| 释义 |
impotency|ˈɪmpətənsɪ|
[ad. L. impotentia want of power, want of self-restraint, abstract n. f. impotens impotent. Cf. prec. and see -ency.]
1. = impotence 1.
In the 17th c. freq. used to denote moral weakness, inability to follow virtuous courses or to resist temptation.
c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. xix. (1885) 155 Ffor all such thynges come off impotencie, as doyth power to be syke or wex olde. 1552Latimer Serm. & Rem. (Parker Soc.) 149 Stories, wherein is mentioned the impotency of the devil. 1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. viii. 70 An impotency or disability to do good. 1675Brooks Gold. Key Wks. 1867 V. 303 The covenant of works is the lasting monument of man's impotency and changeableness. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. iii. (1840) 68 The first [magicians] gradually deposed themselves by their mere impotency. 1817Chalmers Astron. Disc. i. (1852) 28 The mind feels its own impotency in attempting to grasp them. 1871Morley Crit. Misc. 23 Intellectual poverty and impotency.
2. a. = impotence 2.
1440J. Shirley Dethe K. James (1818) 5 The greet age of the Kyng..the ympotencye of his lymmes and membirs, the febilenese of his persone. 1594T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 365 They are taken with palsies, lamenesse, and impotencie in all their members. 1662Petty Taxes 4 It is unjust to let any starve, when we..limit the wages of the poor, so as they can lay up nothing against the time of their impotency and want of work. 1707Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 380 Swelling in the Hands and Feet, impotency of Walking. 1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 96 When the impotency results from a paresis or paralysis of the local nerves..the case is nearly hopeless.
b. = impotence 2 b.
1594Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits (1616) 283 If these two separat each from other, vpon pretence of impotencie, and so hee take another wife, and shee another husband. 1644Milton Judgm. Bucer xliii, She who..hath made her self unfit by open misdemeanours, or through incurable impotencies cannot be able, is not..to be esteem'd a wife. 1794S. Williams Vermont 157 An evidence of weakness, impotency, and want of manhood. 1972Oxford Times 28 July 7/1 An Oxford doctor is holding special surgeries for male undergraduates suffering from impotency. Ibid. 7/2 Male impotency is very common.
†3. = impotence 3. Obs.
1542N. Udall in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 5 When he had oons shaken of that ympotencie of voluptuous appetites. 1635N. R. Camden's Hist. Eliz. ii. an. 27. 269 Letters were secretly sent whereby her womanish impotency might be thrust on to her own destruction. 1729Butler Serm. Compassion Wks. 1874 II. 64 Persons..the most free from the impotencies of envy and resentment. |