| 释义 |
amelioration|əˌmiːlɪəˈreɪʃən|
[a. mod.Fr. amélioration, or analogously formed on ameliorate. Quot. 1659 ought perh. to read ‘a melioration.’]
1. The action of making better; or the condition of being made better; improvement.
1659Morrice in Burton Diary (1828) IV. 355 The fruit receives amelioration by the second concoction. 1796Burke Regic. Peace (T.) These very robbers..are in a course of amelioration. 1813Wellington in Gurwood Desp. X. 475 We cannot hope for any permanent amelioration. 1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. 260 Plants are capable of amelioration by peculiar methods of cultivation. 1875Wood Therap. (1879) 107 If recovery occur, it is by a gradual amelioration of the symptoms.
2. concr. A thing wherein improvement is realized; an improvement.
1776Adam Smith W.N. iv. ix. (1869) 248 The buildings, drains, enclosures, and other ameliorations which they may either make or maintain.
▸ Linguistics. The development of a more favourable meaning or of more positive connotations for a word or expression. Cf. pejoration n. 2.
1871A. Abbott & J. R. Seeley Eng. Lessons for Eng. People i. ii. 52 The law of amelioration. 1939J. Hixson & I. Colodny Word Ways 300 Amelioration, the sense development by which a word is elevated, or grows more estimable, as steward from A.S. stigweard. 1964T. Pyles Origins & Devel. Eng. Lang. xi. 309 Amelioration..is well illustrated by knight, which used to mean ‘servant’. 2003A. Curzan Gender Shifts in Hist. Eng. v. 144 Semantic pejoration appears to occur more often than amelioration in the lexicon generally—negative connotations powerfully influence a word's development and are not easily cast aside. |