| 释义 |
dotard, n. and a.|ˈdəʊtəd|
Also 5 doterd, 5–6 dooterd, -arde, (6 dodart), 6–7 dottard, 7–8 doatard.
[In sense 1, f. dote v. + -ard. See also note to sense 2.]
A. n.
1. a. An imbecile, a silly or stupid person; now, usually, one whose intellect is impaired by age; one who is in his dotage or second childhood.
c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 331 For certeyn olde dotard by youre leue Ye shul haue queynte right ynogh at eue. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon ix. 208 Thou were an olde dooterd and a foole. 1509Barclay Shyp of Folys (1874) I. 47 Thou blynde dodart, these wordes holde thou styll. c1610Randolph Eclog. in Farr S.P. Jas. I (1848) 280 Doatard: you fowle on Pan's omniscience fall. 1725Pope Odyss. xx. 433 The dotard's mind To every sense is lost, to reason blind. 1862Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) VI. xlvii. 13 He declared that the dying man's disposition..was the act of an incapable dotard.
†b. One who dotes (on something); a doter.
1602Marston Ant. & Mel. ii. Wks. 1856 I. 25 That peevish dotard on thy excellence.
†2. (Also dottard.) A tree that has lost its top or branches, and of which the trunk alone remains, more or less in a state of decay. Sometimes identified with pollard; sometimes apparently distinguished, as having lost its branches by damage or decay, and not by lopping or polling. Obs.[It is doubtful whether this is the same word as sense 1; were it not that the synonymous doddard is known only later, it would be natural to take that as the original word, from dod v., with dottard, dotard, as variants assimilated to this word.] a1603N. Riding Rec. (1894) 260 Warrants for the sale of dotards. 1626Bacon Sylva §586 We see almost all Overgrowne-Trees..are Pollards, or Dottards, and not Trees at their full Height. 1662Petty Taxes 44 The same ill husbandry, as to make fuel of young saplings, instead of dotards and pollards. 1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Willow, A Willow Planted and well manag'd, may continue five and twenty Years..Old rotten Dotards may be fell'd and easily supply'd.
3. (See quot.)
1884G. B. Goode Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim. 58 The Harbor Seal. Phoca vitulina. The young are there [sc. in Newfoundland] also called ‘Rangers’, and when two or three years old..receive the name of ‘Dotards’.
B. adj. [attrib. use of the n.]
1. Imbecile, silly; in senile decay or second childhood.
c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 291 Olde dotard shrewe. 1557North Guenara's Diall Pr. Prol. A ij b, I never sawe a more dootarde foole than Phormio. 1795Southey Joan of Arc iii. 541 To please Your dotard fancies! 1876A. D. Murray Charnwood 143 My old aunt..has been very feeble and dotard all the winter.
†2. Of a tree: Remaining as a decayed trunk without branches: see A. 2. Obs.
1585Burghley Let. in Reg. Mert. II. 108 The sale of some dottard trees..for their necessary fewell. 1697Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) IV. 202 A grant worth {pstlg}20,000 of dotard trees in Needwood forest. 1797Burns Eccl. Law (ed. 6) III. 486 If dotard trees are privileged, much more ought pollards.
Hence ˈdotardage, ˈdotardism, ˈdotardy (nonce-wds.), the state of being a dotard; ˈdotardly a., foolish, stupid; dotard-like a.
1664H. More Antid. agst. Idol. 38 That dull and dotardly sin of Idolatry. 1831Lincoln Herald 7 Oct. 4 Dotardism itself could go no further. 1859S. Wilberforce in Times 28 Feb. 12/3 Drivelling dotardage. |