| 释义 |
‖ tertium quid|ˈtɜːʃɪəm ˈkwɪd|
[L., app. rendering Gr. τρίτον τι, ‘some third thing’.]
Something (indefinite or left undefined) related in some way to two (definite or known) things, but distinct from both.
(Gr. τρίτον τι occurs in Plato Sophist 250. The Latin form is in Irenæus Adv. Her. 2. 1. 3 (c 196), where it doubtless represents τρίτον τι of the lost Greek original; also, in Tertullian Adv. Praxean 27 (a 220), and tertium nescio quid in Hilary Synod. 73 (c 358). The passage in Tertullian mentions electrum as an example of a body produced by the mixture of gold and silver; and app. tertium quid was used by the alchemists of a third substance different from its two constituents: see quot. from Bailey, and cf. next. Examples of the phrase in English context are late.)
[1613Theatrum Chemicum, Index, Tertium quid. 1101, 1085.] 1724Bailey, Tertium Quid, (among Chymists) the Result of the Mixture of some two Things, which forms something very different from both. L[atin]. [1809–10Coleridge Friend (1818) I. 157 The baleful product or tertium Aliquid, of this union retarded the civilization of Europe for Centuries.] 1826Edin. Rev. Sept. 255 Balancing the opinions of Gall against those of Spurzheim, or compounding out of them a tertium quid. 1881R. Adamson Fichte v. 110 While..we appear to assert that the two orders of facts make up all that is, we have in reality placed alongside of them..the thinking subject or mind, a tertium quid which certainly stands in need of some explanation. 1902Menzies Demonic Possess. N.T. vi. 187 The achievement was either devilish or divine. There was no tertium quid. |