| 释义 |
‖ terra firma|ˌtɛrə ˈfɜːmə|
[L., = ‘firm land’, used in med. or mod.L. in special senses = It. terra ferma, F. terre ferme; cf. G. festland. In 17th c. partly a. It. terra ferma.]
†1. A mainland or continent, as distinct from portions of land partly or wholly isolated by water.
1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 31 He [Ptolemy] draws his Terra firma only to 10 degrees South from the æquator. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Terra firma, the Continent, or main Land; so call'd by Geographers. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 164 Our men..said that about three leagues off to the southward, there seemed to be a Terra Firma, or continent of land. 1727–41Chambers Cycl., Terra firma..is sometimes used for a continent, in contradistinction to islands.
†2. spec.
a. The territories on the Italian mainland which were subject to the state of Venice. Obs.
1605B. Jonson Volpone ii. i, Gentlemen of your City; strangers of the terra-firma; worshipful merchants; ay, and senators too. 1645Evelyn Diary June (1819) I. 192 We went to Padua... The first terra firma we landed at was Fusina, being onely an inn, where we changed our barge. 1832tr. Sismondi's Ital. Rep. xiv. 308 The two monarchs agreed to divide between them all the terra firma of the Venetians.
†b. The northern coast-land of South America (Colombia), as distinguished from the West India Islands; also, in narrower sense, the Isthmus of Panama. Obs.
1760–72tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) I. p. vii, Geographical desciptions..of the country about Carthagena,..the Terra Firma. 1827Roberts Voy. Centr. Amer. 71 A race of people..more civilized than most of the other tribes, inhabiting this part of Terra Firma.
3. The land as distinguished from the sea; dry or firm land; in quot. 1785, the earth. Also fig.
1693Ray Disc. i. iii. 24 The whole terra firma, or dry Land. 1707Norris Treat. Humility iii. 111 Here we have some terra firma to fix and stay our footing on. 1779Hist. Mod. Europe II. l. 65 They again got footing on terra firma. 1785Burns Ep. to W. Simpson 105 While terra firma, on her axis, Diurnal turns. 1820T. Mitchell Aristoph., Com. I. 72 That their feet find no resting-place on sea Or terra-firma. 1887M. E. Braddon Like & Unlike xxxiv, I was not often upon terra firma after I left Marseilles.
†4. humorous and colloq. Landed estate; land.
1698Farquhar Love & Bottle iii. ii, I have five thousand acres of as good fighting ground as any in England, good terra firma, sir. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew s.v. Dipt, He has dipt his Terra firma, he has mortgaged his dirty Acres. Ibid., Terra-firma, an Estate in Land. 1728Fielding Love in Sev. Masques v. vi, Does your estate lie in terra firma, or in the stocks? |