| 释义 |
▪ I. idol, n.|ˈaɪd(ə)l|
Forms: α. 3 ydele, idele, 4 idel. β. 4–6 ydol(e, 5–6 ydoll, 5–7 idoll, 6 idole, 4– idol.
[ME. a. OF. id(e)le, and idole, ad. late L. īdōl-um (also īdŏl-um in Prudentius c 400, Sedulius c 470), image, form, spectre, apparition, in eccl. use ‘idol’, a. Gr. εἴδωλον image, phantom, idea, fancy, likeness, in LXX ‘idol’, f. εἶδος form, shape. The early OF. idele, idle (11th c.), represent the Latin ˈīdŏlum, the accentuation following that of the Greek. The current Fr. idole was adapted in 13th c. from L. īdōlum.]
The order of appearance of the senses in English does not correspond to their original development in Greek, where the sequence was apparently: ‘appearance, phantom, unsubstantial form, image in water or a mirror, mental image, fancy, material image or statue’, and finally, in Jewish and Christian use, ‘image of a false god’. In English this last was, under religious influence, the earliest, and in ME. the only sense; hence (as also in Fr.) came sense 2. These are the only popular uses of the word. The other uses are 16th c. adoptions of earlier Greek senses, often however coloured by association with sense 1.
I. From Jewish and Christian use.
1. An image or similitude of a deity or divinity, used as an object of worship: applied to those worshipped by pagans, whence, in scriptural language, = false god, a fictitious divinity which ‘is nothing in the world’ (1 Cor. viii. 4).
c1250Gen. & Ex. 1871 Godes ðat rachel hadde stolen..And oðre ydeles broȝt fro sichem. a1300Cursor M. 11759 Al þair idels in a stund Grouelings fel vnto þe grund. 1340–70Alex. & Dind. 754 For ȝour ydil idolus don ȝou ille wirche. 1382Wyclif 1 Cor. viii. 4 We witen for an ydol is no thing in the world, and that ther is no God but oon. 1388― Wisd. xiv. 8 But the idol [1382 maumet] which is maad bi hond is cursid, bothe it, and he that made it. 1484Caxton Fables of æsop vi, A man whiche had in his hows an ydolle the whiche oftyme he adoured as his god. 1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 17 Y⊇ priestes which serue y⊇ Idols are had in chiefe reuerence. 1600J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa i. 6 Some are Gentiles which worship Idols; others of the sect of Mahumet. 1651Hobbes Leviath. iv. xiv. (1839) 650 But the name of idol is extended yet further in Scripture, to signify also the sun, or a star, or any other creature, visible or invisible, when they are worshipped for gods. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. i. (1840) 27 Their dumb idols, whom they called by the name of the holy gods. 1840Carlyle Heroes iv. (1858) 275 Idol is Eidolon. a thing seen, a symbol. It is not God, but a Symbol of God; and perhaps one many question whether any the most benighted mortal ever took it for more than a Symbol. 1860Pusey Min. Proph. 51 To say that it was made, was to deny that it was God. Hence the prophets so often urge this special proof of the vanity of idols.
b. Applied polemically to images or figures of divine beings and saints, and, more generally, to any material object of worship in a Christian church.
1545Brinklow Compl. 52 [He] set vp in the same place another idol of S. Iohan Baptyst. 1554T. Sampson in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) III. App. xviii. 47 Out of this mischievous idol the mass. 1566in Peacock Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866) 44 One Rood with Marie and John and the rest of such Idolles was brent. Ibid. 45 Item an Idoll of all halowes—cut in peces by Mr. william ffearnes a year past. 1598J. Dickenson Greene in Conc. (1878) 122 Like to Idols, lay-mens bookes. 1608–11Bp. Hall Epist. i. vi. Wks. (1627) 284 The famous Kentish idoll moued her eyes and hands by those secret gimmers which now euery puppet⁓play can imitate. 1630(title) The Great Idol of the Mass overthrown; a Sermon..By a Protestant. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. II. iv. 46 These various impostures were exposed at St. Paul's whither also were brought other idols from all parts of the country.
