| 释义 |
acephalous, a.|əˈsɛfələs|
[f. Fr. acéphale or late L. acephal-us (a. Gr. ἀκέϕαλος) + -ous.]
1. Without the head, headless.
1731Bailey, vol. II, Acephalous, without a head. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. Some modern travellers still pretend to find Acephalous people in America. 1774Cooper in Phil. Trans. LXV. 311, I take the liberty to remit you an account of the delivery of a very curious acephalous monster. 1836–9Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. II. 219/2 In the true acephalous fœtus the bones of the face..are of course wanting. 1846Grote Greece I. i. xvi. 592 Without the ancestorial god the whole pedigree would have become not only acephalous, but also worthless and uninteresting. 1854Badham Prose Halieutics 391 With so strong an inducement for fishmongers to decapitate congers, acephalous specimens would probably be..common.
2. Having or recognizing no governing head or chief.
1751Chambers Cycl. s.v., Acephalous, in a figurative sense is more frequently applied to persons destitute of a leader, or chief..We find a great number of canons of council..against Acephalous clerks. 1857Sir F. Palgrave Hist. Norm. & Eng. II. 324 Regality was the organic element of the commonwealth..an acephalous body politic was inconceivable. 1858Gladstone Homer I. 502 The acephalous state of the Elian division of the army. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xv. 267 The tendency to division was strengthened by the acephalous condition of the Courts.
3. Zool. Having no part of the body specially organized as a head or seat of the brain and special senses. acephalous molluscs = acephala.
1741Chambers Cycl. s.v., Acephalous worms, or what are supposed such, are frequent. 1835Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. I. ix. 268 The acephalous or bivalve Molluscans. 1836Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. I. 166/2 The mouth..in the acephalous annelida is directed forwards. 1879Carpenter Mental Physiology I. ii. §49. 49 The two primary divisions of the [Molluscous] series,—the cephalous and the acephalous.
4. Bot. Headless, with the natural head aborted or cut off.
1880Gray Bot. Text-Bk. 393.
5. Wanting the beginning, as an imperfect manuscript; wanting the first syllable or foot of the verse, said esp. of a hexameter beginning with a short syllable.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Acephalus is used in poetry for a verse which is lame or defective, by wanting a beginning. 1841De Quincey Rhet. 403 (1860) A false or acephalous structure of sentence. |