| 释义 |
▪ I. ostrich1|ˈɒstrɪtʃ|
Forms: α. 3 ostrice, 4 -icche, 4–5 -iche, 4–6 -ydge, 4–7 -ige, (4 -ig), 5 -ych(e, -ycche, -ygge, (host-), 6 ostrage, (hostryge), 6–8 ostridge, 4– ostrich; 5 oystryche, 6 -eche, -ige, oistrich(e; 7 oestrich, -idge. β. 6 austrich, astridge, 7 austridge, -uch. γ. 5–7 estriche, 5 -yche, 6 -itch, -yge, 6–7 -idge, -ige, 7 -edge, -age, (6 eestryche, 7 eastrich).
[ME. ostrice, -iche, a. OF. ostruce, -uche, mod.F. autruche = Sp. avestruz, Pg. abestruz:—pop.L. avis strūthio, avistrūthio, from avis bird + late L. strūthio, ad. Gr. στρουθίων ostrich (Greg. Naz.), f. στρουθός sparrow, ostrich; the simple L. strūthio gave ME. strucion: cf. Pr. estrus, It. struzzo.
In classical Gr. the bird was called commonly ὁ µέγας στρουθός, or simply στρουθός; also στρουθοκάµηλος, whence the cl.L. strūthiocamēlus struthiocamel.]
1. a. A very large ratite bird, Struthio camelus, the only species of the genus Struthio and the family Struthionidæ, inhabiting the sandy plains of Africa and Arabia; it is the largest of existing birds.
The habits and peculiarities of the bird, real and fabulous, have afforded much scope for proverb and allusion; such are its indiscriminate voracity and its liking for hard substances, which it swallows to assist the gizzard in its functions; its supposed want of regard for its young, its eggs being partly hatched by the heat of the sun, which has led to the belief that it deserts its nest; and the practice attributed to it of thrusting its head into the sand or a bush when being overtaken by pursuers, through incapacity to distinguish between seeing and being seen.
αa1225Ancr. R. 132 Þe steorc [v.r. ostrice] uor his muchele flesche makeð a semblaunt uorte vleon, & beateð þe hwingen. 1382Wyclif Lam. iv. 3 Cruel, as an ostrich [1388 ostrig] in desert. 1388― Job xxxix. 13 The fethere of an ostriche [1382 strucioun]. 1481Caxton Myrrour ii. xvi. 101 The hostryche by his nature eteth well yron. 1555Eden Decades 317 Theyr fiete and legges are lyke the legs and fiete of the foule cauled the oystreche. 1584Cogan Haven Health ix. (1636) 33 Rusticks, who have stomacks like Ostriges, that can digest hard yron. 1615G. Sandys Trav. ii. 139 Swift horses..of sufficient speed to overtake an Ostridge. 1719Young Paraphr. Job Wks. 1757 I. 211 Who in the stupid Ostrich has subdu'd A parent's care, and fond inquietude? 1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. III. xxviii. 162 A cock, a stork, an ostridge..walk directly forwards without waddling. 1857Livingstone Trav. vii. 155 The food of the ostrich consists of pods and seeds of different kinds of leguminous plants.
β1580Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 341 It fareth with me..as with the Austrich [ed. 1582 Ostridge], who pricketh none but hir selfe, which causeth hir to runne when she would rest. 15941st Pt. Contention (1843) 63 Ile make thee eate yron like an Astridge, and swallow my sword like a great pinne. 1623Someth. Written by Occas. Accid. Blacke Friers 14 Like the Austridge, who hiding her little head, supposeth her great body obscured. 1663Gerbier Counsel 23 Yet ought the Clark of the Work to be discreet in the distributing them [nails] to some Carpenters, whose pockets partake much of the Austruches stomacks.
γ1460Will of Tame (Somerset Ho.), Ciphum cum esterige-feders. 1467Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 403 My mastyr paid for an estryche federe..v.s. a1529Skelton P. Sparowe 478 The estryge, that wyll eate An horshowe so great. 1589Pappe w. Hatchet B ij b, Twil digest a Cathedral Church as easilie, as an Estritch a two penie naile. 1646To Mr. Hall on his Detractors in J. Hall's Poems, Such plumed Estrages. 1649Lovelace Poems 53 Eastrich! Thou featherd Foole, and easie prey, That larger sailes to thy broad Vessell needst. 1703W. Dampier Voy. (1729) III. 397 We saw a great many of these Estridges.
b. Applied to the rhea of South America, a ratite bird resembling the ostrich in appearance and habits; more fully American ostrich.
