| 释义 |
▪ I. rational, a. (adv.) and n.1|ˈræʃənəl|
Forms: 5 racional, (6 -all, -elle), 6 racyonall, 6– rational, (7 -all).
[ad. L. ratiōnāl-is: see ratio n., ration, and -al1. Cf. obs. F. rational (16th c.), OF. rationel (12th c.), F. rationnel.]
A. adj.
1. a. Having the faculty of reasoning; endowed with reason. (Freq. in rational being, rational creature.)
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iii. xiii. (1495) 56 The soule racional, in that he vsyth contemplacion, he hyghte speculativus. 1547Boorde Brev. Health §321 The racionall sences consisteth in reason, the whiche doth make a man or woman a reasonable beaste. 1615Crooke Body of Man 432 We determine that the Braine is the Pallace of the Rationall Soule. a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 409 Other bodies, not onely of rationall creatures, men and women, but also of irrational, birds and beasts. 1783Cowper Let. 29 Sept., We are rational: but we are animal too. 1848Dickens Dombey ii, If you're a rational being, don't make such ridiculous excuses. 1908Jrnl. Abnormal Psychol. III. 166 Everyone feels that as a rational creature he must be able to give a connected..account of himself. 1975J. Plamenatz K. Marx's Philos. Man i. 17 He always speaks of man as a self-conscious, rational, active being who can make choices and can initiate change deliberately.
b. Exercising (or able to exercise) one's reason in a proper manner; having sound judgement; sensible, sane.
1632B. Jonson Magnetick Lady iii. v, You are one O' the deepest Politiques I ever met, And the most subtily rationall. 1641H. L'Estrange God's Sabbath 34 Our most Rationall adversaries begin to reel towards us. 1712E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 239 They were told by a good rational Indian Woman [etc.]. 1791Burke App. Whigs Wks. 1842 I. 535 Rational and experienced men tolerably well know,..how to distinguish between true and false liberty. 1809Med. Jrnl. XXI. 216 Frequent restlessness and delirium, yet at times he is rational and patient. 1835Lytton Rienzi i. vii, Our rational and sober-minded islanders. 1856C. Brontë Professor xix, The man of regular life and rational mind never despairs.
c. Med. Applied to an ancient class of physicians, who deduced their treatment of cases from general principles. (Opp. to empirical.) rational psychology, rational psychological science: psychology, or the science of mind, as studied by deduction from general principles, and distinguished from an empirical approach. Now Obs.
1541Copland Galyen's Terap. E iij b, Seynge that none Emperyke, nor racyonall hath so wryten before. 1654R. Whitlock Zootomia 123 [They] are ready enough to slander the rationall Physitian. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Physician, The ancients distinguished their physicians into various classes, or sects:—as Rational Physicians [etc.]. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. ix. 139 These delusions were such, as might be anticipated..from his ignorance of rational psychology. 1837Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. iv. i. §5 That medical sect which was termed the Empirical, in contradistinction to the rational and methodical sects. 1849L. P. Hickok Rational Psychol. 21 Those a priori conditions which give the necessary and universal laws to experience, and by which intelligence itself is alone made intelligible, are the elements for a higher Psychological Science which we term Rational. 1861J. S. Mill Let. in A. Bain John Stuart Mill (1882) iv. 118 It will enable me..to do the kind of service which I am capable of to rational psychology. 1892W. James Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) xx. 321 We certainly need something more radical than the old division into ‘rational’ and ‘empirical’ psychology, both to be treated by the same writer between the covers of the same book.
d. Rational Christians: Such as claim superior rationality for their own form of Christianity.
A sect was registered under this name in 1876.
1750Masson Contin. True Rationalist xii. 155 This is..what shews me how convincing your Reasons are to determine me for the Establishment of a Society of Rational Christians.
2. a. Of, pertaining or relating to, reason.
