| 释义 |
▪ I. mediate, a.|ˈmiːdɪət|
Also 6 Sc. mediat.
[ad. late L. mediāt-us, pa. pple. of mediāre: see mediate v. Cf. F. médiat.]
1. a. Intermediate; intervening or interposed in position, rank, quality, time, or order of succession. Now rare.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 179 The membres inferialle supporte and do seruyce, the meane other membres mediate [of the body], receyve, and refunde. 1547Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 78 The mediat air that is to succeid to the persoun that happynnis to deceis. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. viii. iii. Ded., I may wish you and yours less mediate trouble then he had in the course of his Life. a1661― Worthies, Suffolk (1662) ii. 59 After many mediate preferments..at last he became Arch-bishop of Canterbury. 1707Prior Charity 49 But soon the mediate clouds shall be dispell'd. 1829[see medial a. 1]. 1840Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 169 The Marsh-eagles hold a sort of mediate station between the Ernes, the Ospreys, and the Buzzards. 1857–8Sears Athan. iii. ii. 262 There are three conditions after death, heaven and hell, and a state mediate between them.
†b. Of a person: Intermediary. Obs.
1571–2Reg. Privy Council Scot. II. 121 Na maner of persoun..sall pay or procure to be payit of thair awin substance or be mediat personis. 1582–8Hist. James VI (1804) 290 Quhen he sawe sick apparand disgrace, he trauellit be some mediat persouns to mak satisfactioun. 1604Edmonds Observ. Cæsar's Comm. 63 These [the Tribunes and Centurions] were mediate officers between the Generall and them [the soldiers]. 1655in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. XXX. (1896) 18 The saids goods ar to be put in a mediate man's hands, who sall be answerable for them. 1660R. Coke Power & Subj. 193 It will not follow that the Bishop is the Kings mediate officer in all things and cases which relate to his Episcopal function and jurisdiction.
c. Serving as a means to an end. † Also, conducive, serviceable. Obs.
1502W. Atkynson tr. De Imitatione ii. xii. 195 He exorted his disciples..to take the crosse as the moost medyate meane to folowe hym. 1741Warburton Div. Legat. II. 634 The..supposition of a mediate and an ultimate religion. 1845Thorpe Lappenberg's Hist. Eng. Introd. 53 A temple of Diana was mediate to the faith of so many people.
d. nonce-use. That is in the middle of his course. In quot. absol.
1839Bailey Festus xxviii. (1852) 474 Death divine alone can perfect both, The mediate and initiate.
2. Acting or related through an intermediate person or thing; opposed to immediate.
a. Feudal Law. Said of a superior and of a tenant or vassal, when the latter holds of the former not directly but through a mesne lord. Also applied to the relation between the two parties, as in mediate holding, mediate sovereignty, mediate tenure.
1454Rolls of Parlt. V. 272/2 To paye..their rentes and dewtees to their Lordis mediates and immediates. 1529More Suppl. Soulys Wks. 333/2 Y⊇ king or any other Lorde mediate or immediate, that [etc.]. 1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. 84 As touching his mediat soueraigntie. 1614Selden Titles Hon. 229 To be free from either a mediat, or immediat Tenure of him. 1818Hallam Mid. Ages (1841) I. v. 452 Those which had depended upon mediate lords became immediately connected with the empire. 1845Stephen Comm. Laws Eng. (1874) I. 186 The holding might also be mediate, that is, in the way of subinfeudation.
fig.1839Poe Island of Fay Wks. 1864 I. 361 [A planet] whose mediate sovereign is the sun.
b. gen. Of a person or thing in relation to another: Connected with the correlate not directly but through some other person or thing.
Now rare; many expressions formerly common (e.g. mediate cause) are now avoided as ambiguous, the adj. being liable to be taken in the directly opposite sense 1.
1626Bacon Sylva §400 The Immediate Cause of Death, is the Resolution or Extinguishment of the Spirits; And..the Destruction or Corruption of the Organs is but the Mediate Cause. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. ii. §69 Stephen Langton, his [sc. Becket's] mediate successor, removed his body [etc.]. 1718Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 370 Our sponsors are what I cannot away with, when parents, mediate or immediate, can be had. 1752Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) II. 109 Nor is it possible to explain distinctly how the Deity can be the mediate cause of all the actions of men.
c. Of an action, relation, or effect: Involving or dependent on some intermediate agency or action. Also Psychol. (See quot. 1897.)
mediate inference (Logic): an inference arrived at through a middle term. mediate knowledge (Philos.): knowledge which is not the direct result of intuition, but is obtained by means of inference or testimony.
