| 释义 |
‖ séance
(ˈseɪɒns, ‖ seɑ̃s)
[Fr. séance a sitting, f. OF. seoir (:—L. sedēre) to sit.]
1. gen. A sitting of a deliberative or administrative body (esp. of a learned society), or of a number of persons assembled for discussion, or instruction by a lecturer, or the like. Also séance royale, a royal audience. Loosely (chiefly U.S.), a meeting or discussion.
1789A. Young Jrnl. 20 June in Trav. France (1792) I. 115 A message from the King.., that he should meet them on Monday; and, under pretence of preparing the hall for the seance royale, the French guards were placed..to prevent any of the deputies entering the room. 1803Lamb Let. to Manning Wks. 1876 II. 216 Your séances and conversaziones, which I have a shrewd suspicion must be something dull. 1884Kendal Mercury 3 Oct. 5/3 The British Association..should be a..secret conclave, and every one attending its seances for reporterial purposes deserves to have his ears cropped. 1922Joyce Ulysses 644 Come, he counselled, to close the séance. 1934E. Pound Eleven New Cantos xxxiv. 16 At the Seance Royale last Thursday he had talked of His death in defence of the country. 1962W. Schirra in Into Orbit 32 We would lock ourselves up in our office at Langley until we had a solution that satisfied us all... We called a session like this a ‘seance’. 1977Time 17 Jan. 41/1 For an hour most nights, he conducts a long-distance séance (at $3 a minute) with..his Australian proconsul, from the..desk in his study.
2. spec. A meeting for the investigation or exhibition of spiritualistic phenomena.
1845Warburton Cresc. & Cross I. xv. 153 The hour was so late that no other boys were to be found; and so the seance broke up. 1860All Year Round No. 66. 373 The spirits rapped out their dismissal, and the séance was at an end. 1881Froude Short Stud. Ser. iv. (1883) 225 The disciple who has been at a spiritualist's séance. 1902F. Podmore Mod. Spiritualism i. ii. I. 41 The development of the Poltergeist performance into the phenomena of the séance-room.
3. a. A ‘sitting’ for medical treatment.
1875H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 37 The electrical séances should be tri-weekly, each lasting about fifteen minutes, and they should be persevered in for months. 1887D. Maguire Art Massage (1888) 101 After the third massage séance, the patient ceased having these mishaps during several hours.
b. A ‘sitting’ for a portrait.
1877Disraeli Let. 14 Apr. (1929) viii. 117 Now I am going to the Palace for my 3rd Seance [to Von Angeli]. 1919R. Fry Let. 21 Oct. (1972) II. 460 All wanted me to draw their portraits so that every evening in the café I had to have a séance. |