| 释义 |
▪ I. irony, n.|ˈaɪərənɪ|
In early use often in Lat. form ironia.
[ad. L. īrōnīa (Cicero), a. Gr. εἰρωνεία ‘dissimulation, ignorance purposely affected’. Cf. F. ironie (yronie, Oresme, 14th c.).]
1. A figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words used; usually taking the form of sarcasm or ridicule in which laudatory expressions are used to imply condemnation or contempt.
1502[see 3]. 1533More Debell. Salem v. Wks. 939/1 When he calleth one self noughty lad, both a shreud boy & a good sonne, the tone in y⊇ proper simple spech, the tother by the fygure of ironye or antiphrasis. 1540Coverdale Confut. Standish Wks. (Parker Soc.) II. 333 Now is ironia as much to say as a mockage, derision. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xviii. (Arb.) 199 By the figure Ironia, which we call the drye mock. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 160 Your quip..that you were ashamed to write to mee for your rude stile. Very good, I finde the Irony. 1620Middleton & Rowley World Tost at Tennis 124 By his needle he understands ironia, That with one eye looks two ways at once. 1788F. Burney Diary 13 Feb., He believed Irony the ablest weapon of oratory. 1828Whately Rhet. in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) I. 265/1 Aristotle mentions..Eironeia, which in his time was commonly employed to signify, not according to the modern use of ‘Irony, saying the contrary to what is meant’, but, what later writers usually express by Litotes, i.e. ‘saying less than is meant’. 1837Macaulay Ess., Bacon (1887) 428 A drayman, in a passion, calls out, ‘You are a pretty fellow’, without suspecting that he is uttering irony. 1876J. Weiss Wit, Hum, & Shaks. ii. 44 It is irony when Lowell, speaking of Dante's intimacy with the Scriptures, adds, ‘They do even a scholar no harm’.
b. with an and pl. An instance of this; an ironical utterance or expression.
1551Gardiner Sacram. 22 He spake it by an Ironie or skorne. 1612–15Bp. Hall Contempl., O.T. xix. iii, Ironies deny strongest in affirming. 1656E. Reyner Rules Govt. Tongue 227 An Irony is a nipping jeast, or a speech that hath the honey of pleasantnesse in its mouth, and a sting of rebuke in its taile. 1706–7Reflex. upon Ridicule 221 Subtil and delicate Ironies. 1738Warburton Div. Legat. I. Ded. 9 A thorough Irony addressed to some hot Bigots. 1894W. J. Dawson Making of Manhood 29 Smart sneers and barbed ironies at the expense of every movement which seeks to meliorate the common lot.
2. fig. A condition of affairs or events of a character opposite to what was, or might naturally be, expected; a contradictory outcome of events as if in mockery of the promise and fitness of things. (In F. ironie du sort.)
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, cxcviii, Yet here: (and 'tis the Ironie of Warre Where Arrowes forme the Argument,) he best Acquitts himselfe, who doth a Horse præfer To his proud Rider. 1833Thirlwall in Philol. Museum II. 483 (title) On the Irony of Sophocles. Ibid. 493 The contrast between man with his hopes, fears, wishes, and undertakings, and a dark, inflexible fate, affords abundant room for the exhibition of tragic irony. 1860W. Collins Wom. White iii. xi. 413 The irony of circumstances holds no mortal catastrophe in respect. 1878Morley Carlyle 194 With no eye for..the irony of their fate. 1884Nonconf. & Indep. Lit. Suppl. 6 Nov. 1/1 The irony of time is wonderful. 1894T. Hardy (title) Life's Little Ironies.
3. In etymological sense: Dissimulation, pretence; esp. in reference to the dissimulation of ignorance practised by Socrates as a means of confuting an adversary (Socratic irony).
1502Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) iv. xxii. 293 To say of hym selfe ony thynge of his feblenesses & necessytes, or of his synnes..to the end that a man be renowmed & reputed humble abiect & grete thynge in merytes & deuocyons before god..such synne is named yronye, not that the whiche is of grammare, by the whiche a man sayth one & gyueth to understande the contrarye. 1655Stanley Hist. Philos. iii. (1701) 76/1 The whole confirmation of the Cause, even the whole Life seems to carry an Irony, such was the Life of Socrates, who was for that reason called εἰρὼν; that is, one that personates an unlearned Man, and is an admirer of others as Wise. 1848H. Rogers Ess. I. vi. 318 The irony of Socrates..may be not unfittingly expressed by saying, that it is a logical masked battery. 1860Emerson Cond. Life, Considerat. Wks. (Bohn) II. 416 Like Socrates, with his famous irony; like Bacon, with life-long dissimulation.
Add:[2.] spec. in Theatr. (freq. as dramatic irony or tragic irony), the incongruity created when the (tragic) significance of a character's speech or actions is revealed to the audience but unknown to the character concerned; the literary device so used, orig. in Greek tragedy; also transf. (Later examples.)
1907W. Raleigh Shakespeare 229/2 (Index), Irony, dramatic. 1942Partridge Usage & Abusage 167/2 Dramatic irony is that which consists in a situation—not in words;..when the audience..perceives a crux..that the characters concerned do not. 1957Encycl. Brit. XII. 683/2 In tragedy, what is called ‘tragic irony’ is the device of making a character use words which mean one thing to him and another to those acquainted with the real issue. 1978P. Howard Weasel Words xxiv. 99 Producers of..pantomimes still use this sort of dramatic irony visually.
▪ II. irony, a.|ˈaɪənɪ, ˈaɪərənɪ|
Also 4–7 yrony, -ie, 6 yrnye.
[f. iron n.1 + -y.]
Consisting of iron; of the nature of iron; resembling iron in some quality, as hardness, taste, or colour; abounding in or containing iron.
1382Wyclif Deut. xxviii. 23 Be heuene that is aboue thee braasny [1388 brasun]; and the lond that thou tredist yrony [1388 yrun, 1611 of iron]. 1583Stanyhurst æneis, etc. Ps. ii. (Arb.) 127 From oure persons pluck we there yrnye yokes. 1654Hammond Fundamentals (J.), It is not strange if the irony chains have more solidity than the contemplative. 1764Nat. Hist. in Ann. Reg. 82/2 It is a ponderous irony earth. 1843Portlock Geol. 541 Sulphate of barytes, associated with irony quartz. 1875G. Macdonald Malcolm II. xviii. 243 Crystals of a clear irony brown. |