1588J. Harvey Disc. Probl. 36 Either by Mediate apparance, and reuelation of some vision; or by Imediate..illumination from God. 1641H. Ainsworth Orth. Found. Relig. 18 Mediate creation is the making of things of some former matter. 1642Wotton Life & D. Buckingham 13 The most..pressing care of a new and Vigorous King was his marriage, for mediate establishment of the Royall lyne. 1646P. Bulkeley Gospel Covt. iii. 231 This mediate witnesse of the spirit..is not to be harkened unto, untill the immediate witnesse hath spoken. 1704Norris Ideal World ii. iii. 145 Perception is either immediate or mediate... Mediate, as when we perceive how they [Ideas] are related to each by comparing them both to a third. 1790Paley Horæ Paul. i. 3 Although..the agreement in these writings be mediate and secondary. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. xii. I. 264 All truth is either mediate,..derived from some other truth..or immediate and original. 1836–7Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. (1859) I. 218 What is called mediate knowledge. 1842Abp. Thomson Laws Th. §83 (1860) 146 This is mediate inference. 1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. v. 224 The principle of mediate election is not commonly practised in this country. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. II. xl. 83 They are all copies, some immediate, some mediate, of ancient English institutions. 1897C. H. Judd tr. Wundt's Outl. Psychol. iii. 239 ‘Mediate recognition’..consists in the recognition of an object, not through its own attributes, but through some accompanying mark or other. 1912Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 106 The cases of true mediate association found in these experiments.
d. Law. Of evidence: Directed to the establishment of some intermediate fact which is to serve as a ground of argument for the fact to be proved.
1848Wharton Law Lex., Mediate testimony, secondary evidence.
e. Med. mediate auscultation: auscultation performed with the interposition of some object (as a stethoscope) between the body and the ear. mediate percussion (see quot. 1843).
R. T. H. Laennec's De l'Auscultation Médiate appeared in 1819, and P. A. Piorry's De la Percussion Médiate in 1828.
1821J. Forbes tr. Laennec's Dis. Chest, etc. (1834) 27 The signs afforded by mediate auscultation in the diseases of the lungs. 1843Sir T. Watson Princ. & Pract. Physic xlvii. II. 10 More recently mediate percussion has been introduced..by M. Piorry. In mediate percussion, some solid substance is placed upon the spot, the resonance of which is about to be explored, and the blow is made upon that substance, which is called a pleximeter. 1870S. Gee Auscult. & Percuss. i. iv. 62 Auenbrugger's glove was obviously an approach to that mediate percussion which was first systematically practised by Piorry.
†3. ? Conciliated, propitious. Obs. rare—1.
14..Why I can't be a Nun 98 in E.E.P. (1862) 140 Lord to my mornyng be mediate.
▪ II. mediate, v.|ˈmiːdɪeɪt|
[f. late L. mediāt-, ppl. stem of mediāre (used in various senses derived independently from the etymology: to divide in the middle, halve; to transact as an intermediary; to occupy a middle position; etc.), f. medi-us middle: see medium. Cf. obs. F. médier.
In English the verb is of late emergence, and may have originated by back-formation from mediation and mediator.]
†1. trans. To divide into two equal parts. Obs.
1542Recorde Gr. Artes H vj b, If you wold mediat or diuid into 2, this sum. 1610W. Folkingham Art of Survey ii. vi. 57 The Diameter that mediates the Arch of each Sector is the Meridian.
2. a. intr. To occupy an intermediate or middle place or position; to be between; usually, to form a connecting link or a transitional stage between one thing and another.
1642R. Carpenter Experience v. xix. 322 There mediates no reall tie betwixt you and me, but the worne and old tie of old Acquaintance. 1644Digby Nat. Bodies iii. §7. 21 By theire being crowded together, they exclude all other bodies that before did mediate betweene the litle parts of theire maine body. 1646H. Lawrence Comm. Angells 72 Betweene the temptation of the Divell and sin there ever mediates, or goes betweene, cogitation, or thought, in which the temptation properly and formally lyes. 1850Mrs. Browning Poems II. 388 No twilight in the gateway To mediate 'twixt the two. 1862Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. xviii. 343 To mediate between the old and the new..is the mission of institutions like ours. 1872E. Tuckerman Gen. Lichenum 11 Evernia vulpina must be admitted to mediate,..in an important detail of thalline structure, between the other northern species and Usnea.
†b. To take a moderate position; to avoid extremes. Obs. rare.
1612Webster White Devil i. i, The law doth somtimes mediate, thinkes it good Not euer to steepe violent sinnes in blood.