Chiefly in rational faculty, rational nature, rational power, etc. Also † rational philosophy, mental philosophy.
a1601North Plutarch (1612) 1190 Morall Philosophie was his chiefest end: for the rationall, the naturall, and Mathematickes..were but simple pastimes in comparison of the other. 1614C. Brooke Rich. III, Poems (1872) 125 My aspick flatterie, That shed such venome in my rationall powre. 1675Barclay Apol. Quakers iv. iii. 102 As he is a meer Man, he differs no otherwise from Beasts, than by the Rational Property. 1748Chesterfield Lett. (1792) II. 61 Philosophy, rational logic, rhetoric [etc.]. 1788Reid Aristotle's Logic vi. §1. 126 Our rational faculty is the gift of God. a1882T. H. Green Proleg. Ethics §207 The consciousness of unfulfilled possibilities of the rational nature common to all men.
†b. Existing (only) in the mind. (Opposed to real.) Obs.
1628T. Spencer Logick 104 Such things haue a being in our vnderstanding, and that is enough to make them rationall beings. 1677Gale Crt. Gentiles iv. Proem. 6 These second Notions are not Real, but only Mental or Rational Beings, framed out of Real Beings.
3. a. Based on, derived from, reason or reasoning.
1531Elyot Gov. iii. xxvi, That parte of phisike called rationall, wherby is declared the faculties or powers of the body, the causis, accidentes, and tokens of sikenessis. 1649Milton Eikon. vi. 56 He confesses a rational sovrantie of soule, and freedom of will in every man. 1701Norris Ideal World i. iv. 218 Faith is a rational assent, or an assent founded on reason, tho' not the reason of the thing believed. 1785Reid Intell. Powers 608 Of tastes that are natural, there are some that may be called rational, others that are merely animal. 1885J. Martineau Types Eth. Th. (ed. 2) I. i. xi. §8. 212 Any..instance of rational apprehension, e.g. our knowledge that the surface of a sphere is equal to the area of a circle of twice its diameter.
b. spec. in Chem. and Med. (see quots.).
1850Daubeny Atomic The. ix. (ed. 2) 297 By rational, in contradistinction to empirical, formulæ, we mean expressions of the manner in which the respective atoms are combined or grouped together, and not merely of the number of atoms of each of the ingredients present. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 275 Physical are more important than rational signs in establishing the diagnosis of cyst of the pancreas.
c. rational mechanics: mechanics as deduced logically from first principles.
[1687Newton Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica p. v, Mechanicam vero duplicem Veteres constituerunt: Rationalem quæ per Demonstrationes accurate procedit, & Practicam. Ibid., Quo sensu Mechanica rationalis erit Scientia Motuum qui ex viribus quibuscunq; resultant, & virium quæ ad motus quoscunq; requiruntur, accurate proposita ac demonstrata. 1729A. Motte tr. Ibid. I. p. vii, The ancients considered Mechanics in a twofold respect; as rational, which proceeds accurately by demonstration, and practical. ] Ibid. p. ix, In this sense Rational Mechanics will be the science of motions resulting from any forces whatsoever and of the forces required to produce any motions, accurately proposed and demonstrated.1902J. W. Gibbs Elem. Princ. Statistical Mech. p. ix, Nothing will more conduce to the clear apprehension of the relation of thermodynamics to rational mechanics..than the study of the fundamental notions and principles of that department of mechanics to which thermodynamics is especially related. 1928R. De Villamil Rational Mech. p. vi, I have been asked: Why I call this a book on ‘Rational Mechanics’? and Do I not consider all Mechanics as being ‘Rational’? 1952Jrnl. Rational Mech. & Anal. I. p. ii, The Journal of Rational Mechanics & Analysis nourishes mathematics with physical applications, aiming especially to close the rift between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ mathematics and to foster the discipline of mechanics as a deductive, mathematical science in the classical tradition. 1958Science 4 Apr. 729/1 In the United States..rational mechanics is not a recognized science. Indeed, there are some who disbelieve in its existence. 1977C. Truesdell First Course Rational Continuum Mech. i. 4 Rational Mechanics is the part of mathematics that provides and develops logical models for the enforced changes of position and shape which we see everyday things suffer.
