单词 | quinary system |
释义 | > as lemmasquinary system 2. Zoology. Designating or relating to a former system of classification in which the animal kingdom was divided into five subkingdoms, each subkingdom into five classes, each class into five orders, and so on, each set of five being arranged in a circle whose members were regarded as being most closely related to their immediate neighbours. Chiefly in quinary system. Now historical.The system was introduced by the entomologist W. S. MacLeay in his Horæ Entomologicæ (1819), and though controversial, it was popular in Britain, especially as a result of its promotion by William Swainson, until the mid 1840s. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > zoology > [noun] > specific theories or systems automatism1793 quinary system1826 1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. IV. xlvii. 399 Though Mr. MacLeay regards this quinary arrangement of natural objects as very general, it does not appear that he looks upon it as absolutely universal. 1832 N. Amer. Rev. Apr. 404 We..have not said a word respecting the doctrine of types, affinities, analogies, progress, development, or quinary circles. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVII. 810/1 On the Continent the Quinary System has never found favour, and it has now few if any followers in this country. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XX. 308/1 Its promoters did not hesitate to term it the discovery of ‘the Natural System’, though they condescended, by way of explanation to less exalted intellects than their own, to allow it the more moderate appellation of the Circular or Quinary System. 1992 P. J. Bowler Fontana Hist. Environmental Sci. (BNC) 264 Although the quinary system was not widely taken up, especially outside Britain, it was not dismissed out of hand as a figment of MacLeay's and Swainson's imaginations. < as lemmas |
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