| 释义 |
depopulation|dɪpɒpjʊˈleɪʃən|
Also 5–6 -acion.
[ad. L. dēpopulātiōn-em, n. of action from dēpopulāre (-ārī). In ancient L. used in sense ‘devastation, pillaging’; so in French in 1500 (Hatzf.). The modern sense in Fr. and Eng. follows that of depopulate.]
The action of depopulating; depopulated condition.
†1. Laying waste, devastation, ravaging, pillaging.
Often including the destruction of people, and so gradually passing into 2.
1462Edw. IV in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. I. 127 Warre, depopulacion, robberye, and manslawghtar. 1543–4Act 35 Hen. VIII, c. 12 The same Scottes..make..incurses, inuasions, spoyles, burnynges, murders, wastinges and depopulations in this his realme. 1655Fuller Hist. Camb. (1840) 237 The Jewish law provided against the depopulation of birds' nests. 1665Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 68 Committing Rapes, Murthers, and daily depopulations. 1670Milton Hist. Eng. iv. Wks. (1851) 188 The Danes..infested those parts with wide depopulation. 1741J. Lawry in Athenian Lett. (1792) II. 44 Amidst tumults, depopulations, and the alarms of war. 1816Byron Ch. Har. iii. xx, In vain years Of death, depopulation, bondage, fears, Have all been borne.
2. Reduction of population; depriving of inhabitants; unpeopling. In 17th c. esp. the clearance of the peasantry from their estates by the land-owners.
c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. v, To the grete abatynge of his revenues and depopolacion of his reaume. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ii. liv. §12. 189 For the depopulation of the Iland. 1619J. Dyke Counterpoyson (1620) 27 Extortion, inclosures, depopulations, sacriledge, impropriations. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. xiii. 100 He detests and abhorres all inclosure with depopulation. 1765Goldsm. Trav. 402 Have we not seen..Opulence, her grandeur to maintain, Lead stern Depopulation in her train. 1892Daily News 7 Nov. 6/1 (Paris) The depopulation panic and the necessity of keeping up big armies. 1893G. B. Longstaff Rural Depopulation 1 ‘Depopulation’ is often very vaguely employed, but here it will be used as denoting a diminution in the number of the inhabitants of a district, as compared with those enumerated at a preceding census.
b. The condition of being depopulated or deprived of inhabitants.
1697Dryden Virgil (1721) I. 37 Eighteen other Colonies, pleading Poverty and Depopulation, refus'd to contribute Mony. 1721De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 188 There never was seen that ruin and depopulation..which I have seen..abroad. 1816Keatinge Trav. (1817) I. 85 Castile and Arragon realize what strangers are told concerning Spain. Denudation, depopulation, and desiccation reign throughout them. 1827Southey Hist. Penins. War II. 339 The frightful silence of depopulation prevails. |