| 释义 |
wisdom|ˈwɪzdəm|
Forms: 1– wisdom; 3 (Orm.) wissdom, (wistom), 3–5 wysdom, wisdam, 3–7 wisedom, wisdome, 4 wisdame, (wijsdam), 4–6 wysdome, (Sc. visdome), 4–7 wisedome, 5 wisedam, wysdam(e, wysedom, (wijsdom, wysedomme, wiesdom, vysdome, whysdom), 5–6 wysedome, (6 wisdoume, -dum(e, wisz-, wyszdome, 7 Sc. wosdome).
[OE. wísdóm = OFris., OS. wîsdôm, MDu. wijsdom, OHG., MHG. wîstuom (G. weistum legal sentence, precedent), ON. vísdómr (Sw., Da. visdom): see wise a. and -dom.]
The quality or character of being wise, or something in which this is exhibited.
1. a. Capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct; soundness of judgement in the choice of means and ends; sometimes, less strictly, sound sense, esp. in practical affairs: opp. to folly.
Beowulf 1959 Offa wæs..wide ᵹeweorðod, wisdome heold eðel sinne. c1000Inst. Polity ii. in Thorpe Laws II. 306 Ðurh cynincges wisdom folc wyrð ᵹesæliᵹ, ᵹesundful, & siᵹefæst. c1175Lamb. Hom. 123 Þet wit and þene wisdom þe ure drihten us sende. c1200Ormin 8974 Hire sune wex & þraf i wissdom & inn elde. a1225Ancr. R. 6 He mai þe vttre riwle chaungen, efter wisdom. a1225Leg. Kath. 485 Ichulle fordon þe wisdom of þeos wise worldmen. a1300Cursor M. 8857 Godd ne had him sli wisdom Giuen, als he gaf salamon. 1340–70Alex. & Dind. 102 Ȝif god sente euery gome..Wordliche wisdam & wittus iliche. a1375Cato 409 in Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. 587 Forþure þi wille wiþ wisdam. c140026 Pol. Poems x. 21 At þe tre of wysdom, foly þou souȝt. 1450–1530Myrr. our Ladye ii. 183 The mooste wyse wysdome of god. 1513More Edw. V in Hall Chron., Edw. V (1548) 2 b, Yf grace turne hym to wisedome. 1535Coverdale Prov. ix. 10 The feare of the Lorde is the begynnynge of wysdome. 1563Homilies, Rogation Wk. iii. Rrrr j, Thys wisdome can not be atteyned, but by the direction of the spirite of God, and therefore it is called spirituall wisdome. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, iii. vii. 16 Your Discipline in Warre, Wisdome in Peace. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lvi. §5 That which moueth God to worke is goodnes, and that which ordereth his worke is wisedome. 1633G. Herbert Temple, Providence xvi, Each creature hath a wisdome for his good. 1640Wilkins Disc. New Planet ix. 204 Wee allow every Watch-maker so much wisdome as not to put any motion in his Instrument, which is superfluous. a1708Beveridge Thes. Theol. (1711) III. 28 By wisdom, I mean that attribute in God, whereby He orders and manages whatsoever He takes in hand, by the best means, in the best manner and to the best end. 1784Cowper Task vi. 88 Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one, Have ofttimes no connexion. 1875Manning Mission Holy Ghost xiv. 385 Illumination of the intellect, together with charity inflaming the heart, constitute the gift of wisdom.
b. personified (almost always as feminine).
c888ælfred Boeth. iii. §1 Þa com þær gan in to me heofencund Wisdom. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xi. 19 Wisdom ys ᵹerihtwisud fram heora bearnum. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. iv. 87 He haþ waget me a-mendes as wisdam him tauhte. 1535Coverdale Prov. viii. 1 Doth not wysdome crie? doth not vnderstondinge put forth hir voyce? 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. viii. §1 To prescribe the order of doing..is a peculiar prerogatiue which Wisedome hath, as Queene or soueraigne commandresse ouer other vertues. 1611Bible Transl. Pref. ⁋4 Loue the Scriptures, and wisedome will loue thee. 1742Gray Adversity 25 Wisdom in sable garb array'd Immers'd in rapt'rous thought profound. 1784Cowper Task vi. 97 Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much, Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. 1802Wordsw. ‘I grieved for Buonaparté’ 9 Wisdom doth live with children round her knees. 1850Tennyson In Mem. cxiv. 22 For she [sc. Knowledge] is earthly of the mind, But Wisdom heavenly of the soul.
