| 释义 |
obscuration|ˌɒbskjʊəˈreɪʃən|
[ad. L. obscūrātiōn-em, n. of action f. obscūrāre to obscure. So mod.F. obscuration (Littré).]
1. The action of obscuring, darkening, or clouding over; the hiding or putting out of sight; obscured or dimmed state or condition; in Astron., occultation, eclipse.
1471Ripley Comp. Alch. Rec. in Ashm. (1652) 187 Then forth into the North procede by obscuratyon; Of the Red Man and hys Whyte Wyfe callyd Eclypsation. 1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 103 If the time in the beginning of her obscuration be more, then that which I have heare placed. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1307 The obscuration or ecclipse of the Sunne. a1715Burnet (J.), As to the sun and moon, their obscuration or change of colour happens commonly before the eruption of a fiery mountain. 1816Playfair Nat. Phil. (1819) II. 139 The moments..determine the beginning, the greatest obscuration, and the end of the eclipse. a1852Macgillivray Nat. Hist. Dee Side (1855) 178 Here, in the wood,..there is no continuous obscuration of the sky by the foliage.
transf.1864Lowell Biglow P. ii. Poet. Wks. (1879) 238 Our old dramatists are full of such obscurations..of the th, making whe'r of whether. 1884New Eng. Dict. Introd. 24 By writing these [the original vowels] with the mark of obscuration, we are enabled to indicate at once the theoretical and the actual pronunciation. 1904Rep. Joint Comm. Phonetic Eng. Alphabet (U.S.) ii. 12 In unstressed syllables the sounds undergo a change which, in the lack of a better name, may be called ‘obscuration’. The quality and extent of this obscuration vary somewhat with the style of the discourse, the idiosyncrasy of the speaker and the nature of the neighboring consonants. 1935J. S. Kenyon Amer. Pronunc. (ed. 6) 101 Not all of these pairs of stressed and stressless vowels represent the same historical stage of obscuration of the unaccented vowel. 1962A. C. Gimson Introd. Pronunc. Eng. vii. 142 As a general rule, weak accent in OE led to the obscuration of short vowels and the shortening of long vowels.
2. fig. The darkening or dimming of intellectual light, of the mental vision or understanding, of the sense of words, of truth, etc.
1611Coryat Crudities 551 Not to the obscuration but the illustration of Gods glory. 1791Boswell Johnson iii, To Johnson, whose supreme enjoyment was the exercise of his reason, the disturbance or obscuration of that faculty was the evil most to be dreaded. 1879M. D. Conway Demonol. II. iv. xxix. 438 The obscuration of religion is superstition. |