| 释义 |
Phœnician, n. and a.|fɪˈnɪʃ(ɪ)ən|
Forms: 4 Feniceonne, Phenicien, 7– Phœnician, 9 Phenician.
[a. F. phénicien, f. L. Phœnīcia (sc. terra), synon. with L. Phœnīcē, Gr. ϕοινίκη the country, f. ϕοῖνιξ, ϕοίνῑκ-, n. and a. Phœnician: see -an.
Gr. ϕοῖνιξ also meant ‘purple-red or crimson’ (a. and n.), the phœnix, and the date (fruit and tree). It is generally held that these are all senses of the same word; but their mutual relations and the primary sense are uncertain. Some start with ϕοῖνιξ, Phœnician, as a foreign ethnic name; others take the primary sense as ‘red’, and see in ϕοινίκη ‘the red land’, perh. the land of the sunrise, or in ϕοῖνιξ ‘a red man’. Phœnicia could hardly be (as some have suggested) ‘the land of the date’.]
A. n.
1. A native or inhabitant of Phœnicia, an ancient country consisting of a narrow strip of land on the coast of Syria, to the north-west of Palestine, which contained the two famous cities of Tyre and Sidon; also of any Phœnician colony (of which there were many on the shores of the Mediterranean).
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 129 For Pheniciens were þe firste fynderes of lettres, ȝit we writeþ capital lettres wiþ reed colour. 1432–50tr. Higden ibid., Phenix the sonne of Agenoris toke to these Feniceonnes somme redde letters. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iii. vii. 65 Let th' Egyptians And the Phœnicians go a ducking. 1667Milton P.L. i. 438 Astoreth, whom the Phœnicians call'd Astarte, Queen of Heav'n. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. ii. (1840) 40 Cadmus was a Phoenician, but went from his own country and settled in Greece, where, as they say, he built the city of Thebes,..having brought 16 letters of the Greek alphabet among them. 1808Mitford Hist. Greece x. §1 Britain,..excepting the Phenicians, unknown among civilized nations. 1843Thirlwall Greece liii, Many..costly and useful productions of India..were very early known in the west, chiefly..through the commercial activity of the Phœnicians.
2. The language spoken by this people.
1836Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) XIII. 83/1 The Phœnician is only known from a few coins and inscriptions found chiefly in Cyprus and Malta. 1836N. Wiseman Twelve Lect. on Connexion betw. Sci. & Revealed Relig. I. i. 53 Cadiz, or Gadir, as it was originally called, must no longer signify, as the word does graphically in Phenician, the island or peninsula. 1861Dublin Rev. Feb. 400 Joseph Scaliger demonstrated that the well-known passage of the Pœnulus of Plautus was a fragment of genuine Phœnician. 1948E. Pound Pisan Cantos (1949) lxxix. 76 ‘Prepare to go on a journey.’ Or to count sheep in Phoenician. 1965Illustr. London News 13 Feb. 22/3 Three thin rectangular sheets of gold leaf... One of them is inscribed in Phoenician, the other two in Etruscan.
B. adj. Of or pertaining to ancient Phœnicia, or its inhabitants or colonists; hence, Punic, Carthaginian.
1601Holland Pliny I. 100 All that sea yet, which beateth vpon that coast, beareth the name of the Phœnician sea. 1808Mitford Hist. Greece x. §1 The large projection of Africa, over-against Sicily, could not fail..to fix the attention of the Phœnician navigators. 1878Gladstone Homer (Primer) vii. 96 It appears that the Phœnician name in Homer stands to a great extent for that of foreigner in general.
Hence Phœˈnicianism; also Phœnicize (phen-) v., to make Phœnician in language, nationality, etc.
1878Gladstone Homer (Primer) vii. 96 There is in Homer a very general and pervading association between a group of marks of which a portion are Phœnicianism [etc.]. 1846Grote Greece II. xviii. 453 Strabo describes these towns..as altogether phenicised. |