1813Sir E. Home Lect. Comp. Anat. (1814) I. 295 In the cassowaries, and American ostrich, the stones..which those birds swallow must, from their weight, force their way into the gizzard. 1839Darwin Narr. Voy. Adv. & Beagle III. 105 The ostrich..although so fleet in its pace,..falls a prey..to the Indian or Gaucho armed with the bolas. 1845― Voy. Nat. i. (1852) 43 We saw many Ostriches (Struthio rhea).
c. Short for ‘ostrich skin’.
1939R. Stout Some Buried Caesar xiii. 161 The brown ostrich card-case, gold-tooled. 1973J. Drummond Bang! Bang! You're Dead! iii. 6 She walked from the room, carrying the jewel-case and a matching ostrich purse.
2. a. attrib. Of or pertaining to an ostrich or ostriches; ostrich-like: esp. in reference to the alleged habits of the ostrich; see above.
1598J. Marston Pigmalion Sat. i. 34 Fie that his Ostridge stomack should disgest His Ostridge feather. 1603Dekker Wonderfull Yeare D ij b, So hungry is the Estridge disease, that it will deuoure euen Iron. 1635Quarles Embl. iv. i. (1718) 190 When th' ostrich wings of my desires shall be So dull, they cannot mount the least degree. 1658Wall Comm. Times 63 Estridge Consciences, that can digest Iron but not straw. 1681T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 40 (1713) II. 9 What a kind of Ostrich Faith they must have, who can believe, that the Evidence..should so palpably betray themselves. 1808Moore Sceptic 56 Whole nations, fooled by falsehood, fear, or pride, Their ostrich-heads in self-illusion hide. 1844E. B. Browning Let. 11 Jan. (1954) 212 But the squeamishness of this Age,..this Ostrich age..which exposes its own eggs, and then hides its head in the sand,..is really to me quite monstrous. 1856Olmsted Slave States 167 The ostrich-habit of burying their heads in the ground before anything they don't like. 1877Black Green Past. xxx. (1878) 237 [They had] hidden themselves in their berths in order to get a sort of ostrich-safety. 1891Pall Mall G. 12 Sept. 1/2 The facts..are too damning to leave much room for an ostrich policy. 1952Dylan Thomas Let. 6 Nov. (1966) 380 These ostrich griefs were always with me. 1976Listener 6 May 585/2 The typical ostrich-Briton of today.
b. Comb., as ostrich-breeding, ostrich-egg, ostrich-skin; ostrich-eyed, ostrich-like adjs.; † ostrich-camel, an old name of the ostrich (after L. struthiocamēlus); ostrich-egg cup, a decorated cup made from an ostrich-egg; ostrich-farm, a farm on which ostriches are reared for the sake of their plumes; ostrich-farming, the rearing of ostriches; ostrich-fern, the fern Onoclea struthiopteris (S. germanica); ostrich-tip, the tip of an ostrich-feather. Also ostrich-feather, -plume.
1875S. Africa 220 Nearly twenty years ago, *ostrich-breeding was successfully tried in Algeria.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 80 His feet like an *Ostrige-Camels. 1653H. Cogan Divel. Sic. 104 Creatures of a mixt nature..whereof some are called Austridge-camels, being derived from a camel and an austridg.
1599Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 153 In the mids [of the chapel]..is a canopie as it were of a bed, with a great sort of *Estridge egges hanging at it. 1613M. Ridley Magn. Bodies 67 Tipping of cuppes with silver, that be of Ostridge-egges. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 16 Oestrich egge-shells.
1937Burlington Mag. Apr. p. xxiv/2 The Leipzig *Ostrich Egg Cup called thus because of the egg being decorated with the figures of birds. 1960H. Hayward Antique Coll. 205/2 Ostrich egg cup, sometime supposed to be the eggs of griffins or phoenixes, ostrich eggs were often mounted as cups (and occasionally made into flasks) in the 16th cent. and later. Many surviving specimens are German.
