| 释义 |
pneumatic, a. (n.)|njuːˈmætɪk|
[ad. L. pneumaticus of or belonging to air or wind (Vitr., Plin.), a. Gr. πνευµατικός of, caused by, or of the nature of wind, breath, or spirit. So F. pneumatique (1520 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
A. adj.
1. Pertaining to, or acting by means of, wind or air.
a. Chiefly applied to various mechanical contrivances which operate by pressure or exhaustion of air.
pneumatic cabinet, pneumatic differentiation (Med.): see quot. 1895. pneumatic caisson: see quot. 1875. pneumatic dispatch, a system by which parcels, etc. are conveyed along tubes by compression or exhaustion of air. pneumatic drill, a heavy drill for breaking stone by the rapidly repeated blows of a bit driven by compressed air. pneumatic engine: formerly applied spec. to the air-pump. pneumatic paradox, pneumatic railway, pneumatic telegraph: see quot. 1875.
1659J. Leak Waterwks. Pref. 1 Pneumatike Inventions; viz. Engins moving by the force of Air. 1667Beale in Phil. Trans. II. 425 The Pneumatick (or Rarifying) Engine of Mr. Boyle. 1713Derham Phys.-Theol. i. 9 In a glass-receiver of the Pneumatick Engine. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 375 This part of the process I call the pneumatic pressure. 1856S. C. Brees Gloss. Terms, Piles (pneumatic), hollow iron piles, driven into the ground..by withdrawing, internally, the sand or other matters filling the space in which they stand by suction. 1858Lardner Handbk. Nat. Phil., Hydrost. etc. 214 The pneumatic screw.—The screw of Archimedes..is also used for the ventilation of mines. 1863Illustr. London News 28 Feb. 217/3 (heading) Opening of the pneumatic despatch mail service. Ibid., A company was registered in 1859 for the establishment in the metropolis of lines of pneumatic tube for the more speedy and convenient circulation of despatches and parcels. 1866Bessemer in Joynson Metals (1868) 88 The metal which had been previously rendered malleable by the pneumatic process becomes less red-short. 1867Brande & Cox Dict. Sc., etc. s.v. Railroad, Carried out in London by the Pneumatic Despatch Company with success. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Pneumatic Caisson, one which is closed at top and sunk by the exhaustion of the air within or by the weight of the masonry built thereupon as the work progresses. Ibid., Pneumatic Paradox, that peculiar exhibition of atmospheric pressure which retains a valve on its seat under a pressure of gas, only allowing a film of gas to escape. Ibid., Pneumatic Railway, a railroad whose rolling stock is driven by the compression or exhaustion of air in a tube laid parallel to the track. Ibid., Pneumatic Telegraph, a telegraph used before the times of Morse and Wheatstone for communicating information by the impulse given to a column of water by pneumatic pressure. Ibid. 1756/2 The pneumatic dispatch-tube was started by a company in London in 1859, for conveying parcels and light goods between the Euston Square Station and the Post-Office in Evershott Street, London. a1877Knight Dict. Mech. II. 1753/1 By the pneumatic drill, the Mt. Cenis Tunnel, seven miles in length, was bored through the Alps. Ibid., Pneumatic hammer, a hammer in which compressed air is the agent for lifting the helve or the head. 1881C. A. Edwards Organs 65 The pneumatic action is an ingenious arrangement by which the bulk of the pressure is taken from the key, by means of small power-bellows. 1894W. Le Queux Gt. War in Eng. in 1897 xxxi. 253 Small dynamite shells from Mackenzie's pneumatic gun had struck the car of the balloon. 1895Syd. Soc. Lex., P[neumatic] cabinet, name for the air-tight compartment in which a patient is placed for treatment by the inhalation of compressed air...P. differentiation, term for the treatment of certain lung diseases by inhalation of air either denser or less dense than that of the surrounding atmosphere. 1898F. W. Rogers in Westm. Gaz. 13 July 3/2 The pneumatic brake will do very well for Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. 