| 释义 |
relic, n. and a.|ˈrɛlɪk|
Forms: 3–7 relike, 4–6 relyk(e, relik, 4–7 relicke, (5 -likke, -lykke, 6 realycke), 6–8 relick, 8– relic; 6 rellick, -ycke, Sc. -yk, 7 rellike; 4–5 relek, 5 -leck, -leke; 4 reliqe, 5 relyque, 5– relique.
[a. F. relique (11th c.), ad. L. reliquiæ pl., remains: see reliquiæ. OE. had reliquias directly from Latin; and the comb. relic-gong occurs in a text printed in Cockayne's Shrine pp. 74, 79.]
A. n.
1. a. In religious use, esp. in the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches: Some object, such as a part of the body or clothing, an article of personal use, or the like, which remains as a memorial of a departed saint, martyr, or other holy person, and as such is carefully preserved and held in esteem or veneration.
The plural sometimes denotes the whole remains (i.e. the body or parts of it) of the person in question; see sense 2.
a1225Ancr. R. 18 A last to þe oðer onlicnesses, & to ower relikes cneoleð, oþer luteþ. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 17/567 Þe bischop wuste þis holie blod ase relikes riche and guode. c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 14559 Abbotes þat reliqes had..away þeym lad, & manye in þe erthe þey dalf. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints iv. (James) 255 His printes..stal away þe body..and þai aryvyt with þat relik of spanȝe in-to þe kynrik. c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 19 The abbot afftyr..Amonges the relykkes the septure ought he soughte Of Seynt Edward. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon iii. 112 Bryng afore me your reliques and hallowes, that I shall swere [etc.]. 1532Dial. on Laws Eng. ii. xxx. 78 b, Than shal he suspende the churche & take awaye the relikes. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 175 The Friars keepe for a holy relike the Thorne wherewith Christ was crowned. 1673Ray Journ. Low C. 243 In this City are many..Churches..furnished with rich Altar-pieces, Reliques,..and other Ornaments. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) IV. 396 The only part wanting in their relic is the middle finger of the right-hand. 1844Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) II. xiv. 304 A supply of relics for the foundation of churches. 1850A. Jameson Leg. Monast. Ord. 79 His copy of Ambrose,..covered with his blood, was exhibited..as a relic.
transf.1594Drayton Idea 788 You..whose deare remembrance in my Bosome lyes, Too rich a Relique for so poore a Shrine.
†b. Applied to the sacred objects of the ancient Jewish and pagan religions. Obs.
a1300Cursor M. 6513 He taght him tables o þe lai,..Quen he him taght suilk a relik [etc.]. c1374Chaucer Troylus i. 153 Thei hadde a relyk hight Palladion, That was hire tryst a bouen euerichon. 1513Douglas æneis xiii. x. 96 O happy cite..With quham sa gret rellykis remane sall. 1582Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 49 Yf this rellick by you to the cittye were haled, Then, loa, the stout Troians in wars should glorye triumphing. 1606G. W[oodcocke] Hist. Ivstine xxiv. 90 The Priests of all the Temples..with..the sacred reliques in their hands.
†c. A precious or valuable thing. Obs. rare.
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. Prol. 321 What dostow here So nygh myn ovne floure so boldely?.. Yt is my relyke, digne and delytable. c1400Destr. Troy 13678 He..has riches full ryfe, relikis ynow. c1470Gol. & Gaw. 887 Armyt in rede gold, and rubeis sa round, With mony riche relikis, riale to se.
d. Something kept as a remembrance or souvenir of a person, thing, or place; a memento.
1601Shakes. Jul. C. ii. ii. 89 Great men shall presse For Tinctures, Staines, Reliques, and Cognisance. 1664Marvell Corr. Wks. (Grosart) II. 145 He, blessed Prince,..even as to this matter had prepared a Letter which I yet preserve among His other Reliques. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. xix, When I took Leave of this Island, I carry'd on Board for Reliques the great Goat's Skin Cap I had made, my Umbrella, and one of my Parrots. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 83 ⁋9 This regard, which we..pay to the meanest relique of a man great and illustrious. 1838Murray's Hand-bk. N. Germ. 385/1 Luther's..apartment..contains his portrait, bible, and other relics. 1862Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. vii. 141 Two objects of interest were laid up..in front of it, both relics of Sinai. 1880Marine Engineer 1 July 84/1 A Relic of Her Majesty's Ship ‘Orpheus’.
