| 释义 |
▪ I. ounce, n.1|aʊns|
Forms: 4–6 unce, (5 vunce, unch, once, owns, ouns, nouns, nowns, nonsse, oyns, 6 ownce, oonce, oince, ounc, ownche), 5– ounce.
[a. OF. unce (12th c. in Littré), F. once:—L. uncia twelfth part (of a pound or a foot). The L. word was already adopted in OE. in the form and sense of ynce str. m., inch; in late OE. it also appears as yndse, ynse wk. fem., ounce; but the existing word is from French.]
1. a. A unit of weight; originally, as still in Troy weight, the twelfth of a pound, but in avoirdupois or ordinary goods weight the sixteenth of the pound.
The Troy ounce consists of 480 grains, and is divided into 20 pennyweights; the avoirdupois ounce contains 437·5 grains, and is divided into 16 drams. fluid ounce, a measure of capacity, containing an avoird. ounce of distilled water at 62° Fahr. (= 28·4 cubic centimetres). In the United States the fluid ounce is the quarter of a gill or 128th part of a gallon (= 29·57 cubic centimetres), containing 456·033 grains of distilled water at its maximum density. It is thus an aliquot part of the pint, quart, and gallon, which the British fluid ounce is not.
[c1000Sax. Leechd. I. 248 ᵹenim..anre yndsan [v.r. ynsan] ᵹewihte. ]c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 54 Mykelle brent gold, as sextene vnce amounte. c1386Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. 203 Fyue or sixe Ounces [v. rr. vnce(s]..Of siluer. c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 27 Take persole, peletre an oyns, and grynde. 14..Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 714/23 Hec semiuncia, half a nouns. 1463Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 154 Gold weyyng xix. ownsys and half a ownsce, the prise off every owns xxx.s. 1464Paston Lett. II. 154 marg., After xxx.d. the unch. 1472in Wilts. Archæol. Mag. (1868) XI. 337 A sacryng belle..weyng x vuncez. 1481in Eng. Gilds (1870) 316 A spone of selver wayyng a nonsse. 1488–9Act 4 Hen. VII, c. 22 The gold..whiche they nowe sell for a pounde weight weyeth not above vij unces. 1526Wriothesley Chron. (1875) I. 15 An ownce sylvir fyne sterlinge at 3s. 8d. 1552–3Inv. Ch. Goods, Staffs. in Ann. Lichfield (1863) IV. 70 Weynge by estymacon viij oonce. 1554Galway Arch. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 415 Every ounc theof..to passe in iiii.s. sterling the ounc allways. 1559Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1835) 183 A crowne an oince fyue score oinces & thre quarters. 1571Will in Gentl. Mag. (1861) July 35 Weyng xvi. ownches and a quarter. 1646Recorde, etc. Gr. Artes 322, 20 pence weight maketh an ounce, and 12 ounces do make a pound. 1725N. Robinson Th. Physick 261 If there be any Signs of a Plethora, twelve Ounces of Blood may be taken away. 1833J. Holland Manuf. Metal II. 305 The origin of the present avoirdupois pound of sixteen ounces, equal to 7680 Troy grains, is involved in obscurity.
b. loosely: usually, A small quantity.
c1386Chaucer Prol. 677 By ounces henge hise lokkes þat he hadde. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. iii. i. 136 My sweete ounce of mans flesh, my in-conie Iew. a1617Bayne On Eph. i. (1643) 334 Not all at once, but by ounces, as we say. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. ii, They had not an ounce [of bread and flesh] left in the ship. 1839–40I. Taylor Anc. Chr. (1842) II. ii. 100 The table was spread with some ounces of dry bread.
c. fig. of imponderable things; esp. in proverbial expressions.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (1531) 42 Better is one vnce of good lyfe, than x pounde of pardon. 1629Bk. Merry Riddles 26 An ounce of state requires a pound of gold. 1644Milton Judgm. Bucer, To Parlt., To debate and sift this matter to the utmost ounce of Learning and Religion. 1670Ray Proverbs, Sc. Prov. 264 An ounce of mothers wit is worth a pound of Clergy. 1870J. H. Newman Gram. Assent ii. viii. 295 An ounce of common sense goes farther than many cartloads of logic.