3. To act as a mediator or intermediary; to intercede, or intervene for the purpose of reconciling.
1616Bullokar Eng. Expos., Mediate, to deale betweene two, to make meanes of agreement, as an indifferent party to both. 1618Earl of Suffolk in Fortescue Papers (Camden) 75, I must fly to you as to my pryncipall advocate to medyate to his Majestie for my coming to hys presence. c1620Camden in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 124 Yff you will mediate with my L. Burghley for the Loane of Chrisostomes Greeke Copie. 1635E. Pagitt Christianogr. i. ii. (1636) 58 Interpreters to mediate between the people and the Governour. 1712Swift Jrnl. to Stella 24 Dec., I have been..mediating between the Hamilton family and Lord Abercorn, to have them compound with him. 1837Macaulay Ess., Bacon (1899) 363 Bacon attempted to mediate between his friend [the Earl of Essex] and the Queen. 1861M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 43 In vain Cabinets endeavoured to mediate. 1892M. Dods Gosp. John II. xiv. 209 He [the Holy Spirit] was to mediate and maintain communication between the absent Lord and themselves.
4. a. trans. ‘To effect by mediation’ (J.); to bring about (a peace, treaty, etc.) by acting as mediator; to procure by intercession.
c1592Marlowe Jew of Malta v. iv, Let me go to Turkey, In person there to mediate your peace. 1600E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 139 To mediate with the King a suspension of armes. 1617Moryson Itin. ii. 79 Beseeching him to use his power, in mediating licence unto him, that he might come over for a short time to kisse the Queenes hand. 1718Freethinker No. 15 The Friends, on both sides, thought, they might mediate a Peace with as much Ease as a Truce. 1754Hume Hist. Eng. I. vi. 142 Anselm..mediated an accommodation between them. 1838Prescott Ferd. & Is. ii. xiii, It is singular that the last act of his political life should have been to mediate a peace between the dominions of two monarchs who had united to strip him of his own.
†b. To intercede on behalf of. Obs.
1621Fletcher Pilgrim i. ii, In your prayers..mediate my poor fortunes.
c. To settle (a dispute) by mediation. † Also, ? to mitigate (an evil) by mediation. Obs.
1568T. North tr. Gueuara's Diall Pr. iv. 99 The miseries wee suffer..haue for the most part proceeded from our parents, and afterwards by our frends haue been mediated and redressed. 1623–4Middleton & Rowley Sp. Gipsy ii. ii, No friends Could mediate their discords. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. xxii. 222 His companions indulged in a family conflict..which was only mediated, after much effort.
5. To be the intermediary or medium concerned in bringing about (a result) or conveying (a gift, etc.); pass., to be communicated or imparted mediately. Spec. in Psychol., to bring about (a result) by acting as a mediating agency between an idea, intention, etc., and its realization; to act as such a mediator.
1630Lord Banians Introd., Who, to give this undertaking [the book] the better promotion, interested himselfe in the worke, by mediating my acquaintance with the Bramanes. 1644Digby Nat. Bodies xxv. §1. 227 An immediate working of God..without conuenient and ordinary instruments to mediate and effect this configuration. 1846G. S. Faber Lett. Tractar. Secess. 224 Moses..mediated an inferior covenant between God and the Israelites. 1856R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. viii. vi. 67 Ten years after the first manifestation he believed himself the recipient of a second, not, like the former, mediated by anything external. 1861Goschen For. Exch. 18 A country which, like England, mediates the transactions of many others. 1903J. Conn Fulness of Time, etc. vi. 77 Everything we know of Him who is the Light of the World has been mediated to us through men. 1931G. Stern Meaning & Change of Meaning xiv. 388 The comprehension of Buchmacher was mediated by the English word. 1942Cofer & Foley in Psychol. Rev. XLIX. 522 Behavioral generalization in children was found to be mediated by verbal responses. 1957B. F. Skinner in Saporta & Bastian Psycholinguistics (1961) 67/2 Instead of going to a drinking fountain, a thirsty man may simply ‘ask for a glass of water’... The consequences of such behavior are mediated by a train of events no less physical or inevitable than direct mechanical action. 1958B. Bernstein in J. A. Fishman Readings Sociol. of Lang. (1968) 227 The working-class child has to translate and thus mediate middle-class language structure through the logically simpler language structure of his own class to make it personally meaningful. 1968M. Bunge in Lakatos & Musgrave Probl. Philos. Sci. 128 [A] theory that takes the risk of hypothesizing something mediating between inputs and outputs. 1971Sutherland & Mackintosh Mechanisms Animal Discrimination Learning i. ii. 5 The behaviorists in general have denied the existence of the process of selective attention in animals except where the process could be mediated by overt orientation responses. 1972Jrnl. Social Psychol. LXXXVII. 129 Of particular interest to the present investigators was the extraction of the dimensions actually used by individuals in mediating similarity. 1974Nature 1 Mar. 73/1 Cholera enterotoxin mediates specific biochemical events in both intestinal and non-intestinal tissues by stimulating adenyl cyclase and cyclic AMP. 1974Author Summer 89/2 People wanted direct, authentic communication that had not been mediated by sub⁓editors or script writers. The tape recorder made this new authenticity possible. |