| 释义 |
philosopher|fɪˈlɒsəfə(r)|
Forms: α. 4 philosofre, -zofre, filosofre, -sophre, (philisophre), 4–5 philosophre, (5 phili-, philesofre, 6 phylosophre). β. 4 filosopher, philosipher, phylozopher, 4– philosopher, (4 fylesofer, 5 philosoffer, -sofer, -sofyr, -sophir, -sophyr, -saphir, phylosofer, -sophyr; phili-, fili-, fylysofer; philsophir, fylzofyr, 5–6 philosophier, 5–7 phylosopher, 6 -phar, philosephur). γ. 4 phylosy-, philysophere, 5 philosophere, philesofere, fillosophere, filis(o)phere. δ. 5 filo-, 5–6 phylosophour.
[In 14th c. philosophre, filo-, -sofre, an Anglo-Fr. or OF. var. of philosophe philosoph (cf. legiste, legistre, etc.), the ending being subseq. identified in Eng. with that of agent-nouns in -er; sometimes with those in -our, -or. The original stress was philoˈsofre, which prevailed to the close of the ME. period, in which however there are also instances of the later stressing; philosoˈphour is certain in Dunbar c 1500, and phiˈlosopher appears to have prevailed from the 16th c.]
1. a. A lover of wisdom; one who devotes himself to the search of fundamental truth; one versed in philosophy or engaged in its study; formerly in a wide sense, including men learned in physical science (physicists, scientists, naturalists), as well as those versed in the metaphysical and moral sciences, but now chiefly confined to the latter. Also with defining word, as moral philosopher, political philosopher; natural philosopher (= physicist).
c1325Chron. Eng. 5 This philosofres us doth towyte, Ase we findeth ywryte. 1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 1901 Bot þe payn of dede þat al sal fele A philosopher þus discrived wele. Ibid. 7567 Als a gret philosiphir þat hyght Rabby Moyses telles ryght. 1340–70Alex. & Dind. 1070 In fablus of philozofrus olde. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints v. (Johannes) 89 A phylosyphere of gret renowne Þat cratone hecht. 1382Wyclif Acts xvii. 18 Forsothe summe Epicureis, and Stoycis, and philosofris [1388 filosofris] disputiden..with him. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xxiii. 38 Filosofres for-soken welthe, for þei wolde be neody. c1400Destr. Troy 1484 Of his sonnes..the fourth was a philosoffer, a fyne man of lore. c1420Lydg. Assembly of Gods 272 And that I recorde of all philosophres That lytyll store of coyne kepe in her cofres. a1440Sir Degrev. 1450 There was purtred in ston The fylesoferus everychon. c1440Gesta Rom. xl. 159 (Harl. MS.) Amonge the wiche was master Virgile, þe philesofere. c1449Pecock Repr. i. iii. 14 Hethen philsophiris bi her studie in natural witt founden..alle hem to be doon. 14..Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 680/32 Hic philosofus, a fylysofer. 1477Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 2 The saynges or dictis of the Philosophers. 1483Cath. Angl. 130/2 A Filosophur, philosophus. 1500–20Dunbar Poems lxiii. 5 Divinouris, rethoris, and philosophouris, Astrologis, artistis, and oratouris. 1538Starkey England i. i. 4 The old and antique phylosopharys..applyd themselfys to the secrete studys and serchyng of nature. 1540–1Elyot Image Gov. (1549) 136 Numa Pompilius.., beyng an excellent philosophier,..was chosen to be kyng. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. i. ii. 53, I feare hee will proue the weeping Phylosopher [Heraclitus] when he growes old. 1664Power Exp. Philos. Pref. 18 Without some such Mechanical Assistance, our best Philosophers will but prove empty Conjecturalists. 1728Pemberton Newton's Philos. 2, I drew up the following papers, to give a general notion of our great philosopher's [Newton's] notions. 1734Pope Ess. Man iv. 390 Thou wert my Guide, Philosopher, and Friend. 1776Adam Smith W.N. i. i. (1869) I. 11 Philosophers or men of speculation, whose trade is not to do anything, but to observe everything. 1809Coleridge Friend (1866) 290 Pythagoras..is said to have first named himself philosopher or lover of wisdom. 1827Whately Logic iv. iii. §2 The Philosopher's [business is] to combine and select known facts or principles, suitably for gaining from them conclusions which though implied in the Premises, were before unperceived. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. lxvii, A philosopher fallen to betting is hardly distinguishable from a Philistine under the same circumstances.
