, the further we find ourselves from those Ends for which we entered it. 1828 T. B. Macaulay Hallam's Constit. Hist. in Sept. 100 In this labyrinth of falsehood and sophistry, the guidance of Mr Hallam is peculiarly valuable. 1885 79 130/1 To thread the labyrinth of the statutes under which London is governed. 1924 2 191/1 In the endeavor to avoid the morass of sentiment too much of our thinking has slipped into the labyrinth of over-intellectualization. 1967 W. S. Graham Let. 24 Jan. in (1999) 207 What man are you this morning as you read this and the labyrinth of your day complexes itself before you? 2003 M. Bronski Introd. 9 The fictional characters find their way through the emotional and psychological labyrinth. Compounds1699 T. Edwards 220 The Baxterian..with his Labyrinth-windings to evade thy full view of him. 1748 W. Melmoth I. xx. 94 This little plantation I have branched out into various labyrinth-walks. 1801 J. Jones tr. T. Bugge xii. 237 These labyrinth caves and large passages under ground, lead to a grate. 1850 J. P. Thompson 51 A private office accessible only by tortuous staircases and labyrinth passages. 1914 Mar. 208/2 The miners..risk their lives daily in the labyrinth tunnels of the earth. 1938 22 Oct. 9 British Troops, equipped with tear gas, entered the labyrinth caves. 1981 P. R. Laming i. 18 Spatial orientation is performed by the more highly developed labyrinth canal systems of the inner ear. 2011 L. MacDonald xli. 357 A world authority on labyrinth mazes. 1792 W. Withering (ed. 2) III. 423 Boletus... Tubes grey brown. Pores labyrinth-formed. 1798 C. Abbot 311 Oak agaric... Gills labyrinth-shaped. 1860 J. Ruskin V. 240 Its forests are sombre-leaved, labyrinth-stemmed. 1894 Feb. 119 The inhaled air must pass through the labyrinth-formed air passage of the nasal cavity, with its many inlets and irregularities. 1933 20 205 The labyrinth-shaped fertile cavities. 2006 (Nexis) 6 Oct. 15 He was given a custom-built lute with a labyrinth-shaped rose-hole. C3. 1922 XXXII. 789/2 The pressure of steam in the blading..tends to thrust the discs apart. It is therefore balanced by an arrangement of ‘dummies’, or labyrinth discs. 1995 2 298 In 1968 there was a change of labyrinth discs. 2013 Nov. 12/3 The seal module has labyrinth discs positioned within [it]..that inhibit fluid flow. the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > [noun] > suborder Anabantoidei > family Anabantidae > member of (Siamese fighter) 1835 C. F. Partington I. 100/1 The supply of water which these labyrinth fishes take with them is sufficient to maintain them in life for several hours. 1961 E. S. Herald 243/2 Because of the special labyrinthine breathing apparatus located in a cavity above each gill chamber.., the members of this family [sc. Anabantidae] are called labyrinth fishes. 2015 18 310 Betta fish are labyrinth fish, meaning they can breathe air at the surface. 1801 E. King II. 190 Figures of animals..were bordered by the Vitruvian scroll, the braided Guilloche, and the Labyrinth fret. 1879 Jan. 552/2 The commonest designs used for the embroidering of cloaks and robes were the labyrinth fret..and the well-known key pattern. 1926 7 Sept. 39/1 It [sc. a pavement] is bordered with a wide labyrinth fret. 2012 B. Parker 332 The pattern known as the ‘Greek fret’ or ‘Greek key’ pattern..is found in an almost endless variety of diamond fret, labyrinth fret, meander fret..and others for which we have no names. 1909 183 25 It was in effect a labyrinth packing on a small scale. 1911 L. C. Loewenstein v. 166 The effectiveness of this labyrinth packing is based on the expansion of steam in the enlarged spaces. 2008 C. Soares iii. 80/1 The spring-backed labyrinth packing is fitted to minimize steam leakage. 1823 in J. Baillie 210 Life's labyrinth-thread deceives, and seems but sand. 1975 31 Oct. 12/5 Beware of..subtle signals, labyrinth threads leading to major plot. 1871 2 149 All of these conditions [sc. absence of the vestibule, cochlea, semicircular canals, and fenestræ] can be considered only as the result of arrest of development at the earliest possible period—the first week—in the labyrinth vesicle. 1928 6 Oct. 688/2 On the other side it is covered with the epithelium of the labyrinth-vesicle. 2004 No. 760. 3/2 By postcopulation day 13,..the following structures are present: eye cups, labyrinth vesicle, epithelial nasal sac, [etc.]. Derivatives the world > space > shape > curvature > series of curves > [adjective] > having many or winding curves > like a maze or labyrinth 1601 W. I. sig. B2v The pleasant rowes of daynty Apricockes, Quadrangle walkes did Laborinth-like compose. 1792 W. Withering (ed. 2) III. 292 Sitting, membranaceous, labyrinth-like, grey, white within. 1855 G. F. Richardson 302 The labyrinth-like arrangement of the dentine, from which Professor Owen derived the name Labyrinthodon. 1920 J. P. Schaeffer vi. 207 The lateral masses become more or less honeycombed or labyrinth-like. 2008 L. C. Heberle & S. M. Opp 185 The neighborhoods are interconnected by the sub-system of labyrinth-like laneways and alleyways. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2017; most recently modified version published online June 2022). labyrinthv. Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: labyrinth n. Etymology: < labyrinth n.With sense 2 compare earlier labyrinthed adj. Chiefly poetic and literary. Usually in passive. the world > space > relative position > condition of being external > enclosing or enclosure > enclose [verb (transitive)] > in or as in other specific receptacle or enclosure 1637 N. Whiting 92 Leave him labyrinth'd, and thus distrest. 1660 N.C. in T. Forde sig. V2 I love thy labyrinth, and approve, That thou shouldst labyrinth my love. 1706 26 No subterfuge Nor dear escape if labyrinth'd within The Subtle Windings of her [sc. Death's] lieuring Gin. 1770 J. Dove 22 Any course of previously-devised experiments..leave us liable to mistake, labyrinthed in conjectures, conundrums, and absurdities. 1820 J. Keats Lamia ii, in 30 How to entangle..Your soul in mine, and labyrinth you there. 1890 11 Sept. I should be very sorry indeed to find myself labyrinthed in the intricate mazes of a directorate of a very questionable character. 1976 M. Malone (2002) xii. 123 He shook his head vigorously over this amazing situation, weaving it like a maddened bull labyrinthed with unappetizing maidens. 1651 C. Hotham 17 How little leisure those greater Statesmen had to labyrinth their brains with all the tedious anfractus of that Theory. 1694 N. H. 211/1 The stately Bushy Forest of the Head, like Atlas Crowned with Pines, is sometimes Labirinth'd with Mazie and rude Meanders. 1848 J. Ruskin (ed. 2) II. iii. v. 38 The purple clefts of the hill side are labyrinthed in the darkness. 1898 Mar. 178 It [sc. a tavern] is said to have been labyrinthed by secret exits and cunning contrivances to facilitate the escape of fugitives from the law. 1904 B. Mitford xviii. 205 They gazed down upon shiny rock surfaces labyrinthed with ragged black chasms. 1942 25 June 11/7 The common conception of Corregidor as a huge impregnable rock labyrinthed with tunnels, is entirely erroneous. 2015 (Southern Illinois Univ.) 18 The snow still drifts in cramped quarters Labyrinthing the sidewalks and streets. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2017; most recently modified version published online June 2022). <  n.a1387 v.1637 |
