| 释义 |
irrationality|ɪræʃəˈnælɪtɪ|
[f. irrational + -ity.]
1. The quality of being devoid of reason.
1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) III. 139 Species II. Mória Demens. Witlessness, Irrationality. 1874Carpenter Ment. Phys. i. ii. §59 (1879) 60 The irrationality of the impulse which prompts the Bees to this action, is evidenced by its occasional performance under circumstances which, if they could reason, would have shown them that it must be ineffective.
2. The quality of not being guided by, or not being in accordance with, reason; absurdity of thought or action.
1647Boyle Let. J. Dury 3 May in Wks. (1772) I. p. xl, Like Jonah's gourd, smitten at the root with the worm of their irrationality. 1662Sir A. Mervyn Sp. Irish Aff. 37 It were to impose too much irrationality on our Law. 1717Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Pope 12 Feb., Nothing seems to me a plainer proof of the irrationality of mankind..than the rage with which they contest for a small spot of ground. 1863Cowden Clarke Shaks. Char. vii. 185 That strange mixture of cunning, and love of stratagem, with irrationality in the contrivance, so remarkable in insane people. 1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt xxxiii, Some sharp-visaged men who loved the irrationality of riots.
b. An irrational thing, action, or thought; an absurdity.
a1680Charnock Attrib. God (1834) I. 26 To..forge irrationalities for the support of his fancy. 1857De Quincey Iscariot Wks. VII. 21 A dismal heap of irrationalities.
3. Math. The quality of being irrational: see irrational a. 3.
1570Dee Math. Pref. in Rudd Euclid (1651) C b, Practise hath led Numbers farther..to take upon them the shew of Magnitudes property: which is Incommensurability and Irrationality. 1838–9Hallam Hist. Lit. II. ii. viii. §2. 320 Pelletier does not employ the signs + and -,..but we find the sign √ of irrationality.
4. Optics. The inequality of the ratios of the dispersion of the various colours in spectra produced by refraction through different substances.
1797Encycl. Brit. s.v. Telescope, The effect of this irrationality (so to call it) of dispersion, will appear plainly. 1829Nat. Philos. I. Optics ix. 26 (U.K.S.) Hence the coloured spaces have not the same ratio to each other as the lengths of the spectrum; and therefore this property is called the irrationality of dispersion, or of the coloured spaces in the spectrum. 1866Grove Contrib. Sc. in Corr. Phys. Forces 194 The irrationality of the spectrum or the incommensurate divisions of the spectra formed by flint and crown glass.
5. Gr. Pros. See irrational a. 4.
1844Beck & Felton tr. Munk's Metres 17 Irrationality takes place in the double kind in the thesis, in the equal in the arsis. |