| 释义 |
▪ I. myth, n.|mɪθ|
Also (c 1840–65) mythe.
[ad. mod.L. mȳthus: see mythus. Cf. F. mythe.
The pronunc. |maɪθ|, formerly prevalent, is still sometimes heard. The corresponding spelling mythe was affected by Grote and Max Müller (among others). Cf. also the following:—
1838T. Keightley Mythol. (ed. 2) 1 Mythology is the science which treats of the mythes..current among a people. 1846― Notes on Bucol. & Georg. Virg. p. vii, From the Greek µῦθος I have made the word mȳthe, in which however no one has followed me, the form generally adopted being my̆th.]
1. a. A purely fictitious narrative usually involving supernatural persons, actions, or events, and embodying some popular idea concerning natural or historical phenomena.
Properly distinguished from allegory and from legend (which implies a nucleus of fact) but often used vaguely to include any narrative having fictitious elements. For the Platonic myth see quot. 1905.
1830Westm. Rev. XII. 44 These two stories are very good illustrations of the origin of myths, by means of which, even the most natural sentiment is traced to its cause in the circumstances of fabulous history. 1849Miss Mulock Ogilvies II. ii. 20 There is a German fairy fable of the Elle-women, who are all fair in front, but if you walk round them hollow as a piece of stamped leather. Perhaps this is a myth of young-lady-hood. 1856Max Müller Chips (1880) II. xvi. 84 Many mythes have thus been transferred to real persons, by a mere similarity of name. 1856E. M. Cope in Cambr. Ess. 147 One of those myths or fables in which..Plato shadows forth the future condition of the human soul. 1866Edin. Rev. CXXIII. 312 The celebrated mythe or apologue called ‘The Choice of Hercules’, one of the most impressive exhortations in ancient literature to a life of labour and self-denial. 1899Baring-Gould Vicar of Morwenstow vii. 195 It is chronicled in an old Armenian myth that the wise men of the East were none other than the three sons of Noe. 1905J. A. Stewart Myths of Plato 1 The Myth is a fanciful tale, sometimes traditional, sometimes newly invented, with which Socrates or some other interlocutor interrupts or concludes the argumentative conversation in which the movement of the [Platonic] Drama mainly consists. Ibid. 2 The Platonic Myth is not illustrative—it is not Allegory rendering pictorially results already obtained.
b. in generalized use. Also, an untrue or popular tale, a rumour (colloq.).
1840W. H. Mill Observ. i. 118 The same non-historical region of philosophical myth. 1846Grote Greece i. i. I. 67 It is neither history nor allegory, but simple mythe or legend. 1854Geo. Eliot Let. 23 Oct. (1954) II. 179 Of course many silly myths are already afloat about me, in addition to the truth, which of itself would be thought matter for scandal. 1885Clodd Myths & Dr. 7 Myth was the product of man's emotion and imagination, acted upon by his surroundings. 1939J. S. Huxley ‘Race’ in Europe 28 Napoleon, Shakespeare, Einstein, Galileo—a dozen great names spring to mind which in themselves should be enough to disperse the Nordic myth. The word myth is used advisedly, since this belief frequently plays a semi-religious role, as basis for a creed of passionate racialism. 1940C. S. Lewis Problem of Pain v. 64, I offer the following picture—a ‘myth’ in the Socratic sense, a not unlikely tale. 1941H. G. Wells You can't be too Careful v. i. 240 As the New Deal unfolded, American myth and reality began to take on an increasing parallelism with Europe. 1950Scot. Jrnl. Theol. III. 37 To this inner fellowship of disciples the ‘mystery’ of the Kingdom of God is disclosed, whereas to outsiders this same Kingdom remains veiled in parables, remains, that is, a figure of speech, a colourful vision, an imaginative dream, or, as we might say, a myth. 1959Listener 31 Dec. 1171/2 The theme of Sacrilege in Malaya..is that any institution of this kind needs some myth, that is some nonsense, to make it work. 1961Ibid. 2 Nov. 739/2 Disraeli set himself to recreate a national political party out of the wreckage of Peel's following. A new myth had to be evolved. 1963Brit. Jrnl. Sociol. XIV. 27 We use myth in a sense a little different from the popular one. To us it does not mean an untrue or impossible tale, but a tale which is told to justify some aspect of social order or of human experience. 1973Times 13 Nov. 6/6 There is a myth going around that there are an awful lot of empty houses in Windsor Great Park. Ibid. 4 Dec. 7/4 Egypt's decision to sit at the table with Israel would ‘shatter the myth’ surrounding Israel's constant call for ‘direct negotiations’.
2. A fictitious or imaginary person or object.
1849Lytton Caxtons x. iii, As for Mrs. Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years. 1874Sayce Compar. Philol. iv. 165 The pronominal root is a philological myth. 1888Times (weekly ed.) 3 Feb. 9/3 Parliamentary control was a myth.
