| 释义 |
immateriality|ɪmətɪərɪˈælɪtɪ|
[f. immaterial + -ity.]
1. The quality or character of being immaterial or not of the nature of matter:
a. said of forms of energy, or of the conceptions of pure mathematics.
1570Dee Math. Pref. 19 The purity, simplicitie, and Immateriality, of our Principall Science of Magnitude. 1653H. More Conject. Cabbal. (1662) 130 We may be assured, that Immateriality was the work of the First Day, a Monad or Unite being so express a signification of the nature thereof. 1814Shelley Deism Pr. Wks. 1888 I. 321 Light, electricity, and magnetism..seem to possess equal claims with thought to the unmeaning distinction of immateriality. 1863Tyndall Heat ii. §22 (1870) 27 The experiment..which really proved the immateriality of heat.
b. said of spiritual beings or essences.
a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. iv. 86 A demonstration of the soul's immateriality. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. i. §22. 21 He [Pythagoras] asserted the Immortality of the Soul, and consequently its Immateriality. 1710Berkeley Princ. Hum. Knowl. Pref., Of the existence and immateriality of God. 1859Smiles Self-Help iii. (1860) 66 Speculations as to the immateriality and immortality of the soul.
c. Slightness, flimsiness. rare.
1886Stevenson Dr. Jekyll 109 The trembling immateriality, the mist-like transience, of this seemingly so solid body in which we walk attired.
2. An immaterial thing, existence, or essence.
1847–8H. Miller First Impr. xiv. (1857) 229 After originating these buoyant immaterialities, projected them upon the broad current of time.
3. The quality of being unessential or unimportant.
Mod. The immaterialitiy of the consideration. |