2. Used to render onza, the name of a coin of different values in Spain and Sicily.
The value of the old Spanish doubloon onza (of gold) was about 16 dollars, i.e. {pstlg}3 12s.; the Sicilian onza (of silver) was equal to about 10s. 3½d (values c 1900).
1799Nelson 8 Mar. in Nicolas Disp. (1845) III. 286 You will receive seven thousand ounces or 21,000 ducats. a1850Rossetti Dante & Circ. ii. (1874) 275 Then how canst thou think to succeed alone Who hast not a thousand ounces of thine own? 1878H. Gibbs Ombre 10 General Castilla..never liked playing for less than an ounce ({pstlg}3 12s.) a fish.
†3.
a. A mediæval measure of time, equal to 47 atoms (7½ secs.): see atom n. 7.
b. A measure of length or of surface, equal to 3 inches.
c. A local Irish measure of surface: see quot. 1780. Obs.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ix. ix. (1495) Y vj b/2 A moment of tyme conteynyth twelue vnces and an vnce seuen and forty attomos. Ibid. xix. cxxix. nn ij/1 Vncia conteyneth thre ynches in mesure. 1780A. Young Tour Irel. II. 90 In the parish of Tooavister, they have a way of taking land by the ounce... An ounce is the sixteenth of a gineve, and is sufficient for a potatoe garden.
4. a. attrib. Of the weight of one ounce or (in comb.) so many ounces.
1846Greener Sc. Gunnery 75 We have obtained a velocity with an ounce ball nearly doubling this. 1898Daily News 6 July 7/3 Next comes Canada's proposal..of a charge of 1½d. on ounce letters. 1900Ibid. 9 May 5/5 The present four-ounce bread ration is to be further reduced.
b. Comb., as ounce-grape (obs.), ounce-measure, ounce-notch; ounce force, a unit of force equal to the weight of a mass of 1 ounce, esp. under standard gravity (cf. gram2 and gram force); † ounce-land, a division of land in Orkney, which paid to the earl one ounce of silver; ounce-thread, a kind of sewing thread.
1601Holland Pliny I. 410 We haue not spoken..of the Ounce-grapes, whereof euery one weighes a good ounce. 1814Shirref Agric. Surv. Orkn. 31 The lands in Orkney had been early divided into ure or ounce lands, and each ounce land into eighteen penny lands, and penny-lands again into four-merk or farthing lands, corresponding to the feu-money paid at the time. 1844G. Dodd Textile Manuf. iv. 140 The making of sewing-thread, known by the names of ‘ounce-thread’ and ‘nun's-thread’, was commenced. 1861L. L. Noble Icebergs 248 The loss of a single ton of ice shifts..it an ounce-notch on the bar of the mighty scale. 1961B.S.I. News Oct. 26/2 A similar distinction is made between..ounce (oz) and ounce-force (ozf). 1966[see gram force s.v. gram2 b].
Hence ˈouncer, a thing that weighs one or (in comb.) so many ounces, as a three-ouncer. ˈouncy a., yielding an ounce of gold to a certain measure.
1864Rogers New Rush ii. 52 The ground..is thickly interspersed with ouncy dust. 1886Pall Mall G. 21 May 4/1 Tumbling brooks teeming with ‘three ouncers’.
▪ II. ounce, n.2|aʊns|
Forms: 4 unce, 5–7 once, 6 owns, 7 onse, 6– ounce.
[ad. OF. once (13th c. in Littré), lonce (Voy. de Marc Pol, Godef. Compl.); cf. It. lonza, Sp. onza, onça. OF. l'once (according to Hatz.-Darm.) represents an earlier lonce (the l being confounded with the def. article) = It. lonza:—pop.L. type *luncia, for L. lyncea, deriv. of lync-em lynx.]
1. A name originally given to the common lynx, afterwards extended to other species, and still sometimes applied in America to the Canada lynx and other species. From 16th c. applied to various other small or moderate-sized feline beasts, vaguely identified.
