| 释义 |
▪ I. mirror, n.|ˈmɪrə(r)|
Forms: 4–8 mirrour(e, 4–7 mirour, 4–6 myrour(e, myrrour(e, 4–5 meror, merour(e, 4 merrour(e, merrur, mirrur, mirur, 5 mero, merowe, merowr, merrowre, merur(e, murrour, myrowre, myrrore, myrrow, 6–8 miroir, 6 miror, mirrhour, mirrold, Sc. murrur, 7–8 mirroir, myrhorr, 6– mirror.
[ME. mirour, a. OF. mirour, mireor, mireoir, earlier (11th c., Rashi) miradoir (mod.F. miroir):—popular L. *mīrātōrium, f. *mīrāre to look at (class. L. mīrārī to wonder, admire, whence miracle): see -ory. Pr. had mirador-s, and It. miratore, miradore, in the same sense (both rare); Sp., Pg. mirador has the meaning of watch-tower.
The Eng. spelling mir(r)oir, almost confined to the 17th c., is due to the influence of mod.Fr.]
I. Literally (or with obvious metaphor).
1. a. A polished surface which reflects images of objects, formerly made of metal, now ordinarily of glass coated with amalgam; a looking-glass. Also rarely, the coated glass of which mirrors are made.
c1225Dict. J. de Garlande in Wright Voc. 123 Willelmus, vicinus noster, habet..specula (myrrys [? read myrurys]). c1315Shoreham 7 Sacraments 727 To-slyfte A[l þy] myrour þou myȝt fol wel, Bote nauȝt þe ymage schifte. 1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. xxvi. 71 In a ful lytel myrroure thou myght see as grete an ymage as in another that is double more. 1483Cath. Angl. 236 To loke in Merowe, speculari. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. iv. 10 And in her hand she held a mirrhour bright. 1601Holland Pliny II. 478 No plates might be driuen by the hammer, nor mirroirs made, but of the best and purest siluer. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 59 Stones..so well polisht, that they equall for brightnesse a steele mirrour. 1766Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) II. viii. 43 Next morning the mirror is consulted again. 1848Dickens Dombey xxiii, Mirrors were dim as with the breath of years. 1898G. B. Shaw Plays II. Candida 81 A varnished wooden mantelpiece, with neatly moulded shelves, tiny bits of mirror let into the panels.
b. fig.
c1374Chaucer Troylus i. 365 Thus gan he make a myrrour of his mynde. 1593B. Barnes Parthenophil Madr. xi. 4 in Arb. Garner V. 370 Thine Eyes, mine heaven!..made mine eyes dim mirrolds of unrest. 1602Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 24 Playing..whose end..is, to hold as 'twer the Mirrour up to Nature. a1633G. Herbert Jacula Prud. 296 The best mirrour is an old friend. 1677Gale Crt. Gentiles II. iv. 94 The Divine Law is called perfect, as it is an absolute perfect Miroir or Glasse. 1784Cowper Task ii. 291 The fleeting images that fill The mirror of the mind. 1881Gardiner & Mullinger Stud. Eng. Hist. i. ix. 174 Such books serve to hold up the mirror to the time.
c. transf. Applied to water (chiefly poet.).
1595Spenser Epithal. 63 And in his waters, which your mirror make, Behold your faces. 1637Heywood Dialogues Wks. 1874 VI. 258 Their chrystall waves are Myrrhors. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 263 A Lake, That to the fringed Bank..Her chrystall mirror holds. 1713Addison Cato i. vi, So the pure limpid stream..Works itself clear, and as it runs, refines; Till, by degrees, the floating mirror shines. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xiii, The stars above shining as clear below in the mirror of the all but motionless water.
2. spec.
a. A glass or crystal used in magic art.
