| 释义 |
imaginary, a. (n.)|ɪˈmædʒɪnərɪ|
Also 4 ymag-, 6 imaginarie.
[ad. L. imāgināri-us, f. imāgo, imāgin- image: see -ary1.]
A. adj.
1. a. Existing only in imagination or fancy; having no real existence. (Opposed to real, actual.) imaginary museum = musée imaginaire (see musée 2).
1382Wyclif Rev. Prol., Sum visioun is bodili..sum is spiritual, or ymaginarie, as whanne we seen slepinge, or ellis wakinge we biholden the ymagis of thingis, bi whiche sum other thing is signefied. c1510More Picus Wks. 17/1 How shorte, howe vncertain, how shadowe like, false, imaginary it is. 1651Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxiv. 210 The word Ghosts, which signifieth..the Imaginary inhabitants of mans brain. 1709Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Anne Wortley 21 Aug., After giving me imaginary wit and beauty, you give me imaginary passions, and you tell me I'm in love. 1727Swift Gulliver iv. vi, Besides real diseases, we are subject to many that are only imaginary, for which the physicians have invented imaginary cures. 1792Cowper Let. 29 July Wks. 1835–7 III. 60 You may think there is much of the imaginary in it. 1883Froude Short Stud. IV. iii. 265 Rich men could not easily abandon substantial enjoyments in pursuit of so imaginary an object. 1963Times Lit. Suppl. 23 Aug. 642/5 Mr. Skelton's readers are given hardly any notion of the imaginary museums in which poets roam and of which they too must be habitués if they are to appreciate poems more than superficially. 1967Listener 25 May 679/2 Marino's Galeria, the ‘imaginary museum’ where one assembles one's favourite works of art from a number of different locations.
b. Said of lines, etc., assumed to be drawn through or between certain points.
1601Holland Pliny II. 397 If a woman make three imaginary circles round about them [etc.]. 1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 229 An imaginarie line to be drawn from Suaquen to..Meroe. 1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 220 Each two Centers..shall have an imaginary Axis pass between them. 1837Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857) I. 111 Imaginary lines drawn upon it.
c. Math. Applied to quantities or loci having no real existence, but assumed to exist for the purpose of generalization, or of extending a formula to all cases; such are the square root of a negative quantity, or any expression involving such a root, or any point, curve, etc. denoted algebraically by such an expression. (Imaginary quantities are sometimes called impossible quantities.) Also transf. Relating to imaginary quantities or loci, as imaginary geometry, imaginary projection, etc. (Opp. to real.)
[1637Descartes Géométrie 380 Les..racines..ne sont pas tousiours reeles; mais quelquefois seulement imaginaires.] 1706W. Jones Syn. Palmar. Matheseos 127 The Original Components or Roots of all Equations, may be either Affirmative, Negative, Mix'd, or Imaginary. 1816tr. Lacroix's Diff. & Int. Calculus 98 The coefficient dy / dx assumes an imaginary value. 1841J. R. Young Math. Dissert. i. 30 Expressions which in their common algebraic character denote imaginary or impossible quantities. 1859Barn. Smith Arith. & Algebra (ed. 6) 201 The square root or any even root of a negative quantity is called an Imaginary quantity. 1882Minchin Unipl. Kinemat. 215 The remaining portion of this equipotential locus is..the (imaginary) circle which cuts the circle of poles orthogonally.
†2. Relating to the imagination; imaginative.
1595Shakes. John iv. ii. 265 My rage was blinde, And foule immaginarie eyes of blood Presented thee more hideous then thou art. c1600― Sonn. xxvii, My soul's imaginary sight Presents thy shadow to my sightless view. 1677Gilpin Demonol. (1867) 143 Satan had a power..to fix upon their imaginary faculty the species, images, or characters of what was to be suggested.
†3. Of the nature of an image or representation. Obs.
1593Shakes. Lucr. 1422 Much imaginarie worke was there..A hand, a foote, a face, a leg, a head Stood for the whole to be imagined. 1669Woodhead St. Teresa i. xxviii. 192 This Vision, though it be Imaginary (or representing itself by way of Image to me), was never seen by me with the eyes of my Body.
†4. Supposed; putative. Obs.
a1631Donne Serm. xxv. 250 His Imaginary father Joseph.
†5. Imaginable; that can be imagined. Obs.
1653Ashwell Fides Apost. 12 Clearing my way as I go, of al Imaginary rubs and obstacles. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. iii. 20 All imaginary enquiry was made after them, but..there was no news to be had.
B. n.
†1. An imagination; a fancy. Obs.
1709Mrs. Manley Secret Mem. (1736) III. 208 False glittering imaginaries. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) I. 224 And Cowley thus addresses beauty as a mere imaginary. Ibid. II. xiii. 81 The lovers imaginaries (her own notable word) are by that time gone off.
2. Math. An imaginary quantity or expression: see 1 c above.
1864in Webster. 1883Cayley Presid. Addr. Brit. Assoc. 19 Sept., The circular functions..are connected through the theory of imaginaries.
Hence iˈmaginariness (Bailey vol. II, 1727). |