3. attrib. and Comb., as myth-addict, myth-addiction, myth-criticism, myth-maker, myth-monger, myth-pattern, myth-play, myth-removal, myth-stage, myth-system, myth-talk, myth-transcriber; myth-bound, myth-creating, myth-destroying, myth-haunted, myth-making (also vbl. n.), myth-producing, myth-provoking adjs.; myth-history (see mythistory).
1945Koestler Yogi & Commissar ii. i. 133 Almost every discussion with myth-addicts, whether public or private, is doomed to failure.
1954― Invisible Writing ii. 31 It does not matter by what name one calls this mental process—double-think, controlled schizophrenia, myth addiction, or semantic perversion.
1964Economist 8 Aug. 551/2 Trying to educate the myth-bound Americans.
1874H. R. Reynolds John Bapt. ii. 74 The myth-creating tendencies of the age.
1846Grote Greece i. i. I. 75 The Athenian mythe-creators.
1957N. Frye Anat. Criticism 72 The most conspicuous today being fantastical learning, or myth criticism.
1949Koestler Insight & Outlook x. 153 The only [myth] which his myth-destroying genius embodied into his system.
1940G. Barker Lament & Triumph 33 The Avalon haven I have in the grave Is now myth⁓haunted by God like Arthur.
1871Tylor Prim. Cult. I. 20 That the earliest myth-maker arose and flourished among more civilized nations. 1961Guardian 22 Sept. 10/5 The myth-makers are always quick to produce a propaganda image of the Leader. 1972Listener 10 Aug. 183/1 Why did Buonarroti, who had started life as a court page, become a professional revolutionary and myth⁓maker, to bore historians for the next 130 years?
1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. xi. 308 The myth-making power of the human mind. 1881J. Royce Let. 28 Dec. in R. B. Perry Tht. & Char. of W. James (1935) I. 791 Ontology, whereby I mean any positive theory of an external reality as such, is of necessity myth-making. 1965Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Nov. 1068/4 The myth-making gestures in her work. 1974Listener 24 Jan. 111/3 There is..no causal connection between art and revolution..to suppose there is one is to take a step towards mythmaking.
1961Ibid. 28 Sept. 479/3 They find their natural allies in the political myth-mongers and the political gangsters.
1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 5/2 This urgent appetite to have the cake and eat it, too, is widely prevalent in the myth patterns..of industrial society.
1957N. Frye Anat. Criticism 282 The scriptural play is a form of a spectacular dramatic genre which we may provisionally call a ‘myth-play’.
1954Koestler Invisible Writing xxxvi. 390 An indication of the deep, myth-producing forces that were and still are at work.
1966Punch 26 Jan. 139/1 Author explores the myth-provoking north-west coast of Spain.
1951Myth-removal [see demythologize v.].
1950Scot. Jrnl. Theol. III. 39 We have seen that..Christians are to..get beyond the myth-stage of spiritual understanding.
1953A. K. C. Ottaway Education & Society 42 Every society is held together by a myth-system.
1970Jrnl. Ecumen. Studies VII. 822/1 In this essay, Gilkey is the theologian who establishes guidelines for myth-talk.
1924D. H. Lawrence in N.Y. Times Mag. 26 Oct. 3/2 White people always, or nearly always write sentimentally about the Indians—all of them, anthropologists, and myth-transcribers and all.
▪ II. † myth, a. Obs.
[var. of methe a.]
Gentle.
c1320R. Brunne Medit. 156 So meke and so myþe [Bodl. MS. miþi] a mayster to tray. c1450Holland Howlat 693 All war merschallit to meit meikly and myth.
▪ III. † myth, v.1 Sc. Obs.
[a. ON. miða.]
1. trans. To show.
13..Guy Warw. (1883) p. 396 Þer nis no tong may telle in tale Þe ioie þat was at þat bridale Wiþ menske & mirþe to miþe. c1470Gol. & Gaw. 871 Thoght he wes myghtles, his mercy can he thair myth. 1501Douglas Pal. Hon. i. lxvii, Gif that my spreit was blyith, The fewerous hew intill my face did myith All my male eis. 1513― æneis ix. vii. 14 The brycht helm in twynkland sterny nycht Mythis [Virgil prodidit] Eurilly with bemys schynand lycht.
2. To mark, notice.
c1470Henry Wallace v. 664 Scho durst nocht weill in presens till him kyth, Full sor scho dred or Sotheron wald him myth.
▪ IV. † myth, v.2 Sc. Obs. rare.
[var. meith v.]
trans. To measure.
1513Douglas æneis viii. Prol. 40 The myllar mythis the multur wyth a met scant.
▪ V. myth
obs. f. might, mite2, var. mithe v. Obs. |