| 释义 |
▪ I. † popuˈlation1 Obs.
[ad. L. populātiōn-em devastation, n. of action from populārī, -āre: see populate v.1]
Devastation, laying waste.
1552Huloet, Foraging, population, or wastinge of a countrey, populatio. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. (1807) II. 82 The effusion of innocent bloud, the population of countries, the ruinating of ample regions. 1600W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 75 Population, ruine, and destruction of their natiue country and commonwealth. 1656Blount Glossogr., Population (populatio), a wasting, destroying, robbing, and spoiling of people. 1658in Phillips.
▪ II. population2|pɒpjʊˈleɪʃən|
[ad. late L. populātiōn-em (Sedulius c 470) population, multitude, having the form of a n. of action f. populāre to people (see populate v.2). So F. population (1335 in Godef. Compl.) peopling, population.]
†1. concr. A peopled or inhabited place. Obs.
1578T. N. tr. Conq. W. India 130 They received their advise that neere at hand were great populations, and soone after he came to Zimpanzinco. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 479 It hath in it, by estimation, threescore thousand Populations, or inhabited places.
2. a. ‘The state of a country with respect to numbers of people’ (J.); the degree in which a place is populated or inhabited; hence, the total number of persons inhabiting a country, town, or other area; the body of inhabitants.
1612Bacon Ess., Greatness Kingd. (Arb.) 476 Not the hundreth pole will be fit for a helmet, and so great population and little strength. 1625Ibid., Seditions & Troubles 405 It is to be foreseene, that the Population of a Kingdome, (especially if it be not mowen downe by warrs) doe not exceed, the Stock of the Kingdome, which should maintaine them. 1770Goldsm. Des. Vill. 125 But now the sounds of population fail. 1798Malthus Popul. i. i. 14 Population..increases in a geometrical ratio, subsistence in an arithmetical ratio. 1803Ibid. i. vii. 100 The population of the tribe is measured by the population of its herds. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 48 The formidable state..in which the population should consist chiefly of soldiers and peasantry. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 281 The population of England in 1685 cannot be ascertained with perfect accuracy. 1868Rogers Pol. Econ. xii. (1876) 156 To make increased population the cause of improved agriculture, is to commit the absurd blunder of confounding cause and effect.
†b. (See quot.) Obs.
1817Cobbett Taking Leave 7 We now frequently hear the working classes called ‘the population’, just as we call the animals upon a farm ‘the stock’.
c. transf. Of animals, plants, and of other entities.
1803[see 2]. 1885J. Ball in Jrnl. Linn. Soc. XXI. 207 A gradual increase in the vegetable population would come about. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 76 Its resident population consists of sharks, whose annual toll of human life is said by some authorities to be fourteen. 1956A. H. Compton Atomic Quest ii. 89 If the neutron population is increasing generation after generation, the reaction grows in intensity. 1968Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 244/1 Much study has therefore gone into the effect of radiation on proliferating cell populations in various environments.
d. Statistics. A totality of objects or individuals under consideration, of which the statistical attributes may be estimated by the study of a sample or samples drawn from it.
1877F. Galton in Nature 12 Apr. 513/2 The number of pellets in each compartment represents the relative number in a population of seeds, whose weight deviates from the average, within the limits expressed by the distances of the sides of that compartment from the middle point. 1903Biometrika II. 273 If the whole of a population were taken we should have certain values for its statistical constants, but in actual practice we are only able to take a sample, which should if possible be a random sample. 1922Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. CCXXII. 329 It is unfortunate that in this memoir no sufficient distinction is drawn between the population and the sample. 1939D. D. Paterson Statistical Technique in Agric. Res. i. 1 The sum total of all the units of any one kind is called, in statistical terminology, the population. 1970Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. LXXXIII. 14 The experimenter notes that Ss used in this study had experienced only a brief period of hospitalization... Consequently, he cautions against the generalization of his findings to other neurotic and schizophrenic populations. 1977Accountants Weekly 29 July 17/1 The tests built into the program ensured that sample data extracted for audit checks came from a complete population, a fundamental requirement in auditing.
e. Genetics. A breeding group of animals, plants, or humans; population biology, genetics, the branches of biology and genetics which treat such groups statistically. So population biologist, population geneticist.
