| 释义 |
polarity|pəʊˈlærɪtɪ|
[f. polar a. + -ity: cf. F. polarité (1806 in Hatz.-Darm., 1835 in Dict. Acad.) A form tried earlier was polity2.]
1. Magnetism. The quality or property possessed by certain bodies, as a lodestone or magnetized bar, of turning (when free to move) so as to point with their two extremities to the two (magnetic) poles of the earth; the quality of being polar, or possessing magnetic poles.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. ii. 59 This polarity from refrigeration upon extremity and in defect of a Loadstone might serve to invigorate and touch a needle anywhere. 1664Power Exp. Philos. iii. 157 You may change the Polarity of many feeble Stones, by a long Position, in a contrary posture to that which it naturally affects. a1691Boyle Hist. Air (1692) 64 One of their compasses which had quite changed the polarity, from north to south, is still extant in that country. 1751Franklin in Phil. Trans. XLVII. 289 By electricity we have here frequently given polarity to needles. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 176 If the bar be inverted, the polarity will be instantly reversed; so that in all cases the lower extremity is, in this hemisphere, the north pole: but on the south side of the equator, the lower extremity is always the south pole. 1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 166 An invention..securing a more accurate polarity to the mariner's compass. c1865J. Wylde in Circ. Sc. I. 81/1 Magnetic polarity, or that power by which a magnetised needle arranges itself in reference to the magnetic poles of the earth.
2. Hence in generalized sense: A property of matter or force, analogous or compared to that of a magnet or magnetism.
a. The having of an axis with reference to which certain physical properties are determined; the disposition of a body or an elementary molecule to place its mathematical axis in a particular direction.
1674Petty Disc. Dupl. Proportion 128 All Atoms by their Motion of Verticity or Polarity, would draw themselves, like Magnets, into a streight Line, by setting all their Axes in directum to each other. 1827Arnott Physics 33 When atoms are allowed to cohere according to their natural tendencies, they always assume a certain regular arrangement and form, which we call crystalline. Because in this circumstance they seem to resemble magnets, which attract each other only by their poles; the fact has been called the polarity of atoms. 1854Pereira's Polarized Light (ed. 2) 184 In crystals it is necessary to admit, besides ordinary attraction and repulsion, a third molecular force called polarity. Ibid., A molecule endowed with unequal attractive forces in different directions may be said to be possessed of polarity.
b. The quality of exhibiting opposite or contrasted properties or powers in opposite or contrasted directions; the possession of two points called poles having contrary qualities or tendencies.
1818Coleridge Method in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) I. Introd. 12 Contemplating in all Electrical phenomena the operation of a Law which reigns through all Nature, viz. the law of polarity, or the manifestation of one power by opposite forces. 1840Whewell Philos. Induct. Sc. I. v. i. 337 The general notion of polarity—opposite properties in opposite directions. 1841–4Emerson Ess. Ser. i. iii. (1876) 81 Polarity, or action and reaction, we meet in every part of nature. 1866Duke of Argyll Reign Law v. (ed. 4) 257 One of whose essential properties is Polarity,—that is, equal and similar action in opposite directions. 1870Tyndall Lect. Electr. 7 Two opposite kinds of magnetism may be supposed to be concentrated at the two ends. In this doubleness of the magnetic force consists what is called magnetic polarity.
c. Tendency to develop in two opposite directions in space, time, serial arrangement, etc.
1848Lindley Introd. Bot. (ed. 4) I. 165 This disposition to develope in two diametrically opposite directions, sometimes called polarity, is found in all embryos. 1853E. Forbes Addr. Geol. Soc. in Wilson & Geikie Mem. xv. (1861) 544 We speak of two [organic] groups [e.g. animals and vegetables] being in the relation of polarity to each other when the rudimentary forms of each are proximate, and their completer manifestations far apart. 1856Woodward Mollusca iii. 418 This group shows a tendency to ‘polarity’, or excessive development at the ends of the series.
d. uterine polarity: see quot.
1881Trans. Obstetric Soc. Lond. XXII. 47 The conditions of ‘uterine polarity’ enunciated by Reil at the beginning of this century. This ‘uterine polarity’ is exemplified by the antagonism which exists between the two poles of the uterus, contraction of one being accompanied by dilatation of the other. 1895Syd. Soc. Lex., Polarity..applied metaphorically, e.g. to the uterus, in reference to the fact that as the fundus contracts the cervix tends to relax and vice versâ.
e. Biol. The tendency of living matter to assume a specific form; the property observed in animals from which parts have been severed, and in severed parts of animals and plants, of regenerating the missing parts.
1864G. J. Allman in Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1863 392 The lower segment, on the other hand, instead of pushing forth from the cut extremity a simple continuation of the coenosarc, developes from this extremity a polypite. There is thus manifested in the formative force of the Tubularia-stem a well-marked polarity, which is rendered very apparent if a segment be cut out from the centre of the stem. 1864H. Spencer Princ. Biol. I. ii. iv. 181 The vitalized molecules composing the tissues, show their proclivity towards a particular arrangement... For this property there is no fit term. If we accept the word polarity, as a name for the force by which inorganic units are aggregated into a form peculiar to them; we may apply this word to the analogous force displayed by organic units. 1895Jrnl. Morphol. X. 322 If we assume the polarity of the egg to be pre-determined from the beginning, we must admit that the polarity determines the position of the segmentation-nucleus. 1924E. G. Conklin in E. V. Cowdry Gen. Cytol. ix. 558 The polarity of the egg is the earliest recognizable and most fundamental differentiation of morphogenesis. 1926J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. xviii. 251 When small pieces of a planarian regenerate, they exhibit what we may call polarity; for (with a few special exceptions) the new head is formed from that region of the piece which was nearest to the old head, the new tail from that region which was nearest to the old tail. 1975R. L. Peterson in Torrey & Clarkson Devel. & Function of Roots vii. 146 The inherent polarity in most root segments, which manifests itself by the regeneration of buds at the proximal end and roots at the distal end, may be due to the polar distribution of more than one endogenous hormone.
