| 释义 |
† porphyˈrogenite Obs.
exc. in L. form porphyroˈgenitus, fem. -a. Also 7 -genete.
[ad. med.L. porphyrogenitus, ad. late Gr. πορϕυρογέννητος, f. Gr. πορϕυρο-, comb. form of πόρϕυρος purple + γεννητός born. So F. porphyrogénète (Balzac 1635).]
Originally, one born of the imperial family at Constantinople, and (as is said) in a chamber called the Porphyra (πορϕύρα). Hence, a child born after his father's accession to the throne; and in more general or vague sense, = One ‘born in the purple’: see purple n.
The actual origin of the name Porphyra is disputed.
1614Selden Titles Hon. 82 There he found Irene the Empresse,..in a house anciently appointed for the Empresses childbirth... They call that house, Porphyra, whence the name of the Porphyrogeniti came into the world. 1619Purchas Microcosmus lxxxi. 788 Not in a Palace prepared, (as the Porphyrogeniti had in Constantinople)..but in an Inne! a1662Heylin Laud (1668) 145 Purple is the Imperial and Regal colour, so proper therefore unto Kings and Emperours, that many of the Constantinopolitan Emperours were called Porphyrogenites, because at their first coming into the world they were wrapt in Purple. 1727–41Chambers Cycl., Porphyrogenitus, in antiquity, an appellation given to the children of the eastern emperors... Cedrenus will have the word to signify, born in the purple palace, or the palace of porphyry, a palace so called in Constantinople; wherein the empresses used to lie in. Others derive the appellation hence, that the imperial children, as soon as born, were wrapped in purple; others.., that the chamber wherein they were born was hung with purple hangings. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. (1790) IX. xlviii. 57 In the Greek language purple and porphyry are the same word:..an apartment of the Byzantine palace was lined with porphyry: it was reserved for the use of the pregnant empresses: and the royal birth of their children was expressed by the appellation of porphyrogenite, or born in the purple... This peculiar surname was first applied to Constantine the seventh. 1831Scott Ct. Rob. iii, Anna Comnena..an imperial Princess, porphyrogenita, or born in the sacred purple chamber. 1857Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. II. iii. 210 Henry, the Porphyrogenitus, though a younger son relatively to Otho, was the eldest son of royal blood, first born after the accession of Duke Henry to the Throne of Charlemagne. 1893Athenæum 11 Feb. 184/2 The kind of fun which is to be got out of bringing the porphyrogenitus of the English aristocracy face to face with all that is most modern in the American democracy.
Hence porphyroˈgenitism, the doctrine of succession in a royal family which prefers a son born after his father's accession to one born before that event; porphyroˈgeniture, the condition of being born ‘in the purple’ (see above).
1857Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. II. 210 The doctrine of Porphyrogenitism, congenial to popular sentiment and not without some foundation in principle, prevailed influentially and widely in many countries and through many ages. a1859De Quincey Posth. Wks. (1891) I. 59 This brought him within the description of porphyrogeniture, or royal birth. |