| 释义 |
Midland, n. and a.|ˈmɪdlənd|
Also midland.
[f. mid a. + land.]
A. n.
a. The middle part of a country. Also pl. esp. applied to the middle counties of England; and, in hunting use, with narrower sense to the champaign country including parts of the counties of Leicester, Northampton, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire.
1555Eden Decades 320 The three sayde prouinces occupy this mydlande of the worlde. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. xiii. 1 Vpon the Mid-lands now th' industrious Muse doth fall. a1637B. Jonson Discov., De orationis dignitate..Metaphora, As if..a Gentleman of Northampton-shire, Warwickshire, or the Mid-land, should fetch all the Illustrations to his countrey neighbours from shipping. 1684T. Burnet Th. Earth i. ii. 15 If the Sea lie..lower generally than the shore, and much more than the mid-land. 1727A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. II. l. 216 The mid Lands seem very mountainous. 1889C. Edwardes Sardinia 340 The Sarde midlands. 1898Story of Midlands 10 The Midlands are rich in mineral wealth.
b. Used ellipt. for the names of companies or organizations, as Midland Bank, Midland Railway.
1869Bradshaw's Railway Manual XXI. 86 The question was..referred to the arbitration of Captain Galton, who decided that the Midland might work the local line. 1959Chambers's Encycl. XI. 489/2 When the Midland and the Glasgow and South Western decided to throw in their lot together, approval was not given, and the only tangible result..was the adoption by the Scottish company of the Midland lake livery. 1972C. Drummond Death at Bar i. 14 His banking account, with the Midland, is divided into business and private.
c. The central area of the United States (see quot. 1896), esp. regarded as a dialectal area of American English.
1896Dialect Notes I. ix. 438 Midland: a belt separating the North from the South and extending from the Atlantic to the Mississippi (incuding Long Island, New York City and the adjoining counties, New Jersey, Del., all but the northern strip of Penn., the upper prong of West Virginia, southern Ohio, middle Ind., middle Ill., and St. Louis county, Mo.). 1937Amer. Speech XII. 316/1 For many years Middle West..has reigned in solitary authority..; but there seems to be a growing tendency towards the use of three other terms... Central West,..Mid-west,..Midland. This shorter and more picturesque title is still rare, but growing. As noun & adjective it occurs occasionally. 1963R. I. McDavid Mencken's Amer. Lang. 405 The..‘General American’ area is really made up of two major dialects: one, Inland Northern..; the other, Midland, based on the speech of Pennsylvania and its derivatives. 1972H. Kurath Stud. Area Ling. 44 The transition area between the North and the Midland reflects partly the complicated history of the settlement.
B. adj.
1. Situated in the middle of the land; inland; remote from the sea. Midland counties (of England): the counties south of the Humber and Mersey and north of the Thames, with the exception of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Gloucestershire, and the counties bordering on Wales. The counties now forming the Midland (and Oxford) circuit (see circuit n. 5).
1601Holland Pliny I. 40 In the midland parts far from the sea. 1675Ogilby Britannia (1698) 6 The chief Trade [of Bristol] is manag'd from Wales, and the Midland-Countries. 1785J. Phillips Treat. Inland Navig. p. vi, The inhabitants of the Northern..parts of England, would be little acquainted..with those of the mid-land parts. 1851Stephens Bk. Farm I. 157 In use in Forfarshire and the midland districts. 1878F. S. Williams Midl. Railw. 8 Such was the origin of the Midland Counties Railway.
b. Belonging to the Midlands. Also pl.
Midland dialect: (a) with reference to the ME. period, the dialect (divided into East and West Midland) spoken in the region between those of the ‘northern’ and ‘southern dialects’; in addition to the central parts of England this region included South Lancashire, the Welsh borders, Lincolnshire, and East Anglia; (b) in A. J. Ellis's classification of modern English dialects, the dialect of an area extending from Wharfedale in Yorkshire to Stratford on Avon, and from Chester to the Lincolnshire coast.