†b. the Philosopher, spec. applied to Aristotle.[1340Ayenb. 120 Huerof þe filosofe zayþ þet yefþe is yeuynge wyþoute ayen-yefþe.] c1385Chaucer L.G.W. Prol. 381 This is the sentens of the philysophre, A kyng to kepe hise lygis in iustise. c1449Pecock Repr. iii. v, For the philsophir feelid bettir than so, seiyng that richessis ben instrumentis of vertu. 1672Wilkins Nat. Relig. 41 It is laid down by the philosopher as the proper way of reasoning from authority, that what seems true to some wise men, may upon that account be esteemed somewhat probable. [a1850Rossetti Dante & Circ. i. (1874) 108 This the Philosopher says in the Second of the Metaphysics.] c. A member of a class called ‘Philosophers’ in certain Jesuit schools and colleges.
1711in E. H. Burton Life Bishop Challoner (1909) I. iii. 32 Ye Superiors had inculcated..ye two pair of beads to be said every week by one of ye Philosophers. 1712in Ushaw Mag. (1904) Mar. 20 Ye Littanies of ye Saints, every night our Ladyes wch are solemnly sung every Saturday, ye two pair of beads to be said every week by one of ye Philosophers, ye fasting before our Ladyes dayes and ye like. 1809in Edmundian (1948) Summer 9 The boys in the higher classes viz. Philosophers and Rhetoricians have separate rooms. 1915Ushaw Mag. Dec. 292 The new furniture..is to be arranged and then the Divines and Philosophers can take possession.
†2. An adept in occult science, as an alchemist, magician, diviner of dreams, weather-prophet, etc.
In ME. often not separable from sense 1, the notions being popularly identified.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 351 With clerkes also Han no belieue to þe lifte, ne to þe lore of philosofres. c1386Chaucer Prol. 299 But al be that he was a Philosophre, Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre. ― Frankl. T. 833 Allas that I bihighte Of pured gold a thousand pound of wighte Vn to this Philosophre [v.r. -ofre]. 1470–85Malory Arthur v. iv. 165 The kynge..was sore abasshed of this dreme And sente anone for a wyse philosopher commaundynge to telle hym the sygnyfycacion of his dreme. [1869Lecky Europ. Mor. I. ii. 327 Many great families [in Rome] kept a philosopher. ]
3. One who regulates his life by the light of philosophy and reason; one who speaks or behaves philosophically.
1599Shakes. Much Ado v. i. 35 For there was neuer yet Philosopher That could endure the tooth-ake patiently. 1700Farquhar Constant Couple ii. iii, I'll beat him with the temper of a philosopher. 1855Tennyson Maud i. iv. ix, Be mine a philosopher's life in the quiet woodland ways. 1871E. F. Burr Ad Fidem ix. 165 Most men are not philosophers. Mod. He was too great a philosopher to be disturbed by this incident, unexpected though it was.
†4. Phrases. egg (or eye) of philosophers = philosophers' stone: see also philosophers' egg in 5 b. oil of philosophers = brick oil (brick n.1 3).
c1400tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 87 Of þe stoon, þe Eye of Philosophers. Ibid. 88 Þe Eyrn, þat ys to say þe Eye of Philosophers. 1547Boorde Brev. Health 20 To anoynt the stomake with the oyle of Philosophers, named in latin Oleum philosophorum. 1651French Distill. iii. 81 Oil made out of Tile-stones called the Oile of Philosophers. 1706Phillips, Oil of Philosophers, a Chymical Preparation of pieces of Brick heated red hot, soak'd in Oil of Olives, and afterwards distill'd in a Retort.
5. attrib. and Comb., chiefly appositive, as philosopher-courtier, philosopher-king, philosopher-poet, philosopher-politician, philosopher-scientist; also philosopher-like adj. and adv.