2. a. pl. The remains of a person; the body, or part of the body, of one deceased. (Sometimes implying sense 1.)
a1300Cursor M. 21215 Þ ai did sent andru relikes and him Bring to constantinopolim. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 237/2, I shalle ensigne the of eueriche by symylitude to knowe the tombes and reliques of eche of us. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. i. 110 The reliques of S. Andro..quhilkes out of Grece he brocht. 1658Sir T. Browne Hydriot. Ep. Ded., Men took a lasting adieu of their interred Friends,..having no old experience of the duration of their Reliques. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 156 How long he lived after that year, I cannot tell, nor where his reliques were lodg'd. 1718Prior Solomon iii. 591 Say: shall our Relicks second Birth receive? 1725Pope Odyss. xiv. 156 He..welters on the wave, Or food for fish, or dogs, his reliques lye. 1775Adair Amer. Ind. 183 They go along with those beloved relicks of the dead..till they arrive at the bone-house. 1813Shelley Q. Mab vii. 188 All around The mouldering relics of my kindred lay. 1854Milman Lat. Chr. iii. v. I. 381 The reliques of those martyrs whom the Romans burned with fire.
b. sing. in the same sense. rare.
1635E. Pagitt Christianogr. iii. (1636) 93 The taking up of the Relique of Editha thirteene yeare after her death. 1682Ken Serm. Wks. (1838) 126 This poor relique of clay, which in a few minutes must be restored to its native earth. 1814Mrs. J. West Alicia de Lacy IV. 258 Those neglects to which this unsepulchred relic of his illustrious father bore a shameful testimony.
c. An old person. colloq.
1869‘Mark Twain’ in Buffalo Express 21 Aug. 1/3, I came upon a noble Son of the Forest sitting under a tree, diligently at work on a bead reticule... I addressed the noble relic as follows. 1902― in Harper's Mag. Dec. 15/1 ‘How much of it can you two undertake?’ ‘All of it!’ burst from both ladies at once... ‘You do ring true, you brave old relics!’ 1981B. Healey Last Ferry from Lido ix. 161 So far as he's concerned the Ca' Silvestro and the old lady are just a pair of ancient relics.
3. a. pl. That which remains or is left behind, in later use esp. after destruction or wasting away; the remains or remaining fragments (of a thing); the remnant, residue (of a nation or people). Also occas. in sing. of a single thing or person.
a1325Prose Psalter xxxvi[i]. 40 [38] Þe vnriȝtful forsoþe shul ben desparplist, and þe relikes of þe wicked shul dien. 1382Wyclif Isa. xiv. 30 To dien I shal make in hunger thi roote, and thi relikes I shal slen. 1480Caxton Chron. Eng. ci. 52 b, The reliques of his body shall bene brought fro Rome, and translated in Britaigne. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 458 Diuers Frenchmen repayred to the battayle..to take the reliques which the Englishmen had left. 1596Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 627/2 Whatsoever relickes there were left of the land-bredd people. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 194 An hundred paces farther..there are the relikes of a Church. 1656Ridgley Pract. Physick 271 The reliques of the Quick⁓silver will stick to the gold. 1703Pope Thebais 602 Dust yet white upon each altar lies, The relicks of a former sacrifice. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. xlix. III. 143 After a bloody conflict of eight years.., the relics of the nation submitted. 1817Byron Manfred iii. iv, I stood within the Coliseum's wall, 'Midst the chief relics of almighty Rome. 1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. iii. vi. (1863) II. 152 It is only in this last period..that we find the relics of the war-chariot among the contents of the tomb. 1865Livingstone Zambesi vi. 148 He brought the relics of our fugitive mail.
sing.a1676Hale Prim. Orig. Man. (1677) 298 This Elementary portion of Earth and Water seems to be as it were the sediment and relique of the Massa Chaotica. 1774Pennant Tour Scotl. in 1772, 9 The priory..stood near the bridge, but not a relique exists. 1822Galt Provost xxxii. (1868) 95 He was a relic of some American-war fencibles. 1834Hogg Let. in Sotheby's Sale Catal. 22–6 Feb. (1897) 42 He is..the only relic I know of the real intimate acquaintances of Burns.
b. The remains of a meal or of food; remnants, scraps, broken victuals. Now rare.
