| 释义 |
symposium|sɪmˈpəʊzɪəm|
Also 7–9 -ion. Pl. -ia (rarely -iums).
[a. L. symposium, ad. Gr. συµπόσιον, f. συµπότης fellow-drinker (cf. συµπίνειν to drink together), f. σύν sym- + πότης drinker (cf. πότιµος drinkable, ποτόν drink).]
1. a. A drinking-party; a convivial meeting for drinking, conversation, and intellectual entertainment: properly among the ancient Greeks, hence generally.
1711Addison Spect. No. 9. ⁋11 The rules of a Symposium in an ancient Greek author. 1748Chesterfield Let. to Son 29 Oct., I take it for granted, that..your Symposion [is] intended more to promote conversation than drinking. 1781Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry xliv. IV. 18 It appears that the company dined so very late [in 1609], as at half an hour after eleven in the morning; and that it was the fashion to ride to this polite symposium on a Spanish jennet. 1787Hawkins Life of Johnson 360 Our symposium at the King's head broke up. 1816Scott Antiq. vi, You are welcome to my symposion. 1828D'Israeli Chas. I, I. viii. 270 His symposia attracted a closer observation from the freedom of his conversation. 1866Felton Greece Anc. & Mod. I. ii. iv. 336 If he [sc. Socrates] went to a symposium, he was likely to stay all night.
b. An account of such a meeting or the conversation at it; spec. the title of one of Plato's dialogues.
a1586Sidney Apol. Poetry (Arb.) 57 One..that should bid one read Phædrus, or Symposium in Plato. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 689 Epicurus..in his Symposium or banquet, hath discussed the question. 1776Mickle tr. Camoens' Lusiad Introd. p. cxxxv. note, The passage stands in the Symposion of that author [sc. Plato] as follows.
2. transf.
a. A meeting or conference for discussion of some subject; hence, a collection of opinions delivered, or a series of articles contributed, by a number of persons on some special topic.
1784(title) Symposia; or, Table Talk in the month of September, 1784, being a rhapsodical hodge-podge. 1869Ticknor in Hillard Life, etc. (1876) I. i. 12 Alexander and Edward Everett, Edward T. Channing, Nathan Hale, William Powell Mason, and Jacob Bigelow constituted this symposium. 1877Shields Final Philos. 57 Foulke Greville seems to have held a symposium for the liberal discussion of the Copernican system. 1882Glasgow News No. 2607. 2/3 A symposium is commenced in the Clerical World this week on the question ‘Within what limits are ‘Schools of Thought’ desirable in a religious community?’
b. A book consisting of essays on various aspects of a subject contributed by a number of different authors.
1946Nature 19 Oct. 534/1 Advances in biological sciences in the U.S.S.R. within the recent 25 years, 1917–1942. Symposium. Editor-in-chief: L. A. Orbeli. (In Russian.) Pp. 356. 1969Listener 15 May 696/1 A symposium on 20th-century music, published in 1960, contained a fulsome and over-extended reference to a then almost unknown French composer. 1972Daily Tel. 30 Mar. 6 This generously illustrated symposium, by contributors of different denominations, covers a world⁓wide range of Christian art and architecture. 1979Nature 1 Mar. 102/1 Symposia are at present, perhaps, an over-popular form of publication: in many of them the thread of supposed common interest which binds the essays together is far too tenuous, and indeed, in the case of some complimentary volumes such as this, completely non-existent.
3. Comb.
1856R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. 115 Such symposium-loving scholars. |