| 释义 |
First World, n. and a.
Brit. |ˌfəːst ˈwəːld|, U.S. |ˈˌfərst ˈwər(ə)ld| in sense B. Brit. |ˈfəːst wəːld|, U.S. |ˈfərst ˌwər(ə)ld|
Forms: [Also with lower-case initials.]
[‹ first adj. + world n. In sense A. 2 after Third World n.]
A. n.
1. In various mythologies and religions: the first age of the world, as distinct in some way from the present human realm; the first era of human or earthly history; (esp. in Theol.) the antediluvian or (less freq.) the prelapsarian world. Now chiefly poet.
a1398J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 104, And so þe firste world is euer lastinge & duringe in þouȝt & mynde of god. 1578H. Wotton Courtlie Controuersie of Cupids Cautels 271 The fortunatenesse and felicitie that followed menne of the fyrste worlde, whyche they call the Golden Age. 1637W. Lisle 4 Bks. of Du Bartas 2 (side note) Adam considers what shall betide his posteritie till the first world is ended by the Flood. 1864J. Anster Faustus Pt. II iii. 287 Feel, that thou the true child art Of the highest Jove—of that first world, alone, 'Mong all that now on earth are, rightful part. 1906C. M. Doughty Dawn in Brit. xxi. 20 Beautiful, fair, delectable was that First world: but entered, Enemy of God, Foul Death. 1963C. H. Long Alpha: Myths of Creation i. 39 The movement is from the blackness of chaos in the first world through the various worlds of specific colors to the world of light. 1996J. Harjo Woman who fell from Sky 5 Mountains whose names are as ancient as the sound that created the first world.
2. With sing. concord. The industrialized, developed, relatively wealthy and powerful nations of the world (collectively); spec. the industrialized capitalist countries of Western Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. See also quots. 1967 and 1974.
In early use, freq. as opposed to the Communist nations (formerly) constituting the Second World; now more usually as opposed to the less-developed and poorer nations constituting the Third World.
1967Polit. Sci. Q. 82 155 Studies which attempt to survey world trends and to characterize the major attributes of the First World (the United States), the Second World (the U.S.S.R.), and the Third World, are courageous undertakings. 1974Times 13 Apr. 5/7 Mr Teng announced that the ‘socialist’ camp no longer existed, and that the planet was divided into the First World, consisting of the two superpowers, the Second World, consisting of the other developed countries, and the Third World, which included the developing countries. 1974Economist 18 May 66/1 The conventional image of recent years has been of a first world of developed market economies, a second world of ‘socialist’ states, and the ‘third world’ of the developing nations. 1980Sci. Amer. Sept. 107/2 The already industrialized countries of the capitalist and communist blocs (respectively the ‘first world’ and ‘second world’). 1990S. Elseworth Dict. Environm. 264 A world view different to that of Washington (the First World) and Moscow (the Second). 2001Dollars & Sense (Electronic ed.) Mar. Since the First World had no intention of redistributing the world's wealth, its answer was for First World science to ‘help’ the Third World by giving it the means to produce more food.
B. adj. (attrib.). Of, designating, or relating to the First World (sense A. 2).
1975M. McLuhan Let. 22 Jan. (1987) 509 The computer is an electric form that is able to transcend the structure of the ‘First World’ arrangements. 1989S. Hecht & A. Cockburn Fate of Forest viii. 186 There are moments in the always ambiguous dialectic between First World conscience and Third World conditions when the former's concerns reach a critical mass. 2001Fortune (Electronic ed.) 26 Nov. Third World managers seem destined to regard their First World counterparts as imperialists at best and mercantilists at worst. |