| 释义 |
‖ lucus a non lucendo|ˈluːkʌs ɑː nɒn luːˈkɛndəʊ, ˈl(j)uːkʌs eɪ nɒn l(j)uːˈsɛndəʊ|
[L. phr., ‘a grove, (so-called) from the absence of lux (light)’, discussed by Quintilian in De inst. oratoria i. 6. 34.]
A paradoxical or otherwise absurd derivation; something of which the essence or qualities are the opposite of what its name suggests. Also lucus a non.
1711Addison Spectator 8 May, He composed an..Epic Poem..consisting of four and twenty Books, having entirely banished the Letter A from his first Book, which was called Alpha (as Lucus a non lucendo) because there was not an Alpha in it. c1728Swift in W. King Dreamer 88 And make his ignorance discerned, To get the name of council learned; (As lucus comes à non lucendo). 1749Fielding Tom Jones III. viii. iv. 172 This Sun, into which Jones was now conducted, was truly named as Lucus a non lucendo; for it was an Apartment into which the Sun had scarce ever looked. 1823Byron Juan vi. lv. 240 Thus..has been shown ‘Lucus a non Lucendo’, not what was, But what was not; a sort of style that's grown Extremely common in this age. Ibid. xi. xxi. 54 Through Groves, so called as being void of trees, (Like lucus from no light;). 1845R. Ford Hand-bk. Trav. Spain ii. 941 St. Jean de Luz..is not a ‘city of light’, but of ‘mud’, and a Lutetia or lucus a non lucendo. 1848J. R. Lowell Fable for Critics 69 ‘Illustrations’..are said to illustrate, because, as I view it, Like lucus a non, they precisely don't do it. 1904W. F. H. King Classical & Foreign Quotations 186 To the Lucus a non lucendo principle, as it is called, are referred all such paradoxical derivations and descriptions which involve a contradiction in the mere stating of them. 1924A. Huxley Little Mexican 13 Their philology was the picturesque lucus a non lucendo, bloody from by-our-Lady type. 1958R. Liddell Morea iii. 219 Was its name Hydraea (watery), a lucus a non lucendo—it is singularly waterless today. |