| 释义 |
almanac|ˈɔːlmənæk|
Forms: 4 almenak, 6–7 almanach(e, (6 amminick), 7 almanacke, 6–9 -ack, 8– -ac.
[Appears in med.L. as almanac(h in end of 13th c., and soon after (though it may have been earlier) in most of the Rom. langs., It. almanacco, Sp. almanaque, Fr. almanach, the immediate source of which was app. a Spanish Arabic al-manākh; Pedro de Alcala, in his Arabic-Castilian Vocabulista (1505), has ‘manākh, almanaque, calendario’; also ‘manaḥ (probably meant for same word), relox del sol’ [sundial]. But the word occurs nowhere else as Arabic, has no etymon in the language, and its origin is uncertain. See note at end of this article.]
An annual table, or (more usually) a book of tables, containing a calendar of months and days, with astronomical data and calculations, ecclesiastical and other anniversaries, besides other useful information, and, in former days, astrological and astrometeorological forecasts.
(The ‘almanacs’ known to Roger Bacon and Chaucer were permanent tables of the apparent motions and positions of sun, moon, and (?) planets, whence the astronomical data for any year could be calculated. ‘The calculations [of Regiomontanus, 1475] of the places of the sun and moon were the best that had been made in Europe..He speaks of them himself as ‘quas vulgo vocant almanach’’ (Hallam Lit. Eur. 1855 I. 190). In 15th c. almanacs or ephemerides began to be prepared for definite periods, as 30 or 10 years, and in 16th c. for the year, with which was combined the ecclesiastical calendar; astrological and weather predictions appear in 16–17th c.; the ‘useful statistics’ are a modern feature.)
c1391Chaucer Astrol. Prol. 3 A table of the verray Moeuyng of the Mone from howre to howre, every day and in every signe, after thin Almenak. 1508(W. de Worde) Almanacke for xii. yere, ¶ This almanacke and table shall endure .xii. yere and is called after the latytude of Oxenforde (& it is taken out of the grete ephymerides or almanacke of .xxx. yere). 1543(title) ¶ An Almanacke moste exactly sette foorth for the terme of xiiii. yeres, shewing in what date, houre, minute, signe, and degre, the Moone shall bee at the tyme of her chaunge and full, with the Eclipse of the sunne and Moone, from the date of our Lorde MD xliiii, vnto the date of our Lorde MD lvii. ¶ Imprinted by Richarde Grafton. 1587H. Baker (title) Rules and Documentes touching the vse and practise of the common Almanaches, which are called Ephemerides. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 54 Doth the Moone shine that night wee play our play? A Calender, a Calender! looke in the Almanack, finde out the Mooneshine. 1598B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iii. iv. (1616) 38 These filthie Almanacks, an't were not for them, these dayes of persecution would ne're be knowne. 1599Warn. Faire Wom. ii. 556 Did ye looke in the Amminicke? 1606Dekker Seven Sins ii. (Arb.) 23 Falshood and Lying thus haue had their day, and like Almanackes of the last yeare, are now gon out. 1653Walton Angler To Reader 5 They that make Hay by the fair dayes in Almanacks. Ibid. As useful as an Almanack out of date. 1662Fuller Worthies ii. 289 It was in plain truth a perpetual Almanack. 1663Cowley Verses & Ess. (1669) 126 He does not look in Almanacks to see, Whether he Fortunate shall be. 1687T. Brown Saints in Upr. Wks. 1730 I. 73 St. Longinus and St. Amphibolus, upon my infallibility, have not their fellow in the almanack. 1751Addison Freeholder No. 22, 128 My Friend perceiving by his Almanack that the Moon was up..left me. 1775Boswell Johnson l. (1848) 452/2 You would reduce all history to no better than an almanac. 1802Southey S. Antidius Wks. VI. 161 There was an eclipse that night, Which was not in the Almanack. 1863Kinglake Crimea (1876) I. vii. 102 A Prince of the sort which Court almanacs describe as ‘Serene.’
Comb. almanac-maker, -man, -making.
1611Cotgr., Prognostiqueur, Almanack-maker, fortune-teller, foreteller. a1613Overbury A Wife, etc. (1638) 131 An Almanack-maker Is the worst part of an Astronomer. 1650B. Discolliminium 30 My skill in Almanack-making. 1654Gayton Festiv. Notes 268 (T.) Almanac-makers are forced to eat their own prognosticks. a1697Eachard Hobbes' State Nat. (1705) 53 A meer Human Institution of the Almanack-men. 1708Swift Predict. for 1708 Wks. 1755 II. i. 147 The almanack-maker has the liberty of chusing the sickliest season of the year.
[Note. As to the origin and history of the word almanac:—
1. The earliest notices are: 1267 Roger Bacon Op. maj. xv. (1733) 120 Antiqui astronomi ponunt principium anni circiter principium Octobris, sicut patet in expositione tabularum, quae Almanac vocantur; Op. Tert. xi. (1859) 36 ‘Hæ tabulæ vocantur Almanach vel Tallignum, in quibus..homo posset inspicere omnia ea quæ in cælo sunt omni die, sicut nos in calendario inspicimus omnia festa sanctorum; c1345Giovanni Villani Cronica xi. xli, ‘Secondo l'almanacco di Profazio Giudeo, e delle tavole Toletane dovea essere la detta congiunzione di Saturno e di Giove a di 20 del detto mese di Marzo’ [where the ‘Tables of Toledo’ (constructed c 1080 by Arzachel) again point to the Arabs in Spain]. Explanations have been offered of manākh from Semitic sources, as Arab. manay to define, determine, manā measure, time, fate; Heb. manāh to allot, assign, count; Arab. manaḥa to present, minḥat a gift, all of which fail in form or sense or both.
2. Eusebius, De Præp. Evangel. iii. 4, quotes Porphyrius as to the Egyptian belief in astrology, in horoscopes, and so-called lords of the ascendant, ‘whose names are given in the almenichiaká (ἐν τοῖς ἀλµενιχιακοῖς), with their various powers to cure diseases, their risings and settings, and their presages of things future.’ Notwithstanding the suggestive sound and use of this word (of which however the real form is very uncertain), the difficulties of connecting it historically either with the Spanish Arabic manākh, or with med.L. almanach without Arabic intermediation, seem insurmountable. Nor does the sense really point to such tables as those described by Roger Bacon, Chaucer, and Regiomontanus.
3. Manākh has been identified with a L. manacus or manachus, applied in Vitruv. ix. 8 (Dialling) to a circle in a sun-dial showing the months or signs of the zodiac, an origin which would well explain Pedro's word in both senses; but the true reading of Vitruvius's word is now generally agreed to be mēnæus (Gr. µηναῖος monthly); and it has not yet been shown that the reading manacus was ever so generally known or accepted, as to make its adoption probable at the hands of any Arab astronomer in Spain. Nor has it been shown to be impossible. Of many other conjectures none are worthy of notice.] |