| 释义 |
examination|ɛgˌzæmɪˈneɪʃən|
Forms: 4 -cioun, 5 -tyowne, 4–7 -cion, etc.
[a. F. examination, ad. L. exāminātiōn-em, n. of action f. exāmināre: see examine v.]
The action of examining; the state of being examined.
†1. A testing, trial, proof, assay. Also fig. Obs. exc. as a contextual use of 3.
c1510More Picus Wks. 32 In straite balance..If thou shouldest our sinne ponder..Who able were to beare thy punishement..The whole engine of all this worlde..With suche examinacion might not stande. 1552Latimer Serm. St. Stephen's Day Wks. (Parker Soc.) II. 104 Calamities..be but examinations and proofs to provoke us to call upon God. [1799G. Smith Laborat. I. 73 The examination, or assay, of the purity of gold or silver.]
2. a. The action of testing or judging by a standard or rule. Now only with some notion of 3 or 6. Cf. examine v. 2 a. Cf. self-examination.
c1386Chaucer Melib. 301 For as moche as the Examinacioun is necessarie, let us byginne at the Surgiens. c1425Wyntoun Cron. vi. ii. 40 That all examynatyowne Off thai persownys propyrly The kyrk suld hawe in gret party. c1460tr. T. à Kempis 139 Grace..in euery understondinge submitteþ himself..to goddis examynacion. 1627H. Mason (title), The Tribunal of Conscience, or a Treatise of Examination; shewing..how a Christian should examine his Conscience. 1885Catholic Dict., Examination of Conscience should be made at least every evening.
†b. Judicial inquiry into the guilt or innocence of an accused person. Obs. Cf. 6.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 165 Sone þe day of examinacioun was sette. 1494Fabyan Chron. vi. ccx. 224 The bysshop he commytted to the examynacion & correccion of the clergy. 1526–34Tindale Acts xxv. 26, I have brought him vnto you..that after examinacion had, I myght have sumwhat to wryte. 1557Order of Hospitalls D j, For the Examination of Single Women being gotten with Child. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. ii. v. §3 After a particular examination of Jeremiah..they acquit him. 1685― Orig. Brit. v. 304 They anointed Kings..and not long after they without Examination took them off.
3. The action of investigating the nature, qualities, or condition of any object by inspection or experiment; minute inspection, scrutiny. postmortem examination: = autopsy n. 2.
1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 99 The examination of passengers at..the frontier Tounes of the Princes of Italie. 1819J. G. Children Chem. Anal. Introd. 10 The examination of a substance containing few elements. 1836Act 6–7 Will. IV, c. 89 It shall be lawful for the Coroner..to direct the performance of a post-mortem Examination. 1863Royal Charter §42 in Lond. Univ. Calendar 35 Which accounts shall be subject to such examination and audit as the said Commissioners may direct. 1875Ure Dict. Arts II. 727 The colour of the stroke made upon the touchstone by the metal under examination. 1884Syd. Soc. Lex., Physical Examination, the investigation of disease by means of the senses, as when the cardiac respiratory sounds and movements are examined with the ear, or by means of instruments devised to render them more conspicuous. 1888E. Eggleston Graysons xxiv, Bob made what a surgeon would call a ‘digital examination’ of the dungeon door.
4. The action or process of searching or inquiring into (facts, opinions, statements, etc.); investigation, scrutiny.
1538Starkey England i. iii. 74 That was agred at the begynnyng for the bettur examynatyon of every thyng. c1626Wotton Let. in Reliq. Wotton. (1672) 549 After the examination of circumstances, there is a liberty of judgment. a1716South Serm. (1737) V. vii. 321 Surely nothing that is self-evident, can be the proper subject of examination, or tryal. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho i, To look with cool examination upon the disappointments he sometimes threw in her way. 1864J. H. Newman Apol. 129 In that very agreement..would really be found on examination, the elements..of an essential discordance. 1878Stanford Symb. Christ i. 4 Such an account now claims our examination.
5. The process of testing, by questions oral or written, the knowledge or ability of pupils, or of candidates for office, degrees, etc. For honour, local, middle-class, pass, Senate-house examinations, see those words.
1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. v. 48 Which worke of continuall examination, is a notable quickner and nourisher of all good learning. Ibid. xxviii. 282 That euery yeere..there be a solemne examination by the Gouernours of the schoole. 1694Gibson in Ellis Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 235 We met him..just as he was going for Pauls to [sic: ? read to Pauls for] examinations. 1783Lett. Radcliffe & James (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) 232 To day..I went through part of my examination for Orders. 1848Dickens Dombey xiv, A dreadful uncle..volunteered examinations of him in the holidays on abstruse points. 1866Lond. Univ. Calendar 40 The Examination shall be conducted by means of Printed Papers.
