| 释义 |
genius|ˈdʒiːnɪəs|
Pl. genii |ˈdʒiːnɪaɪ|, geniuses, († genius's).
[a. L. genius, f. *gen- root of gi-gn-ĕre to beget, Gr. γίγνεσθαι to be born, come into being.
In Lat. the word has mainly the sense 1 below (the extended sense 2 occurs post-classically), and a fig. sense approaching 3. As a word of learned origin it is found in the Rom. langs.: F. génie (whence Ger. genie), It., Sp., Pg. genio, which have approximately the same senses as in Eng. To some extent the sense-development in Rom. has been affected by confusion with ingenium (see engine): cf. for example F. génie civil ‘civil engineering’.]
1. With reference to classical pagan belief: The tutelary god or attendant spirit allotted to every person at his birth, to govern his fortunes and determine his character, and finally to conduct him out of the world; also, the tutelary and controlling spirit similarly connected with a place, an institution, etc. (Now only in sing.)
In the first two quots. Genius is the proper name of an allegorical person who in the Rom. de la Rose represents the native moral instincts of mankind as setting bounds to the range of sexual passion.
[1390Gower Conf. I. 48 O Genius min owne clerke Come forth and here this mannes shrifte. c1400Rom. Rose 4768 They..Whom genius cursith, man and wyf, That wrongly werke ageyn nature.] 1513Douglas æneis ix. iv. 49 Gif that euery mannis schrewit desyre Be as his God and Genyus in that place. 1536Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1541) Proheme Cosmogr. xii, Thair is na thing may be so odius To man, as leif in miserie and wo Defraudand god of nature genius. [Cf. Ter. Phorm. i. i. 10 and Hor. Ep. ii. ii. 188.] 1596Drayton Leg. iv. 51 The pale Genius of that aged floud. 1605Shakes. Macb. iii. i. 56 Vnder him My Genius is rebuk'd, as it is said Mark Anthonies was by Cæsar. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. i. 10 Thou Genius of the place..Which liued'st long before the All-earth-drowning Flood. c1630Risdon Surv. Devon §225 (1810) 237 Genii of the spring. 1647R. Stapylton Juvenal 63 Any thing wherein the spirit or soule delighted, was called sacred or peculiar to the genius, especially feasting and marriage. 1663Dryden To Author 55 in Charleton Stone-heng, Watch'd by the Genius of this Royal place. 1701Rowe Amb. Step-Moth. i. i. 51 Let their Guardian Genii still be watchful. 1745Collins Ode Col. Ross i, Britannia's Genius bends to earth. c1800K. White Childhood ii. 260 Kind genii of my native fields benign. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 87 It was his guiding Genius (Dämon) that inspired him; he must go forth and meet his Destiny. 1843Dickens Christmas Carol i, It seemed as if the Genius of the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the threshold. 1863Scotsman 12 Aug., We are now able..to thank our stars that the genius of red tape was so strong even in France. 1871Farrar Witn. Hist. iii. 99 Christians..who would die rather than fling into the altar-flame a pinch of incense to the Genius of the Emperors. 1887Bowen Virg. æneid v. 95 His sire's familiar, or genius haunting the shore.
†b. After Lat. use: This spirit viewed as propitiated by festivities; hence, one's appetite. Obs.
1605B. Jonson Volpone i. i. B 2 a, What should I do, But cocker vp my Genius, and liue free To all delights, my fortune calls me to? 1693Dryden Juvenal iv. 105 To your glad Genius sacrifice this Day; Let common Meats respectfully give way.
c. (a person's) good genius, evil genius: the two mutually opposed spirits (in Christian language angels) by whom every person was supposed to be attended throughout his life. Hence applied transf. to a person who powerfully influences for good or evil the character, conduct, or fortunes of another.
1610Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 27 The strongst suggestion, Our worser Genius can. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 365 A tradition of two Genii, which attend every man, one good, the other evill. 1653H. More Antid. Ath. iii. xiv. (1712) 130 The Pythagoreans were of opinion that every man has two Genii, a good one, and a bad one. 1660J. S. Andromana iii. v. in Hazl. Dodsley XIV. 244 My better genius, thou art welcome as A draught of water to a thirsty man. 1702Rowe Tamerl. iv. i. 1689 Thou..art an evil Genius to thyself. 1770Langhorne Plutarch (1879) II. 1006/2 Men had their evil genii, who disturbed them with fears, and distressed their virtue. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. vii. 24 It needed the intervention of his better genius in the form of Godwine.