13..Seuyn Sag. (W.) 2009 Virgil made another ymage, That held a mirour in his hond, And oversegth all that lond. c1386Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 226 Alocen and Vitulon And Aristotle that writen in hir lyues Of queynte Mirours and of prospectiues. 1481Caxton Reynard xxxii. (Arb.) 84 Now ye shal here of the mirrour. The glas that stode theron was of such vertu, that [etc.]. 1533Gau Richt Vay 12 Alsua thay that wsis corsis, christal, murrur, bukis, vordis and..coniuracione to find hwid hurdis in the ȝeird [etc.]. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede i, With a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to reveal..far-reaching visions of the past.
†b. A small glass formerly worn in the hat by men and at the girdle by women. Obs.
1599B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. ii. i, Call for your casting-bottle, and place your mirrour in your hat.
3. Optics. A polished surface, either plane, convex, or concave, that reflects rays of light; a speculum. burning mirror: a concave mirror which, by concentrating the reflected rays of the sun at a focus, causes them to set fire to objects.
1762H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1765) I. vi. 125 Among the stores of old pictures at Somerset-house, was one..representing the head of Edward VI. to be discerned only by the reflection of a cylindric mirrour. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 675 A convex mirror strengthens the colours and takes off the coarseness of objects by contracting them. 1822J. Imison Sci. & Art I. 262 Plane mirrors are those whose surfaces are perfect planes, and whose section is a straight line. Such are vulgarly called looking-glasses. 1839G. Bird Nat. Philos. 301 The point..being consequently equal to half the radius of the concavity of the mirror.
II. Figurative uses.
4. a. That which gives a faithful reflection or true description of anything. Cf. looking-glass 1 b.
Formerly common in titles of books, after med.L. speculum.
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. Prol. 307 What [seith] vincent in his estoryal myrour. c1440Eng. Conq. Irel. 117 That same boke..was..as merrowre of al his dedys. 1563Sackville Induct. Mirr. Mag. vii, A Mirour well it might bee calde. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §94 It seemed the more reasonable to enlarge upon the nature and character and fortune of the duke; as being the best mirroir to discern..the spirit of that age. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 156 ⁋10 The stage, which pretends only to be the mirrour of life. 1874Sayce Compar. Philol. v. 176 Language is the mirror of society, and accordingly will reflect every social change.
b. Used of a person. poet.
1563Sackville Induct. Mirr. Mag. xvii, Those Whom Fortune in this maze of miserie Of wretched chaunce most wofull myrrours chose. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, ii. ii. 51 But now two Mirrors of his Princely semblance, Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death. c1637Waller On Ben Jonson 1 Mirrour of Poets, Mirrour of our Age.
5. a. That which exhibits something to be imitated; a pattern; an exemplar. Now rare.
a1300Cursor M. 23867 Cristen folk.., In eldrin men ur mirur se Quat for to folu, quat for to fle. c1386Chaucer Frankl. T. 726 O Teuta queene thy wyfly chastitee To alle wyues may a Mirour bee. c1440York Myst. xxi. 93 For men schall me þer myrroure make. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 81 Wherefore this Princes actes may be a myrour unto all Princes. 1683Brit. Spec. 18 Thou art a Mirror to all Christian Kingdoms. 1765Cowper Lett. 24 June, A servant..who is the very mirror of fidelity and affection for his master. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. Introd. 7 Sir Tristram, a fictitious character held forth as the mirror of chivalry.
†b. Hence of persons: A model of excellence; a paragon. Obs.
c1369Chaucer Dethe Blaunche 974 She wolde haue be at the beste A chefe myrrour of al the feste. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, ii. Prol. 6 They sell the Pasture now, to buy the Horse; Following the Mirror of all Christian Kings. 1615R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 71 Whilest thy renowme great mirrour of the North, Showne in our time, wants one to set it foorth. 1785Burke Sp. Nabob of Arcot's Debts Wks. 1842 I. 343 Our mirror of ministers of finance did not think this enough for the services of such a friend as Benfield.
