| 释义 |
▪ I. prone, n.|prəʊn|
Also 7 prosne, 8– ‖ prône.
[a. F. prône (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), also prosne, orig. a grill, grating, railing, hence a place enclosed by such, spec. the grating or railing separating the chancel from the nave of a church, the place where notices were given and addresses delivered. Ulterior origin uncertain: see Körting s.v. præcōno, and articles there cited.]
†1. A part of a church from which notices were read out; hence the notices there given out. Obs.
1670Cotton Espernon x. 514 Upon All-Saints day he thundred out his Excommunication against the Lieutenant of the Guards..at the Prosnes of all the Parish Churches of the City. [Margin.] The Prosnes are the Publications of the Feasts, and Fasts of the Church, Banes of Matrimony, Excommunications, etc. 1686― tr. Montaigne II. 18 Causing it to be Proclaimed at the Prosne of her Parish-Church.
2. An exhortation or homily to be read or delivered in church. Also prayers, exhortations, etc., attached to the sermon.
a1670Hacket Abp. Williams ii. (1692) 56 A saying..out of a prosne or homily, made on purpose to be read before the clergy and laity in all Visitations. 1716M. Davies Athen. Brit. II. 275 One Eusebius..is said to have writ many short Prones or Exhortations upon the Gospels. [1763C. Cordell Divine Office for Use of Laity I. p. vi, The prayers, publications, and familiar instructions used at the Parish-Mass, on Sundays..either immediately after the Gospel, or before the Lavabo are called in France the Prône, from a Greek word signifying the Nave of the Church.] a1773A. Butler Moveable Feasts Catholic Church (1774) i. v. 78 A Person who besides Morning and Evening Prayers has devoutly attended High-mass with a Prone or Sermon. 1860F. C. Husenbeth Life Monsignor Weedall iii. 50 These sermons were called by the French name of Prones... In these Prones, however, no one surpassed Mr. Weedall. 1897Gasquet O. Eng. Bible 65 Parochial sermons were, for the most part..prones upon the Scripture lessons proper for the special Sundays. 1912A. Fortescue Mass vii. 295 The Prayers of the Faithful..became the prône, commands to pray for all classes of people, living and dead, which are still given out before the sermon. 1915F. E. Brightman Eng. Rite II. 1037 The Bidding of the Bedes has not stood alone, but has formed part of a group of vernacular devotions, instructions, and notifications, attached to the Sermon, and known as the ‘Prone’. 1937W. Douglas Church Mus. in Hist. & Pract. v. 120 The most powerful [urge] was that toward the use of the vernacular. Both in England and in Northern Europe..this tendency had brought about a series of vernacular public devotions called the Prone, in connection with the Sermon at High Mass. It contained a bidding prayer for intercessions, a confession and absolution, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments with explanation, and the Church notices. 1968F. E. Vokes in Studia Evangelica V. 146 The so-called ‘Prone’, the vernacular instruction in the Mass. 1972J. G. Davies Dict. Liturgy & Worship 76/2 The association between the sermon and the intercessions which is found in some of the Reformed churches is probably derived from their association in the prone. 1978D. H. Tripp in C. Jones et al. Study of Liturgy ii. iii. xi. 255 The normal Sunday worship was to be a preaching-service, based on the medieval prone.
▪ II. prone, a.|prəʊn|
Also 4 proone, 6–7 proane.
[ad. L. prōn-us bent or leaning forward; inclined downward, sinking; disposed, prone (to anything), favourable, easy, cf. obs. F. prone (1488 in Godef.).]
1. a. Having the front or ventral part downwards; bending forward and downward; situated or lying face downwards, or on the belly: said chiefly of persons or animals, or of the posture or attitude itself. Of the hand: with the palm downwards (or backwards); also, of the fore-arm, or the radius, in the corresponding position: see pronation. Often predicative or quasi-advb., esp. after lie, etc. (cf. flat a. 2). Opp. to supine a.
