| 释义 |
poignancy|ˈpɔɪnənsɪ, ˈpɔɪɲənsɪ|
[f. poignant: see -ancy.]
The quality or fact of being poignant.
1. Pungency of taste or smell. Also fig.
1730Swift Let. to Gay 19 Nov., I..sat down quietly at my morsel, adding only..a principle of hatred to all succeeding measures..by way of sauce..; and..one point of conduct in my lady duchess's life has added much poignancy to it. 1786tr. Beckford's Vathek (1868) 50 Aromatic herbs of the most acrid poignancy. 1814Scott Chivalry (1874) 11 Sated with indulgencies which soon lose their poignancy.
2. Keenness or sharpness of pain, distress, or grief; also, of pleasure (cf. next, 3 b).
17..J. Ryland in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. lxxvii. 6 Sometimes this reflection..adds a poignancy to our distress. 1787J. Barlow Oration 4th July 15 The tidings [were] received with a peculiar poignancy of grief. 1885Manch. Exam. 15 June 5/4 The remembrance..gives our regrets a poignancy due to something like personal gratitude.
3. Piercing quality of words, expressions, looks, etc.; sharpness, keenness; piquancy.
a1688Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Militant Couple Wks. (1775) 125 Those words..have lost all the poignancy of their signification. 1719J. Welwood in Rowe's Lucan Pref. 36 The first [Virgil] surpasses all in solid strength; the latter [Lucan] excells in vigour and poynancy. 1838Thirlwall Greece III. xviii. 83 Feelings..deeply stung by the poignancy of their wit. 1934M. Bodkin Archetypal Patterns in Poetry 310 In each poem the lovely image gains poignancy from its imagined background of frustration and pain. |