| 释义 |
mortality|mɔːˈtælɪtɪ|
Forms: 4–6 mortalite, -itee, 5 -ytee, -ytie, 5–6 -yte, 5–7 -itie, 6 -itye, 7 mortallitie, -ity, 6– mortality.
[ad. F. mortalité (12th c.), ad. L. mortālitāt-em, f. mortālis: see mortal a. and -ity.]
1. a. The condition of being mortal or subject to death; mortal nature or existence.
a1340Hampole Psalter xxix. 14 The mortalite of my fleysse..thou distroyd in my resurreccioun. 1446Lydg. Nightingale i. 149 This hygh forfet whych Adam sone had don Was grounde & cause of oure mortalite. 1447O. Bokenham Seyntys 55, & for my mete is inuysible & my drink celestyal It may not be seyn in þis mortalyte. 1509Fisher Funeral Serm. C'tess Richmond Wks. (1876) 302 In diebus carnis sue..That is to saye in the dayes of his mortalite. 1526Tindale 2 Cor. v. 4 That mortalite [Gr. τὸ θνητόν] myght be swalowed vppe of lyfe. 1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. ii. 137 Elizabeth Folks,..when her soule was ready to take flight out of her body, concluded her mortality with these words. 1644Heylin Brief Relat. Laud 23 Never did man put off mortality with a braver courage. 1703Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 79 The Sepulcher out of which he [Lazarus] was rais'd to a second Mortality. 1742Young Nt. Th. ix. 65 Life's gayest scenes speak man's mortality. 1820Wordsw. Vaudracour & Julia 53 A man too happy for mortality! 1847R. W. Hamilton Rewards & Punishm. iii. (1853) 122 Mortality is the rule of all mere animal life. 1867Bp. A. Jolly Sunday Serv. 301 He passed from mortality, to eternal felicity.
b. Mortals collectively. Now rare or Obs.
1601Daniel Epist. Lady Margaret, C'tess Cumberland vi, The perplexed State Of troublous and distrest mortalitie, That thus make way vnto the ougly birth Of their owne sorrowes. 1654Fuller Two Serm. 56 All Mortalitie shall be tryed by one of these two Statutes.
c. pl. Mortal properties or attributes. rare.
1832L. Hunt Poems 227 (tr. Theocr. xxiv), And in Trachinia shall the funeral pyre Purge his mortalities away with fire.
2. a. Loss of life on a large scale; abnormal frequency of death, as by war or pestilence; † spec. a visitation of deadly plague.
c1400Mandeville (1839) xviii. 189 But alle weys thei maken gret mortalitee of poeple. c1440Alphabet of Tales 321 Þe infeccion of þe ayre þat was cauce in Rome of grete dead & mortalitie. c1450Merlin iii. 56 In that bataile was grete mortalite on bothe parties. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cccxxxi. 210 Ther fell suche a mortalyte in the hoost, that of fyue ther dyed thre. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 109 There was slain at the siege .lxiiii. thousande Turkes, and .xl. thousande dedde of mortalitie and mo. 1596S. Finch in Ducarel Hist. Croydon (1783) App. 154 Some waste place wherin (in the tyme of some mortalitie) they did burie in. 1654Earl of Monmouth tr. Bentivoglio's Wars Flanders 185 The conflict lasted many hours, and great was the mortality on all sides. 1693Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 5 Our merchants have an account from Jamaica that there has been a mortality there since the late earthquake. 1727–52Chambers Cycl., Mortality, a term frequently used to signify a contagious disease, which destroys great numbers of either men or beasts. 1761–2Hume Hist. Eng. (1806) III. xlii. 501 Many of these adventurers were killed..; a great mortality seized the rest. 1776Adam Smith W.N. i. viii, Years of dearth..are generally among the common people years of sickness and mortality. 1842Borrow Bible in Spain xxv, The mortality amongst the horses..being frightful. 1863Froude Hist. Eng. VII. 42 The mortality in the Tudor race which had raised her to the throne had left her also with scarcely a relation in the world.
b. The number of deaths which occur in a given area or period, from a particular disease, etc.; average frequency of death, death-rate.
1645–1854 Bill of mortality [see bill n.3 10]. 1672Petty Pol. Anat. (1691) 17 If 250 Ministers would serve all Ireland, then 10 per Ann. will supply their Mortality. 1843R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. ix. 99 It is this which constitutes the great difference between the mortality in private and hospital practice. 1845Encycl. Metrop. II. 459 The method of forming tables of mortality. 1887Brit. Med. Jrnl. 10 Dec. 1257 Hysterectomy..its mortality is out of all proportion to the benefits received by the few. 1899Ld. Lister in Daily News 1 Dec. 3/4 The case-mortality in the inoculated is less by 50 per cent. than that in the uninoculated.
†c. Death, decease (of individuals). Obs.
1582Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 20 Eeche thing mortalitye threatneth [L. intentant omnia mortem]. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iv. v. 32 Here on my knee I begge Mortalitie, Rather then Life preseru'd with Infamie. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. 191 Amongst the mortalities of this year [1587], most remarkable the death of Richard Barnes Bishop of Durham. 1703J. Logan in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem. IX. 267 With power to succeed the governor in case of absence or mortality. 1723Dk. Wharton True Briton No. 59 II. 509 Ever since the Mortality of the Immortal Queen Anne. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) II. 70 You will prove a father to her in case of my mortality.
d. The mortal part of man; mortal remains.
1827Southey Hist. Penins. War II. 132 It happened not unfrequently that these piles of mortality were struck by a shell, and the shattered bodies scattered in all directions. 1871R. Ellis tr. Catullus lxviii. 99 Now on a distant shore, no kind mortality near him,..Tomb'd in Troy the malign.
3. Deadliness, power to kill.
1430–40Lydg. Bochas i. xx. (1494) e viij, O swetnesse ful of mortalite. 1727Swift God's Rev. agst. Punning ⁋1 That destructive Pestilence, whose mortality was so fatal, as to sweep away..five millions of Christian Souls.
4. Of a sin: The quality of being mortal.
1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 476/2 Such sinnes, as were either veniall in the begynnyng, or from mortall tourned to veniall by the forgeuenesse of the mortalitie. 1681Dryden Span. Friar ii. iii, Actions of Charity do alleviate, as I may say, and take off from the Mortality of the Sin.
5. attrib., as (sense 2 b) mortality bill, mortality rate, mortality returns, mortality statistics, mortality table; † mortality walk, the occupation of collecting obituary notices for a newspaper.
1665Pepys Diary 29 June, The *Mortality Bill is come to 267.
1909Daily Chron. 27 Jan. 3/3 Dr. Millsom points out that..the want of air, ventilation, and light are dangerous or injurious to the health of the residents, and that the *mortality rate from all diseases (especially consumption) is very high. 1966Lancet 24 Dec. 1371/1 In an attempt to reduce the mortality-rate, clinicians used ever-increasing amounts of antitetanic serum.
1899Daily News 13 Sept. 5/1 The fall in temperature..has been followed by an immediate diminution in the *mortality returns.
1970Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. II. xxxiv. 10/1 The death certificate is both a legal and a statistical document. Its form has been agreed internationally to provide for worldwide comparisons of *mortality statistics.
1880Encycl. Brit. XIII. 169/2 These were very limited data upon which to found a *mortality table.
1773Foote Bankrupt iii. Wks. 1799 II. 129, I shall quit the *mortality walk, so provide yourself as soon as you can. |