| 释义 |
epicene, a. and n.|ˈɛpɪsiːn|
Also 6 epysyn, 7 epicen, 7–9 epicœne.
[ad. L. epicœnus, a. Gr. ἐπίκοινος, f. ἐπί (see epi-) + κοινός common.]
A. adj.
1. Gram. In Lat. and Gr. grammar, said of nouns which, without changing their grammatical gender, may denote either sex. Hence (improperly) epicene gender. In Eng. grammar the term has no proper application, but is loosely used as a synonym of common.
c1528Impeachm. Wolsey in Furniv. Ballads fr. MSS. I. 356 Wherefor all gendyrs dysconte[nt] be..The dubyum & the epysyn Also. 1612Brinsley Pos. Parts (1669) 8 Q. Is the Epicene Gender a Gender properly? A. No. 1865Sat. Rev. 25 Mar. 348 ‘Boy’ of course is to be understood as an epicene term. 1880I. Pitman Argt. agst. Spelling Reform 4, I use this word [persons] not invidiously, but as of the epicene gender.
quasi-n.1612Brinsley Pos. Parts (1669) 89 But how shall the gender be known in Epicenes?
2. transf. and fig. (often with humorous allusion to 1).
a. In humorous uses of the phrase epicene gender; also of persons, their employments, characters, etc.: Partaking of the characteristics of both sexes.
1601Bp. Barlow Eagle & Body (1609) B ij a, A Prey to the Eagles of the Epicene gender, both Hees and Shees. a1637B. Jonson Masques (T.), Of the epicene gender, hees, and shees, Amphibion Archy is the chief. 1644–58Cleveland Gen. Poems (1677) 87 Her Head is Epicene. 1709Steele Tatler No. 27 ⁋4 All Inamaratoes, or Persons of the Epicene Gender. 1823Monthly Rev. CII. 541 The fables concerning this epicene Pope [Pope Joan]. 1830Coleridge Let. 26 July, The mysterious epicene relation in which poor Miss Johnston stood to him. 1876T. Hardy Ethelberta I. 43 What had at first appeared as an epicene shape, the decreasing space resolved into a cloaked female.
b. Adapted to both sexes; worn or inhabited by both sexes.
1624Middleton Game at Chess i. i, 'Stead of an alb, An epicene casible. a1661Fuller Worthies, Lincolnsh. ii. 154 The Founder of those Epicœne, and Hermaphrodite Convents, wherein Monks and Nuns lived together. 1866Howells Venet. Life 25 With tatters of epicene linen.
c. fig.; often in the sense of ‘effeminate’.
1633T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter i. 4 Epicene and bastard phrases. a1637B. Jonson Underwoods Wks. (1692) 566 And in an Epicœne fury can write news. 1863Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. vii. 170 In his code of morality we have no epicene or doubtful virtues. 1881Black Sunrise 28 An epicene creature, a bundle of languid affectations.
B. n. One who partakes of the characteristics of both sexes.
1609B. Jonson (title), Epicene, or The Silent Woman. 1831H. Neele Romance Hist. I. 227 He has gone to take leave of his Epicene. 1873E. H. Clarke Sex in Educ. 44 [Arrest of development]..substitutes..a wiry..masculineness..making her an epicene.
Hence ˈepiceˌnism. nonce-wd.
1850Fraser's Mag. XLI. 331 Even Shakspere sometimes slides into the temptation which this epicenism [the performance of female parts by male actors] presents to unlicensed wit. |