c. as one of the manifestations of the divine nature in Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Cor. i. 24, 30, etc.); hence used as a title of the second person of the Trinity (the Wisdom of the Father); also occas. applied to God or the Trinity.
c888ælfred Boeth. xli. §4 Se wisdom mæᵹ us eallunga onᵹitan swylce swylce we sint..forðæm se wisdom is God. a1175Cott. Hom. 219 Þurh his wisdom (se sune) heo ȝe⁓worhte alle þing. c1200Vices & Virtues 25 Ðe sune of ðe fader akenned, al swa his wisedom. a1225Ancr. R. 26 Almihti God, Feder, & Sune, & soðfest Holi Gost, also ȝe þreo beoð o God, & o mihte, o wisdom, & o luue. a1300Cursor M. 9730. 1402 Jacke Upland in Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 36 Christ, that is the wisedome of God the Father. 1587Golding De Mornay v. (1592) 53 We call him also the wisedome of the Father, yea, and euen meerely and simply wisedome. 1833Newman Arians ii. iii. (1876) 169 It would appear that our Lord is called the Word or Wisdom in two respects; first, to denote His essential presence in the Father..: secondly, His mediatorship. 1855Lynch Lett. to Scattered ii. (1872) 32 Wisdom is alive: it is not a thing or quality. It is God. It is God and Man, for it is Christ.
d. Contextually, usually predicative with following inf.: = a wise thing to do; also with a and pl., a piece of wisdom; a wise action or proceeding. (Opp. to folly n.1 1 c.) arch.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 201 Here nou..and holde hit for wisdam. c1420Hoccleve Min. Poems xxiv. 215 Is it wysdam as þat it seemeth yow, Were it on your fyngir continuelly? 1482Cely Papers (Camden) 87 Hyt wylbe whysdom to be sewyr of mo. 1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iv. vii. 60 Till then, 'tis wisdome to conceale our meaning. a1628F. Grevil Sidney (1652) 2 Had I grounded my ends upon active Wisedomes of the present. 1764Priestley Lect. Hist., Ess. Educ. (1788) p. xv, It is certainly our wisdom to contrive that the studies of youth should tend to fit them for the business of manhood. 1831Scott Ct. Rob. xviii, It is wisdom to choose a better protector. 1884H. H. Jackson Ramona i, If she had ever said anything about herself, which she never did—one of her many wisdoms.
e. (a) pl. as attribute of a number of persons; hence, with possessive, as a title of dignity or respect, esp. for the members of a deliberative assembly; also jocularly or ironically. Similarly, without possessive, as in the best wisdoms = the wisest men.
1432Rolls of Parlt. IV. 403/2 To the right wyse and discrete Commens of this present Parlement... Please hit unto youre worthy and noble wisdoms and discretions [etc.]. 1447–8Shillingford's Lett. (Camden) 108 As hit appereth of recorde the whiche they remytte to your wysedomys. 1536Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) II. 2 As by your wisedomes ye shall thinke may best serue for the kinges highnes purpose. 1587D. Fenner Def. Ministers 60 It may please their wisedomes, who are to be Iudges, to consider. 1619J. Denison Heav. Banquet etc. 317, I will leaue that to their wisedomes who haue place of gouernment. 1631Markham Country Contentm. i. xix. (ed. 4) 103 Many of the best wisedomes of our Nation. 1794Wolcot (P. Pindar) Ode to Tyrants Wks. 1812 III. 253 Even Folly..freely on your Wisdoms cracks her jokes.
(b) Less commonly in sing. of a single person.