†c. A representation of a deity under some monstrous and non-natural form. Obs.
c1400Mandeville xv. (1839) 164 Summe worschipen symulacres and summe ydoles. But betwene Symulacres and ydoles is a gret difference. For symulacres ben ymages made after lyknesse of men or of wommen, or of the sonne, or of the mone, or of ony best, or of ony kyndely thing. And ydoles is an ymage made of lewed wille of man, þat man may not fynden among kyndely thinges. As an ymage þat hath iiij hedes, on of a man, another of an hors, or of an ox, or of sum oþer best þat no man hath seyn.
2. fig. Any thing or person that is the object of excessive or supreme devotion, or that usurps the place of God in human affection.
a. A thing.
[1557N. T. (Genev.) 1 John v. 21 Babes kepe your selues from idoles.] 1562A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) i. 119 In sum hartis is gravit new agane Ane image, callit cuvatyce of geir; Now, to expell þat idoll..God gif þe grace. 1639T. Brugis tr. Camus' Mor. Relat. 351 It is only to save their purses that mettle, whereof they make their Idoll. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Idol,..any Object of one's Fondness. 1737[S. Berington] G. di Lucca's Mem. 4 Money, the Idol of other People, was the least of his Care. 1771Mackenzie Man Feel. xviii. (1803) 40 His darling idol, was the honour of a soldier. 1831Brewster Newton (1855) II. xxii. 286 He tells him that space is now the idol of Englishmen.
b. A person so adored.
1591Shakes. Two Gent. ii. iv. 144 Pro. Was this the Idoll, that you worship so? Val. Euen she. 1639T. Brugis tr. Camus' Mor. Relat. 270 Whom shee openly cals her servant, and makes of him her Idoll. 1797Burke Corr. IV. 433 They who make a man an idol, when he is off his pedestal will treat him with all the contempt with which blind and angry worshippers treat an idol that is fallen. 1820W. Irving Sketch Bk. I. 44 How can she bear neglect? she has been the idol of society. 1839Thirlwall Greece VI. lii. 266 A hero who was the idol of his army.
II. From classical Greek (and Latin) use.
†3. An image, effigy, or figure of a person or thing; esp. a statue. Obs.
1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI 115 The citezens of Orleaunce, had buylded in the honor of her, an Image or an Idole. 1583Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 51 He rash charged with launce thee mystical idol. 1591Spenser Ruins Rome v, Her brave writings..In spight of time..Doo make her Idole through the world appeare. 1605Verstegan Dec. Intell. iii. (1628) 72 His Idoll was after his death honored prayed and sacrificed vnto.
†b. A counterpart, likeness, imitation; = image n. 4, 4 c. Obs.
1590Spenser F.Q. ii. ii. 41 Men..Doe her adore..As th' Idole of her makers great magnificence. 1641Chapman's Bussy D'Ambois Plays 1873 II. 61 So women..Are the most perfect Idols [1607 images] of the Moone. 1667Milton P.L. vi. 101 Th' Apostat in his Sun-bright Chariot sate, Idol of Majestie Divine.
†c. Aspect, appearance, likeness; = image n. 3.
1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xv. ii. (1886) 325 Orobas cometh foorth like a horsse, but when he putteth on him a mans idol, he talketh of divine vertue.
†4. An inert inactive person (who has the form, without the proper activity or energy, of a man). = F. idole, but in Eng. naturally associated with idle = idler. Obs.
1579Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 238/1 It is not an honour of idlenesse, to bee called to this state, and therfore that he must not play the idoll, but..must giue himselfe to it..and take paines about it.
