| 释义 |
Dryasdust, n. and a.|ˈdraɪəzdʌst|
[That is, dry as dust.]
A. n. The name of a fictitious person to whom Sir W. Scott pretends to dedicate some of his novels; hence, a writer or student of antiquities, history, or statistics, who occupies himself with the driest and most uninteresting details.
1820Scott Ivanhoe, The venerable name of Dr. Jonas Dryasdust. 1822― Nigel Introd. Ep., Captain Clutterbuck to the Reverend Dr. Dryasdust. 1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. I. 16 (H.) The Prussian Dryasdust, otherwise an honest fellow, and not afraid of labour, excels all other Dryasdusts yet known. a1872Maurice Friendship Bks. vii. (1874) 214 The Dryasdusts may pick up real gems amidst heaps of rubbish. 1889Spectator 9 Nov. 644/1 In spite of his being a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, has nothing of the Dryasdust about him.
B. adj.
1. Extremely ‘dry’, as a writer, book, or subject of study.
1872W. Minto Eng. Prose Lit. ii. iv. 313 The most dryasdust of the whole. 1879E. Garrett House by Wks. II. 79 Dry-as-dust antiquarian stories. 1880M. E. Braddon Just as I am xlv, She considered political economy as a dry-as-dust something outside the circle of her life. 1881― One Thing Needful viii, Aged by poring over dry-as-dust books.
2. lit. Of climate: Extremely dry or rainless.
1889Geikie Addr. Brit. Assoc. (Nature 19 Sept. 490) A dry-as-dust climate like that of some of the steppe-regions of our own day. Ibid., I cannot..find..any evidence of a dry-as-dust epoch..in Europe during..the Pleistocene period.
Hence (nonce-wds.) Dryasˈdustic, Dryasˈdustish adjs.; Dryasˈdustism.
1864Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xiv. i. (1873) IV. 149 The dark Dryasdustic ages. 1888Glasgow Even. Cit. 7 Sept. 2/4 The British Association, which has naturally an extensive acquaintance with dry-as-dustism. 1890Spectator 31 May 767 Elaborate and yet not Dryasdust-ish disquisitions. |