4. a. Agreeable to reason; reasonable, sensible; not foolish, absurd, or extravagant.
1635E. Pagitt Christianogr. i. iii. (1636) 123 We offer unto thee, this rationall and unbloody worship. 1654–66Earl of Orrery Parthen. (1676) 750 He might decline that Assistance, in which he had his Rationallest hopes. 1691Locke Money Wks. 1727 II. 92 What Mr. Lowndes says about Gold Coins,..appears to me highly rational. 1771Junius Lett. lxiv. 325 [He] will..concur in any rational plan that may provide for the liberty of the individual. 1804Abernethy Surg. Obs. 176 On the following morning..his answers were rational. 1879G. C. Harlan Eyesight viii. 104 All the organs of the body are better for moderate and rational use.
b. rational dress: A form of dress for women, proposed in the late 19th c. as more sensible than that in general use, usually denoting the use of knickerbockers in place of a skirt, esp. for cycling. (Also attrib.) So rational costume, etc.
1883Catal. Rational Dress Exhib. Pref., The Rational Dress Exhibition is intended to stimulate both the supply and the demand for good dress. 1888Rational Dress Society's Gaz. No. 2 This is the time when rational dress principles will have more weight. 1899Cycl. Tour. Club Gaz. Apr. 221 If..senior churchwardens protest against rational costume.
5. a. Math. Applied to quantities or ratios which can be expressed without the use of radical signs. † rational to (see quot. 1614). Also rational fraction (see quot. 1823).
1570Billingsley Euclid v. def. iii, Such magnitudes or quantities, which may be expressed by numbre, are called rationall. 1614T. Bedwell Nat. Geom. Numbers i. 2 The Base and Height are said to be rational one to another, when as the rate or reason of both may be expressed by a number of the same measure given. 1660Barrow Euclid x. prop. lxi. 237 The square of a binomiall line..applyed unto a rationall line. 1706W. Jones Syn. Palmar. Matheseos 116 Rational Quantities may be reduced to the Form of any assign'd Root. 1798Hutton Course Math. (1827) I. 82 The square root of 3 is a surd root; but the square root of 4 is a rational root, being equal to 2. 1823J. Mitchell Dict. Math. Sci., Rational Fractions is the term commonly used to express those fractions which may be decomposed into other fractions, the sum of which is equal to the given fraction. 1885Watson & Burbury Math. Th. Electr. & Magn. I. 41 Yi is a rational and integral function of cos θ. 1901H. B. Fine College Algebra ii. i. 86 An expression is called rational if it does not involve an indicated root of an expression in which a variable letter occurs. 1917T. M. MacRobert Functions of Complex Variable v. 89 The ratio of two polynomials is called a Rational Function. 1940C. C. MacDuffee Introd. Abstract Algebra iii. 82 A quadratic equation with rational coefficients which does not have a rational root. 1946A. A. Albert College Algebra iv. 111 A rational function of several symbols is any algebraic expression obtainable by formally applying a finite number of the rational operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to the symbols and numbers. 1966R. E. Johnson University Algebra i. 20 There exist consecutive integers n and n + 1, but there do not exist consecutive rational numbers.
b. rational horizon: see horizon 3.
1625N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. vi. (1635) 149 The rationall Horizon diuides the whole spheare into two equall parts. 1642Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. (1851) 310 The rationall horizon in heav'n is but one, and the sensible horizons on earth are innumerable. 1704[see horizon 3]. 1833Herschel Astron. i. 52 If we suppose a spectator..to have his view bounded by the rational horizon.
c. (With admixture of sense 4 a.) Physics. The epithet given by O. Heaviside to electrical units and equations now described as rationalized.
