| 释义 |
mendicant, a. and n.|ˈmɛndɪkənt|
[ad. L. mendīcant-em, f. mendīcare to beg, f. mendīcus beggar. Cf. mendiant, mendinant.]
A. adj. Begging; given to or characterized by begging. Also, characteristic of a beggar.
1613R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Mendicant, begging. 1631B. Jonson Underw. lxxxix. (heading), To the Right Honourable, the Lord high Treasurer of England. An Epistle Mendicant. 1655Fuller Hist. Cambr. (1840) 81 Begging Scholars..must be vicious, or else cannot be necessitous to a mendicant condition. 1753Richardson Grandison IV. viii. 71 And with that dejected air and mendicant voice. 1862Guardian 1 Jan. 20/3 Keziah Kadge, the lady who..intended to follow the mendicant profession till she could secure an annuity of {pstlg}50 a year. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 234 Mendicant prophets go to rich men's doors.
b. spec. Applied to those religious orders which lived entirely on alms.
The members of these orders were known as Friars. The most important (often referred to as the ‘Four Orders’) were the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Augustinian Hermits.
1547Boorde Brev. Health 4 They dyd I go amonges the fryers mendicantes. 1626L. Owen Spec. Jesuit. (1629) 27 This proud vpstart society was declared by Pope Pius Quintus to bee of the number of the Mendicant or Begging Friers. 1868J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 395 A mendicant friar of St. Mary Spital.
B. n. A beggar; one who lives by begging.
1474Caxton Chesse iii. vii. 124 Haue no despyte vnto the poure mendycants. 1597–8Bp. Hall Sat. v. i, And but for that, whatever he may vaunt, Who now's a monk, had been a mendicant. 1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. ii. §2 There is surely a Physiognomy, which those..Master Mendicants observe, whereby they instantly discover a merciful aspect. 1791Cowper Odyss. xvii. 264 This morsel hunting mendicant. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola xxii, They..looked like vulgar, sturdy mendicants.
fig.1742Young Nt. Th. vi. 288 What is Station high? 'Tis a proud Mendicant; it boasts, and begs.
b. A begging friar.
1530Palsgr. 244/2 Mendycant an order of freres, mendicant. 1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iv. v. (1634) 535 Of the Mendicants some doe preach, all the other Monks either sing or mumble up Masses in their dennes. 1606Warner Alb. Eng. xiv. lxxxix. 361 A youthfull Gentleman, enamoured on her [sc. a nun]..thus did his Sute preferre Faining himself a Mendicant (Nunnes might with Friers conferre). 1846Hook Ch. Dict. (ed. 5) 611 Mendicants or Begging Friars.
c. Applied to Brahmin, Buddhist, etc. priests who beg for food.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 454 Next..are certaine Mendicants, which liue of Rice and Barley, which any man at the first asking giueth them. 1841Elphinstone Hist. Ind. II. xi. ii. 479 He..put on the dress of a Hindú religious mendicant. 1848H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. iii. viii. 447 A sect of religious mendicants or Jogis. |