| 释义 |
enthusiast|ɛnˈθjuːzɪæst|
[ad. Gr. ἐνθουσιαστής, f. ἐνθουσιάζειν (see prec.). Cf. Fr. enthousiaste.]
†1. One who is (really or seemingly) possessed by a god; one who is under the influence of prophetic frenzy. Also fig. Obs.
a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 162 So did those Enthusiasts amongst the Pagans deliver that..wherof they had no..apprehension. 1660Stillingfl. Iren. i. v. (1662) 96 Their proper Enthusiasts as the Sybils, and the Pythian Prophetess. 1677W. Hubbard Narrative ii. 48 The Indians..will not as yet return any of our Captive Friends, till God speak to the foresaid Enthusiasts [two sagamores claiming divine inspiration].
fig.1647Crashaw Music's Duel Poems 90 She is placed Above herself—Music's enthusiast! 1700Dryden Alexander's Feast 163 The sweet enthusiast from her sacred store Enlarg'd the former narrow bounds.
2.
†a. transl. Lat. Enthusiasta: In Eccl. Hist. the designation of a sect of heretics of the fourth century, who pretended to special revelations. Obs. (The Lat. form is now used Hist.)
1637Hieron Wks. I. 82 There were in the elder times certaine heretiques called Enthusiasts, which..contemned the written word. 1639F. Robartes God's Holy H. x. 75 The haeresie of the Messalini otherwise called Euchites and Enthusiastes.
b. gen. One who erroneously believes himself to be the recipient of special divine communications; in wider sense, one who holds extravagant and visionary religious opinions, or is characterized by ill-regulated fervour of religious emotion.
(Pagitt and other 17th c. writers give enthusiasts as the actual name of a contemporary sect of Anabaptists; but this is probably a misapprehension.)
1609Downam Chr. Liberty 27 If there be no freedom in our wills before we be called, then belike..we must look with the Enthusiasts for violent raptures. 1614T. Adams Devil's Banquet 328 Sottish Enthusiastes condemne all learning, all premeditation. 1665Glanvill Sceps. Sci. xiii. 73 Hence we may derive the Visions, Voyces, Revelations of the Enthusiast. 1746Wesley Princ. Methodist 54 It is the believing those to be Miracles which are not, that constitutes an Enthusiast. 1806Earl Westmorld. in Cobbett Parl. Deb. VII. 230 Atheists, enthusiasts, jacobins, and such descriptions of persons. 1856R. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. 164 This very Church of Rome incarcerated Molinos and Madame Guyon as dangerous enthusiasts.
3. One who is full of ‘enthusiasm’ (see enthusiasm 3) for a cause or principle, or who enters with enthusiasm into a pursuit. Const. for, in, of, † to. Sometimes with unfavourable notion (transf. from 2 b.): A visionary, self-deluded person.
In present use the disparaging sense is more frequent than in the case of the related words enthusiasm and enthusiastic.
1764Goldsmith Hist. Eng. in Lett. (1772) II. 224 An enthusiast to the discipline of the field. 1769Junius Lett. xxxv. 158 Hardly serious at first, he is now an enthusiast. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 197 We shall believe those reformers to be then honest enthusiasts. 1791― Th. Fr. Affairs VII. 74 At present the king..can send none but the enthusiasts of the system. 1793Holcroft tr. Lavater's Physiogn. viii. 52 Paracelsus..an astrological enthusiast. 1856Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. I. i. 26 The energy and sincerity of enthusiasts is powerful in all ages. 1878Morley Carlyle in Crit. Misc. 196 The arbitrary enthusiast for external order.
¶ Sometimes defined by the context in its etymological sense, in order to give a different complexion to its use in sense 2 or 3.
c1771Fletcher 4th Check Wks. 1795 III. 59 The true Enthusiasts, those who are really inspired by the grace and love of God. 1879R. H. Smith in Sunday Mag. 507 He was an enthusiast in the best and truest sense of the word, for he was filled with the fulness of God.
4. attrib. or adj. That is an enthusiast; pertaining to an enthusiast, enthusiastic.
1681Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 88 The enthusiast maid of Hatfeild predicted the royall blood should be poysoned. 1742Collins Ode Pity 29 Shall raise a wild enthusiast heat. 1862Thornbury Turner II. 325 In a room that resembled the miserable Barry's, he lived his enthusiast life. |