1578Banister Hist. Man iv. 62 The office of these two [muscles]..is in prone order to turne Radius. 1610G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. ii. xvii, He lowted lowe With prone obeysance. 1615Crooke Body of Man 268 The position or manner of lying of the sickeman, eyther prone that is downe⁓ward, or supine that is vpward. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 506 A Creature who not prone And Brute as other Creatures, but endu'd With Sanctitie of Reason, might erect His Stature. 1784Cowper Task v. 785 Brutes graze the mountain⁓top, with faces prone. 1859Tennent Ceylon II. vii. vii. 256 The dogs lie prone upon the ground, their legs extended far in front and behind. 1864Tennyson En. Ard. 775 Falling prone he dug His fingers into the wet earth.
b. Of a part of the body: So situated as to be directed downwards; under, nether, ventral.
1646[see pronely 1]. 1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd., Their finns are foure, two in the prone part, two in the supine. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. xlvi. 268 Prone Surface... The under surface. Ibid. 308 Mouth..Prone... When the mouth is wholly under the head.
2. a. In inexact or extended sense (as if opp. to erect): Lying (or so as to lie) flat; in (or into) a horizontal posture; prostrate. Often predicative or quasi-advb., with lie, fall, etc. = flat down.
Permissible of things that have not an upper and under side; but improper of men and animals, unless the position is as in 1. to lie prone is one position of lying prostrate.
1697Potter Antiq. Greece ii. iv. (1715) 229 The Beast..did not fall prone upon the Ground. 1784Cowper Task ii. 125 Ancient tow'rs..Fall prone. 1835Willis Melanie 280 The broken column, vast and prone. 1842Browning Count Gismond xvi, Prone lay the false knight, Prone as his lie, upon the ground. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 302 One man..lay on his side with face half upturned... The strong man had fallen prone, as if struck by lightning.
b. transf. Constructed for lying prone upon.
1884Health Exhib. Catal. 102/1 Prone Couches. Recumbent Chairs.
3. a. Having a downward aspect or direction; having a downward or descending inclination or slope. Also loosely, steeply or vertically descending, headlong. Often predicative or quasi-advb.
1627May Lucan iv. 125 Let no Streames finde prone passage to the Maine. 1654H. L'Estrange Chas. I (1655) 126 Edenburgh..seated on the prone and descending part of an hill. 1695Blackmore Pr. Arth. iii. 803 The Way's so wondrous smooth, so prone and broad. 1725Pope Odyss. i. 132 From high Olympus prone her flight she bends. 1820Shelley Witch Atl. xli, Down the prone vale. 1853C. Brontë Villette xxxiv, The storm seemed to have burst at the zenith; it rushed down prone. 1864Tennyson En. Ard. 67 Just where the prone edge of the wood began To feather toward the hollow.
b. fig. = declining ppl. a. 4 b.
1872Tennyson Gareth & Lynette 94 Some comfortable bride and fair, to grace Thy climbing life, and cherish my prone year.
4. fig. Directed or inclined ‘downwards’, or towards what is base; ‘grovelling’, abject, base.
1645Milton Colast. Wks. 1851 IV. 354 Nothing..but a prone and savage necessity, not worth the name of marriage, unaccompanied with love. 1742Young Nt. Th. ii. 345 Prone to the centre; crawling in the dust. Ibid. vii. 1197 Erect in stature, prone in appetite! 1842[see 2].
†5. fig. Said of action compared to following a downward sloping path: Easy to adopt or pursue; involving no difficulty or effort. (Sometimes with mixture of sense 6: = to which one is prone.) Obs.
1475Rolls of Parlt. VI. 151/1 The moost easy, redy and prone payment. 1638Chillingw. Relig. Prot. i. v. §87. 290 It is most prone and easy to doe so. 1654Gataker Disc. Apol. 74 Doth it not pave a plain and prone path unto Atheism? 1656Sanderson Serm. (1689) 71 There is not a proner way to Hell. 1660H. More Myst. Godl. vii. viii. 312 There is nothing more prone then to lye and sleep on the shadie banks of a River.
6. Having a natural inclination or tendency to something; inclined, disposed, apt, liable. Const. to with n., or inf. (The earliest sense in Eng., and still the prevailing one.)
a. Of persons or animals, in reference to mental disposition or the like; (a) to something evil.