1756A. Butler Lives Saints I. 45 St. Cedd..first preached to the Midland English. 1837Youatt Sheep viii. 341 The Midland Long-woolled Sheep. 1849D. Rock Church of our Fathers I. i. v. 351 The chasuble, in its graceful, true old form, and appareled albs and amices, were spread throughout the Midland district. 1922Joyce Ulysses 703 The Link line railway laid..between the cattle park, Liffey junction, and terminus of Midland Great Western Railway..in proximity to the terminal stations or Dublin branches of Great Central Railway, Midland Railway of England [etc.]. 1942Short Guide Gt. Brit. (U.S. War Dept.) 7 The great ‘midland’ manufacturing cities of Birmingham, Sheffield, and Coventry. 1954Darby & Terrett (title) The Domesday geography of Midland England. 1971M. Lee Dying for Fun xlii. 202 Ivor Canning had made his way to Oxford but..still spoke with a well-preserved Midlands accent. 1972M. Woodhouse Mama Doll xiii. 180 The few words he did speak emerged in a Midlands accent.
c. Of or pertaining to the Midland of the United States or the regional type of American English spoken there.
1890Dialect Notes I. ii. 57 But the differences in the different sections of the country are not so great that we can properly speak of a New England dialect, a southern dialect, a midland dialect. 1900B. B. Smyth Plants & Flowers Kansas 43 This is the Midland adder-tongue, as named by Prof. Knerr of Atchison. 1944H. Kurath in Language XX. 151, I hope to be able to show before long, on the basis of the Atlas materials, that we must recognize a large Central or Midland speech area in addition to the Southern, the Northern, and the Northeastern (eastern New England). 1949― Word Geogr. Eastern U.S. p. v, There is an extensive Midland speech area that lies between the traditionally recognized ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ areas. 1959E. Tunis Indians vi. 86 Midland Indians were farmers first, but they all..hunted buffalo.
2. = Mediterranean a. 2. Midland Sea, the Mediterranean Sea.
1579Fulke Heskins' Parl. 34 From the mid lande sea to both the Oceans. 1683T. Hoy Agathocles 3 Fruitful Italy, The Pride, and Envy of the Mid-land Sea. 1818Byron Ch. Har. iv. clxxv, The midland ocean breaks on him and me. 1853M. Arnold Scholar-Gipsy xxv, O'er the blue Midland waters with the gale, Betwixt the Syrtes and soft Sicily.
†b. Of or pertaining to the Mediterranean Sea.
1660R. Coke Power & Subj. 36 In lib. 3. cap. 4 he [Diodorus] makes four kinds of Libyans to inhabit the midland coasts about Cyrene and Cirtes.
Hence ˈMidlander, one who lives in the Midlands or in the Midland of the United States; ˈMidlandize v. trans., to assimilate to the Midland dialect; ˈMidlandward adv., towards the Midlands.
1601Holland Pliny I. 91 Vpon whom ioine the mid⁓landers, to wit, the Gætulianders. 1865Kingsley Herew. xviii, The young earls went off—one midlandward, one northward. 1879T. F. Simmons in Lay Folks Mass Bk. Introd. 58 The Northern form may have been copied mechanically by the scribe, although Midlandized in other cases. 1889G. B. Shaw London Music 1888–89 (1937) 243, I was at Leicester, delivering to the midlanders an impassioned appeal. 1912Belloc Green Overcoat x. 191 ‘I know you would!’ said the big Midlander. 1932Times Lit. Suppl. 14 Jan. 19/2 Himself a Midlander, he is very insistent on the special virtues which Shakespeare inherited from his Midland birth. 1972H. Kurath Stud. Area Ling. 53 The proportion of ‘Northerners’ and ‘Midlanders’ in these two states as a whole differs little. 1972Country Life 14 Dec. 1638/1 It is always with mild surprise that you recall that Dr. Johnson was a Midlander.., that he was born not within the sound of Bow Bells but of the bells of Lichfield Cathedral. |