3. Electr. The relation of a body to the poles or electrodes of an electric circuit; the electrical condition of a body as positive or negative.
1849Noad Electricity (ed. 3) 353 That side of the spiral which is towards the north, acts as the north pole; and the south side has an opposite polarity. Each side powerfully attracts iron filings. 1872C. B. Fox Ozone 10 One of the Peroxides is in an opposite condition of polarity to that in the other. 1879Du Moncel Telephone 16 The adjacent poles of the two rods are of opposite polarity. 1887Gumming Electr. treated Experimentally 289 Its change of polarity at each half rotation keeps up a constant rotation.
4. Optics. The quality of light which admits of its polarization; hence, the condition of being polarized. (An inaccurate use.)[1812Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. 53 The important discoveries..of a property analogous to polarity in light.] 1861Herschel in G. F. Chambers Astron. (1876) 319 The light reflected from which [cloud]..exhibits no signs of polarity. [1866― Fam. Lect. Sci. Subj. viii. 347 It would seem almost as if light consisted of particles having polarity, like magnets.] 5. fig.
a. (from 1.) Direction (of thought, feeling, or inclination) towards a single point; tendency or trend in a particular direction; ‘magnetic attraction’ towards a particular object.
1767Chesterfield Lett. (1792) IV. 249, I find you are in motion and with a Polarity to Dresden. 1800Hist. Eur. in Ann Reg. 61/2 Launching forth on the ocean of possibility..conducted, not merely by shores and landmarks, but chiefly by the polarity of reasons. 1834H. Rogers in J. Edwards' Wks. I. p. lii, This polarity of mind, this intellectual magnetism towards universal truth, has always been a characteristic of the greatest minds. 1862Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. xii. 226 One great change..affected the polarity of the whole political and geographical organisation of the country. 1878Emerson Sov. Ethics Wks. (Bohn) III. 381 Now men fall abroad—want polarity—suffer in character and intellect.
b. (from 2 b.) Possession or exhibition of two opposite or contrasted aspects, principles, or tendencies.
1862Q. Rev. Apr. 442 The whole system of the Church of England..has, like all Truth, two faces: one silver, the other gold. Every part of it has a double polarity. 1870Emerson Soc. & Solit. iv. 80 Wherever the polarities meet, wherever..the instinct of freedom and duty come[s] in direct opposition to fossil conservatism and the thirst of gain. 1888R. Burn Rom. Lit. & Art 43 The Roman women, with that curious polarity which often sets the fashion in exactly the opposite direction to what would be expected, held that a narrow forehead with the hair drawn down over it was pretty and attractive. 1934C. Hartshorne Philos. & Psychol. of Sensation iv. 134 Feeling involves an ‘opposition’ of positive and negative, liking and disliking. Does sensation exhibit a similar polarity?.. It is, as we have seen, precisely in terms of polarities that the facts of sensation are to be described. 1945Downside Rev. 131 Be it remarked in passing that the relation between God and the world is not here conceived as one of polarity. 1950D. Riesman Lonely Crowd (1952) i. 20 To what extent, in establishing America's polarity from Europe, he [sc. de Tocqueville] tendentiously noticed those things that were different rather than those that were the same. 1957New Statesman 2 Nov. 555/3 We must ask ourselves what we can do to break this polarity [between the U.S. and Russia]. 1963Times Lit. Suppl. 26 Apr. 306/5 Polarity, or the use of contrast as an artistic means. 1970B. M. H. Strang Hist. Eng. 134 The polarity mental/physical. Ibid. 237 It [sc. Northern English] thus heightened the polarity of tense-contrast, which in strong verbs was far less clear-cut in the south. 1972Encycl. Psychol. III. 19/2 Polarity, a relationship between features or traits which are antithetical pairs. 1972R. Plant in Cox & Dyson 20th-Cent. Mind III. iii. 69 The wholly necessary or the wholly contingent, the two polarities of empiricist epistemology.
c. (from 3.) Condition of consciousness as subjective or objective.
1846Trench Mirac. v. (1862) 174 That quick shifting, so to speak, of the polarity, so that at one moment the human consciousness became the positive, at another the negative pole.
▸ attrib. in Alternative Med. Designating any of various treatments intended to restore a balanced distribution of the body's energy, typically involving manipulation, exercise, and dietary restrictions; freq. in polarity therapy.
[1953R. Stone Course Manipulative Therapy 4 The three Gunas as [read are] the three universal principles of motion everywhere; positive, Raja; and negative, Tamas; spinning around a neuter center, Satva. These become the polarity principle in the human body. ] [1953R. Stone Course Manipulative Therapy 4 A very light touch thru polarity of the fingers to polarity centers of the body is used.] 1964R. Stone (title) Polarity therapy principles and practice. 1977C. McFadden Serial (1978) xviii. 42/1 Currently she was commuting to Berkeley twice a week for ‘polarity balancing manipulation’. 1988Independent 22 Aug. 3/6 Mervin offers everything from acupuncture..through to..polarity healing (the use of magnets). 1991Health & Fitness Jan. 95 (advt.) Courses in holistic massage, polarity massage, self awareness. 2000Yoga May 45/4 (advt.) Introductory workshops covering bodywork, awareness skills, polarity yoga and nutritional principles. |