| 释义 |
insecurity|ɪnsɪˈkjʊərɪtɪ|
[ad. med.L. insēcūritās (Du Cange), f. in- (in-3) + sēcūrus free from care, secure.]
The quality or condition of being insecure; the opposite of security.
1. The condition of not being sure; want of assurance or confidence; (subjective) uncertainty.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. xii. 211 It may be easily perceived with what insecurity of truth we adhere unto this opinion.
b. spec. in Psychol.
1917Glueck & Lind tr. Adler's Neurotic Constitution (1921) p. x, A sickly girl..in her consciousness of an unusual insecurity leans upon her father and in so doing strives to become superior to her mother. 1932W. H. Burnham Wholesome Personality ix. 329 The one outstanding condition menacing the mental health of..every youth, is some form of the emotion of fear, if not acute fear, at least a sense of insecurity. 1937K. Horney Neurotic Personality ii. 36 The inner insecurity expressed in this dependence on others is the second feature that strikes us in neurotics on surface observation. 1942E. Fromm Fear of Freedom v. 178 The automatization of the individual in modern society has increased the helplessness and insecurity of the average individual. 1942B. Klopfer Rorschach Technique iii. x. 240 Rorschach signs of insecurity and anxiety, as opposed to signs of a balanced personality structure. Ibid. 241 Often the language used by the subject..reveals to some extent open insecurity or anxiety. 1969R. C. Carson Interaction Concepts of Personality ii. 32 Beyond infancy the experience of anxiety..has the character of a drop in self-esteem or an increase in felt insecurity. 1969I. Stevenson Psychiatric Exam. iv. 62 Insecurity accompanied by a need to impress the examiner..may also lead the patient to bring forth unnecessary details. 1971G. E. Gardner Emerging Personality iii. vi. 132 First of all, a higher level of anxiety, a greater feeling of insecurity, often appears to beset the nonlearning boy.
2. a. The state or quality of being unsafe; liability to give way, fail, or suffer loss or damage; want of firmness or safety; an insecure state of affairs, a condition of danger.
a1660Hammond (J.), The unreasonableness and presumption, the danger and desperate insecurity of those that have not so much as a thought..to advance so far as attrition and contrition. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 29 ⁋7 Reflections on the variableness of fortune, the uncertainty of life, and the insecurity of all human acquisitions. 1822J. Flint Lett. Amer. 159 The influx of new settlers is greatly prevented by the insecurity of titles. 1853J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. i. i. 42 The insecurity of great prosperity has been the theme of poets and philosophers.
b. with pl. An instance or particular case of this; something insecure.
1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. i. ad sect. vi. 102 The insecurities and inconveniencies of a strange and new abode are part of the persecution. 1885S. Cox Expos. Ser. i. vii. 87 All the insecurities of time. |