| 释义 |
▪ I. parable, n.|ˈpærəb(ə)l|
Forms: 4– parable; also 4–7 -bole, 4–6 -bil(l, 5–6 -byll(e, 7 -bile.
[ME. a. F. parabole (13th c. in Littré), ad. L. parabola comparison; in Christian L., allegory, proverb, discourse, speech, talk, a. Gr. παραβολή a placing side by side, comparison, analogy, parable, proverb. f. παρα- beside + βολή casting, putting, a throw.
From L. parabola came the various later forms paravola, paraula, parola, parole, parabla, palabra, palavra, meaning ‘speech, word’, in the Romanic langs. Hence parabola, parable, parole, palaver are all representatives of the same original word.]
a. A comparison, a similitude; any saying or narration in which something is expressed in terms of something else; an allegory, an apologue. Also vaguely extended (chiefly after Heb. or other oriental words so rendered) to any kind of enigmatical, mystical, or dark saying, and to proverbs, maxims, or ancient saws, capable of application to cases as they occur. arch. (exc. as in b.)
† Parables of Solomon, the Book of Proverbs. (obs.)
a1325Prose Psalter xlviii. 4 Y shal bowe myn eres in parabiles [a 1300 E.E. Psalt. forbiseninge]. a1340Hampole Psalter ibid., Lerand me to speke in parabils, that is, in likyngis that all men kan noght vndirstand. 1382Wyclif Matt. xxiv. 32 Lerne ȝe the parable of a fyge tree. c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 369 Been thir none othire resemblances That ye may likne youre parables to. Ibid. 679 And eek the Parables of Salomon. c1420Lydg. Assembly of Gods 1987 Hit sownyd to me as a parable, Derke as a myste, or a feynyd fable. c1450tr. De Imitatione i. v. 7 Lete not þe paraboles of eldir men displese þe. 1523Skelton Garl. Laurel 101 A poete somtyme..Spekyng in parablis, how the fox, the grey, The gander,..Went with the pecok ageyne the fesaunt. 1596Bacon Max. & Uses Com. Law Pref., All the ancient wisdom and science was wont to be delivered in that forme, as may be seen by the parables of Solomon. 1654Gayton Pleas. Notes iv. iv. 194 Accept of the Curates parabile, and his sentences in praise of a slender dyet as Modicum non nocet. 1671Milton Samson 500 A sin That Gentiles in their Parables condemn. 1794Sullivan View Nat. II. 234 Moses and the Prophets wrote all in Parables. 1825Scott Talism. x, I will reply with a parable told to me by a santon of the desert. 1881N. T. (R.V.) Luke iv. 23 Doubtless ye will say unto me this parable [Wyclif liknesse, Tindale, 1611 proverbe, Rheims similitude], Physician, heal thyself.
b. spec. A fictitious narrative or allegory (usually something that might naturally occur), by which moral or spiritual relations are typically figured or set forth, as the parables of the New Testament. (Now the usual sense.)
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 352 Þus spekiþ Crist..of dette in þe Pater Noster, and also in o parable. 1382― Matt. xiii. 3 And he spak to hem many thingis in parablis. 1526Tindale Matt. xiii. 10 Why speakest thou to them in parables? 13 Therefore speake y to them in similitudes. 18 Heare ye therfore the similitude [Rheims and 1611 parable] off the sower. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.) 251 Whensoeuer by your similitude ye will seeme to teach any moralitie or good lesson by speeches misticall and darke, or farre fette, vnder a sence metaphoricall applying one naturall thing to another,..the Greekes call it Parabola, which terme is also by custome accepted of vs... Such parables were all the preachings of Christ in the Gospell. 1688South Serm. II. viii. 276 The Foundation of all Parables is..some Analogy or Similitude, between the Tropical, or Allusive part of the Parable, and the Thing couched under it. 1795Southey Joan of Arc iv. 208 Or rather sing thou of that wealthy Lord, Who took the ewe lamb from the poor man's bosom,..This parable would I tell,..And look at thee and say, ‘Thou art the man!’ 1841Trench Parables i. (1877) 2 The parable is constructed to set forth a truth spiritual and heavenly: this the fable, with all its value, is not.
