| 释义 |
Ethiopian, a. and n.|iːθɪˈəʊpɪən|
Also 6–7 æthiopian, 7 ethiopean.
[f. Ethiop or Ethiopia: see -ian, -an.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of or belonging to Ethiopia (in the various historical uses of the name), or to the peoples known to the ancients as æthiopes. Often used (now only humorously) as = ‘Black’. Ethiopian serenader: a ‘nigger’ minstrel, a musical performer with face blackened to imitate a negro.
1684Friendly Advice Planters E. & W. Indies iii. (title) Dialogue between an Ethiopean or Negro Slave, and a Christian. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 413 The teeming Tide..pouring down from Ethiopian Lands. 1838Lytton Leila iv. i, The Ethiopian guards..marched slowly in the rear. 1861Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 190 There are [in London] 50 Ethiopian serenaders.
†b. absol. with pl. sense. Obs.
1635E. Pagitt Christianography (1646) 107 The Ethiopian and Moscovites doe baptize in the Church porch.
c. in proper names of various plants. Ethiopian sour gourd = baobab.
1578Lyte Dodoens ii. xcviii. 281 The seconde Seseli..hath leaues like Juye..The stalk is blackishe..And this is counted to be the Ethiopian Seseli. 1597Gerard Herbal ii. lxi. 347 In English we have thought good to call it the Aethiopian Apple. 1640, etc. [see sour gourd s.v. sour a. 11]. 1884S. J. Capper in Chr. World 31 July 575/4 Ethiopian lilies, which are exquisitely beautiful.
2. a. Anthropology. Used by some as the distinctive epithet of one of the races into which the human species is divided. b. Biol. The distinctive epithet of one of the biological ‘regions’ of the earth's surface.
1861Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon i. vi. 36 In the kingdom which he [Man] constitutes (Hominal) there is but one genus (Homo), and in this genus but one species (Sapiens). This species presents three varieties or principal races..Caucasian, Mongolian, and Ethiopian. 1880A. R. Wallace Isl. Life 53, Region, Ethiopian..Geographical Equivalent, Africa (south of the Sahara) with Madagascar.
c. Of or pertaining to Ethiopianism.
1904H. O. Dwight et al. Encycl. Missions (ed. 2) 8/1 The seceders [from Wesleyan Methodist Society churches in the Transvaal] formed a new body which adopted the name, ‘Ethiopian Church’. The movement was..a protest against a color line in the churches of Africa. 1911Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 593/1 The South African governments foresaw dangerous developments in the Ethiopian movement. 1915J. Hastings Encycl. Relig. & Ethics VIII. 736/2 S. Africa... The racial factor is especially in evidence in the ‘Ethiopian Movement’, composed of groups of congregations who in 1892 formally seceded from their missionary connections.
B. n.
a. A native of Ethiopia; † a Black person.
1552Huloet, Ethiopians. 1598Shakes. Merry W. ii. iii. 28 Is he dead, my Ethiopian? 1611― Wint. T. iv. iv. 375 This hand..as white as..Ethyopians tooth. 1686Bunyan Book for Boys & Girls (Repr.) 42 Moses was a fair and comely man, His wife a swarthy Ethiopian. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. iii. (1840) 63 Ethiopians of Arabia Felix, which they call the South; and who, though Arabians, are called Ethiopians in Scripture. 1737[see Abyssinian n.]. 1884A. H. Sayce Fresh Light from Anc. Monuments vi. 153 Tirhakah the Ethiopian, whom the Assyrians had driven out, invaded it from the south. 1935Times 17 Oct. 10/4 The Pope has to consider whether such action would do anything to help the Ethiopians. 1946Times Lit. Suppl. 15 June 278/4 It is the fashion.. to complain of the backwardness of the Ethiopians.
b. An ‘Ethiopian serenader’. See A. 1.
1861Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 81 The brass band is succeeded by a band of Ethiopians.
c. An advocate or supporter of Ethiopianism.
1911Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 593/1 Each bishop [in S. Africa] now deals with the Ethiopians in his own diocese. 1948B. G. M. Sundkler Bantu Prophets ii. 53 As Ethiopians I classify such independent Bantu Churches as have (a) seceded from White Mission Churches chiefly on racial grounds, or (b) other Bantu Churches seceding from the Bantu leaders classified under (a). 1961Listener 30 Nov. 918/1 The term ‘Ethiopian’ was first employed by the African secessionists themselves, who took it from the Authorized Version of the Bible, in which Africa and black men are usually called vaguely ‘Ethiopia’ and ‘Ethiopians’. |