6. Formal interrogation, esp. of a witness, or an accused person. examination-in-chief, that made by the party calling the witness. See cross-, re-examination. † Also, Interrogation under torture.
The judicial interrogation of accused persons has no place in the criminal process of the common law, but by various statutes from 16th c. justices of the peace were directed to ‘take the examination’ of prisoners before sending them for trial. This expression has survived, though the practice which it denotes no longer exists; hence the preliminary investigation before justices of the peace or police-magistrates is still called the examination of the prisoner, so that the word in this connexion has reverted to the obsolete sense 2 b.
a1555Latimer in Foxe A. & M. (1684) III. 383, I was once..in Examination before five or six Bishops..every week thrice I came to Examinations. 1592Greene Art Connycatch. iii. 5 What hee spake of either came to him by examinations, or by riding in the circuits. 1728Morgan Algiers II. iv. 274 The Tormentors examined him..for several hours they ceased not their Examinations. 1838Penny Cycl. X. 103/1 s.v. Evidence, The cross-examination of a witness..is founded upon what the witness has stated in his examination in chief. 1841Macaulay W. Hastings Ess. 1854 II. 651/2 There remained examinations and cross-examinations. 1861W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 234/2 The party is brought before a magistrate for examination.
b. The statements or depositions made by a witness or accused person when examined; the record of such statements. to take the examination of: to interrogate and note down the answers.
1533Frith's Answ. More Title-p., Vnto which boke are added..the articles of his examinacion before the bishoppes. 1554Acts 1–2 Ph. & Mary c. 13 §4 The said justices..before any bailment or mainprise, shall take the examination of the said prisoner. 1591J. Hortop Trav. in Arb. Garner V. 329 The Earl of Sussex..commanded his Secretary to take my name and examination. 1600Essex Rebell. Exam. in Shaks. C. Praise 35 The examination of Sr. Gelly merick Knyght taken the xvijth of February, 1600. 1621H. Elsing Debates Ho. Lords (Camden) 10 The clerke reade the examinacions taken in Courte. 1826Act 7 Geo. IV, c. 64 §3 Every Justice of the Peace before whom any Person shall be taken..shall take the Examination of the Person charged. 1848Act 11–12 Vict. c. 42 §19 marg., Place where Examination taken, not an open Court. 1861W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 234/2 The examinations of the witnesses at the precognition..never can be used..against the witnesses.
7. attrib. and Comb., as examination fever, examination questions, examination statute, examination system, etc.; examination-paper, (a) paper specially prepared for use in examinations; (b) a written or printed series of questions, etc. to be answered by the examinee; (c) a written series of answers by an examinee; examination-schools, in Oxford parlance: (a) the several branches of the University curriculum in which a formal examination is instituted; (b) the building in which University examinations are held.
1884Crichton-Browne in Pall Mall G. 16 Sept. 11/1 The ‘*examination fever,’ as it has been called, that leaves such unpleasant sequelæ behind it..is now endemic in the metropolis.
1837(title) *Examination Papers for Theological Students.
1838(title), *Examination Questions and Answers, from ‘Butler's Analogy.’
1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. vi. 244 If he [a professor] wishes for any auditors at all, he must make himself subservient to the *examination schools.
1886Oxf. Univ. Calendar 55 Full information..will be found..in the *Examination Statutes. Mod. (Oxford) The Examination-schools are beyond University College.
Hence examiˈnational a., of or pertaining to examination or examinations; based upon (academical, etc.) examinations. examiˈnationism, the habit of relying upon or the practice of employing examinations as the test of fitness, knowledge, etc. examiˈnationist, one who upholds the system of examinations.
1826Bentham in Westm. Rev. VI. 492 Tests preferred by Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, presumably the financial..by their humble servant, the examinational. 1859Sat. Rev. 12 Feb. 178/2 The establishment of what..we may call an examinational franchise. 1884H. M. Jones Hints on Senses 148 For future success in life the test of early examinational proficiency is a most fallacious one. 1884Lond. Jrnl. Sc. XXI. 240 A reaction against that miserable examinationism which earns for us the title of the ‘Chinese of Europe.’ 1889Pall Mall G. 27 June 3/1 Much emphasis is laid by the theoretical examinationists on the supposed difficulty that the public have in discriminating between a trained and an untrained nurse. |