c. dial. Something that may be pointed to as an example or illustration (to follow or to avoid).[Cf.1382Wyclif Jer. xxiv. 9 And y shal ȝyue them..in to repref, and in to parable, and in to prouerbe.] c1880Correspondent, Parable is used near Drumcondra, Ireland, in sense of ‘An apt illustration, a case in point’. 1894Ian Maclaren Bonnie Brier Bush vi. ii. 218 ‘Man’, says Mactavish,..‘You are just a Parable, oh yes, just a Parable’. 1900Cent. Mag. Feb. 601 He had his three acres in such rotation as a flower garden, his wee patch a parable to the counthry.
d. to take up one's parable [after Num. xxiii. 7, etc.] to begin to discourse. arch.
1382Wyclif Num. xxiii. 7 And takun to his parable [1388 And whanne his parable was takun], seith. 1535Coverdale ibid., Then toke he [Balaam] vp his parable, & sayde [etc.]. 1868Milman St. Paul's i. 5 In due time, the learned took up their parable.
e. attrib. and Comb., as parable-art, parable-opera, parable-play, parable-poem, parable-poet, parable-reading, parable-writer; parable-like adj., parable-wise adv.
1935Auden in G. Grigson Arts To-Day 20 There must always be two kinds of art, escape-art..and parable-art, that art which shall teach man to unlearn hatred and learn love. 1976Listener 8 July 27/1 Auden both devised and named the literary genre—‘parable-art’—that the decade [of the 1930s] demanded.
a1603T. Cartwright Confut. Rhem. N.T. (1618) 240 His speeches had been hitherto darke and parable-like.
1880G. Meredith Tragic Com. (1881) 62 We Jews are a parable people. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 18 Dec. 18/1 Britten composed in almost all the musical forms available to him—and even invented one, the parable opera, such as Curlew River and The Prodigal Son, in which a moral lesson was set forth in direct and easily assimilable musical terms.
1941L. MacNeice Poetry of Yeats 187 Thirdly, there are those plays which are near to fable or which might be called parable-plays—The King's Threshold (1904).
1884Athenæum 6 Dec. 725/1 [They] can only be described as parable-poems.
1561J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 149 b, It is in parablewyse, and in way of comparison, that this citie is called Sodome and Egypt.
1884Athenæum 6 Dec. 727/3 The current of the story with the Western parable-writer moves too rapidly.
▪ II. † ˈparable, a. Obs.
[ad. L. parābil-is procurable, f. parāre to prepare, procure: see -ble.]
That can be readily prepared, procured, or got; procurable, ‘get-at-able’.
1581Mulcaster Positions xix. (1887) 81, I haue kept Galenes rule in chusing these exercises, and that they be all both pleasant, profitable and parable. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. v. i. v. (1651) 390 This of drink is a most easie and parable remedy. a1691Boyle Med. Exp. Pref. (1693) 5 Receipts that being Parable or Cheap, may easily be made servicable to poor Country People. 1741Compl. Fam.-Piece i. i. 60 A parable but excellent Medicine in..the Stone.
▪ III. ˈparable, v. rare.
[f. parable n. Cf. late and med.L. parabolāre to discourse, talk, whence F. parler to speak.]
1. intr. To compose or utter a parable; to speak or discourse in parables.
1571Golding Calvin on Ps. xlix. 4 That is to say, Parable thou in parable. 1820Blackw. Mag. VII. 437 My store of praise would never fail, Tho' I should parable till I were old.
2. trans. To represent or express by means of a parable, allegory, or similitude.
1643Milton Divorce i. vi. Wks. (1851) 32 That was chiefly meant, which by the ancient Sages was thus parabl'd. 1884G. F. Pentecost Out of Egypt iii. 54 That sign which to my mind it parables or typifies. |