†c. That which reflects something to be avoided; a warning. Obs. rare.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xvi. 156 Þow shalt be myroure to manye men to deceyue. 1475Bk. Noblesse (Roxb.) 39 But alway [they] brake the saide trewes..as it shewethe openly, and may be a mirroure for ever to alle cristen princes to mystrust any trewes taking by youre saide adversarie or his allies and subjectis. 1633T. Stafford Pac. Hib. ii. iii. 145 He might for ever bee poynted at as an exemplary mirror for all insolent Traytors.
III. 6. Applied to various objects resembling a mirror in shape or in lustre. a. Arch. A small oval ornament.
1847–54Webster, Mirror, in architecture, a small oval ornament cut into deep moldings, and separated by wreaths of flowers. 1901Sturgis Dict. Archit. & Build., Mirror, a panel surrounded by a moulded or otherwise ornamented frame and suggesting the idea of a mirror. Practically the same as a Cartouche, Rondel or Medallion, but the mirror in this sense is usually a detached panel.
b. Ornith. A bright patch of colour on the wings of ducks and other birds; = speculum.
1903Blackw. Mag. Mar. 359/2 The black tips of the long wings waving in the wind, showing the large white ‘mirrors’ on the first three feathers distinctly.
c. Short for mirror cloth (see 7 b).
1899Daily News 14 Jan. 2/4 So glossy is the cloth..that it is now called ‘mirror’, in allusion to the sheen of its highly-polished surface.
IV.
7. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib., objective, etc., as mirror-bearer, mirror-gazer, mirror-hall, mirror-light, mirror-scroll, mirror-silverer, mirror-silvering, mirror-stand, mirror-trick; -mirror-topped adj.
Also in names of scientific instruments in which the index is a beam of light reflected from a mirror, as in mirror barometer, mirror galvanometer, mirror thermometer.
1885Pater Marius i. vi, Placed in their rear were the *mirror-bearers of the goddess.
1898Lodge in Daily News 7 Jan. 2/4 Such an instrument was the beautiful ‘*mirror-galvanometer’ of Lord Kelvin.
1937G. Barker Calamiterror 9 The *mirror-gazer self-betrayed.
1923Blunden To Nature 10 From the *mirror-lights on the dressing table.
1970R. Lowell Notebk. 207 Your wall-mirror in a mat of plateglass sapphire, *mirror-scroll and claspleaves, holds our faces.
1829R. Christison Treat. Poisons xiii. (1832) 375 A somewhat later account of the disease by Dr. Bateman, as he observed it in *mirror-silverers.
1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 931 In *mirror-silvering it [mercury] was also employed.
1817J. Constable Let. 10 July in Corr. (1964) II. 228, I am glad I have not made a purchase of the *mirror stand (called a Canterbury). 1960H. Hayward Antique Coll. 187/1 Mirror-stand, an adjustable mirror mounted on a shaft and tripod base, resembling a pole-screen; popular at the end of the 18th cent.
1949D. Smith I capture Castle iii. xiv. 260 A *mirror-topped table. 1950M. Allingham Mr. Campion & Others xiii. 270 He remembered Geoffrey's face at the other end of the mirror-topped table.
1940W. Faulkner Hamlet iv. i. 247 Something to be repudiated with contempt, like a *mirror trick.
b. similative, as mirror-eye, mirror-faculty, mirror finish, mirror-floor, mirror-sheen, mirror surface; mirror-bright, mirror-dark, mirror-flat, mirror-like, mirror-polished, mirror-resembling, mirror-scaled adjs. Also in the designations of textile fabrics with lustrous surface, as mirror moiré, mirror velvet; and of colours, as mirror-black, mirror-grey, mirror-pink adjs.
1890Century Dict., *Mirror-black, an epithet applied to any ceramic ware having a lustrous black glaze.