13..K. Alis. 5228 Bores, beres, and lyouns,..Vnces grete, and leopardes. c1470Henryson Mor. Fab. v. (Parl. Beasts) xvi, The wyld once, the buk, the welterand brok. a1586Sidney Arcadia iii. Wks. 1724 II. 715 The lion heart, the ounce gave active might. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. ii. ii. 30 Be it Ounce, or Catte, or Beare, Pard, or Boare with bristled haire. 1598B. Yong Diana 91 The pillers were supported with Lyons, Ounces and Tygres,..cut of brasse. 1601Holland Pliny xxviii. viii. II. 316 The Onces be likewise taken for strange and forrein, and of all foure-footed beasts they haue the quickest eie and see best [L. Peregrini sunt et lynces, quæ clarissimi quadrupedum omnium cernunt]. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 380 The wilde beast which among the Germans is named Luchss (by making a name from the Linx..the Spaniards do as yet call him by the Latin name Lince..amongst the barbarous writers he is called by the name of an Ounce (which I do suppose to be a panther). 1634W. Wood New. Eng. Prosp. (1865) 25 The Ounce or the wilde Cat, is as big as a mungrell dog. 1648Gage West. Ind. xii. (1655) 45 (Montezuma's Palace) Great cages..wherein were kept in some Lions, in other Tygres, in other Ownzes, in other Wolves. 1658Phillips, Ounce,..also a kind of spotted beast called a Lynx. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. iv. §7 Such as differ in size and shape from each other, as the Cat of Europe, and Ownce of India. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 344 Tygers, Ounces, Pards Gambold before them. 1672J. Josselyn New Eng. Rarities 16 The Ounce or Wild Cat, is about the bigness of two lusty Ram Cats.
2. In current zoological use: A feline beast (Felis uncia), inhabiting the lofty mountain ranges of Central and Southern Asia; it resembles the leopard in markings, but is smaller and of lighter ground colour, and has longer and thicker fur; also called mountain-panther and snow-leopard.
[1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 381 Ounces do commonly seem to be called rather Linxes then Panthers; but although some late writers do attribute the name to a Leopard or a lesser Panther, it seemeth notwithstanding corrupt from the Linx.] [1761Buffon Hist. Naturelle IX. 152 La seconde espèce est la petite panthère d'Oppian..que les Voyageurs modernes ont appelé, Once du nom corrompu Lynx ou Lunx.] 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) III. 255 We will therefore call that animal of the panther kind, which is less than the panther, and with a longer tail, the ounce... The Ounce..is much less than the panther, being not, at most, above three feet and a half long. 1843Sir W. Jardine in Naturalist's Libr. III. 192 The ounce is first noticed by Buffon.
†b. Applied to the Cheetah or Hunting Leopard: this being at first confounded with the Ounce of Buffon. Obs.
1694in Churchill's Voy. (1704) IV. 162 Besides Hawks and Dogs, they make use of a sort of Creatures they call Onses, about the bigness of a Fox, very swift, their Skins speckled like Tigers, and so Tame, that they carry them behind them on Horse-back. 1706Phillips, Ounce, is also a kind of tame Beast in Persia, mistaken for a lynx. 1801Southey Thalaba ix. xviii, And couchant on the saddle-bow, With tranquil eyes and talons sheathed, The ounce expects his liberty. 1821Shelley Prometh. Unb. i. i. 609 As hooded ounces cling to the driven hind.
3. attrib. and Comb. † ounce-stone, a rendering of Pliny's lyncurium, a reputed precious stone, now understood to have been amber.
c1505Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 196 Et de 13s. 5d. ex mutacione argenti..pro owns taylles. 1583Rates of Customs D v b, Ounce skinnes the peece xs. 1601Holland Pliny II. 609 That the Once stone or Lyncurium is of the same colour that Ambre ardent which resembleth the fire. 1833H. Martineau Charmed Sea iv. 44 Mouse, ounce, and hare skins may serve us at present as well as sables could do.
▪ III. ounce, v. rare.
[f. ounce n.1]
trans. To mark with the weight in ounces.
1702Lond. Gaz. 3863/4 It is ounced at the bottom 18. oz. |