5. A visible but unsubstantial appearance, an image caused by reflexion as in a mirror, an incorporeal phantom.
1563W. Fulke Meteors (1640) 41 b, Men have seen..two Sunnes..They are nothing else but Idols or Images of the Sunne, represented in an equall..watry cloud. c1611Chapman Iliad xxiii. 94, I see we have a soul In th' underdwellings, and a kind of man-resembling idol. 1676Hobbes Iliad (1677) 344 In hell there souls are, though they have no hearts, But idols only are, and forms of men. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. v. 784 By the Idol of the Soul Plotinus seems to mean, an Airy or Spirituous Body. 1822Shelley Faust ii. 386 It is an enchanted phantom, A lifeless idol. 1886Stevenson Dr. Jekyll x. 114, I looked upon that ugly idol [his image] in the glass.
6. A mental fiction; a phantasy or fancy.
1577T. Vautrollier Luther on Ep. Gal. 123 In their heart they stablish, not the righteousnes of the lawe..but a mere fantasie and an Idoll of the lawe. 1684tr. Agrippa's Van. Arts 335 They frame to themselves..so many Idols and Phantomes of their own Imaginations about divine things. 1899Findlay in Expositor Feb. 94 They hold and grasp the very God in Christ, and are no longer mocked with vain idols and phantoms of blessedness.
b. Logic. A false mental image or conception; a false or misleading notion; a fallacy; = idolum 2.
[1620Bacon: see Idolum.] 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. v. § 5. 884 But this is a mere idolum specus, an idol of the cave or den. Ibid. 886 This is but another idol of the Atheists den. 1733Shaw tr. Bacon's Nov. Org. i. Aph. xxxix, There are four Kinds of Idols that possess the Mind of Man... We will..call the first Kind, Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Den; the third, Idols of the Market; and the fourth, Idols of the Theatre. 1785Reid Intell. Powers vi. viii. 652 To every bias of the understanding, by which a man may be misled in judging, or drawn into error, Lord Bacon gives the name of idol. 1877Conder Bas. Faith ii. 81 Impenetrability, so confidently assumed as a self-evident primary property of matter..is seen to be an idol of our imagination.
†7. A fictitious personation; a counterfeit, sham; a pretender. (By Spenser used of a magic counterfeit.) Obs.
1590Spenser F.Q. iii. viii. 11 To walke the woodes with that his Idole faire. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xx. §17 She well knew that this Lambert was but an Idoll, hammered out of the hot braine of that Boutefew Richard Simon, yet shee embraceth the occasion, countenanceth the Imposture. 1612Davies Why Ireland etc. (1787) 47 Those two idols or counterfeits which were set up against him in the beginning of his reign. 1622Bacon Hen. VII, 29 He knew the pretended Plantagenet to be but an Idoll. 1660Fuller Mixt Contempl. (1841) 252 King Henry the Seventh was much troubled with idols..pitiful persons who pretended themselves princes.
†8. The phrase idol shepherd used in Zech. xi. 17 in Geneva Bible and 1611 (where the Vulg. has O pastor et idolum, LXX οἱ ποιµαίνοντες τὰ µάταια, and the Revised Version of 1885 ‘worthless shepherd’), was frequently used in 17th c. polemics, sometimes with allusion to idolatry, sometimes with idol taken as = ‘counterfeit’ or ‘sham’ (sense 7), sometimes associated with idle (see sense 4), and so ‘neglectful of duty’. Obs.
[1535Coverdale Zech. xi. 17 O Idols shepherde, that leaueth the flocke.] 1560Bible (Genev.) ibid., O idole shepherd that leaueth the flocke. 1575–85Abp. Sandys Serm. (Parker Soc.) 71 Wo therefore to the idle and idol pastor. 1590H. Barrow in Confer. iii. 55 We are ledd vnto Idoles when we are ledd vnto such Ministers as you, which..are Idole Shepherds and Ministers. 1611Bible Zech. xi. 17 Woe to the idoll shepheard that leaueth the flocke. 1612T. Taylor Comm. Titus ii. 1 All idle, and idoll, Ministers that thrust themselues in for Pastors, and can onely feed themselues. 1634Canne Necess. Separ. (1849) 121 Reading of homilies in the church..is said to be..but the instrument of foolish and idol shepherds.
9. attrib. (without hyphen).