1900Daily News 7 Aug. 3/5 There is an amount of steel and brass work to be kept *mirror-bright.
a1955W. Stevens Opus Posthumous (1957) 51 Your gowns..came shining as things come That enter day from night, came *mirror-dark.
1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 98 The red-gold *mirror-eye [of a fish] stares and dies. 1951Koestler Age of Longing ii. viii. 306 She felt herself reflected in their watchful mirror-eyes, and was forced to see herself as they saw her.
1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 199 Besides the difficulty of the manner it-self, and that *mirrour-faculty,..it proves also..a kind of mirrour..to the age.
1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 112/3 Heavy nickel plated and polished to a *mirror finish. 1926–7Army & Navy Stores Catal. 199/3 Polishing wool..gives to silver, electro-plate, gold, etc., that beautiful ‘mirror’ finish of newly manufactured articles. 1971Engineering Apr. 118/2 A second tool produces the final truly ‘mirror’ finish.
1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 98 This red-gold, water-precious *mirror-flat bright eye.
a1849J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 73 On the *mirror-floor of Ocean's wave.
1887Daily News 19 May 5/6 A *mirror-grey satin dress.
1772Mason Eng. Garden i. 23 Whose mighty mind..*mirror-like Receiv'd, and to mankind with ray reflex The sov'reign Planter's primal work display'd. 1832Miss Mitford Village Ser. v. 151 Two narrow shady lanes cross each other, leaving just room enough..for a clear mirror-like pond.
1894Westm. Gaz. 20 Sept. 3/3 Another splendid gown..was of ‘*mirror moiré’.
1936J. Steinbeck In Dubious Battle iv. 29 One line of worn and *mirror-polished rails extended ahead. 1937Discovery Feb. 57/1 Pickle mirror-polished silver sheet in sulphuric acid.
1927W. B. Yeats October Blast 9 All those things whereof Man makes a superhuman *Mirror-resembling dream.
1934― King of Gt. Clock Tower 40 The *mirror scalèd serpent is multiplicity.
1960S. Plath Colossus 22 River lapsing Black beneath bland *mirror-sheen.
1874Farrar Christ (1894) 161 The *mirror surface of their lake.
1893Daily News 27 Nov. 6/1 Vivid tones of pink and red are seen in *mirror velvets.
c. Special comb.: mirror carp, the looking-glass carp, Cyprinus carpio; mirror drum, a scanning device, used in early television transmitters and receivers, which consists of a rotating drum with its curved surface covered with a number of equally spaced plane mirrors, there being as many mirrors as there are scanning lines in the picture; mirror embroidery = mirror-work; mirror-fashion adv., in the manner of mirror-writing; mirror fugue Mus., a fugue that can be played in a reversed or inverted manner, as if read in a mirror placed at the end of or underneath the music; mirror-glass, glass used in a mirror; also, a mirror (in quot. fig.); also attrib.; mirror image, something that resembles an image in a mirror in having left and right interchanged or its constituent parts arranged in reverse order (but being otherwise identical); also transf. and fig.; mirror machine Nuclear Physics, a linear device in which plasma is confined by means of magnetic mirrors; mirror nucleus Nuclear Physics, a nuclide having as many neutrons as another nuclide (of the same atomic number) has protons, and as many protons as the other has neutrons; also (more correctly) mirror nuclide; mirror-painting (see quot. 1960); also, the process of such painting; mirror-picture = mirror-painting; also, a picture as seen in a mirror; mirror-plate, a plate of glass suitable for a mirror; also, a type of metal plate used for fixing two things together; mirror ray, the spotted ray, Raia maculata; mirror room, a room with mirrors set into the walls; mirror scale, a scale provided with an adjacent mirror so that parallax errors may be avoided when taking readings; mirror-script = mirror-writing; † mirror-stone = muscovite; mirror-wall, a wall entirely covered with a mirror; mirror-work, small rounds of mirror appliquéd on fabric; mirror-writer, one who practises mirror-writing; hence (as a back-formation) mirror-write v.; mirror-writing, writing which appears as though viewed in a mirror, reversed writing (a characteristic of aphasia).