(a)1382Wyclif Gen. viii. 21 The witt..and the thouȝt of mannus herte ben redi [v. rr. redi ether proone; prome ether redi] in to yuel fro his tyme of waxyng. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 32/2 Consyderynge..how prone the people haue ben to worshipe fals gods. 1555Eden Decades 305 Yet are they exceadyng prone to lechery. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. ii. i. 108, I am not prone to weeping (as our Sex Commonly are). 1659Pearson Creed i. (1839) 31 We shall always find all nations..more prone to idolatry than to atheism, and readier to multiply than to deny the Deity. 1729Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 130 Men are exceedingly prone to deceive themselves. 1881Jowett Thucyd. I. 197 All are by nature prone to err.
(b) to something neutral or good.
1528Gardiner in Pocock Rec. Ref. I. xli. 78 Much more prone to adhere to the league. c1530H. Rhodes Bk. Nurture in Babees Bk. (1868) 106 Be..Prone, inclyned to mercy. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 690 These seeme prone to receiue the Faith; for they beleeue in One God,..and haue no Idols. 1665Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 321 More prone to concord. 1764Goldsm. Trav. 93 Every state, to one loved blessing prone, Conforms and models life to that alone. 1816J. Wilson City of Plague iii. ii. 25 How prone to love Is the pure sinless soul of infancy! 1844Disraeli Coningsby iii. v, A mind predisposed to inquiry and prone to meditation.
b. Of things or persons, in reference to merely physical tendencies (e.g. to disease).
1607Norden Surv. Dial. v. 222 The ground..is good enough, and not so prone to mosse as you take it. 1804Abernethy Surg. Obs. 35 Not being prone to inflammation. 1871Browning Balaust. 2030 He was..prone Already to grey hairs. 1883Hardwich's Photogr. Chem. (ed. Taylor) 241 The unstable Tetrathionate of Soda, prone to liberate Sulphur. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 579 Gouty patients or those prone to migraine or neuralgia.
c. Const. absol. with preceding n. (usu. with hyphen).
1926, etc. [see accident n. 10 b]. 1973J. M. White Garden Game 47 They were fundamentally good boys..but they were also violence-prone. 1974Times 18 Oct. 16/4 The traditionally drought-prone areas. 1975Publishers Weekly 25 Aug. 287/2 This tale of a wayward bus line founded by the author's failure-prone father.
7. Ready in mind (for some action expressed or implied); eager. Obs. or arch.
1553T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 4 Though..our will [be] prone, yet our fleshe is so heauie. 1610J. Guillim Heraldry iii. xiii. (1660) 161 The Horse..of all beests there is none..more prone in battell or desirous of revenge. 1611Shakes. Cymb. v. iv. 208 Vnlesse a man would marry a Gallowes, and beget yong Gibbets, I neuer saw one so prone. 1728Morgan Algiers II. v. 313 A Body of prone Warriors, never sparing of their Flesh. 1819Shelley Cenci i. iii. 109 What deep wrongs must have blotted out First love, then reverence in a child's prone mind.
8. Comb., as (sense 3) prone-descending, prone-rushing adjs.; (sense 7) prone-minded adj.; † pronewise adv., with ‘prone’ movement, downward, easily, readily (cf. 3, 5).
1585Banister Wecker's Chyrurg. 336 So as the matter maye freely and pronewise flowe out of the wounde. 1727–46Thomson Summer 655 Floods Prone-rushing from the clouds. Ibid. 1145 A deluge of sonorous hail, Or prone-descending rain. 1869Bushnell Wom. Suffrage vii. 143 They will take in the political corruptions with a prone⁓minded human facility.
▪ III. † prone, v. Obs. rare—1.
[a. F. prôner (c 1600 in Hatz.-Darm.) to address (a congregation), also to eulogize, f. prône prone n.]
trans. To read out, make proclamation of.
1683Temple Mem. Wks. 1731 I. 446 The Contents of this Letter were proned by the French Ambassadors at Nimeguen among the several Ministers there. |