†d. In astrological use the word survived, with some notion of its original sense, passing into a symbolical expression for the combination of sidereal influences represented in a person's horoscope. Obs.
1643Milton Divorce i. x, But what might be the cause, whether each one's allotted Genius or proper star, or [etc.]. 1657H. Pinnell Philos. Ref. 67 The other part therefore of Man, or this sydereall body is called the Genius of man, because it proceedeth from the Firmament; it is called Penates, because it is in our power and born with us, the shadow of the visible body, Lar domesticus, the good or bad houshold or private Angell.
e. The quasi-mythologic personification of something immaterial (e.g. of a virtue, a custom, an institution), esp. as portrayed in painting or sculpture. Hence transf. a person or thing fit to be taken as an embodied type of (some abstract idea).
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iii. ii. 337 Hee was the very Genius of Famine. 1875B. Harte Tales Argonauts, Baby Sylvester, A golden lizard, the very genius of desolate stillness, had stopped breathless upon the threshold of one cabin.
2. A demon or spiritual being in general. Now chiefly in pl. genii (the sing. being usually replaced by genie), as a rendering of Arab. jinn, the collective name of a class of spirits (some good, some evil) supposed to interfere powerfully in human affairs.
c1590Greene Fr. Bacon ix. 71 Whereas the pyromantic genii Are mighty, swift, and of far-reaching power. 1646Buck Rich. III Ded., To the common-rout, they..are another kind of Genius, or ignis fatuus. 1653Ld. Vaux Godeau's St. Paul 321 The worship of Angels or Geniuses [printed Genieuses]. 1655Stanley Hist. Philos. ii. (1701) 83/1 They mock even the Genius of Socrates as a feigned thing. 1681H. More Exp. Dan. ii. 25 The activity therefore of the Aerial Genii or Angels may be understood by these Winds. 1688A. Behn tr. Van Dale's Hist. Orac. (1718) 150 Evil Genii, and Spirits condemn'd to eternal punishment. 1756–82J. Warton Ess. Pope (1782) II. x. 178 It seemed one of those edifices in Fairy Tales, that are raised by Genii in a nights time. 1779Franklin Wks. (1889) VI. 261 Albumazar..was visited nightly by genii and spirits of the first rank. 1832W. Irving Alhambra I. 251 The genii, who watch over the place, were obedient to my magic power. 1879Gladstone Glean. I. i. 32 The whole narrative really recalls the most graceful fictions of wise genii and gentle fairies.
3.
†a. Of persons: Characteristic disposition; inclination; bent, turn or temper of mind. Obs.
1581Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 62 A Poet, no industrie can make, if his owne Genius bee not carried vnto it. 1599B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. ii. i. (1600) D 4 a, I cannot frame me to your harsh vulgar phrase, tis agaynst my Genius. 1663Gerbier Counsel 36 Those things whereunto their Genius doth tend. 1686Observ. Chinese Char. in Misc. Cur. (1708) III. 215 There have been various ways thought of for Expressing Significancy, according to the several Genii of the Persons that were the Inventors. 1690Evelyn Mem. (1857) III. 318 Its being suitable to my rural genius, born as I was at Wotton, among the woods. 1697tr. C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 83 He immediately discovered the Queens Genius, and easily made himself her Confident. 1713Derham Phys. Theol. v. i. 312 There is the same Reason for the variety of Genii, or Inclinations of Men also. 1761Hume Hist. Eng. III. lxi. 319 Men of such daring geniuses were not contented with the ancient and legal forms of civil government. 1780Johnson Let. to Mrs. Thrale 10 July, Every man has his genius..my genius is always in extremes. 1781J. Moore View Soc. It. (1790) I. xvi. 188 The intriguing genius of Pope Julius. 1804W. Tennant Ind. Recreat. (ed. 2) II. 162 Operations requiring no effort..and on that account peculiarly suited to the genius of the indolent Bengalese.
b. With reference to a nation, age, etc.: Prevalent feeling, opinion, sentiment, or taste; distinctive character, or spirit.