1880–4F. Day Brit. Fishes II. 159 The *mirror-carp, or carp king, Cyprinus rex cyprinorum, C. specularis, C. macrolepidotus.
1927Wireless World 20 Apr. 480/2 As the *mirror drum revolves, these seven beams trace seven lines at once on the screen, and then pass over another adjacent track of seven lines until the entire screen has been covered. 1935M. G. Scroggie Television iii. 22 The scanner which has been used for the last few years to transmit the B.B.C. programmes by the Baird low-definition system, and also in a large proportion of the receivers, is the mirror drum. 1968Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 261/2 The National Biomedical Research Corporation is developing a mirror-drum scanner, of a type pioneered at Harwell.
1967E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage i. 17 (caption) Indian ‘Shisha’ or *mirror embroidery.
1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 25 A young lady..who wrote more fluently ‘*mirror’ fashion with the left hand.
1931D. F. Tovey Compan. to ‘Art of Fugue’ 61 The original edition [of Bach's ‘Art of Fugue’]..should not have printed the *mirror-fugues in succession instead of in mirror-reflection. 1962Listener 27 Dec. 1109/2 The fifth fugue is again for strings only, as are the rectus versions of the ‘mirror’ fugues XII and XIII [of Bach]. 1973Times 23 Apr. 16/2 A concert-goer who can recognize a mirror-fugue merely by listening to it has no need of assistance.
c1440Promp. Parv. 339/1 *Myrowre glasse, speculum. a1560Becon Jewel of Joy Wks. II. 42 b, O what a myrrour glasse and spectacle is here offered vnto vs. 1876J. S. Ingram Centenn. Exposition ix. 287 Inside was an oblong square, formed of mirror-glass, which reached to the top of the case. 1934Heal & Son Catal.: Better Furnit. 8 Dressing-table,..pink mirror-glass top. 1953Glass for Glazing (B.S.I.) 18 (heading) Mirror glass.
1885,1929*Mirror image [see enantiomorph]. 1937‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier xii. 244 Fascism..is a sort of mirror-image..of a plausible travesty of Socialism. 1949Mirror image [see asymmetric a. b]. 1961Lancet 26 Aug. 447/2 The hemispheres are not exact replicas but mirror images of each other. 1962W. Nowottny Lang. Poets Use vi. 141 The formal correspondence between the lines..makes ‘time is setting with me’ the mirror-image of ‘The wan moon is setting ayont the white wave’. 1964Language XL. 247 The phonological disintegration characteristic of the aphasic's linguistic regressions is a mirror-image of the child's acquisition of its sound pattern. 1966New Statesman 27 May 775/3 The Black Muslim creed is the mirror image of the white racialist one. 1972J. McClure Caterpillar Cop v. 68 An element of variety had been introduced by building the bungalows in pairs and making one the mirror image of the other.
1954R. F. Post 16 Lect. Controlled Thermonucl. Reactions (Univ. Calif. Radiation Laboratory, UCRL-4231, 2 Feb.) p. vi, A general principle involved in the *mirror machine's conception was the establishing as an initial condition that the plasma should be created by injection and trapping of a space-charge neutralized energetic ion beam into an otherwise evacuated chamber. 1958New Statesman 6 Sept. 266/3 In the mirror machines the molecules of heavy hydrogen are violently injected into a chamber and go spiralling along until magnetic forces at the ends of the chamber reflect them and send them spiralling back again—from one magnetic mirror to another. 1969New Scientist 25 Sept. 639/1 If mirror machines are feasible, then a fusion reactor based on the system would be relatively easy to build.
