| 释义 |
red letter
1. a. (Chiefly pl.) A letter made with red ink, or with some red pigment, esp. as used in ecclesiastical calendars to indicate saints' days and church festivals. Also in fig. context.
14..A.B.C. Poem 13 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 244 Red letter in parchemyn Makyth a chyld..Lettrys to loke & se. 1490Caxton Eneydos xxii. 83 We wryte yet in oure kalenders the hyghe festes wyth rede lettres of coloure of purpre. 1570Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) 695/1, I did but onely colour them with red letters. And thus for matter of my Calendare enough. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. ii. 97 He's a Booke in his pocket with red Letters in't. Cade. Nay then he is a coniurer. 1658H. Plumptre in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. V. 6 Enter it into your Calendar with red letters, that when it comes, it may be celebrated. 1679V. Alsop Melius Inquirendum 17 If this were the Character of Primitive Saintship, the Apostle Paul must not have worn a Red Letter in our Enquirer's Calendar. 1879Spurgeon Serm. XXV. 411 The hour which sovereign grace has marked with a red letter in the calendar of love!
†b. transf. The Roman Catholic Church, as being prominently given to the observation of saints' days and festivals. Obs.
1679Oates Narr. Popish Plot Ded. a ij, He that was caught and executed..was of the same Red-Letter, and had Masses sung for him after his death. c1688in Hardwick Trad. Lanc. (1872) 269 The fountain is called Saint Ellen's Well, to which place the vulgar neighbouring people of the Red letter do much resort.
c. As the name of a moth.
1845Westwood Moths II. 180 Depressaria ocellana (the red letter).
2. a. attrib., as red-letter almanac, red letter mark, red letter name; † red-letter man, a Roman Catholic (cf. 1 b).
1677Marvell Season. Argum. Wks. 1776 II. 570 A red letter man, if of any religion. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Red-letter-man, a Roman-catholic. 1816Coleridge Lay Serm. (Bohn) 315 These are red-letter names even in the almanacs of worldly wisdom. 1843(title) The Red Letter Almanack. 1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVI. 81 My desire..gained me some red-letter marks at the war-office.
b. red-letter day, a saint's day or church festival indicated in the calendar by red letters; hence, any memorable, fortunate, or specially happy day. (So red-letter night.)
1704S. Knight Diary in Amer. Speech (1940) XV. 231/2 Red letter day. 1740Mock Campaign 18 Their empty Eccho only now displays Great —'s Power on Red Letter Days. 1776Brand Pop. Antiq. (1777) Pref. 8 The Calendar was crowded with Red-Letter Days, nominally..consecrated to Saints. 1782F. Burney Cecilia x. vi, ‘To-day is a red-letter day, so that's the reason of it’. ‘A red-letter day?’ 1811Coleridge Lett. II. 566 To sit at the same table with Grattan, who would not think it a memorable honour, a red letter day in the almanac of his life? 1887T. A. Trollope What I remember I. xvii. 354, I used to dine and pass the evening with Dr. Jeune; and these were my red-letter days. 1894D. C. Murray Making of Novelist 6 My red-letter nights were when he came over to my native town. 1905Proctor & Frere New Hist. Bk. Common Prayer (ed. 3) ix. 338 It is difficult to see clearly the motive which determined the selection of the black letter Saints' Days. In the case of the red letter days it was clearly the desire to bring the festivals to the test of the Bible. 1919Granta 1 May 4/1 January 18th, 1889 should be a red-letter day in the history of Cambridge University, for it was on that date that The Granta, like a new planet, swam into our ken. 1965C. E. Pocknee Parson's Handbk. (ed. 13) xvi. 145 The 1928 Book classifies days as holy, special, and ordinary. To Holy (or Red-letter) Days 1928 has added St. Mary Magdalene, 22 July, and the Transfiguration of our Lord, 6 August.
Hence red-lettered a. (and pa. pple.), distinguished by, marked with, red letters; red-letter v. to mark in this way (rare).
1707J. Stevens Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 327 Why should we make red letter'd Saints? 1784Cowper Let. 21 June, It is reasonable to suppose, that in the next year's almanack we shall find the name of Handel among the red-lettered worthies. 1832Southey in Q. Rev. XLVIII. 281 The bonfires of persecution and St. Bartholomew's red-lettered day. 1868Browning Ring & Bk. iii. 640 Assuredly it shall be salve to mine [ear] When this great news red-letters him, the rogue! 1898Daily News 11 Oct. 8/1 The efficiency of the action being evidenced by a red-lettered shutter. 1940A. Upfield Bushranger of Skies xiv. 160 The history of his life was red-lettered with luck. |