| 释义 |
valetudinary, a. and n.|vælɪˈtjuːdɪnərɪ|
[ad. L. valētūdināri-us, f. valētūdin-, valētūdo valetude. So It., Sp., Pg. valetudinario, F. valétudinaire.]
A. adj.
1. Not in robust or vigorous health; more or less weakly, infirm, or delicate; invalid:
a. Of the body, etc.
1581Mulcaster Posit. xxx. (1887) 110 Either it is sickly,..or it is healthy,..or it is valetudinarie, neither pure sicke nor perfit whole. 1619Donne Lett. Wks. 1839 VI. 374, I carry an infirm and Valetudinary body. 1692Boyle Hist. Air 230 Oxford..I have known to be very disagreeable to some moist splenetick and valetudinary bodies. 1836Fraser's Mag. XIV. 705 His puny and valetudinary frame would not permit him.
fig.1712Steele Spect. No. 300 ⁋3 This valetudinary Friendship, subject to so many Heats and Colds.
b. Of persons. (In later use freq. implying anxious attention to the state of one's own health.)
1584Cogan Haven Health cxcvii. 161 For they [students] be commonly valetudinary, that is sickely. 1646R. Baillie Anabaptism (1647) Pref., Very small changes of the heaven and air are able to vex much a crazy and valetudinary person. 1692Boyle Hist. Air 242 Sick and valetudinary Persons used to be sent thither. 1733Cheyne Eng. Malady Pref. (1734) p. viii, A gross, full, high Diet, is [improper] for a poor, thin, low, valetudinary Creature. 1779Johnson L.P., Pope Wks. IV. 91 All the unpleasing and unsocial qualities of a valetudinary man. 1808Scott in Lockhart (1837) I. i. 19 Though valetudinary, he lived to be nearly ninety. 1844N. P. Willis Lady Jane i. 44 The men being old and valetudinary.
absol.1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. xiii. 230 Preventive we call that [physic] which..preventeth sicknesse in the healthy, or the recourse thereof in the valetudinary. 1652Gaule Magastrom. 139 Experience of all places, and ages tell us, that the more valetudinary, have commonly been the more vertuous. 1741Compl. Fam.-Piece i. i. 2 The Tender therefore, and Valetudinary, ought cautiously to avoid all Occasions of catching Cold. 1782Med. Comm. I. 11 note, The old and valetudinary, suffered most severely. 1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 165 The valetudinary, consumptive, and physic-taking, earliest fall victims of the ship's motion.
2. Of conditions, etc.: Characterized by weak or feeble health.
1620Venner Via Recta viii. 163 Such as are naturally infirme, and of a valetudinary state of body. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. xv. 530 No Cough nor any signs of a Valetudinary disposition of the Lungs do appear. 1701C. Wolley Jrnl. N. York (1860) 26 A person seemingly of a weakly Stamen and a valetudinary Constitution. a1776R. James Diss. Fevers (1778) 44 Mr. Collyer..has by that means been brought from the most valetudinary state, to one of great health and vigour. 1830Scott Demonol. ix. 331 Apparently a man of melancholic and valetudinary habits. 1876L. Stephen Hist. Eng. Th. 18th C. II. 386 The last thirty-six years of his long life was passed in valetudinary retirement.
B. n.
†1. An infirmary or hospital. Obs.
After med.L. valetudinarium.
1623Cockeram i, Valetudinarie, an Hospitall. 1677W. Hughes Man of Sin iii. ii. 45 There lay the poor man, till being found, he was carried into the Valetudinary.
2. = valetudinarian n.
1785Lounger (1787) I. 200 Dr. Doddipoll was a valetudinary like myself. 1787F. Burney Diary 15 Aug., General Grenville, a silent, reserved valetudinary, went under the same convoy. 1851E. FitzGerald Euphranor 46 It is better to die well ever so young than to grow up a valetudinary and a poltroon. 1860Macm. Mag. II. 36 The painters who have shown him [Christ] as a delicate valetudinary. |