| 释义 |
▪ I. hub1|hʌb|
Forms: 6 hubbe, 8 hubb, 7– hub.
[Origin unascertained.
Skeat would identify with hob n.2 If the various senses belong to the same word, the common notion would appear to be ‘boss’, ‘(rounded) protuberance’.]
†1. The hob of a fire-place. Obs.
1511,a1825[see hob n.2 1].
2. a. The central solid part of a wheel from which the spokes radiate, and which rotates on (or with) the axle; the nave.
Although used by Blithe in 1649, and (from him) by several 17th c. writers, and in Bradley's Fam. Dict. 1725 (s.v. Elm), this word appears to have been merely dialectal, being unrecognized by the Dictionaries till the 19th c., when it appears first in the American Webster (1828) and Worcester (1846). It has received literary currency mainly from O. W. Holmes, and has recently become generally known in connexion with bicycles. Forby gives under hob, hub (besides the entry cited below) the alleged meaning ‘the hilt or guard of a weapon’, with which he connects up to the hub, ‘as far as possible’; this phrase is in American use associated with the hub of a wheel, as implying ‘deeply, to a great extent, inextricably involved’.
1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1652) 167 [The Elm] the best wood in England, for Wheelwrights Nathes or Hubs for wheels. 1675Grew Anat. Plants (1682) 287 The particles..of Salt stick in them, as the Spokes do in the Hub of a Wheel, or as the Quills in the Skin of a Porcupine. 1800Aurora (Philadelphia) 23 May (Th.), ‘This is not a half measure—I like to do things by the lump—and this bill you will allow is up to the hub.’ Those who are acquainted with the slang language of the American Caucuses will be able to explain what is meant by up to the hub. 1815D. Humphreys Yankey in Eng. 33 I've bin up to the hub, and didn't flinch..nor won't back out now. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Hob, Hub, the nave of a wheel. 1828Webster, Hob, hub, the nave of a wheel (citing Washington). 1831in Harper's Mag. (1884) July 277/1 [They] talked..of being ‘up to the hub’..for General Jackson. 1854C. Thomas Formingdale 81 The mud's up to the hubs in some spots. 1870Eng. Mech. 7 Jan. 414/1, I do not..see what prevents the whole head, sails, hub, tail and all from being blown..off [the windmill]. 1882Bazaar Exch. & M. 15 Feb. 174 Spokes, rim, and hub are all one. 1897Westm. Gaz. 22 Nov. 7/3 It..prevents the back wheel from getting out of line, as so frequently happens with most of the hubs now in use.
†b. The centre or boss of a target; fig. a mark.
a1657R. Loveday Lett. (1663) 221 The Proverb sayes, The blind man sometimes hits a Crow; but ad januam virtutis excubant labor & sudor; and that's the hubbe I aim at.
3. transf. and fig. That which occupies a position analogous to the hub of a wheel; a central point of revolution, activity, life, interest, etc.
Applied to Boston, U.S., and playfully to other places.
1858O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. vi, Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system. You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man, if you had the tire of all creation straightened out for a crow-bar. 1863Kingsley Water-Bab. viii. 299 Next he came to the centre of creation (the hub, they call it there), which lies in latitude 42·21 south, and longitude 108·56 east. 1869Boston Herald Dec. (Farmer), He is to have a quintette club of amateurs with him, from the Hub. 1876Daily News 18 Jan. (Farmer), Calcutta swaggers as if it were the hub of the universe. 1884J. Colborne Hicks Pasha 9 This is the hub, so to speak, of what Canon Farrar calls the three great volcanic centres of religion—Sinai, Jerusalem, and Mecca. 1894Westm. Gaz. 19 Oct. 3/2 This idea is the hub of the piece. 1897Strand Mag. Sept. 293/2 The spider..sits unconcerned but watchful in the centre or hub of her snare.