1889F. Galton Nat. Inheritance iv. 35 The science of heredity is concerned with Fraternities and large Populations rather than with individuals, and must treat them as units. 1949C. Stern Princ. Human Genetics x. 168 Both fields, population genetics and pedigree genetics, are significant and both rest on the Mendelian analysis of inheritance. Ibid. 594 The genic constitution of the later populations will obviously depend on the genotypes of their second-generation ancestors. 1960Biol. Abstr. XXXV. 1729/1 (heading) Data on ecology and population biology of mosquitoes. 1966MacArthur & Connell Biol. of Populations p. x, Experiments performed by population biologists indicate another difference between population biology and other branches of science. 1966R. Ardrey Territorial Imperative iv. 138 A population, in biology, is a reproductive community. More sharply stated, it is any group of individuals who have a modest probability, within any generation, of meeting and mating. 1968R. C. Lewontin Population Biol. & Evolution 2 It is a problem of population biology to discover under what circumstances a one-to-one sex ratio is evolved. 1972Sci. Amer. Jan. 100/3 He maintained four populations of Drosophila in the laboratory over a 48-month period. 1973Listener 28 June 850/2 He [sc. A. Jensen] now knows a good deal more about population genetics than he did..in 1968. 1977Nature 6 Jan. 26/2 The basic interests of the population geneticist of course lie in the realm of population dynamics, and the knowledge of allele frequencies is an essential prerequisite to further work. 1979Ibid. 9 Aug. 455 (heading) Population biology of infectious diseases.
f. Physics. The (number of) atoms or subatomic particles that occupy any particular energy state.
1931Physical Rev. XXXVII. 143 (caption) Illustrating the relation between spectral intensity distribution in the Compton line (left) and population of electron speed states (right). 1938R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) viii. 88 The resulting gap in the atom, due to the incomplete population of the K-shell, may now be filled by the transition of an electron from the L-level into the K-level. 1961[see inversion 2 l]. 1971Sci. Amer. June 22/1 By elevating more atoms to an upper energy level than exist at a lower level the absorption of excitation radiation produces an ‘inverted’ atomic population in the laser.
g. Astr. Either of the two groups into which stars can be approximately divided: those of population I are formed from the debris of other stars, those of population II are coeval with their galaxy.
[1944W. Baade in Astrophysical Jrnl. C. 137 The stellar populations of the galaxies fall into two distinct groups, one represented by the..stars in our solar neighborhood (the slow-moving stars), the other by that of the globular clusters. Characteristic of the first group (type I) are highly luminous O- and B-type stars and open clusters; of the second (type II), short-period Cepheids and globular clusters.] 1951Astrophysical Jrnl. CXIII. 413 Highly luminous stars of population I. 1952C. Payne-Gaposchkin Stars in Making iv. 74 The names ‘Populations I and II’ were originally given by Baade to the two groups of stars. As we shall see, they probably represent extremes rather than an absolute distinction. 1974F. W. Cole Fund. Astron. xiii. 344/1 Two very different populations of stars can be recognized: population I consisting of the normal, metal-rich stars found in spiral arms of galaxies; and population II, the metal-poor stars found in globular clusters, as isolated stars in the galactic halo, and in the central galactic nucleus.
h. The general body of inmates in a prison, rehabilitation centre, etc. (see quot. 1950). Freq. in phr. in population.
