| 释义 |
individuality|ɪndɪvɪdjuːˈælɪtɪ|
[f. as individualistic a. + -ity: cf. F. individualité.]
1. The state or quality of being indivisible or inseparable; indivisibility, inseparability.
b. An indivisible or inseparable entity.
1645Milton Tetrach. (1851) 165 These words also inferre that there ought to be an individuality in Mariage. 1833J. H. Newman Arians ii. iii. (1876) 171 As though He were so derived from the simple Unity of God as..to inhere within that ineffable individuality. 1864― Apol. App. 61 When the eternal foes are so intermingled and interfused that to human eyes they seem to coalesce into a multitude of individualities.
2. The fact or condition of existing as an individual; separate and continuous existence.
1658Sir T. Browne Hydriot iii. 19 But the soul subsisting, other matter clothed with due accidents, may salve the individuality. a1735Arbuthnot (J.), He would tell his instructor..that individuality could hardly be predicated of any man. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. xxvii. (1819) 482 Consciousness carries identity and individuality along with it through all changes of form or of visible qualities. 1876J. P. Norris Rudim. Theol. i. iv. 72 Individuality is essential to our idea of a person.
b. The action or position of the individual members of a society.
1796Burke Regic. Peace ii. Wks. VIII. 253 To them the will, the wish, the want, the liberty, the toil, the blood of individuals is as nothing. Individuality is left out of their scheme of government. The state is all in all.
3. The aggregate of properties peculiar to an individual; the sum of the attributes which distinguish an object from others of the same kind; individual character.
b. Idiosyncrasy; strongly marked individual character.
1614Selden Titles Hon. 117 Appietas and Lentulitas, For the indiuidualite, as it were of Appius and Lentulus, or Patauinitas for Liuies stile. 1628T. Spencer Logick 196 A man is a living Creature, mortall, and capable of learning. In this sentence, man abstracted from individualitie..is described. 1792M. Wollstonecraft Rights Wom. iv. 151 The spring-tide of life over, we look for soberer sense in the face;..expecting to see individuality of character. 1866A. Flint Princ. Med. (1880) 18 The circumstances which give to the different diseases their individuality. 1874Green Short Hist. viii. §10. 585 The Puritan individuality is nowhere so overpowering as in Milton. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 21 In every man's writings there is something like himself and unlike others, which gives individuality.
c. pl. Individual characteristics.
1647H. More Poems 126 The soul..Against the law of Corporeities, It doth devest them both of time and place, And of all individualities. 1862Burton Bk. Hunter (1863) 16 All identically the same in edition and minor individualities. 1871R. H. Hutton Ess. II. 304 Mere individualities of taste and talent and temper.
4. a. An individual thing. b. An individual personality.
1775Johnson Lett. to Mrs. Thrale 26 July, Here sit poor I, with nothing but my own solitary individuality. 1859Baroness Bunsen in Hare Life (1879) II. iv. 245 That little cherished individuality, though ever so young, lives on. 1862Dana Man. Geol. 759 In what respects the earth is an individuality. 1863Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. vi. 150 Jack Falstaff, that most unique and fine of individualities.
5. Phrenology. The faculty of knowing objects as mere substances or existences; the supposed ‘organ’ of this faculty.
1828G. Combe Const. Man 72 Individuality and Eventuality, or the powers of observing things that exist and occurrences. |