| 释义 |
exceptional, a.|ɛkˈsɛpʃənəl|
[f. exception n. + -al1: cf. F. exceptionnel.]
Of the nature of or forming an exception; out of the ordinary course, unusual, special.
1846Worcester cites Q. Rev. 1852Disraeli 3 Dec. in Sel. Sp. I. 369 As regards its financial condition, Ireland..has been in a very exceptional state. 1861Dickens Gt. Expect. vi, The subject..ceased to be mentioned saving on exceptional occasions. 1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. v. 121 The founders of the thirteen colleges..were almost all of them exceptional men. 1875Scrivener Lect. Grk. Test. 81 Documents or records of exceptional value.
absol.1870Lowell Study Wind. 136 The mastery of Shakespeare is shown perhaps more strikingly in his treatment of the ordinary than of the exceptional.
b. Const. from. rare.
1883Sir H. Cotton in Law Times Rep. XLIX. 324/1 That, therefore, makes this case exceptional from that of an ordinary case of mortgagor and mortgagee.
Hence exˈceptionalness.
1886Spectator 28 Aug. 1142 It is not the meritoriousness but the exceptionalness of the achievement which makes the few willing to attempt it. 1889Talbot in Lux Mundi (ed. 10) 137 If we still plead that our sense of wonder stipulates for exceptionalness.
▸ n. An exceptional person or thing; someone who or something which stands apart from the perceived norm; (with the) that which is exceptional. Now chiefly Finance: an item in a company's accounts arising from its normal activity but much larger or smaller than usual.
1856W. D. Wilson Elem. Treatise Logic i. ii. 79 We have another class of modals called Exceptionals, which indicate the part which is not included in the scope of the judgment. 1876‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda I. ii. iv. 62 It would have been mere folly to have been guided by the exceptional and idyllic. 1907Biometrika 5 312 The ‘exceptionals’..are mostly ‘outliers’ in the tables of pairs of distributions considered. 1957I. A. Horowitz How to win in Chess Endings x. 84 As we have seen, the Rook Pawn contributes a goodly share of the many exceptions to the general rules of chess. When the peculiar Knight is involved with a Rook Pawn, the exceptionals clash head on, and the men fail to cooperate. 1991Constr. Weekly 27 Mar. 3/2 ECC reported profits of {pstlg}100.3m after exceptionals of {pstlg}32m for redundancies and other cost savings. 2002Daily Mirror 31 May 58/5 Allen admitted yesterday that Granada's core TV business, which produces programmes including Coronation Street, had gone into the red after exceptionals and the cost of ITV Digital. |