1950H. E. Goldin Dict. Amer. Underworld Lingo 162/2 Population,..the general body of inmates as differentiated from convicts in trusty jobs, hospital patients, and occupants of punishment or psychopathic observation wings. 1953W. Burroughs Junkie viii. 79 After eight days, you get a sendoff shot and go over in ‘population’... You are allowed seven days to rest in population after medication stops. 1956J. Resko Reprieve (1959) iii. xvi. 135 Our friends out in population took care of us. 1971Black Scholar June 54/1 The officials told me that I would never be returned to the general population (Auburn) and advised me to put in for transfer to another institution. 1973Philadelphia Inquirer (Today Suppl.) 7 Oct. 50/3 Sprague tried to block Soleni's move into general population. 1977New Yorker 24 Oct. 68/2 Collectively, the inmates are referred to as ‘population’.
3. The action or process of peopling a place or region; increase of people.
1776Declar. Indep. Amer. in Gentl. Mag. XLVI. 361/2 He [the king] has endeavoured to prevent the population of these states. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 563 The population of the province was extremely rapid. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 72 Population is stimulated, and cities rise. 1869Freeman Norm. Conq. III. xii. 232 [Polygamy]..could..be hardly looked on as on the whole conducive to population.
4. attrib. and Comb. (chiefly from 2), as population basis, population census, population control, population cycle, population distribution, population drift, population growth, population increase, population-monger, population planning, population policy, population pressure, population question, population return, population survey, population theory, population trend; population biology: see sense 2 e above; population curve, a graph showing the variation of population with time; population explosion, a rapid or sudden marked increase in the size of a population; hence population-explosive adj.; population genetics: see sense 2 e above; population inversion: see inversion 2 l; population pyramid, a roughly triangular figure on a level base, the width of which at any height is proportional to the numbers having an age proportional to that height.
1903Westm. Gaz. 31 Oct. 10/2 Australia,..on a population basis, is undoubtedly one of the largest consumers of books in the world.
1968Internat. Encycl. Social Sci. XII. 369/1 In most advanced countries illiteracy has been almost eliminated, and therefore questions on literacy are no longer included in population censuses.
1931J. S. Huxley What dare I Think? v. 166 Might it not have been better to have left the death side of nature's population-control to itself until we have some future policy for dealing simultaneously with birth? 1959New Statesman 21 Mar. 401/1 Countries like India and Japan have made population-control a central feature in national policy, because they know that without it they are headed for disaster. 1973J. M. White Garden Game 117 War is becoming a necessary instrument of population-control.
1889F. Galton Nat. Inheritance 245 The population curve will..be a straight line. 1935Proc. Prehist. Soc. I. 11 Advances of critical importance to humanity should be followed by such a multiplication as to be conspicuously reflected in the population curve. 1968N.Y. City (Michelin Tire Corp.) 139 Long Island... The population curve is constantly rising. 1969N. W. Pirie Food Resources ii. 70 A few plant and animal species..go through fairly regular population cycles.
1968R. A. Lyttleton Mysteries Solar Syst. vi. 185 The density of finds does show some relation to the population-distribution. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XVII. 67/2 The pattern of population distribution and density closely follows that of the rainfall pattern.
1964Ann. Reg. 1963 22 The Minister of Housing and Local Government..was wrestling with the problems of population drift, regional planning, and slum clearance. 1977Modern Railways Dec. 480/1 Population drift from the London area to central and north-east Essex necessitated a fundamental restructure of Great Eastern line services.
1953Population Bull. Oct. 65 (heading) Latin America: area of population explosion. 1953[see explosion 4 b]. 1964‘J. Melville’ Murderers' Houses vii. 116 Emily knew all about the Bomb and the Pill and could advocate one remedy for the declining Middle Classes and another for the Population Explosion. 1970Oxf. Univ. Gaz. C. Suppl. vi. 5 A kind of documentary population-explosion, in fact. 1970Daily Tel. 18 July 11/7 Population explosions in summer may result in up to 10 million aphides taking to the air each day from an acre. 1974Times 21 Jan. 6 (heading) Leading the fight to head off the population explosion.
