| 释义 |
virility|vɪˈrɪlɪtɪ|
Also 6–7 -tie, -tye.
[ad. F. virilité (OF. virilite) or L. virīlitas, f. virīlis virile a.: see -ity. So It. virilità, Sp. virilidad, Pg. -idade.]
1. The period of life during which a person of the male sex is in full vigour; mature or fully developed manhood or masculine force.
1586T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. 531 The parts are these; infancie, childhood, youth, adolescencie, virilitie, and old age. 1623J. Wodroephe Marrow Fr. Tongue 373/2 The first Aage of Man is called Virilitie, in which hee is in his Best Force, Vnderstanding and Disposition. 1652J. Wright tr. Camus' Nat. Paradox i. 4 At such years as but just passing out of Virility he saluted only the first and freshest time of Old-Age. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Virile, For which Reason some compare Youth to Summer, and Virility to Autumn. 1757Burke Abridgm. English Hist. Wks. X. 329 When a young man approached to virility, he was not yet admitted as a member of the State. 1822–7Good Study Med. (1829) II. 27 At puberty it [the pulse] is only 80; about virility 75. 1859Mayne Expos. Lex. 1333/2.
b. transf. or fig.
1622A. Court Constancie i. 41 The ruine of Townes is still at hand;..they haue their Youth, their virility, their Olde age, like men. 1627Donne Serm. 214 Our Virility, our holy Manhood, our religious Strength consists in a faithfull Assurance [etc.]. 1671E. Panton Spec. Juventutis 89 In the Youth and Virility of our Empire our Nobles handled all affairs of State. 1875Maine Hist. Inst. xiii. 395 During the virility of his intellect.
c. Masculine vigour; masculinity of sex.
1890Amer. Naturalist Nov. 1030 We may infer, therefore, that sexual power and high sexual characters go hand in hand, and that in proportion to the advance toward organic perfection virility increases. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 839 Both these men were literary men of more sensitiveness than virility.
2.
†a. The generative organs. Obs.
b. The power of procreation; capacity for sexual intercourse.
1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 2 b/2 That suture or seame which passeth along the virilitye. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. iii. §23 William of Anco was punished with losse of both his eyes and his virilitye. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 205 He never after would trust any of his Eunuchs with any part of their virility. 1659Milton Civ. Power Wks. 1851 V. 316 No less then the amercement of thir whole virilitie. 1721G. Roussillon tr. Vertot's Rev. Portugal 136 The King..was for bringing half the prostitutes of Lisbon to prove his virility. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 194 Such mutilated persons as have voluntarily and deliberately deprived themselves of their virility. 1859Mayne Expos. Lex. 1333/2 Virility,..more particularly the generative power of man.
†c. pl. = prec. Obs.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. ix. 124 Castrated animals in every species are longer lived then they which retaine their virilities. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 206 Sealing up his Virilities in a Box, delivered it unto the King.
3. Manly strength and vigour of action or thought; energy or force of a virile character.
1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1275 Yet could they never observe and keepe the virilitie of visage, and lion-like looke of his [sc. Alexander]. 1632Lithgow Trav. v. 211 Thus..discharged he the function of his calling..with prudent and magnanimous virilitie. 1716Addison Freeholder No. 26. ⁋7, I have lately been told of a Country-Gentlewoman, pretty much famed for this Virility of Behaviour in Party-Disputes. 1768Tucker Lt. Nature I. 262 Etymologists derive virtue from virility, supposing it to denote a manly strength and vigour of mind. 1845Ford Handbk. Spain i. 2 Thus the virility and vitality of the noble people has been neutralised. 1855Motley Dutch Rep. ii. i. (1866) 118 The famous moustache upon her upper lip was supposed to indicate authority and virility of purpose. 1891Farrar Darkn. & Dawn xix, A mind in which every spark of virility was dead, and which was rapidly degenerating into a mass of sensuous egotism.
b. transf.
1597Morley Introd. Mus. 177 These motions be more masculine causing in the song more virilitie then those accidentall cordes. 1889W. Wilson State §1195 The result some day to be reached will be normal liberty, political vitality and vigor, civil virility. 1894E. Brooks in Educator (Philad.) Oct. 159 Those universal and comprehensive principles of education which unite the parts of the science into an organic unity of power and virility. |