1947H. A. Bethe Elem. Nucl. Theory ii. 7 If the binding energies of a pair of nuclei which differ only in the interchange of neutrons and protons are compared, a difference in binding energy which increases with the charge of the nuclei is found. Examples of such ‘*mirror’ nuclei are: 1H3 2He3; 3Li7 4Be7;..14Si29 15P29. 1962H. D. Bush Atomic & Nucl. Physics vi. 127 Evidence for the equality of n—n and p—p forces is provided by certain positron emitters where the parent and product of the decay are mirror nuclei.
1955Richtmyer & Kennard Introd. Mod. Physics (ed. 5) x. 510 Among the many unstable nuclides..a set of particular importance are the so-called ‘*mirror nuclides’.
1960H. Hayward Antique Coll. 187/1 *Mirror-painting, a type of glass picture in which the glass was first coated at the back with an amalgam of tin and mercury to make it into a mirror. The parts to be painted were then scraped away and painted in as required. 1970G. Savage Dict. Antiques 275/1 Most surviving mirror-paintings are Chinese and belong to the 18th century... Mirror-painting, being on the back of a sheet of glass, meant working in reverse.
1939Burlington Mag. May p. xv/1 A pair of decorative Chinese *mirror-pictures in Chippendale frames. 1959E. Pulgram Introd. Spectogr. of Speech v. 46 Oscillograms of repetitive waves whose half-cyles are not mirror pictures of one another. 1964Amer. N. & Q. Jan. 72/1 Mirror pictures..this kind of repeated or reflected picture of a picture of a picture, ad infinitum.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 572 The casting of *mirror-plates was commenced in France about the year 1688. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 550/1 Mirror plate,..(1) Plate glass for silvering.—(2) A fixing device in the form of a small metal plate, one end being screwed..to the object..and the other fixed to the base. 1966A. W. Lewis Gloss. Woodworking Terms 56 Mirror plate, small metal plate screwed to the backs of frames, etc., so that they can be fixed to a wall.
1863Couch Brit. Fishes I. 104 Those staring marks, from which this fish has sometimes been called the *Mirror Ray.
1926A. Huxley Jesting Pilate i. 70 These *mirror rooms at Amber.
1901M. W. Travers Exper. Study Gases vi. 56 The *mirror scale (Jolly).—In reading barometers, manometers, etc., it is usual to employ a glass scale ruled in millimetres. The scale is etched on the surface of a strip of glass about 5 mm. in thickness, which is then silvered on the second surface. 1961M. D. Armitage Basic Princ. Electronics & Telecommunications xi. 290 (caption) Use of mirror scale.
1890W. James Princ. Psychol. I. x. 399 The subjects, e.g., often write backwards, or they transpose letters, or they write *mirror-script.
1668Charleton Onomasticon 255 Selenitis,..Lapis Specularis..*Mirrour-stone, or Muscovy Glass.
1964Listener 20 Aug. 264/2 A prism, or perhaps tent-shaped room, some eighty feet high, whose two inclined faces are all mirror; hidden in the ridge are two film cameras... So that film image as well as the constantly moving crowd are repeated ad infinitum in the *mirror-wall, as if it were the inside of a kaleidoscope.
1969Guardian 1 July 9/2 *Mirror-work is a traditional Indian craft which looks enchanting..densely applied to a gipsy-type waistcoat or belt. 1973–4Oxfam Catal. 12 Typical Gujarat embroidery and mirrorwork covers this bag.
1960I. Bennett Delinquent & Neurotic Children ix. 367 Left-handed, tends to *mirror-write, poor wrist coordination.
1881Ireland in Brain Oct. 367 The..change in the brain-tissue from which the image is formed in the mind of the *mirror-writer. 1960I. Bennett Delinquent & Neurotic Children ix. 370 *Mirror-writer, below average in every subject.
