| 释义 |
‖ placebo|pləˈsiːbəʊ|
Pl. -os, -oes.
[a. L. placēbo (I shall be pleasing or acceptable), 1st sing. fut. ind. of placēre to please: also used in OF. in senses 1 and 2.]
1. Eccl. In the Latin rite: The name commonly given to Vespers in the Office for the Dead, from the first word of the first antiphon (Placebo Domino in regione vivorum, Ps. cxiv. 9, Vulg.).
a1225Ancr. R. 22 Efter euesong anonriht siggeð ower Placebo. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 57 Prelatis ben more bounden to þis prechynge..þan to seie matynes, masse, euen song, or placebo. c1440Jacob's Well 110 Clerkys seydin Placebo & dirige for his soule. 1535Lanc. Wills (1857) II. 165 Schall synge and say placebo and dirige on nyght. 1874Green Short Hist. v. §5. 248 He..earned a miserable livelihood..by singing placebos and diriges.
†2. In allusive phrases: to sing (a), play (with), make, be at the school of placebo, etc.: to play the sycophant, flatter, be servile or time-serving. Obs.
1340Ayenb. 60 Þe uerþe zenne is þet huanne hi alle zingeþ ‘Placebo’, þet is to zigge: ‘mi lhord zayþ zoþ, mi lhord deþ wel’. c1386Chaucer Pars. T. ⁋543 Flatereres been the deueles Chapelleyns that syngen euere Placebo. 1483Caxton G. de la Tour H v b, He ought..not flatere hym ne make the placebo. 1554Knox Godly Let. A viij b, Nowe they haue bene at the skoole of Placebo, and ther they haue lerned..to daunse as the deuill lyst to pype. 1583Leg. Bp. St. Androis Prol. 78 Plaing placebo into princes faces. 1607–8Bacon Gen. Naturaliz. Wks. 1879 I. 467 If any man shall think that I have sung a placebo, for mine own particular, I would have him know that I am not so unseen in the world. 1679J. P. Lett. Friend in Country 3 Where every one would sing a Placebo to the rising Sun [the next Heir to the Crown].
†3. A flatterer, sycophant, parasite. (In Chaucer as proper name.) Obs.
c1386Chaucer Merch. T. 234 Placebo seyde o Ianuarie brother [etc.]. 1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 22417 Fflateryng..Somme callen hir Placebo, ffor sche kan maken an Eccho Answere euere ageyn the same. a1572Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 37 The Bischop..having his placeboes and jackmen in the toun, buffatted the Freir, and called him Heretick. a1651Calderwood Hist. Kirk (1843) II. 220 Placeboes and flatterers went to court.
4. Med. (See quot. 1811); spec a substance or procedure which a patient accepts as a medicine or therapy but which actually has no specific therapeutic activity for his condition or is prescribed in the belief that it has no such activity. Freq. attrib., esp. in placebo effect, a beneficial (or adverse) effect produced by a placebo that cannot be attributed to the nature of the placebo. Also fig.
1785G. Motherby New Med. Dict. (ed. 2), Placebo, a common place method or medicine. 1811Hooper Med. Dict., Placebo,..an epithet given to any medicine adapted more to please than benefit the patient. 1824Scott St. Ronan's xx, There is nothing serious intended—a mere placebo—just a divertisement to cheer the spirits, and assist the effect of the waters. 1885–8Fagge & Pye-Smith Princ. Med. (ed. 2) I. 205 It is probably a mere placebo, but there is every reason to please as well as cure our patients. 1938Ann. Internal Med. XI. 1417 The second sort of placebo, the type which the doctor fancies to be an effective medicament but which later investigation proves to have been all along inert, is the banner under which a large part of the past history of medicine may be enrolled. 1946N.Y. State Jrnl. Med. XLVI. 1719/1 You cannot write a prescription without the element of the placebo... The fact that it is signed by a doctor,..that the prescription has to be taken to a drug store to be made up,..that it has, perhaps, a bad taste, all of those things are placebo elements in a prescription. 1950Jrnl. Clin. Investigation XXIX. 108/2 Not only the frequency but also the magnitude of ‘placebo effects’ is impressive and deserves attention. Ibid., It is..customary to control drug experiments on various clinical syndromes with placebos especially when the data to be evaluated are chiefly subjective. 1954Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 22 May 340/1 After use of the pills was stopped, the eruption quickly cleared... Later it was learned that the rash had developed while she was taking placebos. 1961Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry CXVII. 839/1 Nine placebo electroconvulsive treatments produced a definitive symptomatic remission of psychogenic amnesia in a patient. 1964Diseases Nervous Syst. XXV. 146/1 Placebo therapy is not restricted to the prescription of inert or relatively inactive capsules; injections, powders, suppositories, supporters, ‘talking’ treatments, lotions, inhalations, convulsive therapies, may all be used. 1971Brit. Med. Bull. XXVII. 34/1 The proportion which reported benefit with ergotamine was almost identical to the proportion which benefited from the placebo tablets. 1977Lancet 22 Jan. 190/2 The placebo effect of plasmapheresis must be considerable. 1978Detroit Free Press 16 Apr. 1c/4 They..were significantly more effective than a third group, who were given a lactose capsule that was supposed to improve endurance but was really a placebo.
Hence placeˈboic a. nonce-wd., of the nature of a placebo.
1880A. Flint Princ. Med. 1093 This was given regularly, and became well known..as the ‘placeboic remedy’ for rheumatism. |