| 释义 |
elfin, a. and n.|ˈɛlfɪn|
Also 6–7 elphyne, -in, ? 8 Sc. elfan.
[Obscurely f. elf n.1; app. first used by Spenser, and perh. suggested to him by the phrase elvene land ‘land of elves’ (see elven); the proper name Elphin in the Arthurian romances may possibly have influenced the form.]
A. adj.
1. Pertaining to elves; of elfish nature or origin.
1596Spenser F.Q. i. iv. 42 Him litle answerd th' angry Elfin knight. Ibid. i. x. 65 A Faery..her base Elfin brood there for thee left; Such, men do Chaungelings call. 1673Elphin Knight i. in Child Ballads i. 15/1 The elphin knight sits on yon hill. 1742Collins Ode iv. 4 His loveliest Elfin queen has blest. 1792S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. i. 117 Heroes..Whose elfin prowess scaled the orchard-wall. 1808Scott Marm. iii. xxiv, The Elfin knight fell. 1820Keats St. Agnes xxxix, Hark! 'tis an elfin storm from faery land. 1828Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 145 Elfin bells, when the Queen of Faery rides by moonlight.
2. transf.
a. Diminutive, dwarfish.
b. Fairy-like, full of strange charm.
1796–7Coleridge Poems (1862) 28 The elfin tribe..Released from school. 1873Dixon Two Queens III. xvi. ii. 191 From childhood she had been a bright and elfin creature.
B. n.
1. = elf; also attrib.
1596Spenser F.Q. i. x. 60 And thou, faire ymp..accompted Elfins sonne. 1807Crabbe Birth Flattery 128 A wicked elphin, roved this land around. 1840Hood Up Rhine 69 Elfins..swarm in their romantic mythology. 1864Skeat Uhland's Poems 307 Darling, join the elfin-dance 'Neath the stars' and moonlight's glance.
†2. Sc. ? Elf-land.
1567–83Simpill Ballades 210 Ane carling of the Quene of Phareis The ewill win geir to elphyne careis. a1800Q. of Elfan's Nourice iii. in Child Ballads ii. 359/1 Waken, Queen of Elfan, An hear your nourice moan. a1802Young Tamlane vi. ibid. 508/1 The Queen o Elfin will gie a cry.
3. transf. A child.
1741Shenstone Schoolmistress (1794), In those elfins' ears [she] would oft deplore The times. 1804J. Grahame Sabbath (1839) 19/1 Then would he teach the elfins how to plait The rushy cap.
4. elfin-tree, a dwarfed tree found commonly in alpine regions; elfin-wood, a wood composed of such trees. Hence elfin timber, elfin woodland.
1903W. R. Fisher tr. Schimper's Plant-Geogr. iii. ii. 704 We contrast alpine grassland, alpine shrubland, and alpine desert with those of the lowlands, and retain for alpine forest merely the title elfin-wood. Note, ‘Elfin-wood’ and ‘elfin-tree’ are the terms introduced here as the equivalents of ‘Krummholz’. Ibid. 705 Elfin-tree..is characterized by a short, gnarled, often oblique or horizontal stem, and long serpentine branches, which are bent in all directions. 1929Weaver & Clements Plant Ecol. xi. 257 The gnarled, sprawling, much-branched, elfin timber grows through the short summer of high altitudes. 1952P. W. Richards Trop. Rain Forest xvi. 346 In many places..the Montane Rain forest consists of dwarf crooked trees smothered with..mosses; this very characteristic type of vegetation is often called..Elfin woodland.
Hence ˈelfindom, nonce-wd., the estate of the elves.
1886Harper's Mag. May 838 The traditional type of elfindom. |