| 释义 |
fatherless, a.|ˈfɑːðəlɪs|
[See -less.
In the OE. feadur-léas the first element is the normal form (not elsewhere occurring) corresponding to ON. fǫður genitive of faðer; the word is therefore not in origin a true compound, but a syntactic combination; cf. ON. fǫðurlauss.]
1. Having no father.
c1205Lay. 21897 Þu hauest..vre children imaken faderlese. a1225Ancr. R. 10 Helpen widewen & federlease children. a1340Hampole Psalter ix. 42 Þe fadirles barn. c1450Merlin ii. 35 Sholde ye not haue sought the fadirles childe. 1549Bk. Com. Prayer Litany, That it may please thee to..provide for the fatherlesse children and widows. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, ii. ii. 64 Our fatherlesse distresse was left vnmoan'd. 1600Holland Livy ii. 76 The commonwealth was half fatherlesse as it were, for the losse of a Consull. 1719J. Richardson Sc. Connoisseur 127 We can be satisfied we are not..exposed here in a Fatherless World. 1801Southey Thalaba i. ii, The widow'd mother and the fatherless boy. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets vii. 229 How shall I, Brotherless, friendless, fatherless, alone, Live on?
absol.c1000Ags. Ps. xciii. [xciv.] 6 Widwan & wrecan of-sloᵹun & feadur-lease of-sloᵹun. c1300Havelok 75 To þe faderles was he rath. 1382Wyclif Jas. i. 27 Pupilles, that is, fadirles or modirles or bothe. 1611Bible Ps. lxviii. 5 A father of the fatherlesse. c1737Dodsley Epit. Q. Caroline Misc. (1777) 227 Ask the cries of the Fatherless, they shall tell thee. 1813Shelley Q. Mab iii. 28 Hearest thou not The curses of the fatherless?
2. Of a book, etc.: Without a known author; anonymous. Obs. exc. with intentional metaphor.
1611Beaum. & Fl. Philaster iv. ii, There's already a thousand fatherless tales amongst us. 1641R. Brooke Eng. Episc. ii. i. 67 A fatherlesse Treatise of Timothy's Martyrdome. 1732London Mag. I. 78 To call that a fatherless Story. 1803Pic Nic No. 14 (1806) II. 261 She humanely adopted several fatherless essays..that were wandering about the world.
Hence ˈfatherlessness, fatherless condition.
1727–36in Bailey. 1832in Webster; and in later Dicts. |