| 释义 |
vitality|vaɪˈtælɪtɪ|
Also 6–7 vitalitie.
[ad. L. vītālitāt-, vītālitās (Pliny) vital force, life, f. vītālis vital a.: see -ity. Cf. F. vitalité, It. vitalità, Sp. vitalidad, Pg. -idade.]
1. Vital force, power, or principle as possessed or manifested by living things (cf. vital a. 1); the principle of life; animation.
1592Soliman & Pers. v. iii. 65 Death..Hath depriued Erastus trunke from breathing vitalitie. 1614Raleigh Hist. World i. i. §6. 6 Whether that motion, vitality and operation, were by incubation, or how else, the manner is only knowne to God. 1628Feltham Resolves ii. [i.] xxxii. 102 When a man shall exhaust his very vitalitie, for the hilling vp of fatall Gold. 1659Pearson Creed iv. 432 When by an act of his will he had submitted to that death,..it was not in the power of his soul to continue any longer vitality to the body. 1700Rowe Amb. Step-Moth. iii. ii, Let thy vitality impart New Spirits to his fainting Heart. 1812Times 6 Mar. 2/2 They perceived that vitality had been actually extinct in two of them for some time, the bodies being perfectly cold. 1844G. Bird Urin. Deposits (1857) 338 Those which we have now to investigate are organic substances, often possessing organization, and sometimes enjoying an independent vitality. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets i. 1 The mysteries of organized vitality remain impenetrable.
transf.1652French Yorksh. Spa ii. 13 Which sand hath in it a vitality, and in which..the water, whilest it remains, is living. 1816Byron Ch. Har. iii. xxxiv, There is a very life in our despair, Vitality of poison. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. i. v, Not Mankind only, but all that Mankind does or beholds, is in continual growth, re-genesis and self-perfecting vitality. 1837Whewell Hist. Induct. Sci. iv. i. I. 240 All such writers..have in them no principle of philosophical vitality.
b. Of plants or vegetative organisms. Also spec. of seeds: Germinating power.
(a)1829T. Castle Introd. Bot. 262 Vitality of Plants. 1842Wordsw. Sonn., ‘A Poet!’ i, And so the grandeur of the Forest-tree Comes..from its own divine vitality. 1848Lindley Introd. Bot. (ed. 4) II. 150 The experiments..prove indeed conclusively that whatever the true seat of vegetable vitality may be, it is similar in its nature to that of the Animal Kingdom.
(b)1832Lindley Introd. Bot. 271 The power [in seeds] of preserving their vitality is also extremely variable. 1861Bentley Man. Bot. 767 By retaining vitality we mean preserving their power of germinating.
2. fig. The ability or capacity on the part of something of continuing to exist or to perform its functions; power of enduring or continuing.
Merging insensibly into next.
1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. iii. ix. 563 The dependance of ministerial vitality upon parliamentary majorities. 1866R. W. Dale Disc. Spec. Occas. viii. 275 There is terrible vitality both in truth and error. 1874L. Stephen Hours in Library I. 113 The vitality of Pope's writings, or at least of certain fragments of them, is remarkable.
3. fig. Active force or power; mental or physical vigour; activity, animation, liveliness.
Common from c 1860.
1858O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. xii. 110 Which shows that their minds are in a state of diminished vitality. 1860Motley Netherl. I. ii. 45 Such was the intense vitality of the Béarnese prince. 1869H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey I. 358 A country whose vitality is strong, and where the administrative power is active and vigorous. 1884Manch. Exam. 9 May 5/4 To the strong vitality which distinguishes his race, he united intellectual power of the highest order.
4. With a and pl. Something possessed of vital force. Also fig.
1851Carlyle Sterling ii. iii, He was full of bright speech and argument; radiant with arrowy vitalities. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. v. (1856) 36 There was no vegetation to define its course, not even the green conferva, that obscure vitality, which follows water at home. 1898Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 91 Shall, then, the great vitality, France, Signal the backward step once more? |