| 释义 |
▪ I. inquisition, n.|ɪnkwɪˈzɪʃən|
Forms: 4–7 inquisicion, etc. (with usual interchange in 4–6 of i and y, s and c (sc, ss), -on (-one) and -oun), 6 enquisicion, 6– inquisition.
[a. OF. inquisition, -icion (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. inquīsītiōn-em searching into, examination, legal examination, n. of action from inquīrĕre to inquire. Cf. It. inquisizione, Sp. inquisicion.]
1. The action or process of inquiring or searching into matters, esp. for the purpose of finding out the truth or the facts concerning something; search, inquiry, investigation, examination, research; † scrutiny, inspection (obs.).
1382Wyclif Acts xii. 19 Inquicisioun [gloss or sekyng] maad of keperis, he comaundide hem for to be brouȝt. c1450tr. De Imitatione i. iii. 5 Meke knowynge of þiself is more acceptable to god þan depe inquisicion of kunnyng. c1450Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 82 Stody with meke inquysissyon..How I xal have knowynge of Godys wylle. 1535Coverdale Ecclus. xi. 7 Whan thou hast made enquisicion, then refourme righteously. 1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 71 That the reader may be the more justly occasioned to make inquisition of the truth. 1614Raleigh Hist. World iii. (1634) 6 Wherein if he have erred, then is all further inquisition frivolous. 1736Burke Subl. & B. iv. xxi, The parts..are yet so minute, as to conceal the figure of their component parts from the nicest inquisition of the microscope. 1805Wordsw. Prelude viii. 536 A simple look Of child-like inquisition now and then Cast upwards on thy countenance. 1897F. Hall in Nation (N.Y.) LXIV. 163/2 Nor has it escaped the inquisition of the curious.
b. with pl. An act of inquiring, or process of inquiry; a search, an investigation.
c1440Gesta Rom. i. xxxviii. 154 (Add. MS.) Anon was made an Inquysicion, who sawe the Erle turne the playse in the disshe. 1627–77Feltham Resolves ii. xxxi. 223, I will not care for a friend full of Inquisitions. a1677Hale Contempl. ii. 190 Make as speedy an Inquisition as thou canst, into thy own state. 1735Berkeley Def. Free-think. Mathem. §11, I heartily abhor an inquisition in faith. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage 295 By a searching inquisition every free-born citizen..had been swept into the ranks.
2. A judicial or official investigation or inquiry, an inquest; also the document recording such inquiry and its result.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VIII. 295 Kyng Edward made hard inquisicioun aȝenst evel doers, and aȝenst hem þat trespased aȝenst þe crowne, þat manere inquisicioun hiȝte trail⁓bastoun. 1424Paston Lett. No. 4 I. 13 The seyd Walter and Richard were founden gilty of the seyd trespas by an inquisicion ther of takyn. 1467in Eng. Gilds (1870) 385 By the serche of the Bayllies or by Inquisicion of .xij. men. 1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 55 The inquisicion intendid and taken at the cytie of London..afore Thomas Barnewell crouner. 1574tr. Littleton's Tenures 52 b, A man before suche age shall not bee sworne in no jurye nor no inquisition. 1672Petty Pol. Anat. 342, Ann. 1653, and 1654, there were inquisitions taken of the values which all and every parcel of land in Ireland yielded ann. 1641. 1707Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. iii. xi. 375 (Records in Tower) Inquisitions post mortem, of infinite advantage upon Trials of Interest or Descent. 1712Lond. Gaz. No. 5074/2 An Inquisition taken..upon View of the dead Body of James Duke of Hamilton. 1767Blackstone Comm. II. xvii. 265 These, not being forfeited till the matter on which they arise is found by the inquisition of a jury, and so made a matter of record. 1839Stonehouse Axholme 63 The inhabitants of the Isle or Borderers as they are termed in the Inquisition of 1607. 1840Penny Cycl. XVI. 405/2 Where the king is entitled, upon the occurrence of certain events, to take possession of real or personal property previously belonging to a subject, the facts upon which the king's title accrues must be first ascertained by an inquisition or inquest of office. 1863H. Cox Instit. ii. x. 546 A defendant may be prosecuted for murder or manslaughter upon an inquisition, which is the record of the finding of a jury sworn to inquire concerning the death of a person super visum corporis. 1896Law Times C. 358/1 R. became a lunatic, and was so found by inquisition.