Often not distinguishable from the combinations in 10.
c1585R. Browne Answ. Cartwright 33 He will haue..an Idol christ to be the life of the church. Ibid. 34 What remaineth but an Idol or counterfet christ? 1623B. Jonson Underwoods, Celebr. Charis viii, Nay, I will not let you sit 'Fore your idol glass a whit! 1648Gage West Ind. xviii. 124 Placing there their Idoll Saints and Images. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 307 Besides, not Egypt, India..more With servile Awe their Idol King adore. 1827Keble Chr. Y. 17th Sund. Trin. v, What idol shapes are on the wall pourtray'd. 1854Proc. Soc. Antiq. III. 51 William Sells..exhibited..three sketches of an Idol Figure of Mexican appearance.
10. Comb.
a. simple attrib. Of an idol, of idols, as idol-altar, idol-chapel, idol-chariot, idol-clergy, idol-dwelling, idol-figure, idol-form, idol-graith, idol-house, idol-priest, idol-procession, idol-prophet, idol-room, idol-sanctuary, idol-service, idol-shrine, idol-throne.
b. Pertaining to or connected with idols or idol-worship, idolatrous, as idol-devotion, idol-enjoyment, idol-feast, idol-fire, idol-folly, idol-hope, idol-hymn, idol-ocean, idol-offering, idol-pressure, idol-sacrifice, idol-sin.
c. appositive, as idol-block, idol-devil, idol-gold, idol-notion, idol-self, idol-snake.
1611Bible 1 Macc. i. 54 They..builded *idole altars throughout the cities of Iuda. 1860Pusey Min. Proph. 572 The dust of the idol-altars was cast into the brook Kedron.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 93 To worship..not that Virgin, on Earth holie, in Heaven glorious; but these idol-conceits, and *idol-blockes of her.
1860Pusey Min. Proph. 41 Each *idol-chapel..which they had multiplied to their idols.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1864) 142 They haue those *Idol-chariots, like vnto Towers, to the drawing whereof, many thousands of deuout persons put their helping-hand.
1608Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iv. Decay 226 Ba'l's *Idol-Clergy hee [Jehu] doth bring to nought.
1600Holland Livy 1355 In old time they called this *Idoll-devill, Vejovis, because he was deprived of all power to helpe and doe good.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1864) 136 Which [sacrifices] in *Idoll-deuotion were all bestowed after on the poore.
1816Byron Ch. Har. iii. xci, *Idol-dwellings, Goth or Greek.
1860Pusey Min. Proph. 554 God would wring his idol-sacrifices and *idol-enjoyments from him.
1641Hinde J. Bruen xxx. 95 Such Wakes, and *Idol-Feasts.
1832Tennyson ‘Love thou thy Land’ 69 A wind to puff your *idol-fires, And heap their ashes on the head.
1827Keble Chr. Y. 5th Sund. Easter vii, An *idol form of earthly gold.
1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 297 Whither the lustfull Spaniard brought it, with his *Idol-gold from ravisht Indya.
1860Pusey Min. Proph. 193 Bethel, the centre of their *idol-hopes.
1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 1022 To sacrifice at the altars of their gods in *idoll-houses, that is to say, in their idol temples. 1882Archæol. Cantiana XIV. 103 A temple or idol-house where King Ethelbert according to the rites of his tribe was wont to pray.
1827Keble Chr. Y. 3rd Sund. Lent viii, What seem'd an *idol hymn, now breathes of thee.
1663J. Spencer Prodigies (1665) 98 Common Experience (the surest Corrector of all *Idol Notions and hasty Reasonings). 1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 60 Having..consecrated in our-selves certain idol-notions, which we will never suffer to be unveil'd.
1608Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iii. Schisme 371 A hundred Prophets..Resist their rage, and from sad drowning keep The wracked planks on th' *Idol-Ocean deep.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 65 Their Priests collusions to make gaines of the *Idol-offerings.