4. Technical and local uses:
a. Die-sinking. A cylindrical piece of steel on which the design for a coin is engraved in relief. b. Plumbing. A short piece of pipe with a bell at each end, used for joining pipes in line or at an angle. c. An abruptly raised piece of ground, a stumbling-block. d. A thick sod. e. A block for stopping the wheel of a vehicle. f. A small stack of hay (Craven Dial. 1828).
a.1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 628 The making of a ‘hub’ or copy of the die in steel..used for the correction of duplicate copies of the die. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Hub..2. (Die-sinking.) After hardening, the hub is used to make matrixes, from which are made punches which impress the dies used in coining. 1879H. Phillips Addit. Notes Coins 1 Upon the hub the portrait is cut in alto relievo by a machine.
c.1669Bunyan Holy City (ed. Offor) III. 421 There shall be a smooth face upon the whole earth, all..hubs, and hills, and holes, shall now be taken away. 1828Craven Dial., Hub, an uneven piece of ground in a wood. 1864Webster, Hub..a rough protuberance or projecting obstruction; as, a hub in the road (U.S.).
d.1828Craven Dial., Hub, a thick square sod, pared off the surface of a peat bog, when digging for peats. This is sometimes dried for fuel, but it is inferior to the peat.
e.1856S. C. Brees Gloss. Terms, Hub, a block of wood of great service upon railways, and employed to stop the wheels of carriages.
5. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) hub-end; (sense 2) hub-borer, hub-flange, hub-sprocket, etc.; hub-deep adj., adv.; hub-band, a metal band to reinforce a wooden hub of a wheel; hub brake, a brake that acts on the hub of a (cycle) wheel; so hub-braking; hub-cap, a covering for the hub of a wheel of a vehicle.
1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 1458 The rims of the *hub-bands represent a wreath in silver. 1895Cassell's Techn. Educ. V. 199/1 Bronze hub-bands with speech-holes were used by the Romans.
1883H. Sturmey Tricyclists' Indispensable Ann. (ed. 3) 94 There are three great classes of brakes now in use, viz.:—Tyre, ground, and *hub brakes. 1936F. J. Camm Every Cyclist's Handbk. xvii. 108 The cyclist should..take great care to prevent oil entering the shell of a hub brake. 1973Sci. Amer. Mar. 90/2 Two other types of brake made their appearance later. One is the coaster brake, or back-pedaling brake, which is particularly popular in the U.S. The other is the hub brake, or drum brake, of the type used in automobiles and motorcycles.
1909Daily Chron. 20 Mar. 8/5 It combines hand control and *hub braking.
1913Collier's 11 Jan. ii. 7/1 Their wheels, perhaps, have plain *hub caps. 1954A. Huxley Let. 5 Dec. (1969) 716 One would like to find out..why..so many cubists..used forms which are identical with those obtained by photographing reflections in curved surfaces. Did the suggestion actually come from hub caps and the backs of spoons? 1957L. Durrell Justine 27 The great silver Rolls with the daffodil hub-caps. 1959Times 9 Jan. 12/6, I looked forward to removing the hub-cap. 1972J. Brown Chancer xiv. 188 You name it, we found it. All this and neat little packets of H. in the hub-caps.
1897H. Porter Campaigning with Grant xxvi. 415 The mud was nearly *hub-deep.
1870Swaledale Gloss., *Hub-end, the hob at the end of a fire⁓place.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., The inner ends of the spokes are secured in a mortised flange-ring, between which and the *hub-flanges are anti-friction rollers.
1895Daily News 23 Nov. 3/6 These studs..play no part in driving the enlarged *hub-sprocket, at which point they run smoothly over an inner grooved pulley.
Hence (with ref. to Boston, U.S.: see 3, quot. 1858) ˈHubbite, Huˈbbopolis, Huˈbbopolite, etc. nonce-words.
1868W. Boyd in Cambridge (Mass.) Press, Expressive as the face of a Hubbopolitan graduate-maiden. 1877Congregationalist (U.S.) 28 Apr. (Cent.), As wide awake as a veritable New Englander, and as a native-born Hubbite.
▪ II. hub2
A playful abbreviation of husband: cf. hubby.
1812Combe Picturesque ix, All that's passing, and has past, Since your dear Hub beheld it last. a1845Hood Clubs i, My female friends they all agree They hardly know their hubs. |