1967Punch 3 May 637/3 This two-way flow, once started, would never stop; no government, much less any shipping company, could ever stop such a flow, population-explosive, travel-agency-prodded and democratic.
1927J. S. Huxley Relig. without Revelation ix. 325 The study of heredity and population-growth. 1970G. Germani in I. L. Horowitz Masses in Lat. Amer. viii. 295 With regard to the other Latin American states, it is clear that immigration made a crucial contribution to population growth. 1978R. Mitchison Life in Scotland vi. 108 Industrialization..was..the ‘answer’ to that population growth.
1931J. S. Huxley What dare I Think? iv. 135 Population-increase cannot go on indefinitely. 1959New Statesman 21 Mar. 401/1 In under-developed countries, excessive population-increase reduces the possibility of an economic break-through.
1826in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) II. 239 The Scotch population-mongers, and Malthus and his crew.
1974Times 21 Jan. 6/2 The idea of population planning antagonized many countries.
1944J. S. Huxley On living in Revolution xii. 131 It is very important that there should be a well-thought-out population policy for backward areas. 1974Times 21 Jan. 6/5 Opposition to..population policies is led by countries with..large natural resources.
1931J. S. Huxley What dare I Think? v. 165 Causing more babies to live and so creating greater population-pressure. 1969Times 26 June 14/7 The migrations..could be a means of relieving the population pressure in a particular area.
1950Chambers's Encycl. XI. 93/2 The age distribution in populations of plaice and other fish has been examined; and attempts have been made to study honey-bee colonies and wireworm populations from this point of view. All show, under natural conditions, the expected ‘population pyramid’, formed by large numbers of young individuals and gradually decreasing numbers of individuals of the higher age-groups. 1976Nature 1 July 19/1 As a result of their high crude birth rate..the population pyramid has a relatively broad base; 51·8% are less than 20 yr old and 28·7% are less than 10 yr old.
1885Encycl. Brit. XIX. 517/2 We cannot here deal with what is known as the ‘population question’... The ‘population question’ is a question of conduct. 1911G. B. Shaw Getting Married 116 St. Paul's reluctant sanction of marriage;..his contemptuous ‘better to marry than to burn’ is only out of date in respect of his belief that the end of the world was at hand and that there was therefore no longer any population question.
1845Disraeli Sybil ii. xvi, The Population Returns of this country are very instructive reading.
1953Population survey [see attractant]. 1966Economist 17 Dec. 1253/3 Except in the matter of population theory, where he anticipated and influenced Malthus, Steuart had little or no effect on later economic thought in Britain.
1933Thompson & Whelpton (title) Population trends in the United States. 1950Theimer & Campbell Encycl. World Politics 347/1 In the U.S.S.R., Eastern Europe and Latin America population trends are like those of the West in the later nineteenth century. 1976J. S. Moore Goods & Chattels of our Forefathers 9 The main population-trends can already be seen from a study of the data contained in the numerous ecclesiastical and private censuses taken in Gloucestershire in the early modern period.
Hence popuˈlational a., of, pertaining to, or based on population; popuˈlationist, one who holds a theory about population, esp. a Malthusian; also, one who considers the population to be a significant element in a state's power; popuˈlationless a., without population, uninhabited.
1893Nation (N.Y.) 21 Sept. 213/3 Cities..ranged according to their populational rank. 1865–77H. Taylor Autobiog. (1885) I. 92 It is not long since I heard a Populationist vehemently reproach a poor but very respectable married gentleman for the sin of having nine children. 1949K. Davis Human Society 552 If the populationist stopped here, however, his work would have little to do with social science. 1968Internat. Encycl. Social Sci. XII. 350/2 In Germany, Hermann Conring also attributed the power of states mainly to population. In England..another confirmed populationist was William Petty, who founded the science of ‘political arithmetic’, or demography. 1885Hare Stud. Russia ii. 76 Endless are the open spaces..almost populationless. |