| 释义 |
honorific, a. (n.)|ɒnəˈrɪfɪk|
[ad. L. honōrific-us, f. honor honour n. + -ficus making, -fic. Cf. F. honorifique (1507 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
A. adj. Doing or conferring honour; importing honour or respect; spec. applied to phrases, words, or forms of speech, used, esp. in certain Oriental languages, to express respect, e.g. certain adjectives meaning ‘august’, ‘eminent’, ‘venerable’, etc., substituted in Chinese and Japanese for the possessive pronouns of the second and third person; forms of the verb used in respectful address, etc.
1650Bulwer Anthropomet. vii. 83 They had no other Nurses lesse honorifique than Eunuchs. 1816Keatinge Trav. (1817) I. 239 The epithet Abu, father, is honorific. a1846Landor Wks. (1868) I. 396/1 Generous to the robber, honorific to the poisoner and assassin. 1861F. Hall in Jrnl. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 204 note, The S′rí is to be regarded as honorific. 1879Cust in Trans. Philol. Soc. 617 The verb [in Korean] has a simple affirmative form, a conditional, an interrogatory, an honorific, a causative, and several others. 1888Times 8 Oct. 5/2 A solemn proposal..that the honorific title of ‘Worshipful’ should be bestowed by the government on its president.
B. n. An honorific phrase or word: see above.
1879Bailey in H. Spencer Princ. Sociol. §398 II. 153 They use none of the honorifics so profusely common in Singhalese; the pronoun to, thou, being alone used. 1889Athenæum 2 Mar. 273/1 Where these honorifics occur [in Japanese] the sentence can always be easily turned so as to give their significance, which is often of a merely pronominal character, the honorific indicating a reference to the person addressed or forming the subject of the thought.
So † honoˈrifical a. = honorific a.; hence honoˈrifically adv., in an honorific manner.
1656Blount Glossogr., Honorifical, that brings or causeth honor. 1816Keatinge Trav. (1817) I. 344 A very brave people, honorifically, or nic-named by the Moors, The Sons of Lions. c1878Birch Anc. Hist. fr. Mon. Introd. 20 (S.P.C.K.) Queens were honourifically styled wives or handmaids of the God Amen. |