1447–8Shillingford's Lett. (Camden) 42 Not likely by that mene to be ended lightly, as your wysedom knowyth well. 1598Hakluyt Voy. Ep. Ded. ⁋3 The chiefe motiues which induced his princely wisedome hereunto. 1612J. Cotta Disc. Dang. Pract. Phys. i. ix. 72 The parents..sent for a wisewoman, & her wisedome came vnto them. a1652A. Wilson in Peck Desid. Curiosa (1735) II. xii. 24 The Maior's Wisdom said, hee knew not my Lord's Hand. 1831Scott Ct. Rob. viii, Can your wisdom possibly entertain a wish to converse with me?
f. Phr. in his (or its, etc.) wisdom: now usually ironic.
1852Queen Victoria in Hansard CXXIII. 20 To enable the Industry of the Country to meet successfully that unrestricted Competition to which Parliament, in its Wisdom, has decided that it should be subjected. 1863N. Hawthorne Our Old Home 397 Possibly his Lordship thought, in his wisdom, that the good feeling which was sure to be expressed by a company of well-bred Englishmen, at his august and far-famed dinner table, might have an appreciable influence on the grand result. 1930W. Faulkner As I lay Dying 68 If you have no son, it's because the Lord has decreed otherwise in His wisdom. 1974K. Clark Another Part of Wood vi. 232 In the 1930's, when the country was at least ten times as rich as it is today, the Treasury ‘in its wisdom’ twice found it necessary to cut off our annual purchase grant altogether.
2. a. Knowledge (esp. of a high or abstruse kind); enlightenment, learning, erudition; in early use often = philosophy, science. † Also, practical knowledge or understanding, expertness in an art. Now only Hist.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Luke xi. 52 Tulistis clauem scientiae, ᵹie nomon cæᵹo wisdomes. 1382Wyclif 1 Cor. ii. 13 Not in tauȝt wordis of mannis wysdom, but in doctryne of the spirit. c1386Chaucer Prol. 575 The wisdom of an heepe of lerned men Of maistres hadde he mo than thries ten. 1460–70Bk. Quinte Essence 1 Þe wijsdom and þe science of þis book schulde..be..preserued. 1526Tindale Acts vii. 22 Moses was learned in all manner off wisdom of the Egipcians. 1557in Lodge Illustr. Brit. Hist. (1791) I. 276 The Quene's Mati⊇, knowing the wysdome and skyll of John Brende, Esquier, in the leading and ordering of footemen. 1662J. Chandler Van Helmont's Oriat. 163 This..was Zoosophie or the wisdom of keeping living Creatures together. 1770Langhorne Plutarch (1879) I. 130/1 What was then called wisdom, which consisted in a knowledge of the arts of government, and the practical part of political prudence. 1875Lightfoot Comm. Coloss. 99 ‘Wisdom’ in Gnostic teaching was the exclusive possession of the few.
b. pl. Kinds of learning, branches of knowledge. rare.
c888ælfred Boeth. vii. §3 Mine þeowas sindon wisdomas & cræftas & soðe welan. a1300Cursor M. 8482 Of all wisdoms [Solomon] had i-nogh. 1853F. W. Faber All for Jesus (1854) 130 The Corinthians could not come near us in the variety of our wisdoms and our gifts.
c. In renderings of med.L. names of substances prepared or used by the alchemists, as lute of wisdom (see lute n.2 1), salt of wisdom = alembroth.
(Cf. philosopher 4, 5 b, philosophical 4.)
1460–70[see lute n.2 1]. 1576Baker Gesner's Jewell of Health 37 The Lute of Wysedome, which resisteth the fire marveylously. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. II. 23 Alembroth, Salt of the Art, Salt of Wisdom.
