| 释义 |
houyhnhnm|ˈhwɪhn(ə)m, ˈhwɪn(ə)m|
[A combination of letters app. intended to suggest the neigh of a horse.]
The name given by Swift in Gulliver's Travels to one of a race of beings described as horses endowed with reason and bearing rule over a degraded brutish race of men, called the Yahoos. Hence transf. A horse having, or considered as having, human characteristics.
1727Swift Gulliver iv. i, Then the bay tried me with a second word, much harder to be pronounced; but reducing it to the English orthography, may be spelt thus, Houyhnhnms. Ibid. iii, The word Houyhnhnm, in their tongue, signifies a horse, and, in its etymology, the perfection of nature. Ibid. xii, The two Yahoos, said to have been seen many years ago upon a mountain in Houyhnhnmland. 1727Pope (title) To Mr. Lemuel Gulliver, the grateful address of the unhappy Houyhnhnms, now in slavery and bondage in England. Ibid. i, Accept our humble lays, And let each grateful Houyhnhnm neigh thy praise. ― Mary Gulliver to Capt. Lemuel Gulliver 107 I'd call thee Houyhnhnm, that high-sounding name. 1773A. Grant Lett. fr. Mount. (1807) I. iii. 30, I should be very sorry to have my poor houyhnhnms where I could neither hear them neigh, nor see them shake their necks. 1833L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire 30 ‘Get on, you Houyhnhnm!’ exclaimed we. The animal coughed banteringly. |