| 释义 |
uneˈssential, a. and n.
[un-1 7 and 5 b.]
1. Possessing no essence or substance; immaterial.
1667Milton P.L. ii. 439 The void profound Of unessential Night receives him next. 1727Thomson Summer 81 Prime Chearer, Light!..Without whose vesting Beauty, all were wrapt In unessential Gloom. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 666 Ask me by what authority of history I prove that Regulus had any notion of..the unessential nature of justice. 1827Pollok Course T. iii. 412 Most unsubstantial, unessential shade, Was earthly Fame.
2. Not pertaining to or affecting the essence of a matter; unimportant.
a1656Bp. Hall Beauty & Vnitie Ch. Wks. 1837 V. 245 Neither difference of time, nor distance of place,..nor any unessential error, can bar our interest in this Blessed Unity. 1716Addison Freeholder No. 39 ⁋5 Those, who differed from him in the unessential Parts of Christianity. 1748W. Melmoth Fitzosborne Lett. (1763) 169 So far is he from thinking it unessential, that he acknowledged it as the only separation which distinguishes them from prose. 1838Arnold Hist. Rome (1845) I. 166 A form..as unessential as the crowd's acceptance of the king at an English coronation. 1873M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma (1876) 166 This excludes as unessential much of the criticism which [etc.].
b. absol. That which is not essential.
1840Carlyle Heroes iv. (1904) 139 He distinguishes what is essential, and what is not; the unessential may go very much as it will. 1841Myers Cath. Th. iii. §33. 120 Who is to determine..the limit of the Unessential?
3. n. An unessential thing or feature.
1828–32Webster s.v., Forms are among the unessentials of religion. 1876Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. 444/2 Unessentials, notes not forming a necessary part of the harmony. Passing, auxiliary, or ornamental notes. 1882Nature XXVI. 523 A general conception..is arrived at by abstracting the essentials and neglecting the unessentials.
Hence uneˈssentially adv.
[1847Webster.] 1856Olmsted Slave States 182 With a climate so unessentially dissimiliar. |