| 释义 |
unˈcountable, a. and n.
[un-1 7 b.]
A. adj.
1. = unaccountable a. 2 b. Obs.—1
a1400–50Bk. Curtasye 544 in Babees Bk., The Countrollour shalle wryte to hym,..Vncountabulle he is, as y ȝou say.
2. a. Too numerous to be counted; innumerable. spec. in Math., infinite and incapable of being put into a one-to-one correspondence with the integers. Opp. countable a. 2 c.
1582Stanyhurst æneis, etc. (Arb.) 142 But toe what eend labor I..Thee stars too number, poincts playnely vncounctabil opning. 1586W. Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 36 The vncountable rabble of ryming Ballet makers. 1614Raleigh Hist. World i. i. §11. 15 So were not those vncountable glorious bodies set in the firmament, to no other end, than to adorne it. 1829Marryat F. Mildmay xix, Nests in numbers uncountable. 1876Mrs. Whitney Sights & Ins. xxi, Millions of little uncountable, inseparable threads. 1952R. L. Wilder Introd. Foundation Math. iv. 88 Some mathematicians do not admit the existence of an uncountable set of real numbers as a legitimate consequence of the argument. 1964T. O. Moore Elem. Gen. Topology i. 16 The set R of all real numbers is uncountable. 1971Sci. Amer. Dec. 98/1 If the final destination of the bird is not specified, an uncountable infinity of such graphs can start at C and end anywhere on the track between A and B.
b. Of the pulse, etc.: Too rapid to be counted.
1823G. Kennedy Father Clement x. (1824) 293 Ernest gave his hand, and Dormer pressed it on his temples. The full throb seemed uncountable. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 623 The tongue soon becomes dry, the pulse is uncountable.
3. Inestimable, immense.
1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. iii. viii. I. 263 Which has been of uncountable advantage to Brandenburg. 1860Cornh. Mag. 134 To give uncountable happiness and delight to the world.
4. Gram. That cannot be counted; invariable in number; spec. of a noun: that cannot form a plural or be used with the indefinite article.
1924[see B below]. 1948A. S. Hornby et al. Learner's Dict. Current Eng. p. x, The sign {Ubox} is a warning that the noun..stands for a material, quality, etc. that is uncountable. The noun..may not be used with the indefinite article and must not be used in the plural. 1961R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts ix. 225 There is a tendency to assign uncountable-plural status and mumps are dangerous to adults is heard alongside the preferred mumps is dangerous to adults. 1966J. Derrick Teaching Eng. to Immigrants ii. 71 Foreign learners may misuse these ‘uncountable’ nouns by analogy with ‘countable’ ones and say such things as ‘I want two milks’, ‘This is a rice’, ‘These are moneys’, ‘This is an ink’, etc. 1980Chambers Universal Learners' Dict. p. viii, nu This is short for noun uncountable and means that a noun (or a particular meaning) labelled in this way may not be used in the plural form.
B. n. Gram. An uncountable noun or its referent.
1924O. Jespersen Philos. Gram. xiv. 188 There is a class of ‘things’ to which words like one, two are inapplicable; we may call them uncountables, though dictionaries do not recognize this use of the word uncountable, which is known to them only in the relative sense ‘too numerous to be (easily) counted’. 1965K. Schibsbye Mod. Eng. Gram. ii. 100 Though uncountables are normally in the singular, some of these (nearly) always appear in the plural: oats, riches. 1981Fremdsprachen XXV. 236 Modern grammarians often divide nouns according to their capacity to be used with numerical values into: countables and uncountables.
Hence ˌuncountaˈbility, the property of being uncountable; unˈcountably adv.
1599Nashe Lenten Stuffe 27 Her Maiesties tributes and customes..augmenteth and enlargeth vncountably. 1952R. L. Wilder Introd. Foundation Math. iv. 88 The proof of the uncountability of R. 1955J. L. Kelley Gen. Topology iv. 122 The product of uncountably many topological spaces does not generally satisfy the first axiom of countability. 1977Sci. Amer. Jan. 115/3 Conway's proof of the uncountability of Penrose patterns..can be outlined as follows. 1981Ibid. Nov. 29/1 Their number, however, will be uncountably infinite. |