1776G. Campbell Philos. Rhetoric I. ii. iii. 420 If the analogy of the language must be preserved in composition, to what kind of reception are the following entitled..homedialect, bellysense, and *mirrour⁓writing? 1881Ireland in Brain Oct. 361 Buchwald and Erlenmeyer have directed attention to what they call Spiegelschrift or mirror-writing. 1924R. M. Ogden tr. Koffka's Growth of Mind. v. §6. 293 Certain children can read mirror-writing at first just as well as they can ordinary writing. 1969‘E. McBain’ Shotgun iii. 35 A blotter was the only other thing on the desk. Carella automatically checked it for any mirror writing that might have been left on it. 1970D. Bowden tr. Luria's Traumatic Aphasia xiii. 332 (caption) Writing disturbance in visual agraphia; ‘mirror writing’.
Add:[IV.] [7.] d. Psychoanal. Used attrib., esp. in mirror stage [tr. F. stade du miroir], to designate a stage in infant development considered by some Freudian theorists to be typified by a child's reacting to its reflection in a mirror as if the reflection were a real person.
[1937Internat. Jrnl. Psycho-anal. XVIII. 78 Report of the Fourteenth International Psycho-analytical Congress... Second Scientific Session 2. Dr. J. Lacan (Paris). The Looking-Glass Phase.] 1949Internat. Jrnl. Psycho-Anal. XXX. 203/1 The theory of the ‘*mirror-stage’ has already been presented to the International Congress of 1936, but has remained unpublished in its report. 1968A. Wilden tr. J. Lacan Language of Self (1974) 160 The ‘mirror phase’ derives its name from the importance of mirror relationships in childhood. The significance of children's attempts to appropriate or control their own image in a mirror..is that their actions are symptomatic of these deeper relationships. 1992Times Lit. Suppl. 28 Feb. 26/2 According to Lacan, the earliest game is that of identification with a mirror-image of the body, in what he calls the ‘mirror stage’.
▪ II. mirror, v.|ˈmɪrə(r)|
[f. mirror n.]
trans. To reflect in the manner of a mirror.
1820Keats Lamia ii. 47 He..bending to her open eyes, Where he was mirror'd small in paradise. 1823F. Clissold Ascent Mt. Blanc 23 The glassy pinnacles of the surrounding Alps mirrored the varying lights of the hemisphere. 1896A. E. Housman Shropshire Lad xv, Look not in my eyes, for fear They mirror true the sight I see.
b. fig. To reflect, or represent something (to the mind). Also to mirror back.
1827Disraeli Viv. Grey v. i, Those glorious hours, when the unruffled river of his Life mirrored the cloudless heaven of his Hope. 1883S. C. Hall Retrospect II. 41 The brightness of the outer world is mirrored in imperishable verse. 1890T. F. Tout Hist. Eng. fr. 1689, 110 Literature and language faithfully mirrored back the age.
c. refl. To see oneself reflected in a mirror.
1891C. E. Norton Dante's Purgat. ix. 57 White marble so polished and smooth that I mirrored myself in it.
Hence ˈmirroring vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1852M. Arnold Empedocles 18 Hither and thither spins The wind-borne mirroring Soul. 1873― Lit. & Dogma (1876) 173 A perfectly faithful mirroring of the thought of Jesus.
Delete sense b. and its quots. For def. read: b. fig. To reflect, imitate; to represent or express (a fact, phenomenon, idea, emotion, etc.).
1827Disraeli Viv. Grey III. v. i. 18 Those glorious hours, when the unruffled river of his Life mirrored the cloudless heaven of his Hope. 1891O. Wilde Pict. Dorian Gray i. 2 The painter looked at the gracious and comely form he had so skilfully mirrored in his art. 1925F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby vii. 155 Tom glanced around to see if we mirrored his unbelief. 1961K. Tynan Curtains i. 175 Idealism is mirrored in Don Quixote, emblem of the pure romantic quest. 1992Economist 4 Jan. 54/3 McKinsey reckons a shortage of hard currency..means that the east German car boom is unlikely to be mirrored anywhere else in Eastern Europe. |