1639Fuller Holy War v. xix. (1640) 260 The warre-genius of the world is altered now-a-dayes, and supplieth number with policie. c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. 74 Before I wean my self from Italy, a word or two touching the genius of the nation. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. 189 My Acquaintedness with the Genius of the Age had sadly taught me that I was to alter my Method. 1701Swift Contests Nobles & Comm. Wks. 1755 II. i. 44 The people of England are of a genius and temper never to admit slavery among them. 1711Addison Spect. No. 29 ⁋9 A Composer should fit his Musick to the Genius of the People. 1754Hume Hist. Eng. (1761) I. ix. 196 The barbarous and violent genius of the age. 1791Burke App. Whigs Wks. 1842 I. 531 The genius of this faction is easily discerned. 1845Stephen Comm. Laws Eng. (1874) I. 81 Owing perhaps to some peculiar averseness in the early genius of the country from change in its legal institutions. 1855Prescott Philip II, I. i. i. 2 This flexibility was foreign to the genius of the Spaniard.
personified.1871Morley Voltaire (1886) 4 The rays from Voltaire's burning and far-shining spirit..struck upon the genius of the time, seated dark and dead like the black stone of Memnon's statue.
c. Of a language, law, or institution: Prevailing character or spirit, general drift, characteristic method or procedure.
1647N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. xlix. (1739) 85 The right genius of this Law will also more evidently appear by the practice of those times. 1699Bentley Phal. 244 The Genius and Constitution of Tragedy. 1705Addison Italy 183 They are chiefly to be ascrib'd to the very Genius of the Roman Catholick Religion. 1755Johnson Dict. Pref., Such [words] as are readily adopted by the genius of our tongue. 1765Harris Three Treat. Advt., Those Treatises, being written in Dialogue, from their Nature and Genius admit not of Interruption. 1776Adam Smith W.N. i. viii. (1869) I. 77 The genius of the British Constitution. 1791Burke Th. Fr. Affairs Wks. VII. 15 They will examine into the true character and genius of some late events. 1814T. Bell View Coven. Wks. 270 The Decalogue changed as it were its genius. a1850J. C. Calhoun Wks. (1874) III. 219 The genius of our constitution is opposed to the assumption of power. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) II. 17 He expresses the very genius of the old comedy. 1875Stewart & Tait Unseen Univ. i. §36 (1878) 54 The whole genius of Christianity would appear to point towards a total submission.
d. With reference to a place: The body of associations connected with, or inspirations that may be derived from it. (Cf. 1 and 7.)
[1681Dryden Prol. Univ. Oxf. 25 By the sacred genius of this place.] 1823Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Tombs in Abbey, Is the being shown over a place the same as silently for ourselves detecting the genius of it? 1844Disraeli Coningsby iv. xv, In Palestine, I met a German student who was accumulating materials for the History of Christianity, and studying the genius of the place. 1844Stanley Arnold I. iii. 101 Whatever peculiarity of character was impressed on the scholars whom it sent forth, was derived not from the genius of the place, but from the genius of the man.
†e. Of material things, diseases, etc.: The natural character, inherent constitution or tendency.
1675Grew Anat. Trunks ii. vi. §6 Convolvula's do not wind by any peculiar Nature or Genius. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 80 The Culture suiting to the sev'ral Kinds Of Seeds and Plants; and what will thrive and rise, And what the Genius of the Soil denies. 1725Pope Odyss. ix. 152 Here all products and all plants abound, Sprung from the fruitful genius of the ground. 1728–30― in Spence Anecd. (1858) 9 In laying out a garden, the first thing to be considered is the genius of the place: thus at Riskins..Lord Bathurst should have raised two or three mounts; because his situation is all a plain. 1747Berkeley Tar-water in Plague Wks. III. 483 Fevers..change their genius in different seasons.
4. Natural ability or capacity; quality of mind; the special endowments which fit a man for his peculiar work. (Now only with mixture of sense 5.)