1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 75 We would haue had no fragments or broken scraps left. But now..wee haue sore a doo about those reliques. a1602W. Perkins Cases Consc. (1619) 327 Gather vp the broken meate..these reliques and fragments are part of the creatures. 1682Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. i. §4 Treat the poor, as our Saviour did the Multitude, to the reliques of some baskets. 1816Scott Antiq. ix, His sister hastened to silence his murmurs, by proposing some of the relics of the dinner. 1830Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 2 His food [being] worms..varied with occasional relics, mangled by more powerful beasts of prey.
c. Biol. A relict species.
1947[see epibiotic a. and n. 1]. 1965B. E. Freeman tr. Vandel's Biospeleology vii. 70 Troglochaetus would seem to be a marine relic. 1974New Phytologist LXXIII. 974 Thistles, mulleins and foxgloves..appear as the stemless relics of the pachycaul inflorescences.
4. a. A surviving trace of some practice, fact, idea, quality, etc. In early use chiefly pl.
a1586Sidney Arcadia iii. (1622) 259 Doubting some reliks of the late mutiny. 1612T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 13 An infirmitie is a rellike of sinne. 1678R. Barclay Apol. Quakers iv. §2. 101 There were some Reliques of the Heavenly Image left in Adam. 1712Budgell Spect. No. 365 ⁋3 A Relique of a certain Pagan Worship. 1794Paley Evid. i. vii. (1817) 124 No reliques appear of any story substantially different from the present. 1824W. Irving T. Trav. I. 349 It is a rich relique of a more poetical age. 1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. i. 2 A relic of a ruder mental condition.
b. A surviving memorial of some occurrence, period, people, etc.
1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth i. 35 Others..thought that they [shells] were only Reliques of some former great Inundations of the Sea. 1778Pennant Tour Wales (1883) I. 84 Immense beds of iron-cinders,..the reliques of the Romans. 1791Cowper Yardley Oak 6 Hollow-trunked..and with excoriate forks deform, Relics of ages! 1832G. R. Porter Porcelain & Gl. 268 These curious relics of ancient times have also been discovered decorated with coloured glass beads. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xx. IV. 522 The swords were rusty reliques of Edge Hill and Marston Moor. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. xviii. (1876) IV. 212 Those great roads which abide as the noblest relics of the days of Roman dominion.
c. phr. relic of barbarism, a survival or reminder of bad conditions or practices.
1852Harper's Mag. Dec. 126/2 Railing against the church, against society, against institutions, against ‘relics of barbarisms’. 1870J. H. Newman Grammar of Assent iv. 75 When Mr. Wilberforce, after succeeding in the slave question, urged the Duke of Wellington to use his great influence in discountenancing duelling, he could only get from him in answer, ‘A relic of barbarism, Mr. Wilberforce’. 1919W. T. Grenfell Labrador Doctor iv. 68 After giving a talk on psychical influence he had the jacket removed as ‘a relic of barbarism’. 1921T. Wolfe Let. 2 Sept. (1956) 16 This ‘point system’ of selecting teachers is a relic of barbarism.
d. Linguistics. The survival of an archaic form; an instance of this. (See also relict n. 6.)
1943Language XIX. 257 Nowhere..was there an indication of the genuine vitality of this set of suffixes, which, divested of any specific function, had become mere meaningless relics. 1951Amer. Speech XXVI. 252 The occurrences of clabbered milk in the northern counties of the state are probably explained as a sporadic relic. 1962Ibid. XXXVII. 170 In the word one, the mid-central vowel is occasionally replaced by /u/—a relic usage evidently related to the pronunciation of home as /hum/.
5. An object invested with interest by reason of its antiquity or associations with the past.
1596Drayton Legends iii. 542 A goodly Table of pure Massie Gold, A Relike kept in Windsor many a day. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iii. 19 What's to do? Shall we go see the reliques of this Towne? 1632Lithgow Trav. v. 208 My Interpreter shewed me..one of the doores of the Temple of Salomon,..being indeede a relicke of wonderfull bignesse. 1787Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 317 The good, old and venerable fabric, which should have been preserved even as a religious relique. 1841Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 200 The crowds of reliques which..have reappeared to adorn the modern galleries.
†6. An example left by a person. Obs. rare.
1610Boys Exp. Domin. Ep. & Gosp. Wks. (1622) 133 Here then is a notable relique for women to behold. Ibid. 555 This her relique is worth our obseruing also.
7. attrib. and Comb., as relic-box, relic building, relic-chest, relic-hunter, relic-hunting, relic-monger, relic-shrine, relic-vender, relic-veneration, relic-worship; (in sense 4 d) relic form; relic-covered adj.; relic-like adv.; relic area, a region noted for the survival of old or otherwise archaic language forms; relic-knife, a knife containing in its handle a relic of a saint; † Relic Sunday, the third Sunday after Midsummer, on which the relics preserved in a church were specially venerated; † relic water, water in which relics have been dipped.