1882O. Heaviside in Nature 24 Aug. 391/1 If..electricity stands foremost amongst the exact sciences, it follows that its unit measures should be determined with the utmost accuracy. Yet, twenty years ago very little advance had been made toward the adoption of a rational system. 1892Ibid. 28 July 293/1 If we let the rational practical units be the same multiples of the ‘absolute’ rational units as the present practical units are of their absolute progenitors, then [etc.]. 1905Proc. R. Soc. A. LXXVI. 551 The calculations would have been the same if e had been measured in ‘rational’ electric units instead of those in common use, but we should then have had an experimental value equal to 4π times that mentioned above. 1905[see Giorgi]. 1911Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 744/2 If the filament is an endless or poleless iron filament magnetized uniformly by a resultant external magnetic force H, the flux density will be expressed in rational units by the equation B = I + H. 1925W. H. Timbie Elements of Electricity (ed. 2) vi. 171 In order to have Ohm's Law hold with these units, the rational oersted must be equal to 1·26 C.G.S. units. 1942Phil. Mag. XXXIII. 487 All the above formulæ, whether those of the rational system or of the ordinary system, are entirely independent of any choice of units.
†6. Gram. Of a conjunction: That indicates a reason. Obs. rare.
1678Gale Crt. Gentiles iv. iii. iii. 84 Those words..are immediately subjoined to vers 16, and are connected therewith by the rational Particle γὰρ, which points out the reason of that which next follows.
7. Descriptive of methods of analysis and planning that make use of calculation to bring about a projected result, esp. in economic or social organization.
1915M. Epstein tr. Sombart's Quintessence of Capitalism xii. 182 He is ever ready to adopt a newer method if it is more rational, whether in the sphere of organization, of production, or of calculation. 1926E. Grossmann Methods Econ. Rapprochement 30 The most important economies will follow not from the simplification of the machinery of distribution but from a rational organization of production itself. 1930T. Parsons tr. Weber's Protestant Ethic 21 But in modern times the Occident has developed..a very different form of capitalism which has appeared nowhere else: the rational capitalistic organization of (formally) free labour. Ibid., Rational industrial organization, attuned to a regular market..is not, however, the only peculiarity of Western capitalism. 1943J. A. Schumpeter Capitalism, Socialism & Democracy xi. 122 The rational attitude presumably forced itself on the human mind primarily from economic necessity. Ibid., When the habit of rational analysis of..the daily tasks of life has gone far enough, it turns back upon the mass of collective ideas and criticizes..them by way of such questions as why there should be kings..or tithes or property. Ibid. 123 Capitalist practice turns the unit of money into a tool of rational cost-profit calculations, of which the towering monument is double-entry book⁓keeping. 1969Simon & Stedry in Lindzey & Aronson Handbk. Social Psychol. (ed. 2) V. xl. 272 The classical economic theory of markets with rational agents and perfect competition is a deductive theory that requires almost no contact with empirical data..to establish its propositions. 1977A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory v. 206 Weber's characterization of modern capitalism as involving above all the ‘rational’ organization of resources geared to the accumulation of profit is unsatisfactory.
†B. adv. Rationally. Obs. rare.
1690Locke Hum. Und. iii. vi. §29 If Baalam's Ass had, all his life, discours'd as rational as he did once.
C. n.1 Absol. uses of the adj.
1. a. A rational being. Chiefly in pl. = human beings. Now Obs. or rare.
1606Warner Alb. Eng. xiv. lxxxii. (1612) 343 Beasts silent, that with Rationales was all a-mort suppose. 1663Gerbier Counsel 6 b, Love to Art..infers the party to be a true Rational. 1688Lond. Gaz. No. 2357/1 We must deprive our selves of our selves, as Rationals, and become more stupid then Brutes. 1755Young Centaur 103 He is a Rational, dethroning Reason; and an Animal, transgressing Appetite. 1791Paine Rights of Man ii. iii. (1792) 21, Kings succeed each other, not as rationals, but as animals. 1828R. Craig in Memorials vi. (1862) 129 Something which might exercise the mind as well as limbs of the rationals assembled there.
b. An advocate of something ‘rational’.
1756in D'Israeli Calam. Auth. (1863) 65 He [Henley] called himself ‘a Rationalist’, and on his death-bed repeatedly cried out, ‘Let my notorious enemies know I die a Rational’. 1896Westm. Gaz. 28 Nov. 3/2 As a ‘rational’,..she thought that members should be free to adopt any costume that they liked.