1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 187 Truly these *Idoll Priests are in such great esteeme among them. 1677Gilpin Demonol. (1867) 439 He became an idol-priest in Thessalonica.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1864) 140 Sir Iohn Mandeuile reporteth the same Historie of their *Idoll-Procession, and the ashes of those voluntary Martyrs.
1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. ii. v. §2 He that prophesied in the name of an Idol..this was the *Idol-Prophet.
1605Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iv. Captaines 637 Contemns the Fountains of God's sacred Law, From *Idoll-Puddles poysoning drink to draw.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 444 In the entries of their houses they have an *Idol-roome, where they Incense these Deities morning and evening.
1860Pusey Min. Proph. 28 Partaking of their *idol-sacrifices and idolatrous rites.
Ibid. 150 That God would desolate the *idol-sanctuaries of Israel.
a1711Ken Urania Poet. Wks. 1721 IV. 485 For *Idol-self great God dethrones.
1568Cheny in Strype Ann. Ref. (1709) I. lii. 525 Whether..a godly man may be at *idol-service with his body, his heart being with God.
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Rich. II, cclxxvii, This *Idol-shrine..can boast of greater things Then many Temples famed.
1608Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iv. Decay 184 Thou brought'st Samaria to Thine *Idol-Sin.
1610G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. i. xxi, Dens where *idol-snakes delight Again to cover Satan from their sight.
d. objective and objective genitive, as idol-breaker, idol-maker, idol-monger; idol-breaking, idol-framing, idol-mongering, idol-serving.
e. instrumental and locative, as idol-anchored, idol-hated, idol-prone, idol-wedded, adjs.
1852Meanderings of Mem. I. 211 A heathen lamp supplies With meagre beam his *Idol-anchored eyes.
1579Fulke Confut. Sanders 593 The idolaters haue had two generall councels of their side, the *idoll breakers none. 1840Carlyle Heroes iv. (1858) 285 We are to consider Luther as a Prophet Idol-breaker.
1897Daily News 12 Oct. 6/3 The bigoted Sikander, whose *idol-breaking zeal procured him the title of But-Shikan, or ‘Iconoclast’.
1677Gale Crt. Gentiles iii. 33 It drew their *Idol-framing hearts to set..their adoration on these creatures, the Sun, Moon and Stars.
1603H. Chettle Sheph. Spring Song viii. in Eng. Mourn. Garm. F iv b, The godly Constantine..Purgde this Iles aire from *Idoll-hated sinne.
a1619M. Fotherby Atheom. i. xi. §5 (1622) 121 In making himselfe an Idol-God, hee becommeth both an *Idol-maker, and an Idol it selfe.
1612–15Bp. Hall Contempl., O.T. xviii. i, Abandon those *idol-mongers, restore devotion to her purity.
1889C. Edwardes Sardinia 184 *Idol-mongering was a profitable line of life.
1605Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iii. Law 1121 (*Idol-prone) example leading them.
1606Ibid. ii. iv. ii. Magnificence 645 *Idol-serving Nile.
1605Ibid. ii. iii. iv. Captaines 217 This *Idol-wedded Town.
f. Special comb.: idol's day, a day on which an idol is honoured; idol-shell, a tropical mollusc of the family Ampullariidæ.
1671Milton Samson 1297 This Idol's day hath been to thee no day of rest. 1861P. P. Carpenter Mollusca (Cent.), The true ampullarias, which are peculiar to tropical America, and are called idol-shells by the Indians.
▪ II. † ˈidol, v. Obs. rare.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To make an idol of; to idolize. (See also quot. 1644.)
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. ii. Babylon 20 Good princes..Who idol not their pearly scepter's glory. 1607Lingua ii. ii. D iij, And when they haue thus Idold her [a lady-love] like Pigmalion, they fall downe and worship her. 1644Abp. Maxwell Sacrosancta Reg. Maj. xi. 115 They Idoled the Covenant so much, that they would renounce God, if he would not be..the God of the Covenant. Ibid. xv. 147 He resolveth to Idoll or serve corruptly the humour and state of the people where he liveth. |