| 释义 |
rebus, n.|ˈriːbəs|
[a. F. rebus (1512 in Hatz.-Darm.), or L. rēbus, abl. pl. of rēs thing.
The precise origin of this application of the Latin word is doubtful. It is variously explained as denoting ‘by things’, from the representation being non verbis sed rebus, and (in Ménage) as taken from satirical pieces composed by clerks in Picardy for the annual carnival, which dealt with current topics, and were therefore entitled de rebus quæ geruntur ‘about things which are going on’.]
a. An enigmatical representation of a name, word, or phrase by figures, pictures, arrangement of letters, etc., which suggest the syllables of which it is made up.
b. In later use also applied to puzzles in which a punning application of each syllable of a word is given, without pictorial representation.
1605Camden Rem. (1634) 146 They which lackt wit to expresse their conceit in speech, did vse to depaint it out (as it were) in pictures, which they called Rebus. 1630B. Jonson New Inn i. i, I will maintain the rebus against all humours, And all complexions in the body of man. a1661Fuller Worthies, Somerset iii. (1662) 23 He gave for his Rebus (in allusion to his Name [Beckinton]) a burning Beacon. 1713Birch Guard. No. 36 ⁋14 If this meets with encouragement, I shall write a vindication of the Rebus, and do justice to the Conundrum. 1777Sheridan Sch. Scand. i. i, I back him at a rebus or a charade against the best rhymer in the kingdom. 1854E. A. Freeman in Ecclesiologist XV. 318 A certain John Chapman was a benefactor to the building, and carved a chapman with a dog, as a rebus on his name. 1882F. Harrison Choice Bks. (1886) 305 Many an ingenious picture is nothing but a painted rebus.
attrib.1744Warburton Occas. Refl. 23 Mistaking, for Egyptian, a ridiculous Kind of rebus-writing. 1765R. Lowth Lett. Warburton 13 From Egyptian Hieroglyphics to modern Rebus-writing. 1864Reader 14 May 614 The rebus addresses..that postmen sometimes get. 1928O. Jespersen Internat. Lang. ii. 170 The number of roots admitted in primitive Esperanto was extremely small, and a good deal of ingenuity was used to express as much as possible by means of compounds and derivatives... The great number of these rebus-words..has deterred many intelligent people from Esp. 1969A. Parpola et al. Decipherment of Proto-Dravidian Inscriptions of Indus Civilization ii. 8 It now appears that it [sc. the Indus script] is a purely logographic script, based on the so-called rebus principle. This means that each sign represents a whole word, which may comprise one or more syllables, and that a given word is expressed by a clearly recognizable picture of a quite different thing, which has, however, the same phonetic value.
Hence ˈrebus v. trans., to mark or inscribe with a rebus or rebuses.
In quot. 1864 substituted for berebus used by Fuller, Worthies, Essex (1662) 330.
1655Fuller Ch. Hist. iv. xv. §35 John Morton..had a fair library (rebussd with More in text and Tun under it). 1864Athenæum No. 1932. 595/1 A fine cenotaph..rebused with hawks. |