| 释义 |
plenitude|ˈplɛnɪtjuːd|
Also 5–6 plenytude.
[a. OF. plenitude, ad. L. plēnitūdo (Pliny), f. plēnus full: see -tude.]
1. The condition of being absolutely full in quantity, measure, or degree; fullness, completeness, perfection. (In first two quots. from the Vulgate.)
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) IV. 257 The seyenge of thapostle, ‘When the plenitude of tyme schalle comme.’ 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 308/2 Pawle sayth the plenytude of the lawe is loue and charyte. 1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 149 The Pope loosed them..by the plenitude of his Apostolike power from allegiance to their Prince. 1669Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. i. 2 From [God]..al things at first flow, as from the Plenitude of Being. 1856Dove Logic Chr. Faith vi. 347 God in the full plenitude of majesty has spoken to man. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets xii. 405 That death in the plenitude of vigour is desirable.
b. Her. Fullness (of the moon).
1864Boutell Her. Hist. & Pop. xi. 71 The Moon is in her Complement, or in her Plenitude, when at the full. 1882Cussans Her. 102 When full-faced and shining, it is described as In her Complement or Plenitude.
c. Comparative fullness; amplitude, plentifulness, abundance.
1653H. More Conject. Cabbal. i. 206 That there may be the greater plenitude of life in the whole man. 1794Mrs. Piozzi Synon. II. 299 Plenitude of incident without confusion, and of adventure without gross improbability. 1893C. Hodges in Reliquary Jan. 3 The plenitude of stone in the northern counties generally..led to a more frequent use of stone..than in the rest of the country.
2. The condition of being filled, fully occupied, or full of something; fullness; † spec. in Physics = plenum 1 (obs.).
1662Hobbes Seven Prob. Wks. 1845 VII. 17 How does the difficulty of separation argue the plenitude of all the rest of the world? 1728Pemberton Newton's Philos. 143 A prevailing opinion,..that where no sensible matter is found, there was yet a subtle fluid substance by which the space was filled up; even so as to make an absolute plenitude. 1857Bullock Cazeaux' Midwif. 67 The ovaries vary in size..from the plenitude or vacuity of the uterus.
†b. Bot. Doubleness of a flower. Obs.
1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. i. xx. (1765) 54 The Plenitude, Fullness, is occasioned by the Stamina running into Petals. Ibid. 55 Plenitude is chiefly incidental to polypetalous Flowers. 1766Compl. Farmer s.v. Larkspur, In order to continue their plenitude, all plants with single flowers should be destroyed so soon as they appear.
†3. Med. Animal fullness; repletion; plethora.
1533Elyot Cast. Helthe iii. vii, Wherefore the lettynge of bloude is..expedient..also for them, in whom, without plenitude, callyd fulness, inflammations begyn to be in their bodies. 1696Phillips (ed. 5), Plenitude, in Physick, when a Man has too much blood, or abounds with ill humours. 1767Gooch Treat. Wounds I. 321 Pain or disorder in his head, with symptoms of plenitude. 1802Med. Jrnl. VIII. 67 That in the act of vomiting, the state of the brain is rather that of depletion than plenitude.
†4. The condition of being fully supplied with everything; affluence. Obs.
1631R. H. Arraignm. Whole Creature xiii. §4. 220 He accounted his best plenitude and plenty without God..extreame penurie. 1782Miss Burnev Cecilia viii. viii, Perverse repining of ungrateful plenitude!
5. Fullness of dress. humorous nonce-use.
1837W. Irving Capt. Bonneville III. 260 Pantaloons of the most liberal plenitude.
Hence ˌplenitudiˈnarian = plenist; pleniˈtudinary a., characterized by plenitude, full; pleniˈtudinous |-ˈtjuːdɪnəs| a., well-filled; stout, portly. All rare.
1710Shaftesbury Charac. (1733) I. iii. 301 The *Plenitudinarian..brings his Fluid in Play and joins the Idea of Body and Extension.
1647N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. lviii. (1739) 108 A strange kind of Government..wherein..a Subject shall have a *plenitudinary power beyond that which his Lord and King had.
1812L. Hunt in Examiner 11 May 289/1 Six-bottle Ministers and *plenitudinous Aldermen. 1840― in Vaubrugh's Wks., Miss Hoyden, without delay or ‘mistake’, is for consolidating everything into the tangible and plenitudinous. |