1953Language Learning IV. 104 *Relic areas, on the other hand, are those whose geographical or cultural isolation, and relative lack of prestige, has caused the retention of older forms or prevented the spread of forms characteristic of these areas. 1962Amer. Speech XXXVII. 171 The regional words used by the Ocracokers are the regional words of the North Carolina coast, especially the relic area which lies around Albemarle Sound. 1972H. Kurath Studies Area Linguistics i. 2 He [sc. the area linguist] will reserve judgment and recommend further investigation when the linguistic variants exhibit a complicated and apparently erratic dissemination as in certain transition zones or relic areas.
1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Relicario, a *relicke boxe.
1663Gerbier Counsel d iij, The reformation of a Gotis *relick building.
c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 4248 He vnclosid þe *reliks kyst, And gaf parte to a frende. 1796Mod. Gulliver 2 For want of a cradle, as soon as born, I was popped into a relique chest.
1807Syd. Smith Lett. Catholics (1808) 28 The *relic-covered jacket of a Catholic.
1933*Relic form [see hyperform s.v. hyper- IV]. 1951Amer. Speech XXVI. 13 The preservation of relic forms is made possible by geographical or cultural isolation. 1972M. L. Samuels Linguistic Evolution vi. 92 The receiving system itself becomes less divergent from its neighbour than before, retaining only relic forms from its antecedent.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVI. 59/1 The..knavery of the Greeks found a rich prey in the stupid credulity of the Latin *relic-hunters. 1893K. A. Sanborn Truthf. Wom. S. California 54 The plaster statues have been disgracefully mutilated by relic-hunters.
1891A. J. Foster Ouse 139 These were the days of *relic-hunting.
1854Jrnl. Brit. Archæol. Assoc. X. 89 The knife..is of an earlier period, and may perhaps be regarded as a *relic knife.
1593–1602Donne Sat. ii. 84 The snuffe Of wasting Candles..*Relique-like [1633 reliquely] kept, perchance buyes wedding-geare.
1854H. Miller Sch. & Schm. vi. (1857) 123 Though not much of a *relic-monger, I would hesitate to exchange it.
1808Scott Marm. ii. iii, The *relic-shrine of cost, With ivory and gems emboss'd.
1461Paston Lett. II. 28 Wretyn at London, on *Relyk Sonday [12 July]. 1520in Arnolde's Chron. (1811) p. xlvi, On Relyk Sonday, in the aftyr none, was a grete thondre and tempest. 1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 323 b, The feasts..of the patrone of the church, dedication day, and Relicksonday. 1709Riders Brit. Merlin, Fair on Relique-Sunday (being the Sund.-fortnight after Midsum.).
1848Lytton Harold v. i, Edward was left alone to his monks and *relic-venders.
1848J. H. Newman Loss & Gain ii. xix. 284 The doctrine and practice of *relic-veneration.
1562Homilies ii. Idolatry iii. (1859) 236 Our idolaters found too much vantage of reliques and *relique water to follow St. Chrysostom's counsel.
1871Tylor Prim. Cult. xv. II. 139 The conception..would give a rational explanation of much *relic-worship otherwise obscure.
B. adj. Geogr., Geol., and Biol. = relict a. 4.
1894J. Geikie Great Ice Age (ed. 3) xxxi. 488 In many of the Swedish lakes there occur certain forms of life which appear to be a relic-fauna of the Yoldia Sea. 1926W. H. Twenhofel Treat. Sedimentation v. 369 The Salton Sink of California is probably an example of a relic sea which appears to have been severed from the Gulf of California in the building of the Colorado River delta. 1940Jrnl. Genetics XL. 72 At this stage it is usual for some or all of the chromosomes to show ‘relic’ coils or spirals. These coils are to be regarded as the remains of the spirals of the previous division. 1966Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 2 Apr. (1970) 379 He described the ‘relic forest’ of maple, quaking aspen, Douglas fir, and ponderosa pine with huge trunks. By some strange mystery of nature, they have survived from a much earlier time, when the climate was different here. 1976H. M. French Periglacial Environment v. 95 The presence of obviously relic pingos..in present-day periglacial environments complicates attempts to identify the conditions for present-day pingo growth. 1978Nature 7 Sept. 19/1 Appropriate physical conditions for the origin of life could exist on the relic regolith grains. |