| 释义 |
encyclopædia, encyclopedia|ɛnˌsaɪkləʊˈpiːdɪə|
Also 7 in adapted forms encyclopædie- -y, -pedie, -pedy, -ped(e.
[a. late L. encyclopædia, a. pseudo-Gr. ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία, an erroneous form (said to be a false reading) occurring in MSS. of Quintilian, Pliny, and Galen, for ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία ‘encyclical education’, the circle of arts and sciences considered by the Greeks as essential to a liberal education (cf. encyclical A. 1).
The spelling with æ has been preserved from becoming obs. by the fact that many of the works so called have Latin titles, as Encyclopædia Britannica, Londinensis, etc.]
1. The circle of learning; a general course of instruction.
1531Elyot Gov. i. xiii, The circle of doctrine..is in one worde of greke Encyclopedia. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. a 3 a, To Rdr., In this Encyclopædie and round of knowledge. 1654Whitlock Zootomia 187 Borrowed from the Bank of the Encyclopædia, or generall Learning. 1662Phillips Dict. Advt., A Dictionary for the English Tongue, would require an Encyclopedy of knowledge. 1681T. Manningham Disc. 54 They make..the whole Encyclopede of Arts and Sciences but a brisker Circulation of the blood. 1686Goad Celest. Bodies iii. iii. 459 The Student..who shall think fit to take so useful a Theory in his Encyclopaedy. 1708Motteux Rabelais v. xx, In you are lodg'd a Cornucopia, an Encyclopedia, an unmeasurable Profundity of Knowledge. 1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. 277 An education which aimed at a little encyclopædia of elementary knowledge.
2. A literary work containing extensive information on all branches of knowledge, usually arranged in alphabetical order.
The word in this sense appears first as the title of certain works published in the 17th cent. esp. that of Alstedius (see quot. 1819).
1644T. Diconson in Bulwer Chirologia a 2 Thy Enchiridion..became th' Encycloped. 1662Evelyn Chalcogr. (1769) 123 A kind of encyclopedia of all..and memorable things. 1716M. Davies Ath. Brit. II. 342 Mr. Record had scarce any Precedents or Patterns in his Encyclopædy of Learning to copy after. 1768(title) Encyclopædia Britannica. 1819Pantologia s.v. Encyclopædia, The first work we have seen under the title of Encyclopædia, is J. H. Alstedii Encyclopædia, which was published in 1632, in two vols. folio. 1841Myers Cath. Th. iii. ii. 4 The Bible is..by no means indeed an Encyclopædia. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. i. (1873) 24 An ancient Chinese encyclopædia.
humorously.1837Dickens Pickw. xxiv, Mr. Pickwick..looked encyclopædias at Mr. Peter Magnus. 1885Illust. Lond. News 19 Dec. 648 Maida [a girl] was an encyclopædia of knowledge.
b. Sometimes applied spec. to the French work ‘Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des Sciences, des Arts, et des Métiers’ (1751–1765), by Diderot, D'Alembert, and other eminent scholars and men of science.
1773(title) Select Essays from the Encyclopedy. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 207 The vast undertaking of the Encyclopædia. 1872Morley Voltaire (1886) 161 Diderot was busy (1750) with the first volume of the Encyclopædia.
3. An elaborate and exhaustive repertory of information on all the branches of some particular art or department of knowledge; esp. one arranged in alphabetical order.
1801(title) The Encyclopædia of Wit. 1807(title) The Vocal Encyclopædia: comprising a variety of popular songs, etc. 1859Smiles Self-help 61 Introduced in the historical part of his [Loudon's] laborious Encyclopædia of Gardening..The result of which appeared in his Encyclopædias. 1881(title), Hamersly's Naval Encyclopædia.
Hence enˌcycloˈpædiac a. [see -ac], = encyclopædic; enˌcyclopæˈdiacal a. [see -acal], = prec.; enˌcycloˈpædial a. [see -al], of or pertaining to an encyclopædia (see encyclopædia 2).
1886Athenæum 27 Feb. 298/3 His encyclopædiac knowledge renders it probable he will make an excellent librarian. 1836Blackw. Mag. XL. 589 It is the object of many..to render instruction encyclopædiacal. 1848Fraser's Mag. XXXVII. 216 The tendency of the Alexandrian school was encyclopædiacal throughout. 1818Blackw. Mag. III. 658 Our Encyclopaedial lion is fangless and toothless. |