| 释义 |
venerable, a. and n.|ˈvɛnərəb(ə)l|
Also 5–6 Sc. venerabill (5 -ille).
[a. OF. venerable (mod.F. vénérable, = Sp. venerable, Pg. veneravel, It. venerabile) or ad. L. venerābilis, f. venerārī to venerate.]
A. adj.
1. Of persons: Worthy of being venerated, revered, or highly respected and esteemed, on account of character or position:
a. As an epithet of ecclesiastics (or ecclesiastical bodies), now spec. of archdeacons or, in the Roman Catholic Church, of those who have attained the first degree of canonization. (Freq. abbreviated as Ven.)
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) V. 187 Venerable faders of religion were in Egipte in this tyme. 1437Dunfermline Reg. (Bann. Cl.) 285 A venerabill fadir in crist Androw..Abbot of Dunfermlyn. 1455Reg. Aberdon. (Maitland Cl.) I. 275 Be it kende..me Valter of Deskfurde..to be oblysit..til ane venerabille man master Johnne of Clat. 1500Reg. Privy Seal Scotl. I. 69/1 Ane Letter..to ane venerable fader Henry, abbot of Cambuskynneth. a1700in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. (1911) IX. 336 Much Relishing venble Father Bakers..Bookes, wch she write out and faithfully practised. 1730Boston Mem. xii. 418 Having the Dissent by me in writ, from which I read it before this Venerable Assembly [the synod]. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 103 Here..lie together the sacred bodies of the venerable fathers Sosius and Severinus. 1834K. H. Digby Mores Cath. v. iv. 110 In the same age, Peter the Venerable, of Cluny, was defending the use of them [organs] against the Petrobrusians. 1872The Month Aug. 25 The Ven. Bartholomew Holzhauser..died in Germany in 1658. 1894Daily News 29 Jan. 5 Joan of Arc has been..declared ‘venerable’ by the Congregation of Rites. That is..the first step to saintship.
b. In general use. rare.
1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. ii. 131 Hee was.. a man so venerable amongst both the Christians, and Heathen, that his ordinary style was, The Doctor of whole Asia. 1681in Ingleby Shaks. Cent. Praise (Shaks. Soc.) 386, I can't..omit the first Famous Masters in't of our Nation, Venerable Shakespear and the great Ben Johnson. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) III. 195 We have often regretted the particular fault, which, though in venerable characters, we must have been blind not to see. 1755W. Duncan Cicero's Sel. Orat. ix. (1816) 297 It is with justice..that Ennius bestows upon poets the epithet of venerable.
c. Const. for (something) or to (persons). rare.
1653Vaux tr. Godeau's St. Paul 53 A man even to his enemies venerable for his piety. 1713Berkeley Ess. Guardian i. Wks. III. 144 Persons who have devoted themselves to the service of God are venerable to all who fear Him. 1849–50Alison Hist. Europe II. viii. §29. 256 The Archbishop of Arles, venerable for his years and his virtues.
2. Commanding veneration or respect by reason of age combined with high personal character and dignity of appearance; having an impressive appearance in virtue of years and personal qualities.
c1480Henryson Fables, Lion & Mouse 64, I said, Esope, my Maister Uenerabill, I ȝow beseik [etc.]. 1515Barclay Ecloges ii. (1570) B j b/2 Suche men with princes be sene more acceptable Then men of wisedome & clarkes venerable. 1545Joye Exp. Dan. vi. 86 b, Daniel was now a right venerable sage olde father more then lxxx. yeares olde. 1609Dekker Gull's Horn-bk. Proem. 4 O thou venerable father of antient (and therefore hoary) customes, Syluanus, I inuoke thy assistance. 1650Bulwer Anthrop. 130 Man shews more venerable, especially if by age his hairs be every where fairly superaboundantly circumfused. 1687T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 73 A venerable old gentleman, who, they say, had been high pontiff of Rome in the days of yore. a1701Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 87 Said to be the House of Simeon, that venerable old Prophet. 1787Burns Let. J. Skinner 25 Oct., Reverend and Venerable Sir, Accept..my most sincere thanks [etc.]. 1847Mrs. A. Kerr tr. Ranke's Hist. Servia 303 Amongst those executed before Belgrade were venerable Senators..and aged and renowned Woiwodes. 1862M. E. Braddon Lady Audley i, A white beard which made him look venerable against his will. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life iv. ii. 143 A venerable country gentleman who had seen a great deal of the world.
transf.1878Stevenson Inland Voy. 4 Cattle and gray venerable horses came and hung their mild heads over the embankment.
b. Applied to personal features or attributes of these.
1726Pope Odyss. xxiv. 325 The father, with a father's fears: (His venerable eyes bedimm'd with tears). 1738Glover Leonidas ii. 192 His slender hairs, which time had silver'd o'er, Flow'd venerable down. 1808W. Wilson Hist. Dissent. Ch. II. 50 Mr. Barker was in person well made,..and of a venerable appearance. 1816Scott Old Mort. xxx, He wore a breast-plate, over which descended a grey beard of venerable length. 1861Paley æschylus (ed. 2) Supplices 314 note, The king might naturally call the old man πάνσοϕος from his prudence and venerable aspect.
3. Of things:
a. Worthy of, to be regarded with, religious reverence.
