| 释义 |
verticity Now rare.|vəˈtɪsɪtɪ|
[ad. mod.L. verticitās, f. L. vertic-, stem of vertex vertex. So F. verticité, Sp. verticidad, Pg. verticidade.]
I.
1. The faculty of turning, or tendency to turn, towards a vertex or pole, esp. as exhibited in the loadstone or magnetic needle.
Very common in the 17th c.; now rare or Obs.
1625N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. iv. (1635) 72 The Verticity is that whereby the Poles of the Earthly Spheare, conforme and settle themselues vnto the Poles of the Heauen. 1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. 140 We believe the verticity of the Needle, without a Certificate from the dayes of old. 1705Derham in Phil. Trans. XXV. 2136 And having again straitened it, I was surprized to find it had quite lost its Verticity. 1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. (1806) IV. l. 393 His poker and tongs were natural magnets, and had their verticity fixed by being heated and cooled in a vertical position. 1837Brewster Magnet. 169 The little magnet or needle turned itself briskly,..shewing great verticity. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 712.
fig.1687Norris Coll. Misc. 184 The Soul will then point to the center of Happiness with her full bent and verticity. 1691― Pract. Disc. 170 His Will has lost much of its Verticity or Magnetick Inclination towards the chief Good.
b. With a and pl.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 68 A Loadstone fired..according to the position in cooling contracts a new verticity. 1658― Gard. Cyrus v. 72 If any shall further quæry why magneticall Philosophy excludeth decussations, and needles transversly placed do naturally distract their verticities. 1705C. Purshall Mech. Macrocosm 265 If you heat an Iron Red, and let it cool perpendicular to the Earth,..its lowest end will gain a Verticity towards the North Pole. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Magnet, A Bar of Iron that has gain'd a Verticity by being heated red-hot and cool'd again.
fig.1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. 244 Though the body by a kind of Magnetism be drawn down..; yet the thus impregnate spirit contracts a Verticity to objects above the Pole.
2. The power of turning or revolving; rotation, revolution. ? Obs.
1672Hooker in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) I. 181 The verticity of Jupiter and Mars on their axes. 1690Locke Hum. Und. iv. ii. §11 (1695) 307 A certain number of Globules,..having a verticity about their own Centres. 1819H. Busk Banquet iii. 241 Hence on all subjects sparks of light you throw..: Blaze with the comet in his swift verticity, Or rouse us with a flash of electricity.
II.
†3. The vertex or top of something. Obs.—0
1656Blount Glossogr.
†4. Vertical position in the heavens. Obs. rare.
1646J. Gregory Notes & Obs. (1650) 151 The verticity of any of those [stars] could not haue come and ‘stood over the place where the young child was’. 1686Goad Celest. Bodies ii. xiii. 333 The æstival Part of Heaven does more invigorate those Planets which attend the ☉, not only by their higher Exaltation or Approches to Verticity, but [etc.].
5. pole of verticity (see quot.).
1886Cumming Electricity 54 There are two points, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern, at which the dip is 90°, or the magnetic force is vertical. These points are called the Magnetic Poles of the earth... The term Pole of Verticity is sometimes applied to them. |