1649Milton Eikon. 241 To unsettle the conscience of any knowing Christian is a thing above the genius of his Cleric elocution. 1662Evelyn Chalcogr. 74 Hugens..so worthily celebrated for his..universal Mathematical Genius. 1725T. Hearne Pref. to R. Brunne's Chron. I. 27 For no Study can be more pleasant to Persons of a genius than that of our National History and Antiquities. 1729Franklin Ess. Wks. 1840 II. 263 Different men have geniuses adapted to a variety of different arts and manufactures. 1759Robertson Hist. Scot. I. i. 68 His genius was of that kind which ripens slowly. 1768W. Gilpin Prints 125 Dorigny seems to have exhausted his genius upon it. 1831Brewster Newton (1855) I. xii. 322 The peculiar genius of Newton has been displayed in his investigation of the law of universal gravitation. 1840Thirlwall Greece VII. 71 A design certainly suited to Alexander's genius. 1853Lytton My Novel ii. x, The Squire, whose active genius was always at some repair or improvement.
b. Natural aptitude, coupled with more or less of inclination † to, for (something). (Now only with mixture of sense 5.)
1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. i. §6, I have no Genius to disputes in Religion. 1707J. Archdale Descr. Carolina 11, I advise, That such Missionaries be well skill'd in Chymistry, and some natural Genius to seek the Virtues in Herbs, Metts and Minerals. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. i. (1840) 7 One having a genius to this, another to that kind of knowledge. 1788Priestley Lect. Hist. v. l. 381 A genius for science by no means depends upon climate. 1798Ferriar Illustr. Sterne ii. 38 He had no great genius for poetry. 1818Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. viii. 684 He had no genius, any more than Clive, for schemes of policy including large views of the past. 1844Mrs. Browning Crowned & Buried xxvii, He had The genius to be loved. 1871Smiles Charac. vi. (1876) 183 Their genius for borrowing, in the long run, usually proves their ruin. 1878R. W. Dale Lect. Preach. ii. 38 Mr. Gladstone has an extraordinary genius for finance. 1889Lowell Latest Lit. Ess., Walton (1891) 80 Walton had a genius for friendships.
5. (Only in sing.) Native intellectual power of an exalted type, such as is attributed to those who are esteemed greatest in any department of art, speculation, or practice; instinctive and extraordinary capacity for imaginative creation, original thought, invention, or discovery. Often contrasted with talent.
This sense, which belongs also to F. génie, Ger. genie, appears to have been developed in the 18th c. (It is not recognized in Johnson's Dictionary.) In sense 4 the word had come to be applied with especial frequency to the kind of intellectual power manifested by poets and artists; and when in this application ‘genius’, as native endowment, came to be contrasted with the aptitudes that can be acquired by study, the approach to the modern sense was often very close. The further development of meaning was prob. influenced by association with senses 1 and 2, which suggested that the word had an especial fitness to denote that particular kind of intellectual power which has the appearance of proceeding from a supernatural inspiration or possession, and which seems to arrive at its results in an inexplicable and miraculous manner. This use, which app. originated in England, came into great prominence in Germany, and gave the designation of Genieperiode to the epoch in German literature otherwise known as the ‘Sturm und Drang’ period. Owing to the influence of Ger. literature in the present century, this is now the most familiar sense of the Eng. word, and usually colours the other senses. It was by the Ger. writers of the 18th c. that the distinction between ‘genius’ and ‘talent’, which had some foundation in Fr. usage, was sharpened into the strong antithesis which is now universally current, so that the one term is hardly ever defined without reference to the other. The difference between genius and talent has been formulated very variously by different writers, but there is general agreement in regarding the former as the higher of the two, as ‘creative’ and ‘original’, and as achieving its results by instinctive perception and spontaneous activity, rather than by processes which admit of being distinctly analyzed.
1749Fielding Tom Jones xiv. i, By the wonderful force of genius only, without the least assistance of learning. 1755W. Sharpe (title), Dissertation on Genius. 1756–82J. Warton Ess. Pope (1782) II. viii. 21 It were to be wished that no youth of genius were suffered to look into Statius. 1783Blair Rhet. iii. I. 41 Genius always imports something inventive or creative. 1801Fuseli in Lect. Paint. i. (1848) 348 By Genius I mean that power which enlarges the circle of human knowledge; which discovers new materials of Nature, or combines the known with novelty. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 259 The genius of Halifax bore down all opposition. 1853De Quincey Autobiog. Sk. Wks. I. 198 note, Talent and genius..are not merely different, they are in polar opposition to each other. Talent is intellectual power of every kind, which acts and manifests itself..through the will and the active forces. Genius..is that much rarer species of intellectual power which is derived from the genial nature—from the spirit of suffering and enjoying—from the spirit of pleasure and pain..It is a function of the passive nature. 1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. iv. iii. I. 407 Genius..means transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all. 1866R. W. Dale Disc. Spec. Occ. vii. 241 The world hardly knew what music was, till the genius of Handel did homage to the Messiah. 1883Froude Short Stud. IV. ii. iii. 195 A man of genius..is a spring in which there is always more behind than flows from it.
