| 释义 |
▪ I. onset, n.1|ˈɒnsɛt|
[f. on-1 4 + set n.]
1. a. An act of setting on or attacking (an enemy); an attack, assault. † to give the onset, to make an attack, or to commence the attack (obs.).
1535Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 195 And in the feild syne maid ane new onset. 1631Gouge God's Arrows iii. §4. 190 The Philistines came up..to prevent David by giving the first on-set, and beginning warre. 1715–20Pope Iliad xvi. 949 He..thrice three heroes at each onset slew. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 279 These troops had to bear the first brunt of the onset.
b. (Without article.) Attack, assault.
1667Milton P.L. ii. 364 Achiev'd By sudden onset. 1791Cowper Iliad viii. 616 At their ships Give them brisk onset. 1871R. Ellis Catullus lxiv. 339 A son..whose back no foe, whose front each knoweth in onset.
c. fig. An attack, as of an opponent in argument, etc., of calamity or disease.
c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxvi. iii, Whose fearelesse foote to bide Thy onsett tarieth. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 374 Other tables set with wine, in which they gave a new onset, as a fresh enemy. 1789W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 541 Previous to the onset of a fever. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 474 His argument could not sustain the first onset of yours.
2. a. The action, or an act, of beginning some operation; beginning, commencement, start. † to give the onset, to make a beginning, to start (obs.).
1561T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtier i. B, I..must giue the onsett in oure pastimes this night. 1625Bacon Ess., Delays (Arb.) 525 There is surely no greater Wisedome, then well to time the Beginnings, and Onsets of Things. 1647A. Farindon Serm. iii. 46 They had made a fair onset in Christianity,..they were forward in their way. 1860Holland Miss Gilbert xxi. 392 She kissed her a dozen times at the first onset, and called her dear heart.
b. Phonetics. (a) The movement of the speech-organs preparatory to, or at the start of, the articulation of a speech sound. (b) The initial part of a syllable; the consonant or consonants at the beginning of a syllable. Also attrib.
1933L. Bloomfield Language vii. 118 In passing from silence to a stressed vowel, we usually make a gradual onset of the voice. 1948J. R. Firth Papers in Linguistics 1934–51 (1957) ix. 131 These are the weak, neutral, or ‘minimal’ vowel, the glottal stop or ‘maximum’ consonant, aitch, or the pulmonic onset—all of which deserve the general name of laryngals. 1951Trager & Smith Outl. Eng. Struct. 15 Turning to the quality of the vocalic nuclei here, we find that there is an onset in raised lower high front position. 1955C. F. Hockett Man. Phonol. 56 Onsets are simple, consisting of one or another of some eighteen or twenty consonants.., or complex, consisting of certain clusters of some of these consonants. 1962[see centralization 3]. 1963Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 57 Even if one were to agree that /h/ as an onset consonant ‘is a voiceless anticipation of the following peak nucleus’ [etc.]. 1966J. C. Pope Rhythm of Beowulf (ed. 2) p. xix, These crests occur at or soon after the onset of the vowel. 1971T. M. Lightner in W. O. Dingwall Survey Linguistic Sci. 501 Word-initial voiced consonants in English begin with voiceless onset. 1973Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics XVIII. 115 The onset of the back-gliding diphthong is typically slightly higher and slightly backer than the onset of the front diphthong.
¶3. (See quot.)
1755Johnson, Onset..2. ‘Something added by way of ornamental appendage. This sense, says Nicholson, is still retained in Northumberland, where onset means a tuft.’ [No such sense in Northumbld. Glossary. As Todd notes, the quot. cited by J. does not belong to this sense, but to 2.]
▪ II. onset, n.2 Sc. and north. dial.|ˈɒnsɛt|
[f. on-1 + ? set n.: cf. OE. set seat, place of sitting or settling, stall, stable, or fold for beasts, ᵹe-sete dwelling, habitation. The primary sense may have been ‘dwelling-place on the farm or land’.]
A farm-house, with its outhouses; a farmstead. Cf. onstead.
1535Sc. Acts Jas. V (1597) §9 That everie man..cause everie tennent of their landes, that hes the same in tack and assedation, to plant vpon their on-set yeirly for everie marke land, ane tree. 1641Sc. Acts Chas. I (1814) V. 637 All and haill the..landis of Ravelrig, with houssis, biggingis, yairdis, orchairdis, toftis, croftis, onsettis, outsettis [etc.]. 1725Ramsay Gent. Sheph. iv. i. Prol., The scene describ'd in former page, Glaud's onset. 1802Anderson Cumbld. Ball. 36 That aw our heale onset wad be in a lowe. 1825Brockett N.C. Gloss., Onset, a dwelling house and out⁓buildings.
▪ III. † onˈset, v. Obs.
[f. on-1 2 + set v.1]
trans. To make an onset upon; to set upon, attack.
1602Carew Cornwall 17 b, This for a while was hotely onsetted and a reasonable price offered, but (vpon what ground I know not) soone cooled againe. 1648E. Sparke Pref. to Shute's Sarah & Hagar A ij b, A feast where I am..doubtful which dish to on-set; where to begin of him.
▪ IV. onset
obs. form of unset. |