1876C. M. Yonge Three Brides II. i. 10 He has been acting as manager on an *ostrich farm. 1885A. Newton in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9) XVIII. 63/2 The great mercantile value of Ostrich-feathers..led to the formation in the Cape Colony..of numerous ‘Ostrich-farms’. 1926Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 18 July 21/5 The White and Gold Room at Buckingham Palace, in which ladies sit in rows before passing into the Throne Room to curtsy to Their Majesties, is irreverently referred to on court-nights by junior members of the household as ‘the ostrich farm’. 1927Chesterton Coll. Poems 180 Old Noah he had an ostrich farm and fowls on the largest scale. 1974Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VII. 618/1 This demand [for plumes] led to the establishment of ostrich farms in South Africa, the southern U.S., Australia, and elsewhere.
1875S. Africa 223 *Ostrich farmers, in domesticating the bird, have apparently a regard to moral training.
Ibid. 220 It is difficult to say who was the first to begin *ostrich-farming at the Cape. 1902Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 53/2 His unconscious host,..prosed on concerning himself chiefly with..the future of ostrich-farming. 1957Encycl. Brit. XVI. 959/2 Ostrich farming is carried on in Cape Colony, Egypt, Algeria, the French Riviera, Southern U.S. and elsewhere.
1882Garden 16 Sept. 258/3 The hardy Ferns are a grand feature, particularly the large groups of the *Ostrich Fern.
1634S. R. Noble Soldier iv. i. in Bullen O. Pl. I. 307 *Estridge-like, To digest Iron and Steele. 1881Macm. Mag. XLIV. 294/2 It is ostrich-like, it is suicidal, to ignore the fact of its disappearance. 1895Pop. Sci. Monthly Apr. 761 Among the existing ostrichlike types we have the Apteryx. 1944Sci. Jrnl. R. Coll. Sci. XIV. 64 Profound influences are continually at work causing changes in the general constitution of man, and no amount of ostrich-like behaviour will prevent their action. 1966Guardian 30 July 3/5 Britian is more ostrichlike in its approach to the problem than America. 1976Times 5 Apr. 3/2 It would be an ostrich-like attitude on the part of the executive if this chance was turned down.
1926–7Army & Navy Stores Catal. 84/3 *Ostrich skin Cigar Case..each 8/6. 1971P. Driscoll White Lie Assignment ii. 17 Transferring the cigarettes..into an ostrich-skin case. 1976J. McClure Rogue Eagle xiii. 222 He was loading his pipe from an ostrich-skin pouch.
1888Lady 25 Oct. 378/2 A..very fashionable hat..with ribbon loops and *ostrich tips.
Hence ˈostrichism, the policy of hiding the head like an ostrich; also in allusive and extended use.
1834Tait's Mag. I. 59/1 The Marquis adopted the celebrated system of ostrichism, and hid his head. 1944J. S. Huxley On Living in Revolution 3 The fact that a world war existed and the ostrichism of our reactions to it were most obvious in the case of Spain. 1945R. Hargreaves Enemy at Gate 285 A departure into Maginot Line ostrichism which had ended..in the rigid chain of defence works being ‘turned’. 1958New Statesman 1 Mar. 260/2 Geoffrey Dawson's calculated ostrichism towards the Fascist dictators..during the Thirties. 1960Spectator 15 July 106 A new wave of ostrichism in regard to defence is sweeping the country.
▪ II. † ˈostrich2
a corruption of estriche, eastern kingdom or country (q.v.). ostrich board = estriche board; ostrich wool, a kind of wool formerly imported from Eastern countries.
1449Will of W. Bruges in Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) Gloss., I ordeyn that the ij chapelles..be closed wyth ostrich boarde, and clere storied. 1480Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 131 Cupborde of ostriche borde j. [1720Strype Stow's Surv. (1754) II. v. xv. 326/2 The Estridge Wools, that is, the Wools imported from the East Countries, a coarser Sort, amounted not to two hundred Weight.] 1812J. Smyth Pract. of Customs (1821) 311 Ostrich, or Estridge Wool is used as a substitute for Beaver in the manufacture of Hats. It is usually imported from Germany, the Levant, Italy, and other parts of the Mediterranean. |