1898E. Howard To-morrow 48 Subways for sewerage and surface drainage,..pneumatic tubes for postal purposes, have come to be regarded as economic if not essential. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 802/1 Sometimes, when only a small amount of work is to be done, pneumatic tools are brought to heavy pieces of material. Ibid. 803/1 The pneumatic jack..is placed below the piece to be lifted, and operates directly. 1911Ibid. XXVII. 40/2 Pneumatic drills are usually worked by little motors having oscillating cylinders, by which the air and exhaust ports are covered and uncovered. 1927Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 1 Oct. 1151/1 (heading) A pneumatic hammer for bone surgery. Ibid., A light, compact, pneumatic hammer whose speed is controlled by a throttle..on the pistol-grip handle. 1930Daily Express 9 Sept. 8/7 The noise of pneumatic drills has..been found to annoy the patients in a London Hospital. 1947J. C. Rich Materials & Methods of Sculpture ix. 257 The vibration of a pneumatic tool, particularly after prolonged use, apparently affects the blood vessels of the hand and arm, frequently impairing the circulation and resulting in ‘white fingers’ or ‘pneumatic hammer disease’. 1962L. Zelikov tr. G. Kamenshchikov's Forging Practice viii. 192 Pneumatic hammers are mainly employed for hammer forging miscellaneous work and for forging in bolster dies. 1973‘H. Carmichael’ Candles for Dead xi. 134 Don't be quite so boisterous. Your voice has the effect of a pneumatic drill. 1978R. Jansson News Caper viii. 76 His hands were shaking as if attached to a pneumatic drill.
b. Applied to things which are inflated, or filled with compressed air, for some purpose; esp. to the tyres of the wheels of bicycles, and the like.
1862Catal. Internat. Exhib. II. xii. 22 Self-righting, indestructible pneumatic life-boat. 1890Patent Specif. No. 4206 Large rubber tyres..known commercially as (1) Pneumatic tyres, (2) Cushion tyres. 1891Bicycling News 21 Feb., Tacagni's method of holding a Pneumatic tyre between two rims is worth more attention than it at first sight deserves. 1896G. J. Jacobs Addr. Inst. Brit. Carriage Manuf., Only six months later, June 10, 1846, he [William Thomson, C.E., of Adelphi Street, Strand] patented the india-rubber pneumatic tyre on the principle of those so much in favour to-day. 1898Cycling (Ward, Lock & Co.) iv. 23 Cyclists owe much to the inventor of the pneumatic tyre.
†c. Of a musical instrument: Played by the breath or by compressed air; ‘wind-’. Obs.
1695J. Edwards Perfect. Script. 176 All other musical instruments..whether pulsative or pneumatick.
d. Belonging to or transmitted by pneumatic dispatch: see a. above.
1903Westm. Gaz. 4 Mar. 2/1 Any resident within Paris may either buy at any bureau a blue pneumatic letter-card stamped with a threepenny stamp, and generally known as a petit-bleu, or may write an ordinary letter, weighing not more than seven grammes,..writing across the top of the envelope the word ‘Pneumatic’.
e. humorous (transf. use of b). Of a woman: having a well-rounded figure, esp. a large bosom; of or pertaining to a woman having such attributes.
1919T. S. Eliot Whispers of Immortality in Poems, Grishkin is nice... Uncorseted, her friendly bust Gives promise of pneumatic bliss. 1926F. M. Ford A Man could stand Up i. i. 17 She didn't obviously offer—what was it the fellow called it?—promise of pneumatic bliss to the gentlemen. 1932A. Huxley Brave New World vi. 108 ‘Every one says I'm awfully pneumatic,’ said Lenina reflectively, patting her own legs... ‘You don't think I'm too plump, do you?’ 1951J. C. Fennessy Sonnet in Bottle i. v. 25 A pneumatic pink and yellow bathing belle. 1961A. Wilson Old Men at Zoo ii. 91 He looked at her..as though searching beneath her pneumatic form for the disguised contours of some familiar, leaner enemy. 1961P. Ustinov Loser ii. 46 He became aware of the pneumatic warmth of that thigh. 1974Publishers Weekly 21 Jan. 88/3 Sexologist Dr. Rhona Mitchell, she of the spectacularly pneumatic proportions. 1976Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Dec. 1643/2 The pneumatic barmaid at their favourite wine-bar.
