| 释义 |
moiety|ˈmɔɪətɪ|
Forms: 4–5 moite, 5 moitee, 5–6 moyte(e, 5–7 moytie, 6 moyity, 6–7 moitie, moyetie, moietie, 6–8 moity, 7 moyitie, moyety, mojety, 6– moiety.
[ME. moite, moitie, a. OF. moité, moitié, earlier meité, meitiet (mod.F. moitié) = Pr. meitat-z, mitat-z (Gascon maytat), Sp. mitad, Pg. mitade, It. metà (and in learned form medietà):—L. medietātem middle point, in late L. half, f. medius middle: see medium. Cf. mediety.]
1. A half, one of two equal parts:
a. in legal or quasi-legal use.
1444Rolls of Parlt. V. 104/2 Ye to have the oone moite yerof, and he that espieth..hit forfaitable, to have the oyer moite. 1545Test. Ebor. vi. 224 The moitie or half pairte of the mannor. 1592Kyd Sp. Trag. ii. iii. 16 She is daughter and halfe heire Vnto our brother heere, Don Ciprian, And shall enioy the moitie of his land. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 497 Mandron..offered him the one moitie of his country and city. a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. xi. §176 To submit others to pay..a full moiety of all they were worth. a1715Burnet Own Time ii. (1724) I. 214 All..were required to bring in one moiety of their fines: But the other moiety was forgiven those who took the Declaration. 1838W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. s.v., A sum payable in moieties is payable in two equal shares, though sometimes, erroneously, the term is applied to a sum payable in two or three different parts or instalments.
b. gen.
c1475Partenay 5936 Thys monstre with teeth the swerd ther taking, In moitees to Forthwith it breking. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. xii. 31 They..were depriv'd Of their proud beautie, and th'one moyity Transformd to fish for their bold surquedry. 1601Holland Pliny I. 164 A man at three yeares of age, is come to one moitie of his growth and height. 1641Milton Reform. ii. Wks. 1851 III. 57, I know they will not turn the beame or equall Judgement the moity of a scruple. 1672Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 119 Let half of them be School-Divines and the other moity Systematical. 1776Gibson Decl. & F. x. ad fin., We might suspect, that war, pestilence, and famine, had consumed, in a few years, the moiety of the human species. 1799Washington Lett. Writ. 1893 XIV. 196 On this Estate I have more working negros by a full moiety, than can be employed to any advantage in the farming system. 1835–6Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 172/2 An earthworm cut in two..will continue to live, and each moiety will become..a perfect animal. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 850 Hereditary taint may be traced in a very large proportion of alcoholic cases—it is said in nearly a moiety.
2. a. loosely. One of two (occasionally more) parts (not necessarily equal) into which something is divided; † one's share or portion.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. i. 96 Me thinks my Moity, North from Burton here, In quantitie equals not one of yours. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxvii. §2 Saint Paul him selfe dividing the body of the Church of Christ into two moieties nameth the one part ἰδιώτας. c1600Shakes. Sonn. xlvi, By their verdict is determined The cleere eyes moyitie and the deare hearts part. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. iv. §5 Crowned Monarch of the Southern and greater Moiety of this Island. a1674Clarendon Surv. Leviath. (1676) 261 The greater moiety of the world being..mere Heathen men and Pagans. 1838[see 1]. 1854Huxley Lay Serm. v. (1870) 98 Physiological Science..Its subject-matter is a large moiety of the universe.
†b. contextually. A small part; a lesser share, portion, or quantity. Obs.
1593Shakes. Lucr. Ded., The loue I dedicate to your Lordship is without end: wherof this Pamphlet without beginning is but a superfluous Moity. 16051st Pt. Ieronimo iii. i, Methinks no moyetie, not one little thought Of them..But should raise spleens big as a cannon bullet Within your bosomes. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. ii. iii. 8 Say that she were gone,..a moity of my rest Might come to me againe. 1650H. More Observ. in Enthus. Tri., etc. (1656) 144 All that will be left of this learned discourse of yours, will prove such a small moitie of that knowledge your presumptuous mind conceited to be in her self, that [etc.]. 1650Fuller Pisgah i. xii. 39 Who knows not, but that the word Moity..importeth the just midst, and true half of a thing, though small moity in ordinary discourse is taken for any Canton, or small portion.
c. Chiefly Biochem. and Pharm. A group of atoms forming part of a molecule.
1935Dorland & Miller Med. Dict. (ed. 17) 842/1 Carbohydrate moiety, the non-nitrogenous residue of the amino acids resulting from deamination. 1945Jrnl. Biol. Chem. CLIX. 311 The lactone moiety [of pantothenic acid] can replace pantothenic acid for growth of the above organisms. 1954A. White et al. Princ. Biochem. xii. 265 The other penicillins have the same type of structure but have different side chains replacing the benzyl (C6H5CH2—) moiety. 1962Lancet 29 Dec. 1381/1 A.I.C. has been shown to be a key intermediate..in the biosynthesis of the purine moiety of inosinic acid. 1970Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. II. xxxii. 9/2 Species differences may vary strikingly when the compound under examination is not itself toxic but becomes metabolized to release the toxic moiety. 1974Nature 13 Dec. 586/2 Its molecular structure (containing both an indole and a phenylethylamine moiety) suggests the possibility of an interaction with brain monoamines.
3. jocularly. One's ‘better half’, i.e. a wife (rarely, a husband). (So F. moitié.) ? Obs.
1737[S. Berington] G. de Lucca's Mem. (1738) 212 It was to deprive the Husband of the voluntary Love of his Moiety. 1770Lady's Mag. I. 228/2 Among the grievances against which Mr. Bustle exclaims abroad, is the excessive neatness of his notable moiety. 1829Lamb in Gem 25 The Lady with a skeleton moiety in the old print.
4. Anthropology. Each of the two primary classes into which an Australian tribe is divided. Also a type of social division found in varying forms amongst tribes in other parts of the world, though rarely in Africa. Also attrib.
1888Howitt in Jrnl. Anthrop. Inst. XVIII. 39 There are in such cases totems which each apply to one moiety of the tribe. 1899B. Spencer & Gillen Native Tribes Centr. Austral. ii. 70 The four [sub-classes] are Panunga and Bulthara, Purula and Kumara; the first two forming one moiety of the tribe, and the latter two forming another. 1914W. H. R. Rivers Kinship & Social Organisation iii. 72 The dual system in which there are only two social groups or moieties. 1934R. H. Lowie Introd. Cultural Anthropol. xiv. 261 The moiety system can not explain why the Murngin and Miwok permit only one kind of cross-cousin to be married, when both belong to the proper moiety. 1936R. Linton Study of Man xii. 207 Where both moieties and clans occur, the former are ordinarily more limited in their functions and of less social importance, possibly because the larger size of the moiety makes the establishment of well-defined attitudes..more difficult. 1937R. H. Lowie Hist. Ethnol. Theory xi. 182 Some Melanesians..have totemic moieties. 1938G. A. Reichard in F. Boas Gen. Anthropol. ix. 431 One of the Toda moieties considers itself superior to the other and has definite and important religious functions. 1944B. Malinowski Sci. Theory of Culture vi. 162 The family, an extended kinship group, a clan, or a moiety, constitute one type. 1949M. Mead Male & Female 422 Three different forms of marriage, and several types of age-grading and moiety systems, resulted in a rich and complex form of social organization. 1952A. R. Radcliffe-Brown Struct. & Function Primitive Society vi. 118 Such moiety totemism..is found in a number of different varieties in Australia, and still other varieties are found in Melanesia and in North America. |