| 释义 |
symbolism|ˈsɪmbəlɪz(ə)m|
[f. symbol n.1 + -ism, partly after F. symbolisme, G. (mod.L.) symbolismus.]
I.
1. The practice of representing things by symbols, or of giving a symbolic character to objects or acts; the systematic use of symbols; hence, symbols collectively or generally.
1654J. Webster Acad. Exam. 24 Who can be ignorant of the..compendious use of all sorts of Symbolisms, that have but any insight into Algebraick Arithmetick? 1840Carlyle Heroes iv. (1841) 198 ‘You do not believe,’ said Coleridge; ‘you only believe that you believe.’ It is the final scene in all kinds of Worship and Symbolism. 1850Blackie æschylus I. 327 These volcanic movements in the religious symbolism of early Greece became giants. 1870Rock Text. Fabr. Introd. vii. p. cxxxvii, Heraldry grew out of symbolism. 1874J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 6 Durandus himself, the prophet of symbolism, often gives alternative interpretations. 1882Farrar Early Chr. II. 273 Every item of the symbolism..is borrowed from ancient prophecy.
b. A symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects or facts.
1835J. B. Robertson tr. von Schlegel's Philos. Hist. Life p. xiv, All the divine symbolism in nature and in man. 1871Fraser Life Berkeley iii. 63 The theory of sense symbolism, which connected Berkeley with the Baconian movement.
c. pl. Symbolical figures. rare.
1876‘Ouida’ Winter City xiv. 388 To embroider..the loveliest Bacchic symbolisms.
d. The use of symbols in literature or art; spec. the principles or practice of the Symbolists (see next, 2 c).
1866Contemp. Rev. May 60 By Symbolism in art, poetic or pictorial, we understand the attempt to suggest higher, wider, purer, or deeper ideas by the use of simpler, humbler, or more familiar thoughts or objects. 1898R. N. Bain in Literature 12 Nov. 453/1 Symbolism is the name given by French critics to that revolt against the dryness and photographic exactness of naturalism, which..is characterized, at its best, by a..somewhat dreamy poetry, and half-naïve, half-mystical attempt to interpret the moods of nature through the medium of human sensations.
2. The use, or a set or system, of written symbols.
1864Ruskin in Reader IV. 678/1, I had..invented a short⁓hand symbolism for crystalline forms. 1868Chambers's Encycl. X. 289/1 There are two principles employed in [writing],..Ideographism and Phonetism. An ideograph is either a picture of the object..or..some symbol which stands..for the object, in which case it is called Symbolism.
3. = symbolics 2.
1846Worcester, Symbolism, an exposition or comparison of symbols or creeds. Robertson. 1907C. G. McCrie Confessions Ch. Scot. i. 1 Symbolism is that branch of theology which stands between the Biblical..and the Dogmatic or Systematic.
† II. 4. See quots. and cf. symbolization 1 a. Obs. rare—0.
1722Quincy Lex. Physico-Med. (ed. 2), Symbole, and Symbolism, is said either of the Fitness of Parts with one another, or of the Consent between them by the Intermediation of Nerves, and the like. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Symbolism, a word used by some of the chemical writers to express a consent of parts. |