2. Of, or relating or belonging to, gases. Now rare, exc. in pneumatic trough, a trough by means of which gases may be collected in jars over a surface of water or mercury. (See hydro-pneumatic.)
1793Beddoes Let. to Darwin 59 We owe to Pneumatic Chemistry the command of the elements which compose animal substances;..it is the business of Pneumatic Medicine to apply them with caution and intelligence. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. 54 Fill a bottle with hydrogen gas, and having taken it from the pneumatic tub, immediately apply to its mouth a lighted taper. 1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 489 When pneumatic medicine was at the height of its popularity, much benefit was supposed to be derived from the use of oxygen and hydrogen and dilute chlorine gases [in asthma]. 1826Henry Elem. Chem. I. 21 Place the jar, filled with water and inverted, over one of the funnels of the shelf of the pneumatic trough. 1836–41Brande Chem. (ed. 5) 63 Priestley's entire force was directed upon Pneumatic Chemistry. 1881R. Routledge Science xiv. 342 The ‘pneumatic trough’ used at the present day differs from Hales' apparatus only in having a more convenient arrangement of its parts.
3. Zool., Anat., and Phys.
a. Pertaining to breath or breathing; respiratory. rare.
1681tr. Willis's Rem. Med. Wks. Vocab., Pneumatic, windy, or belonging to wind or breath. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. xxxviii. 37 The external respiratory organs of insects... Spiracles; Respiratory plates; and branchiform and other pneumatic appendages. 1903Contemp. Rev. Jan. 43 Heart weakness, pneumatic troubles and rheumatism.
b. Containing or connected with air-cavities, as those in the bones of birds, or the swimming-bladder of some fishes.
pneumatic duct, ‘a short tube by which the air-bladder communicates with the œsophagus in physostomous fishes’ (Syd. Soc. Lex. s.v. Ductus).
1831Brewster Nat. Magic x. (1833) 259 Those beautiful pneumatic contrivances by which insects, fishes, and even some lizards are enabled to support the weight of their bodies against the force of gravity. 1854Owen Skel. & Teeth 7 A large aperture, called the ‘pneumatic foramen’, near one end of the bone, communicates with its interior. 1855Holden Hum. Osteol. (1878) 7 In the ostrich the bones are more pneumatic than in the gulls and in the smaller song-birds. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 604 The mastoid in children may be as pneumatic or diploetic as in adults.
c. Hist. Applied to a school of ancient Greek physicians (Gr. οἱ πνευµατικοί, L. Pneumatici) who held the theory of an invisible fluid or spirit (πνεῦµα) permeating all the body, and forming the vital principle on which health and strength depended. (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1895, s.v. Pneumatici.)
1842Dunglison Med. Lex., Pneumatic Physicians, name given to a sect of physicians, at the head of whom was Athenæus, who made health and disease to consist in the different proportions of an element—which they called Pneuma, πνεῦµα—to those of the other elementary principles.
4. a. Belonging or relating to spirit or spiritual existence; spiritual. (Usually with direct reference to Gr. πνευµατικός, esp, in N.T. and Christian use.)