†2. Gram. A conjunction indicating a reason.
1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. 97 Coniunctions, Copulatiues, Rationals, Aduersitiues,..Expletiues, and certaine others.
3. Math. A rational quantity.
1685J. Wallis Alg. xcix. 373 A Fraction (in Rationals) less than the proposed (Irrational) p. 1797Stokes in Trans. Royal Irish Acad. VI. 222 Four quadratics and a rational may be reduced at least with the same ease. 1958D. E. Littlewood University Algebra (ed. 2) ix. 150 The set of integers K can be embedded in a field of quotients. This field of quotients is defined as the rationals. 1971D. G. H. B. Lloyd Mod. Syllabus Algebra vi. 110 Between any two rationals a third rational can be inserted. In this respect the set of rationals differs completely from the set of naturals or the set of integers.
4.
†a. The rational part of man. Obs. rare—1.
b. That which is rational or reasonable.
c. A rational concept.
1698Farquhar Love & Bottle ii. ii, Your rational's reversed, carrying your understandings in your legs. 1874H. Sidgwick Meth. Ethics iii. xiii. 362 This absolute end,..can be nothing but Reason itself, or the Universe of Rationals. 1898G. Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 86 They not the less were mated, and proclaimed the rational their issue.
5. pl. ‘Rational’ dress; knickerbockers for women.
1889Pall Mall G. 26 Dec. 6/2 Small shoes and latter-day ‘rationals’. 1895Westm. Gaz. 2 Sept. 8/1 A mild plot amongst lady cyclists to persuade her ladyship..to adopt ‘rationals’.
▪ II. rational, n.2|ˈræʃənəl|
Forms: 4–5 racionale, (4 -al), 6 -all, 7 rationall, (-ale,) 9 rational.
[ad. L. ratiōnāle, neut. of ratiōnālis adj. (see prec.); used in the Vulg. to translate Heb. ḥōshen, after the Sept. λογεῖον oracle, oracular instrument.]
†1. The breastplate worn by the Jewish high-priest. Obs.
1382Wyclif Exod. xxv. 7 The racionale, that is the clooth in the brest of the coope, and in the brest of the preest. 1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. xxxiii. 82 Aaron had a broche or a tatche fastned vnder his breste that was cleped racionale. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 192 The adornament of Aaron, called his Racionall. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 93 The twelve stones in the Rationall or breast-plate of Aaron. [1662H. More Philos. Writ. Pref. Gen. v, Philo writes of the Figure of the Rationale, or Sacerdotal Breast-plate.]
b. An ornament formerly worn on the breast by bishops during the celebration of mass.
The real nature of the rational has been the subject of much discussion: see Du Cange s.v. Rationale, Rock Church etc. I. 366, II. 159, and Macalister Eccl. Vestments (1896) 110.
1849Rock Ch. of Fathers I. 371 Bishop Giffard, who died a.d. 1301,..is figured in a chasuble, having pinned upon his breast the rational. Ibid. II. 159 The real ‘rational’ has nothing to do with the ‘pall’. 1884A. J. Butler Anc. Coptic Churches II. 122 The rational..is mentioned among the ancient ornaments of the Celtic bishops.
†2. = rationale 2. Obs. rare.
1658Sir T. Browne Hydriot. 34 To afford an account or rational of old Rites. 1676Marvell Mr. Smirke 17, I looked over the Canons, the Rational, the Ceremonial, the Rubrick, imagining the Exposing mention'd, must be some new part of our Ecclesiastical Discipline.
▪ III. † ˈrational, n.3 Obs. rare.
[ad. L. ratiōnālis (3rd c.), n. use of ratiōnālis adj. rational.]
Rom. Antiq. An accountant or auditor.
1610Holland Camden's Brit. i. 77 The Receiver of ther Emperours Finances..had under him in Britaine the Rationall or Auditor of the Summes and revenues of Britaine. 1683Brit. Spec. 115 His Rational of Private State in Britain, to say nothing of other inferior Officers. |