| 释义 |
diminution|dɪmɪˈnjuːʃən|
Forms: 4–6 diminucion (also with y for i), diminicion, 7 deminution, 6– diminution.
[a. AF. diminuciun (a 1300), F. diminution = Pr. diminutio, Sp. diminucion, Pg. diminuição, It. diminuzione, ad. L. dīminūtiōn-em later spelling of dēminūtiōn-em, n. of action from dēminuĕre to lessen. Classical L. analogies would give the form deminution: see diminish, diminue.]
1. a. The action of diminishing or making less; the process of diminishing or becoming less; reduction in magnitude or degree; lessening, decrease.
c1374Chaucer Troylus iii. 1286 (1335) To encrece or maken dyminucioun Of my langage. 1495Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 2 §6 Dymynucion of punysshment..shalbe had for women greate with child. 1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. iii. xi. (1611) 120 Change by addition or diminution. 1617Moryson Itin. ii. iii. i. 213 The remainder can hardly beare such deminution, as all Armies are subiect vnto. 1682Burnet Rights Princes viii. 315 Rather than consent to the least diminution of that Right. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. p. cvii, Enlargements or Diminutions of Wharfs or Banks. 1712Addison Spect. No. 517 ⁋1 A copy of his letter, without any alteration or diminution. 1857Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. II. 175 The Diminution of the Obliquity of the Ecliptic.
b. Apparent lessening, as by distance. ? Obs.
1611Shakes. Cymb. i. iii. 18 To looke vpon him, till the diminution Of space, had pointed him sharpe as my Needle. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 369 From human sight So farr remote, with diminution seen.
†2.
a. Representation of something as less than it is; extenuation.
b. as a Rhet. figure. Obs.
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 12416 Ȝyt þer ys an enchesun Ys kallede ‘dymynucyun’, On englys hyt ys to mene To make þy synne lytyl to seme. 1586A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 93 Example.. for diminution, might be this..these I must confesse are injuries to some, but unto me they are trifles. 1659O. Walker Oratory 75 Gradation is by Oratours most-what observed, and the weightiest word said last: or, in diminutions, the contrary.
†3. Lessening of honour or reputation; derogation, depreciation, belittling. Obs.
1586A. Day Eng. Secretary i. (1625) 9 What approbations, diminutions, insinuations. 1599Life Sir T. More in Wordsw. Eccl. Biog. (1853) II. 181 Under pardon of those saints..for I intend not the diminution of their glorious deaths. 1646Fuller Wounded Consc. (1841) 351 A diminution to the majesty of God. 1648Eikon Bas. 49, I shall not much regard the worlds opinion or diminution of me. 1712Steele Spect. No. 468 ⁋4 Thinking nothing a Diminution to me, but what argues a Depravity of my Will. a1734North Lives (1826) II. 176 All that appeared..of diminution to the reputation..which his Lordship..had acquired.
†4. Partial deprivation, curtailment, abatement.
1548Hall Chron., Hen. V, 70 b, That we suffre harme or diminicion in person, estate, worship, or goodes. 1661Bramhall Just Vind. iv. 78 Untill it came to sentence of death, or diminution of member. 1675Baxter Cath. Theol. ii. i. 20 Had this been any injury or diminution to the rest?
5. Mus.
a. The repetition of a subject (in contrapuntal writing) in notes of half or a quarter the length of the original: opp. to augmentation.
†b. (quot. 1614) The condition of being diminished (of an interval): see diminished 4 (obs. rare).
1597Morley Introd. Mus. 24 Diminution is a certaine lessening or decreasing of the essential value of the notes and rests. 1609Douland Ornith. Microl. 48 Diminution..is the varying of Notes of the first quantity..or it is a certain cutting off of the measure. 1614T. Ravenscroft (title), A briefe Discourse of the true but neglected Vse of characterizing the Degrees by their perfection, imperfection and diminution, in measurable Musicke. 1869Ouseley Counterp. xv. 104 [In] imitation by diminution..the consequent substitutes notes of smaller value for those proposed by the antecedent.
6. Her. With earlier authors: The defacing of part of an escutcheon. By later writers said to be = difference.
1610J. Guillim Heraldry i. viii. (1660) 43 Diminution is a blemishing or defacing of some particular point..of the Escocheon, by reason of the imposition of some stain and colour thereupon. 1787Porny Her. Gloss., Diminution, word sometimes used instead of Difference. 1830Robson Brit. Herald III. Gloss., Diminution of Arms, an expression sometimes used..instead of differences, or, as the French call them, brisures..from the Latin diminutiones, lessenings, as showing a family to be less than the chief.
†7. Gram. The formation of a diminutive word from a primitive. Obs. rare.
a1637B. Jonson Eng. Gram. xi, The common affection of nouns is diminution..The diminution of substantives hath these four divers terminations: El..Et..Ock..Ing..Diminution of adjectives is in this one end, ish.
8. Law. An omission in the record of a case sent up by an inferior court to a superior, in proceedings for reversal of judgement.
[1610Coke Bk. of Entries 242 a/2 (marg.) Le def. alledge diminution en le Here. fac. seisinam. Ibid. 251 b/1 (marg.) Diminution alledge per le def. en les proclamations. 1626Sir W. Jones Reports, Weever v. Fulton 2 Car. 1 (1675) 140 Car apres in nullo est Erratum plede, neque le Plaintiff neque le Defendant poient alledge diminution, car per le joinder ils allowe recorde.] 1657Grimston tr. Croke's Repts. (1683) ii. 597, Johns v. Bowen, 18 Jas. I, After the Record certified, the plaintiff in the Writ of Error alledges Diminution for want of an Original, which was certified and entered. 1708Termes de la Ley 248, Diminution, is when the Plaintiff or Defendant in a Writ of Error alledges..that part of the Record remains in the Inferiour Court not certifyed, and prays that it be certifyed by Certiorari. 1848in Wharton Law Lex.
9. Arch. The gradual decrease in diameter of the shaft of a column, etc.; the tapering of a column or other part of a building; also, the amount of this tapering in the whole length.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Diminution..in Architecture, the lessening of a Pillar by little and little from the Base to the Top. 1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. II. 20/1 The diameter of the lower diminution. 1727–51Chambers Cycl. s.v., The Gothic architects..observe neither diminution nor swelling; their columns are perfectly cylindrical. 1766Entick London IV. 356 [The] turret..ends with a fine diminution. 1842–76Gwilt Archit. iii. i. 809 The diminution or tapering form given to a column..sometimes commences from the foot of the shaft, sometimes from a quarter or one third of its height. Ibid. 814 Vitruvius in this order [the Tuscan] forms the columns six diameters high, and makes their diminution one quarter of the diameter.
10. Cytology. [a. F. diminution (V. Herla 1895, in Arch. de Biol. XIII. 485).] The loss or expulsion, during the embryogenesis of certain organisms, of some chromosome material from the nuclei of cells that go to form somatic tissue.
1925E. B. Wilson Cell (ed. 3) iv. 326 In these cases..the process of diminution is somehow connected with the segregation of germ-cells from somatic cells. 1942Nature 17 Jan. 67/2 In Sorghum we know that the chromosomes which undergo ‘diminution’ are in fact dispensable not only in parts of the plant but also in parts of the species. 1965C. D. Darlington Cytology ii. iii. 658 Coordinated reactions of centromeres, heterochromatin and cytoplasm are no doubt responsible for diminution. |