3. a. Wise discourse or teaching; with a and pl., a wise saying or precept. Now rare or arch.
c1175Lamb. Hom. 125 Imong þan muchela wisdoma þe ure drihten lerde his apostles. c1205Lay. 25628 ælc bi his witte wisdom sæiden. c1250Gen. & Ex. 462 On two tables of tiȝel and bras Wrot he ðat wistom. 1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 1179 Anoþer wysdom a clerk vs telleþ. c1400Lydg. Chorle & Bird 274 Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 189 To here a wisdom thyn eres been half deef. 1493[H. Parker] Dives & Pauper (1496) ix. iv. 350/2, I shall teche the thre wysedomes whiche yf thou kepe them well they shall do the moche proufyte. 1531Elyot Gov. iii. xxv, In his fables the foxe, the hare, and the wolfe, though they neuer spoke, do teache many good wysedomes. 1860Sala Badd. Peer. I. vii. 127 Listen then, to the wisdom of Pollybank.
b. In the titles of two books of the Apocrypha, viz. The Wisdom of Solomon (often abbrev. Wisdom or The Book of Wisdom), and The Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach (commonly called Ecclesiasticus). Cf. also Wisdom literature, etc. in 5.
1430–40Wycliffite Bible Wisd. (heading) Heer gynneth the prolog in the booc of Wisdam. 1611Bible (title) The Wisedome of Solomon. Ibid. (title) The Wisdome of Iesus the sonne of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus. 1875Plumptre in Expositor I. 336 Those [words] which are found in Philo and in the Epistle, but not in Wisdom. 1912E. C. Selwyn Oracles N.T. iii. 78 The fact that Wisdom also contains an anticipation of one of the three Temptations of Christ.
†4. Sanity, ‘reason’. (Cf. wise a. 4.) Obs. rare.
1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. iv. 5 Pray heauen his wisedome bee not tainted.
5. Comb.
a. attrib., as wisdom-book, wisdom-lecture, etc.; Wisdom literature, a collective term for the biblical books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom of Solomon, and Ecclesiasticus, and the Epistle of James; so Wisdom books, Wisdom poetry, Wisdom versification. (See also wisdom tooth.)
b. instrumental, objective, etc., as wisdom-bred, wisdom-giving, wisdom-seasoned, wisdom-seeming, wisdom-working adjs.
c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 187 Of þe strengðe þe ure drihten us to munegeð specð *wisdom boc and seið, Fortitudo simplicis uia domini. 1887Cheyne Job & Solomon 180 The Wisdom-books of the Old Testament proper.
1832Tennyson Œnone 121 Power..; *wisdom-bred And throned of wisdom.
1667Milton P.L. ix. 679 O Sacred, Wise, and *Wisdom-giving Plant, Mother of Science.
a1644Quarles Sol. Recant. ch. xii. 9 Because his true repentant soul was wise, He read this *wisdome-lecture.
1887Cheyne Job & Solomon 180 The book now before us—the largest and most comprehensive in the *Wisdom-literature.
1809–10Coleridge Friend (1818) III. 112 The title of sophist,..a *wisdom-monger, in the same sense as we say, an iron-monger.
1895R. G. Moulton Proverbs 169 The metres of *Wisdom poetry.
a1644Quarles Sol. Recant. Sol. xi. 1 Thy *wisdome-seasoned brest.
1826E. Irving Babylon I. ii. 74 A *wisdom-seeming ignorance.
1816Shelley Sunset 36 To make hard hearts Dissolve away in *wisdom-working grief.
Hence ˈwisdomful a., full of wisdom; † ˈwisdomhood, wisdom; ˈwisdomless a., destitute of wisdom; † ˈwisdomness, (a) contained wisdom, wise signification or implication; (b) affected or spurious wisdom; ˈwisdomship, (with possessive) as a title of (ironical) respect (cf. 1 e).
1845Blackw. Mag. Feb. 156/2 Its wondrous *wisdomful speech.
138.Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 99 As Seynt Poul seyþ, In him beþ alle tresoures of kunnyng and of *wysdomhud.
1608Machin Dumb Knt. iv. i, I am mad,..all wit-stung, *wisdomlesse.
1589Marprel. Epit. (1843) 21 It is a hard matter..to conceiue all the *wisdomnes of this syllogisme. 1668E. Kemp Reas. Use Ch. Prayers in Publick 14 So impertinent a piece of gravity, so unseasonable a piece of wisdomness.
1692Vindication Pref. A 2, Their cool *Wisdomships can be as Hot as their Neighbours in their own Concerns. |