| 释义 |
▪ I. principate, n.|ˈprɪnsɪpət|
Also 4–6 with y for i; β. 4–7 -at.
[ad. L. principāt-us the first place, pre-eminence, esp. in the army or state, the post of commander-in-chief, rule, sovereignty; in eccl. L. the hosts of angels, good or bad, f. princeps, princip-: see prince n. and -ate1. With the obs. form principat, cf. F. principat (13th c. in Godef. Compl.).]
1. The office or dignity of, or as of, a prince or ruler; supreme position or power; supremacy, primacy, headship, pre-eminence: = principality 1, 2. Now rare.
a1340Hampole Psalter xlvi. 3 He made folke suget til vs..Þis principate has nane bot haly men. 1382Wyclif Eph. i. 21 Aboue ech principat [gloss or power of princes], and potestate, and vertu and lordschiping. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 317 Oon schulde be i-bore of þe Hebrewes þat schulde bere adoun þe principat of Egypt, and arere þe kynde of Israel. Ibid. VIII. 291 Kyng Edward ȝaf his sone Edward þe principate of Wales and þe erldom of Chestre. 1398― Barth. De P.R. v. ii. (Tollem. MS.), Amonge all þe uttir membris of þe body..þe heed haþ þe beste principate [orig. obtinens principatum]. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 233/2 The cyte the whiche helde the pryncipate of the other citees in Italye. 1555Eden Decades 286 They proudely denye that the Romane churche obteyneth the principate and preeminent autoritie of all other. 1606Warner Alb. Eng. xvi. ci. (1612) 399 And Rees thus slaine the Principate of South-Wales so was done. a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. iv. (1642) 255 Thus ended..the Dukedome, or Principate of the Maccabees. a1677Barrow Pope's Suprem. i. (1687) 59 That under two metaphors the principate of the whole Church was promised. 1904W. M. Ramsay in Expositor Apr. 246 As yet Ephesus had no principate in the Church except what it derived from its own character and conduct.
b. Rom. Hist. The rule of the princeps; the imperial power of Augustus and his successors, while some of the republican forms were still retained; the period of rule of a princeps.
(The L. Principatus is applied by Pliny to the reign of Tiberius and of Nero; and is also used by Tacitus and Suetonius.) Quot. 1862 shows the earlier opinion that the title stood for princeps senatus: see Note to princeps.
1862Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) VI. liv. 466 In the emperor's principate or first place in the senate they fully acquiesced. 1875― Gen. Hist. Rome lviii. (1877) 464 The principate of Claudius had been, on the whole, a period of general prosperity. 1893Bury Hist. Rom. Emp. ii. 15 The Empire as constituted by Augustus is often called the Principate, as opposed to the absolute monarchy into which it developed at a later stage... §3 According to constitutional theory, the state was still governed under the Principate by the senate and people. 1900T. Hodgkin in Pilot 7 July 9/1 The ‘Principate’ as it is now usual to style the supreme power held by Augustus and Tiberius.
†2. = principality 5. Obs.
[1382Wyclif Rom. viii. 38 Nether angels, nether pryncipatis, nether virtutes, nether potestatis,..may departe vs fro the charite of God.] 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 255 b/2 The Angels were glad, tharchangels enioyed, The Thrones songen, The domynacyons maden melodye, The pryncypates armonysed, The potestates harped, Cherubyn and Seraphyn songen louynges and preysynges. 1566Pasquine in a Traunce 73 Euen as a man woulde saye Angels, Arch⁓angels, Thrones, Dominations, Principates. 1635Heywood Hierarch. iv. 194 In the third order Principates are plac't; Next them, Arch-Angels.
†3. A person having the chief position or pre-eminence; a chief, a prince. Obs.
1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) v. iii. 93 Seynt Powle claymed by the deth that he suffred the Aureole of martirs,..he must also as one chyef and pryncipate were also the aureole of prechours. 1596C. Fitzgeffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 28 Fettring with golden chaines their principates, And leading captive Spaines chief potentates. 1651Biggs New Disp. §31 His ambition to be Principate in Physick.
4. A state, territory, or community ruled by a prince or petty king: = principality 4.
1494Fabyan Chron. v. xci. 67 This Hengiste and all the other Saxons whiche ruled the .vii. pryncipates of Brytayne..are called of moste wryters Reguli. 1529Rastell Pastyme, Hist. Brit. (1811) 112 [They] rulyd ioyntly the princypat of West Saxons. c1570Sir H. Gilbert Q. Eliz. Achad. (E.E.T.S.) 3 All monarchies and best knowen Common weales or principates that both haue bene and are. 1652–62Heylin Cosmogr. ii. (1682) 9 There is reckoned one Principate, 10 Earldoms, 12 Peerdoms or Pairries. 1884J. J. Rein Japan i. 7 The Riukiu..constituted until lately a separate principate or Han.
▪ II. † ˈprincipate, v.
Obs. rare. Erroneous variant of principiate v.
c1650Don Bellianis 47 Is it possible..that Don Bellianis should with such glory principate his haughty deeds of Chivalry? a1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iv. vi. 344 The Things or Effects principated or effected by this intelligent active Principle. |