| 释义 |
anterior, a.|æntɪərɪə(r)|
[a. L. anterior fore, former, f. ante before; cf. Fr. antérieur, Cotgr.]
1. a. Of place: Fore, more to the front; opposed to posterior.
1611Cotgr., Anterieur, Anterior, fore, former..that goeth, or is set, before. 1626Bacon Sylva §115 Where the anteriour body giveth way, as fast as the posteriour cometh on, it maketh no noise. 1831Brewster Optics xxxv. 288 The two parts into which the iris divides the eye are called the anterior and the posterior chambers.
b. Anat., Bot., and Zool. Situated in the front or nearer the head, fore-part, etc.: opp. to posterior A. 3. In Bot. also, below, inferior. In Human Anat. now usually (because of the erect posture of man) = ventral a.; similarly for other animals having an upright posture.
1733G. Douglas tr. Winslow's Anat. I. 75 The Clavicle is divided into a Body or middle Part, and two Extremities, one anterior, inferior, and internal..; the other posterior, superior, and external. 1826Kirby & Spence Entomol. IV. 335 Anterior, the fore or upper wings. Ibid. 339 Anterior or Exterior, the outer margin of the wing, or that from the body. 1829Loudon Encycl. Plants 1094 Anterior, growing in front of some other thing. 1853Darlington Flora Cestrica (ed. 3) Gloss., Anterior, in front, or below,—as that part of a flower next to the bract, or farthest from the axis of inflorescence. 1875W. Turner Hum. Anat. I. v. 213 The anterior cerebral vesicle bends downwards from the middle vesicle. 1880A. Gray Bot. Text-bk. (ed. 6) i. 160 The portion of the flower which faces the subtending bract is the anterior. 1886Buck Handbk. Med. Sci. II. 507/2 The anterior oblique dislocation of Bigelow. 1893H. Morris Hum. Anat. 1127 In front of the sterno-mastoid is the anterior triangle. 1897D. H. Scott Struct. Bot. (ed. 4) i. 23 The two outer sepals are so placed that one lies next the axis (posterior), and the other remote from it (anterior). 1937Discovery Jan. 16/2 The cortex of the hemispheres, the so called anterior brain.
c. Phonetics. = palatal A. 2.
1902E. W. Scripture Elem. Exper. Phonetics xxiii. 316 The n contact involves an anterior occlusion. 1925P. Radin tr. J. Vendryès's Lang. i. i. 21 The vowels known as anterior or palatal. 1933L. Bloomfield Lang. vi. 99 One distinguishes, usually, between anterior or palatal position and posterior or velar position.
2. a. Of time and progress: Going before, preceding, former, earlier, prior.
1794Sullivan View Nat. II, The memory of anterior ages. 1850McCosh Div. Govt. iii. i. (1874) 271 The mind has not only the power of action, but the anterior..power of choice.
b. with to. (Like similar L. comparatives, anterior is, in Eng., comparative in sense, but not in construction; we do not say anterior than.)
1728M. Scriblerus in Pope Dunc. (1736) 30 The first Dunciad was the first Epic poem..anterior even to the Iliad or Odyssey. 1856Dove Log. Chr. Faith v. i. §1. 243 Intuition is logically anterior to metaphysic. |