| 释义 |
immortal, a. and n.|ɪˈmɔːtəl|
Also 4–5 in-.
[ad. L. immortāl-is (in pl. = the gods), f. im- (im-2) + mortālis mortal. Cf. F. immortel (13–14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), It. immortale.]
A. adj.
1. a. Not mortal; not liable or subject to death; deathless, undying; living for ever.
c1374Chaucer Troylus i. 103 So aungelli was hyre natyf beaute Þat lyke a þyng inmortal semede sche. c1386― Man of Law's T. 541 Immortal god that sauedest Susanne Fro fals blame. 1494Fabyan Chron. 6 All these were Mynystris of god immortall. 1526Tindale 1 Tim. i. 17 So then vnto god kynge everlastynge immortall invisible and wyse only be honoure and prayse for ever and ever. 1529More Dyaloge i. Wks. 155/1 What if ye woulde..wene that bestes had immortall soules as men haue? 1656–9B. Harris Parival's Iron Age (ed. 2) 59 Departed out of this fraile life, to the immortall one. 1742Young Nt. Th. vii. 1398 Souls immortal, made for bliss. 1885Finlayson Biol. Relig., Etern. Life 87 A human soul might be immortal—in the sense of living on for ever,—and yet might never have..‘eternal life’—the true spiritual life of fellowship with God.
b. transf. Pertaining to immortal beings or immortality; heavenly, divine.
1535Coverdale 2 Esdras ii. 45 These be they, that haue put of the mortall clothinge and put on the immortall. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. v. ii. 283, I haue Immortall longings in me. 1803–6Wordsw. Intimations ix, Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither.
2. a. In wider sense: Not liable to perish or decay; everlasting, imperishable, unfading, incorruptible.
1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 140 Of the Lawes in force, some are fundamentall..and immortall..others are Temporall. 1644Milton Areop. (Arb.) 45 The race, where that immortall garland is to be run for. 1752Hume Pol. Disc. xii. 303 The world itself probably is not immortal. 1776Adam Smith W.N. i. xi. iii. (1869) I. 220 The precious metals..are not necessarily immortal any more than they [the coarse metals].
b. spec. Of fame, or of famous works or their authors: Lasting through an unlimited succession of ages; that will not fade from the memory of men; remembered or celebrated through all time.
1514Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 18 [They] have in batayle..Won fame immortall, and excellent honours. 1632Milton L'Allegro 137 Soft Lydian airs, Married to immortal verse. 1738Swift Pol. Conversat. Introd. 4 King William the Third, of ever glorious and immortal Memory. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters II. 18 As our Immortal Boyle has demonstrated, they are compound bodies. 1840Alison Europe (1849–50) VIII. liv. 464 Saragossa..has now..become immortal in the rolls of fame. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life ix. vi. (1875) 331 It was during tedious years of imprisonment that Bunyan wrote his immortal allegory. 1928E. C. Webster Pot Holes 3, I am as fond of Burns as any, and have read a good deal of his poetry,..but I am not one of those who believe that the Immortal Memory can only be preserved by a yearly pickling in alcohol. 1959Times 17 Apr. 15/3 His record of devotion to the ‘Immortal Memory’—a toast which he had proposed all over Scotland and England—was typical of this special cult which the wandering Scot has carried all over the globe. 1973Listener 15 Mar. 344/2 The Johnson celebration..the toast to ‘the immortal memory’.
†c. immortal herb: = immortelle. Obs.
1731–7Miller Gard. Dict., Xeranthemum,..is vulgarly call'd the Immortal Herb, because the Flower of it may be kept for many Years, for it has rigid Petals, which crackle as if they were Plates of Metal.
3. a. In hyperbolical use: Lasting, perpetual, constant, ‘undying’, ‘eternal’.
1538Stephen in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. iii. III. 223 With immortal thancks for youre inestymable goodnes towarde me. 1586A. Day Eng. Secretary i. (1625) 75 The..immortall hate, that all good men beare to..such kind of crueltie. 1669Pepys Diary 29 Jan., I have made myself an immortal enemy by it. 1681Temple Mem. iii. Wks. 1731 I. 356 An immortal Body of six thousand brave English, which were by Agreement to be continually recruited. 1696Phillips (ed. 5), Immortal,..abusively said of things that last longer than People would have them, such a Woman has an immortal Clack.
†b. colloq. Superhuman, inhuman, excessive. Obs.
c1540tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden No. 29) 208 Then he besowght ayd, wherby, throwgh his immortal benyfyt, he might returne safely unto his owne nobylytie. a1627Hayward Four Y. Eliz. (Camden) 95 A most immortall and mercilesse butcherie did arise.
B. n.
1. An immortal being; one not subject to death. In pl., esp. as a title for the gods of classical mythology.
16..Waller (J.), The Paphian queen,..Like terror did among th' immortals breed, Taught by her wound that goddesses may bleed. 1684Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 8 She thought she saw..her Husband in a place of Bliss among many Immortals. 1774J. Bryant Mythol. III. 87 (Jod.) There was a war carried on against the Titans of Babylonia, whom he styles the Immortals. 1791Cowper Iliad xvi. 542 Under yon great city fight no few Sprung from Immortals. a1854H. Reed Lect. Eng. Lit. vii. (1878) 236 Man..is an immortal, gifted with a soul.
2. fig.
a. In pl. a title for the royal bodyguard of ancient Persia (see quot. 1838); also, for other troops.
1803Edin. Rev. II. 62 The English expedition was opposed to their immortals, to troops covered with trophies and scars. 1823Crabb Technol. Dict., Immortals (Mil.), a term of derision applied to soldiers who never see war. 1838Thirlwall Greece II. xv. 253 A body of 10,000 Persian infantry, the flower of the whole army, who were called the Immortals, because their number was kept constantly full.
b. A person, esp. an author, of enduring fame: cf. A. 2 b. Usually in pl.
Applied familiarly to the forty members of the French Academy (F. les quarante immortels), with a side reference to the fact that their number is always filled up; hence sometimes to the Royal Academicians in England.
1882Froude Carlyle I. 421 He might not have been the Carlyle, who has conquered for himself among the Immortals.
3. That which is immortal; immortality.
1841James Brigand i, As if the immortal within us were telling the mortal of anxieties and griefs, and dangers approaching. 1844Mrs. Browning House of Clouds xiii, Love secures some fairer things, Dowered with his immortal.
Hence iˈmmortalism, a doctrine of or belief in immortality; iˈmmortalist, one who believes in immortality; iˈmmortalness = immortality; iˈmmortalship [f. the n.], the personality of an immortal (used as a burlesque title).
1796W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. XXI. 509 Doctrines of freedom of the will, immaterialism, *immortalism, and theism.
a1667Jer. Taylor Funeral Serm. 392 (L.) The inhabitants of Ister..were called *Immortalists, because..they saw this clearly, that virtuous and good men do not die, but their souls do go into blessed regions. 1817W Taylor in Monthly Rev. LXXXIII. 15 Deists and atheists, immortalists and mortalists.
1616R. C. Times' Whistle etc. (1871) 151 Then shall our corruptible flesh put on *Immortalnesse and incorruption.
1816G. Colman Br. Grins, Fire xliii, Up their *immortalships all bounced. |