| 释义 |
‖ osu W. Afr.|ˈɒsuː|
[Igbo.]
An outcast, an ‘untouchable’.
1958C. Achebe Things fall Apart xviii. 140 These outcasts, or osu, seeing that the new religion welcomed twins and such abominations, thought that it was possible that they would also be received. 1960― No Longer at Ease vii. 71 ‘I am an osu,’ she wept... ‘So you see we cannot get married,’ she said, quite firmly, almost gaily—a terrible kind of gaiety. Ibid. 75 Obi knew better than anyone else that his family would violently oppose the idea of marrying an osu. Ibid. xiv. 133 Our fathers in their darkness and ignorance called an innocent man an osu, a thing given to idols, and thereafter he became an outcast, and his children, and his children's children for ever. Ibid. 134 Obi repeated his points again. What made an osu different from other men and women? Nothing but the ignorance of their forefathers. 1960Spectator 21 Oct. 616 He falls in love with Clara, an osu or ‘untouchable’. 1973Black World June 39/2 This..explains the violent objection of the clansmen to Obi marrying an osu (a cult-slave; for this reason ostracized from the normal life of the village). |