| 释义 |
hearsay|ˈhɪəseɪ|
Forms: see hear v. and say v. Also 6 heard say.
[subst. use of phr. to hear say: see hear 3 b.]
1. That which one hears or has heard some one say; information received by word of mouth, usually with implication that it is not trustworthy; oral tidings; report, tradition, rumour, common talk, gossip.
c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 1075, I knowe nothyng of it but by here say. 1553N. Grimalde Cicero's Offices (c 1600) 14 b, I have heard nothing but by heard say. 1577Hellowes Gueuara's Chron. 315 Thou speakest by heare⁓saye, rather then by anye experience. 1577Harrison England ii. ix. (1877) i. 199 So much as I have gathered by report and common heare-saie. 1589R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1590) 11 Heresay is too slender an euidence to spit a mans credit vpon. 1600Holland Livy xxxix. vi. 1026 Things..which by bare heeresay were reported to haue beene done. 1631Gouge God's Arrows v. vii. 417 The whole world was made to tremble at the heare-say of them. 1642Rogers Naaman 117 The hearsay of Christ wrought all these things in them. a1708Beveridge Thes. Theol. (1710) II. 298 Not meerly upon hearsay or tradition. 1761Gilbert's Law Evidence 112 Hearsay is good evidence to prove, who is my grandfather, when he married, what children he had, etc. of which it is not reasonable to presume that I have better evidence. 1769Sir W. Draper in Junius Lett. xxvi. 121 Is it hearsay, or the evidence of letters, or ocular? 1847James J. Marston Hall ix, I gave him stronger proof than mere hearsay.
b. With a and pl. A report received; a rumour, a piece of gossip.
a1642Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts iv. (1704) 428/1 This Report seems to be a Hearsay of a second Person. 1699Bentley Phal. Introd. 7, I am asham'd to see a Person tell such little Hear says. 1730Berkeley Let. to T. Prior 7 May Wks. 1871 IV. 183 A hearsay, at second or third hand. 1840Carlyle Heroes i, Wrappage of traditions, hearsays, mere words. 1847Longfellow Ev. ii. i. 33 Sometimes a rumour, a hearsay..came.
2. attrib., passing on one side into an adj., on the other giving rise to combinations: (a) Of the nature of hearsay; (b) founded or depending upon what one has heard said, but not within one's direct knowledge, as hearsay account, hearsay censure, hearsay declaration, hearsay knowledge, hearsay report, hearsay rumour, hearsay tale; (c) of hearsay, speaking from hearsay, as hearsay author, hearsay babbler, hearsay witness, † hearsay-man.
1580Sidney Arcadia i. x. 139 Poet. Wks. 1873 II. 33 [Those] whose metall stiff he knew he could not bend With hear-say pictures. 1602Carew Cornwall (1811) 59, I can in these tin cases plead but a hearsay experience. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xxv. 171 An hearsay account by Bellonius. 1683Tryon Way to Health 361 These Hear⁓say-men or Book-Philosophers, called, The Learned, are as ignorant as any..of the true knowledge of God in them⁓selves. 1738Birch Life Milton App. M.'s Wks. I. 94 All the Evidence was two hear-say Depositions taken in 1642, from Persons who were told so by the common Soldiers of the Irish. 1787M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) I. 254 We had both of us an hearsay knowledge of each other. 1814Chalmers Evid. Chr. Revel. i. 44 The report of hearsay witnesses. 1816Singer Hist. Cards 149 To promulgate hearsay reports. 1826in Sheridaniana 315 The crude opinions of the hearsay babbler. 1859Tennyson Vivien 800 She blamed herself for telling hearsay tales.
b. hearsay evidence: evidence consisting in what the witness has heard others say, or what is commonly said, as to facts of which he has himself no original or personal knowledge.
1753W. Stewart in Scots Mag. Mar. 135/1 Hearsay-evidence is..rejected in law. 1768Blackstone Comm. iii. xxiii. (1800) 368 Yet in some cases (as in proof of any general customs, or matters of common tradition or repute) the courts admit of hearsay evidence. 1848Wharton Law Lex. s.v. Hearsay Evidence, The exceptions to the general rule of the inadmissibility of hearsay evidence are..(1) dying declarations; (2) hearsay in questions of pedigree; (3) hearsay on questions of public right, customs, boundaries, [etc.]. 1878Lecky Eng. in 18th C. II. vi. 148 Hear⁓say evidence of the loosest kind was freely admitted.
Hence ˈhearsay v. intr. (nonce-wd.), to tell what one has heard; to repeat rumours. † hear-saying (in 4 hyere zigginge), hearsay, report = hearing say: see hear 3 c.
1340Ayenb. 117 He ne may noþing wel conne bote ase me kan þe batayle of troye be hyere-zigginge. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. vi. vii, Men riding and running, reporting and hearsaying. |