1504Lady Margaret tr. De Imitatione iv. i. 261 Wherefore than shulde nat I be more inflamed in thy venerable presence? 1509Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 173 Our Lordes holy woundes fiue, His handes, his feete, and his crosse venerable. 1596Bell Surv. Popery iii. x. 405 How wilt thou touch thy mouth with his venerable blood? 1615Crooke Body of Man 339 Among the vnequall numbers the seauenth hath the first place, whose maiesty and diuinitie is so great, that the antients tearmed it sacred and venerable. 1642Jer. Taylor Episc. (1647) 169 A Bishop hath no new power in the consecration of the Venerable Eucharist, more then a Presbyter hath. c1680Beveridge Serm. (1729) I. 539 The day of Expiation was..much more sacred and venerable than the common sabbath. 1837J. H. Newman Par. Serm. I. 322 What a venerable and fearful place is a Church. 1855Bain Senses & Int. iii. iii. §12 A strong natural feeling of reverence accumulates a store of ideas of things venerable. 1879C. Rossetti Seek & Find 308 Awful then and by us venerable is the dignity of each Christian priest.
b. Worthy of veneration or deep respect; deserving to be revered on account of noble qualities or associations.
1601Holland Pliny I. 81 Ios from Naxus 24 miles, venerable for the sepulchre of Homer. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. viii. 33 Holy Writers, and such whose names are venerable unto all posterity. 1665Glanvill Def. Van. Dogm. 77 To oppose what custom and great names have render'd venerable. 1700Rowe Ambit. Step-Mother i. i, The thoughts of Princes dwell in sacred Privacy Unknown and venerable to the Vulgar. 1769Robertson Chas. V, x. Wks. 1813 III. 207 The ancient and venerable fabric of the German Constitution. 1830Mackintosh Eth. Philos. Wks. 1846 I. 93 Those qualities which are naturally amiable or venerable. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. I. 74 Throughout the whole course of his reign, all the venerable associations by which the throne had long been fenced were gradually losing their strength.
c. Fitted to excite feelings of veneration; impressive, august.
1615Crooke Body of Man 70 For it is a venerable sight to see a man when he is come to the yeares fit for it, to haue his face compassed about with thicke and comely haire. 1718Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Conti 31 July, We saw..yet standing the vast pillars of a temple of Minerva. This venerable sight made me think..on a beautiful temple of Theseus. 1737Whiston Josephus, Antiq. xi. viii. §5 The procession was venerable, and the manner of it different from that of other nations. 1764Goldsm. Trav. 110 While oft some temple's mould'ring tops between With venerable grandeur mark the scene.
4. Worthy of veneration or respect on account of age or antiquity; rendered impressive by the appearance of age.
1610Holland Camden's Brit. 738 An affectionate lover of venerable Antiquity. 1653Vaux tr. Godeau's St. Paul 151 Against an ancient tradition, which to many seems so venerable. 1671F. Philipps Reg. Necess. Ep. Ded., Those evidences and venerable Monuments of Time. 1770Goldsm. Des. Vill. 178 His looks adorn'd the venerable place. 1796H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) II. 421 Thus it is that you are clothed with majesty, venerable ruins of Greece and Rome! 1817Moore Lalla Rookh (1824) 171 That venerable tower, he told them, was the remains of an ancient Fire-temple. 1870Dickens E. Drood iii, In the midst of Cloisterham stands the nuns' house, a venerable brick edifice. 1904J. T. Fowler Durham Univ. 63 The oldest of the venerable lime-trees date from time immemorial.
absol.1693Dryden Juvenal (1697) p. lxxxv, Ancient Words, which, with all their Rusticity, had somewhat of Venerable in them.
b. Ancient, antique, old.
1792S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. i. 65 Those muskets cased with venerable rust. 1842H. Rogers Introd. Burke's Wks. I. 1 Thus a single generation often witnesses the complete demolition of certain venerable errors, propagated and believed through a long succession of ages. 1847C. Brontë J. Eyre xi, Chests in oak or walnut,..rows of venerable chairs, high-backed and narrow. 1857Grindon Life iv. 35 The periodical (atomic) renewal of the body is one of the most venerable ideas in physiology.
†5. Giving evidence of veneration; reverent, reverential. Obs. (So L. venerabilis.)
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 145 They speake in order, and obserue euen without the house a venerable silence. 1624Fisher in F. White Repl. Fisher 224 Kissing their feet, and their sores, out of venerable affection vnto Christ. 1675G. R. tr. Le Grand's Man without Passion 77 Although I have a venerable value for the favourers of this opinion. a1701Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 7 The Venerable presents of some Itinerant Fryars. 1710Shaftesbury Charact. (1737) II. ii. 269 To talk magisterially and in venerable Terms of..an Infinite Being.
6. Comb., as venerable-like, venerable-looking adjs.
1632Lithgow Trav. vi. 264 Wee found twelue Venerable like Turkes. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. xiv, Was he not a venerable-looking man, with grey hair? 1854tr. Hettner's Athens & Peloponnese 31 Tall, venerable-looking men, with noble features.
B. n. A venerable person; an ecclesiastic having the title of ‘Venerable’.
1748Richardson Clarissa VI. 122 Lord M. has engaged the two venerables to stay here, to attend the issue. 1826Southey Vind. Eccl. Angl. 444 But can heresy have come from the Venerables and Saints of the Romish Church? 1891Meredith One of our Conq. xxxv, He described his country's male venerables as being distinguishable from annuitant spinsters only in presenting themselves forked.
b. A venerable thing; an antique. nonce-use.
1803Southey Lett. (1856) I. 222 My old and ugly stall⁓gleanings are all now turning to account... In turning over these venerables, you would be surprised to see how much I find that bears upon biography. |