6. Applied to a person.
†a. With qualifying adj.: One who has great, little, etc. ‘genius’ (sense 4) or natural ability. Also, one who has a ‘genius’ (sense 3) or disposition of a specified kind. Obs.
[1647–1697: see 6 b.] 1731A. Hill Adv. Poets 18 Vulgar Genii, sowr'd by sharp Disdain. 1768W. Gilpin Prints 237 With a little genius nothing sways like a great name. Ibid. 240 A trifling genius may be found, who will give ten guineas for Hollar's shells.
b. A person endowed with ‘genius’ (in sense 5). (Now only geniuses in pl.)
The earlier examples, in which the word is accompanied by a laudatory adj., probably belong strictly to 6 a.
1647W. Browne tr. Gomberville's Polexander iv. iv. 294 Those great Genius's, on whom most Kings disburthen themselves of the government of their Estates. 1697Dryden Virg., Past. Pref. (1721) I. 91 Extraordinary Genius's have a sort of Prerogative, which may dispense them from Laws. 1711Addison Spect. No. 160 ⁋1 There is no Character more frequently given to a Writer, than that of being a Genius. I have heard many a little Sonneteer called a fine Genius. 1755T. Amory Mem. (1769) I. 91 Such admirable genii as Burnet and Butler. 1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) II. 90 Under the direction of that genius [Inigo Jones] the King erected the house at Greenwich. 1793Beddoes Math. Evid. 61 Why are not geniuses for arts or sciences born among savages? 1800Lamb Lett. (1888) I. 141 All poems are good poems to George; all men are fine geniuses. 1806H. Siddons Maid, Wife, & Widow I. 173 Isaac was a good-dispositioned, industrious boy, but no genius. 1873H. Rogers Orig. Bible ix. (1875) 382 Certain transcendent geniuses—the Bacons, the Newtons, the Shakespeares, the Miltons.
7. phr. ‖ genius loci [L. = ‘genius of the place’], the presiding deity or spirit (see sense 1); but often used in the sense of 3 d.
1771Smollett Humph. Cl., To Dr. Lewis 8 Aug., The pleasure-grounds are, in my opinion, not so well laid out according to the genius loci. 1835W. Irving Crayon Misc., Newstead Abbey (1863) 286 A white marble bust of the genius loci, the noble poet, shone conspicuously from its pedestal. 1878L. W. M. Lockhart Mine is Thine xix. II. 50 The genius loci may be solemn and pensive, but we laugh at him.
8. attrib. and Comb., as genius school; genius-gifted, genii-haunted adjs.; genius-born a., born of genius; † genius-chamber, bridal chamber (see genial a.1).
1894L. J. Miln Strolling Players in East xxi. 194, I represented..the sweet meek maiden who was the *genius-born daughter of Shakespeare's pen.
1513Douglas æneis iv. i. 36 War nocht also to me is displesant *Genyus chalmer or matrimone to hant.
a1851Mrs. Sherwood Life i. (1854) 17 My *genius-gifted and benevolent father.
1817Mrs. Hemans Mod. Greece Poems (1875) 29 Or Tigris rolls his *genii-haunted wave.
1882Seeley Nat. Relig. (1883) 166 The point of close resemblance between the *genius school in art, and the anti-legal school in morals.
Hence (nonce-wds.) ˈgeniused a. [-ed2], endowed with genius; ˈgeniusess [-ess], a female genius; ˈgeniuskin [-kin], a little genius.
1772Nugent tr. Hist. Friar Gerund I. 145 She was not a common woman, but a geniusess and an elegant writrix. 1880S. Lanier Poems (1884) 108 Led by the soaring-genius'd Sylvester. 1882H. C. Merivale Faucit of B. II. i. xvii. 21 He failed..to catch a single idea out of those words with which my geniuskin of song had inspired me. |