3. R.C. Ch. (With capital I.) An ecclesiastical tribunal (officially styled the Holy Office) for the suppression of heresy and punishment of heretics, organized in the 13th century under Innocent III, under a central governing body at Rome called the Congregation of the Holy Office.
The Inquisition existed in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. The Spanish Inquisition, reorganized 1478–83, became notorious in the 16th century for its severities. The Inquisition was abolished in France in 1772, and in Spain finally in 1834. The Congregation of the Holy Office still exists, but is chiefly concerned with heretical literature.
1502Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) iv. viii. 189 That letteth malycyously the offyce of the sayd inquysycyon. 1568V. Skinner tr. Montanus (title) A Discovery and Playne Declaration of Sundry Subtill Practices of the Holy Inquisition of Spayne. 1602Warner Alb. Eng. ix. xliv. (1612) 211 For not they onely die, but die in lingring Torments, who Fault to their Inquisition or their falsed Rytes must doe. 1664H. More Myst. Iniq. 439 Many..were most barbarously abused in the close Prisons of the Inquisition. 1691Lond. Gaz. No. 2724/1 On the 20th Instant..by Order of the Tribunal of the Inquisition at Toledo..Eight Jews were burnt alive. 1756Nugent Gr. Tour, Italy III. 289 [At Rome] they have an inquisition, but it is neither so severe as those of Portugal and Spain, nor does it exercise its jurisdiction over foreigners. 1855Prescott Philip II, ii. ix. (1857) 310 The Spanish Inquisition, with its train of horrors, seemed to be already in the midst of them.
transf.1771Smollett Humph. Cl. Let. Sir W. Phillips, 10 June, Declaring that it could not be very agreeable to live in a family where an inquisition was established. a1897H. Drummond Ideal Life 86 Without that, life is worse than an enigma: it is an inquisition.
4. attrib. and Comb.
1612–15Bp. Hall Contempl., N.T. i. vi, Egypt is become the sanctuary, Judea the inquisition-house of the Sonne of God. 1644Evelyn Diary 12 Dec., [In Rome] next to this [Hospital] is the Inquisition house and prison, the inside thereof, I thanke God, I was not curious to see. 1766W. Gordon Gen. Counting-ho. 281 To the inquisition-vessel, 22 rials. 1878Tennyson Revenge ii, I should count myself the coward if I left them..To these Inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain. 1891Pall Mall G. 1 July 2/2 There is a reign of more than Inquisition-terror at Santiago.
Sense 4 in Dict. becomes 5. Add: 4. gen. Any intensive, sustained, or unwelcome questioning; a ‘grilling’.
1856Emerson Eng. Traits xv. 147 A relentless inquisition drags every secret to the day..so as to make the public a more terrible spy than any foreigner. 1906F. S. Oliver Alexander Hamilton v. ii. 381 The rectitudinous inquisition that is enjoyed under the freedom of the press. 1925F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby ix. 212 The bored, sprawling, swollen towns beyond the Ohio, with their interminable inquisitions which spared only the children and the very old. 1985K. Williams Just Williams viii. 152 She had just completed an interview which she described as ‘a 1½ hour inquisition’.
▪ II. inquiˈsition, v.
[f. prec. n.]
a. intr. To make inquisition or investigation.
b. trans. To proceed against by the Inquisition.
1644Milton Areop. (Arb.) 61 If it come to inquisitioning again, and licencing..it cannot be guest what is intended by som but a second tyranny over learning. 1646J. Hall Poems 2 Or if you into some blind Convent fly Y' are inquisition'd straight for heresie. 1895Academy 29 June 537/3 They bore their testimony..in very aggressive fashion, and so were cruelly inquisitioned and done to death. |