| 释义 |
Pickwickian, a. and n.|pɪkˈwɪkɪən|
[f. Pickwick, surname in Dickens's Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837).]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to Mr. Pickwick, or the Pickwick Club; chiefly humorous in phr. in (a) Pickwickian sense, Pickwickian language, in a technical, constructive, or conveniently idiosyncratic or esoteric sense; freq. in reference to language ‘unparliamentary’ or compromising in its natural sense.
1836Dickens Let. 18 Feb. (1965) I. 132 Believe me (in Pickwickian haste) Faithfully Yours Charles Dickens. 1837― Pickw. i, The Chairman felt it his imperative duty to demand..whether he had used the expression..in a common sense. Mr. Blotton had no hesitation in saying that he had not—he had used the word in its Pickwickian sense. 1866Felton Anc. & Mod. Gr. I. i. vi. 100 Out it comes..with no mincing of phrase, and no Pickwickian or Congressional explanations afterwards. 1899[see Prussian a. 2 b]. 1902Chamberlain Sp. B'ham 17 Nov., In every case it had only a political, perhaps I might say a Pickwickian, meaning. 1953‘N. Blake’ Dreadful Hollow 147 Blount, whose Pickwickian exterior camouflaged a mind as ruthlessly purposeful as a guided missile. 1975J. Symons Three Pipe Problem xvii. 173 Johnson's Pickwickian features were unusually solemn.
2. Med. Also pickwickian. [Named in allusion to the fat boy Joe in Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.] Having or being a syndrome occurring in some obese adults (rarely in obese children) characterized by somnolence, respiratory abnormalities, and bulimia.
1956C. S. Burwell et al. in Amer. Jrnl. Med. XXI. 812/1 Figure 1 represents Thomas Nast's drawing of Mr. Wardle's boy, Joe. This masterful description by Charles Dickens of a patient with marked obesity and somnolence is the first complete description of this syndrome that we have been able to find in the literature. For this reason we have called it the Pickwickian syndrome. 1965Progress Brain Res. XVIII. 157 The short diurnal periods of light sleep (10–12 sec duration) in Pickwickian patients are characterized by apnea, increased cyanosis and muscular relaxation. 1977Lancet 7 May 993/1 There are many other conditions, usually clinically obvious such as the pickwickian syndrome, in which there is both a respiratory and sleep abnormality.
B. n.
1. A member of the Pickwick Club.
1836Dickens Pickw. (1837) i. 1 A proposal, emanating from the aforesaid Samuel Pickwick..and three other Pickwickians..for forming a new branch of United Pickwickians. Ibid. ii. 7 The intelligence of the Pickwickians being informers was spread among them. 1905Daily Graphic 1 Feb. 9/4 The minds of many of the lovers of Dickens who were present at the Dickens Character Ball..reverted to another ball-room—still in existence—where one of the most famous of the incidents in the ‘Pickwick Papers’ occurred—that of the Bull Inn at Rochester. And that ball, too, like this one, wherein not only the Pickwickians but many other characters which sprang from the brain of their creator were incarnated, was a charity ball. 1909[see bathlessness].
2. Med. A person with the Pickwickian syndrome.
1965Progress Brain Res. XVIII. 156 Most obese people..present no diurnal sleeping syndrome, and so far as is known no nocturnal apnea, so that the Pickwickian should have some central disturbance of respiration and arousal. 1975Electroencephalogr. & Clin. Neurophysiol. XXXIX. 579/2 The data obtained were compared with those observed in a group of 59 hypersomnolent patients aged between 19 and 83.., 18 of whom were Pickwickians.
Hence Pickwickiˈana, publications about the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club; Pickˈwickianism, a statement made in a Pickwickian sense; Pickˈwickianly adv., in a Pickwickian sense.
1887Chicago Advance 14 Apr. 229/1 Dr. Arthur Little discussed almost convincingly, albeit somewhat pickwickianly, ‘the Advantages of Presbyterianism’. 1894Ibid. 28 June, This author does not mean his assertions to be taken as facts, but only as bits of critical pickwickianisms. 1899J. Grego (title) Pictorial Pickwickiana. |