1797Monthly Mag. III. 525/1 This animal spirit, which blessed men have called the pneumatic soul. 1811Jebb Corr. (1834) II. 50 My bodily health has..improved; my mental and pneumatic part has been..dubious. 1890J. F. Smith tr. Pfleiderer's Developm. Theol. ii. iv. 162 The God⁓man as the absolute pneumatic personality of universal spiritual power is not merely the head of men but also of angels. 1894H. B. Swete Apost. Creed ii. 28 Primitive Christianity, as he [Harnack] conceives it, had two Christologies, the one pneumatic, the other adoptionist. The former regarded the Christ as a preexistent Spirit who was made Man. 1899Stalker Christology Jesus i. 30 The Gospel of St. John—the pneumatic gospel, as it was called, or gospel of religious genius.
†b. pneumatic philosophy: = pneumatology 1. So pneumatic philosopher. Obs.
a1744Bolingbroke Ess. ii. viii. Philos. Wks. 1754 II. 79 Those..may be called..by the title..of pneumatic philosophers, since their object is spirit and spiritual substances; how ridiculous soever it be to imagine spirit less an object of natural philosophy, than body. 1745Sir J. Pringle Let. 19 Mar. in Bower Hist. Univ. Edinb. II. 294, I do hereby resign my office of Professor of ethic and pneumatic philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 329 Bolingbroke..deriding the doctrine of spiritual substance under the name of pneumatic philosophy.
5. Comb., as pneumatic-drilled a. (nonce-wd.), resembling a pneumatic drill or its action; † pneumatic-shod a., fitted with pneumatic tyres; pneumatic-tyred, (-tired) a. fitted with pneumatic tyres, as a bicycle, etc.
1947Dylan Thomas Let. 14 July (1966) 316 The pick⁓axed and *pneumatic-drilled mosquitoes in the guest's bedroom.
1909Westm. Gaz. 3 June 4/2 Although they [sc. motor-cars] are *pneumatic-shod, the tyres do not come into contact with the track. Ibid. 18 Nov. 4/2 The driving-wheels of this vehicle are fitted with Vilo wheels, in place of ordinary pneumatic-shod artillery wheels.
1895Daily News 17 Dec. 6/7 The *pneumatic-tire folk are apt to despise the poor cyclist on his wretched ‘old crock’ and to regard him as a nuisance.
1894L. Robinson Wild Traits iii. (1897) 79 A *pneumatic-tired sulky is worth several seconds in the mile to an American trotter. 1896Daily Tel. 10 Feb. 5/4 A smart pneumatic-tyred roadster. 1956Nature 4 Feb. 218/2 His research has covered..the dynamic instability of systems incorporating pneumatic-tyred wheels. 1967Gloss. Highway Engin. Terms (B.S.I.) 34 Pneumatic-tyred roller, a roller in which the compacting weight is supported on wheels fitted with pneumatic tyres. The roller may be self-propelled or towed. 1979Guardian 8 Nov. 22/2 A shunting locomotive with pneumatic-tyred wheels.
B. n.
1. = pneumatology 1 a. rare—1.
1836–7Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. (1859) I. viii. 134 note, The terms Psychology and Pneumatology, or Pneumatic, are not equivalents.
2. Name in Gnostic theology for a spiritual being of a high order.
1876tr. Hergenröther's Cath. Ch. & Chr. State II. 293 The Church had long rejected the Gnostic distinction between pneumatics and sarcics. 1882–3Schaff's Encycl. Relig. Knowl. II. 927 The Gnostics taught a transplantation of the highest order (the pneumatics) into the world of the pleroma.
3. a. A pneumatic tyre, or a cycle having such tyres.
1890Willoughby & Lynde Specif. Patent, The advantages of the pneumatic are as follows. 1891Bicycling News 21 Feb., Riders of solid-tyred machines, when changing to Pneumatics. 1901Westm. Gaz. 24 June 10/2 Breakdowns [of motor-cars] are reported in scores; punctured pneumatics and broken wheels without number.
b. A pneumatic bellows, tube, or other part of the pneumatic action in an organ.
1890in Cent. Dict. |