1471Ripley Comp. Alch. iii. vi. in Ashm. Theat. Chem. Brit. (1652) 140 Than Phylosopher-lyke usyd ys hyt. 1579–80North Plutarch (1676) 44 To speake Laconian-like, was to be Philosopher-like. 1664H. More Myst. Iniq., Apol. iv. vi. 508 The Gentleman Atheist or Philosopher Infidel. 1885Pater Marius iii. xv, Under the full sanction of the philosopher-pontiff. 1923A. Huxley Let. 12 Nov. (1969) 222 One determined Poincaré can defeat..ten philosopher-kings. a1937J. L. Stocks Reason & Intuition (1939) v. 68 The philosopher-scientist of the nineteenth century had certainly no place for chance. 1945R. G. Collingwood Idea of Nature ii. iii. 128 A philosopher-scientist like Whitehead can restate Hegel's theory (not knowing that it is Hegel's, for he does not appear to have read Hegel). 1962Listener 25 Jan. 163/1 It is doubtful whether Socrates and the philosopher-kings of the Republic could have lived peaceably together. 1979Guardian 3 Sept. 10/1 The TUC's last philosopher-king, George Woodcock.
b. Combinations with philosophers', -'s: † philosophers' egg, a medicine used to cure the plague, compounded of yolk of egg and saffron; † philosophers' game (L. ludus philosophorum, Arithmomachia, Rythmomachia), an intricate game, played with men of three different forms, round, triangular, and square, each marked with a number, on a board resembling two chess-boards united; called also philosophers' table; philosopher's philosopher [after poet's poet s.v. poet 1 c], a philosopher whose works appeal, or are intelligible, primarily to another philosopher; † philosophers' tower, a chemical furnace in the form of a tower; † philosophers' tree = Tree of Diana: see Diana 2, arbor 2; philosophers' vinegar (L. acetum philosophorum), the supposed universal solvent; † philosophers' wheel (wheel of philosophy, of elements, etc.): see wheel; † philosophers' wool: see wool n. 2 b; † philosophers' work = philosophers' stone.
c1500MS. Sloane 1592, lf. 151 b [154 b], A proved medicine againste the pestilence called A *philosophres Egge. Take Firste an egge and breake a hole in one ende..and do out the white..take hole safron and fille the shelle therewith by the yolcke [etc.]. [Cf.1653C'tess of Kent Choice Manual (ed. 2) 139.] [c1407Lydgate Reson & Sens. 2414 The play he kan of Ryghtmathye (margin Rihtmachia est ludus philosophorum et consistit in arsmetrica et proporcionibus numerorum).]
1563Fulke (title) The Most Ancient and learned Playe called the *Philosophers Game invented for the honest recreation of Students. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. i. iv. (1676) 172/2 The ordinary recreations which we have in Winter..are Cards, Tables and Dice, Shovel⁓boord, Chess-play, the Philosophers game. 1787Twiss Chess 65 The board of this Philosopher's game, is eight squares in breadth, and sixteen in height. There are twenty-four men on a side, represented as flat pieces of wood, cut in the form of circles, triangles, and squares. The king is a square on which is a triangle and a circle.
1937A. H. Murray Philos. of James Ward ii. 45 Bradley may have been a *philosopher's philosopher, but much of what he describes and analyses in the tendency to unity inherent in thought is part of the direct experience of thinkers—and of other people. 1957J. Passmore 100 Yrs. Philos. iv. 81 McTaggart was a philosopher's philosopher, if ever there has been one. 1971Classical Rev. XXI. 224 Aristotle, a philosopher's philosopher. 1974A. W. Levi Philos. as Social Expression v. 298 That déformation professionnelle..has produced the doctor's doctor, the lawyer's lawyer, and the philosopher's philosopher.
1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xi. x. (1886) 159 A childish and ridiculous toie, and like unto childrens plaie at Primus secundus, or the game called The *philosophers table.
1688R. Holme Armoury iii. xx. (Roxb.) 228 The *Philosophers Tower,..a kind of Tower furnace, wherewith a man may distill both water and oyle with one only fire.
1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, *Philosophers Tree, see Diana's Tree. 1727–41Chambers Cycl., Philosophers Tree, a chymical preparation, called also arbor dianæ, diana's tree.
1610B. Jonson Alch. ii. iii, Svb...Ha' you set the oile of Luna in kemia? Fac. Yes, sir. Svb. And the *philosophers vinegar? Fac. I.
Ibid. i. i, Paines Would twise haue won me the *philosophers worke.
Hence (nonce-wds.) phiˈlosophercraft |-krɑːft, -æ-|, after priestcraft; phiˈlosopherling, a young or embryo philosopher, a smatterer in philosophy.
1865De Morgan Budget of Paradoxes (1872) 378 There is philosophercraft as well as priestcraft, both from one source, both of one spirit. 1833Lytton Eng. & Engl. iv. x, He is Snap, the academical philosopherling. Ibid., Nine times out of ten our philosopherling is the son of a merchant. |