| 释义 |
asbestos|æzˈbɛstəs, -ɒs|
Forms: α. 4–8 asbeston, abeston, 4–5 abiston, 4–7 albeston(e; β. 6 absistos, 7 asphestus, 7–9 asbestos, asbestus; γ. 8 abestos, -istos; δ. 7 abbest, 7– asbest.
[The mod. form is a. L. asbestos (mod.L. asbestus), a. Gr. ἄσβεστος, prop. adj. ‘inextinguishable, unquenchable,’ f. ἀ not + σβεστ-ός, f. σβεν-νύ-ναι to quench. OF. had also, adopted from L., asbestos, later abestos, whence an Eng. form abestos; but the common OF. form was a. L. acc. asbeston, phonetically changed to abeston, and (by confusion with albus white) albeston; hence the earlier Eng. forms asbeston, abeston, abiston, albeston, and (by assimilation to stone) albestone. Mod.Fr. is asbeste, formerly also abeste, whence Eng. abest, abbest, asbest. The current form is asbestos; asˈbest, ˈasbest remain in poetry.
As a n. asbestos was applied by Dioscorides to quicklime (‘unslaked’). Erroneously applied by Pliny to an incombustible fibre, which he believed to be vegetable, but which was really the amiantos of the Greeks. Since the identification of this, asbestos has been a more popular synonymn for amiantus or amiant.]
†1. ‘The unquenchable stone’; a fabulous stone, the heat of which, when once kindled, was alleged to be unquenchable. (A distorted reference to the phenomena observed in pouring cold water on quick lime.) Obs.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls Ser.) 187 Asbeston þat wil neuere quenche, be it ones i-tend. 1398― Barth. De P.R. xvi. xi. (1495) 558 Of albestone..was made a candyll sticke on whiche was a lantern so brennynge that it myght not be quenched wyth tempeste nother with reyne. 1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 2 Albeston is a stone of Archadie. Ibid. 2 b, The precious stone Absistos..being once heate, keepeth hote seauen whole dayes. 1610J. Guillim Heraldry iv. ix. (1660) 307 A certain Kind of Stone that is found in Arcadia..called Asphestus. 1627H. Burton Bait. Pope's Bull 63 The stone Asbestos..once inflamed, cannot be quenched againe. 1750Leonardus's Mirr. Stones 70 Abeston or Abestus..from its being inextinguishable.
†2. An alleged kind of incombustible flax. Obs.
(An erroneous notion of the mineral substance in 3.)
a1661B. Holyday Juvenal 207 A sheet made of a kind of flax, call'd asbestinum, and asbeston..of that nature, that it is not consum'd, but only cleans'd, by the fire. 1734tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist., Pliny gives the first place to the asbeston, the incombustible flax.
3. A mineral of fibrous texture, capable of being woven into an incombustible fabric; amiant or amiantus. In Min. applied more widely than Amiantus, to all fibrous varieties of Hornblende or Amphibole, and of Pyroxene; Amiantus being specifically the finest Hornblende Asbestos, distinguished by its long silky fibres, usually pearly white.
1607Topsell Serpents 749 This kinde of web rather cometh of a kinde of flax that Pliny writeth of, or rather of the Amiantus-stone, called the Asbest, which..being cast into a fire, seems to be forthwith all in a flame, but being taken out again, it shineth the more gloriously. 1609Heywood Bryt. Troy i. lxviii, An abbest stone into the bole was brayed. 1667Phil. Trans. II. 486 Of Asbestus, that can be drawn and spun. 1783Wedgewood ibid. LXXIII. 286 Filaments..of asbestos, which suffer no change in a moderate red heat. c1815Southey Yng. Dragon i. Wks. VI. 263 With amianth he lined the nest, And incombustible asbest. 1878T. Bryant Pract. Surg. I. 130 Nitric acid applied on lint or asbestos. 1879Rutley Stud. Rocks x. 131 Asbestus or amianthus is a fibrous variety of pyroxene, occurring in white silky fibres.
4. fig.
1831Carlyle Misc. (1857) II. 337 Woe to him whose Edifice is not built of true Asbest. 1835Greswell Exp. Parables V. ii. 414 Religion's holy lamp: Unspent to burn, with sacred asbest fed.
5. attrib. (lit. and fig.) and Comb.: asbestos cement, a mixture of asbestos and cement moulded into sheets, pipes, etc., and used as a building and insulating material; asbestos cloth, a cloth woven from asbestos fibres; asbestos curtain, (in a theatre) a safety curtain made of asbestos and other fire-proof material.
1599Greene Alphonsus (1861) 232 My mind is like to the asbeston-stone. 1762G. Gordon Let. 21 June in N. & Q. (1906) 10th Ser. V. 208/1 Manner of making asbestos paper. c1795Southey Love Eleg. ii. Wks. II. 123 Fly, Salamanders, on Asbestos' wings, To wanton in my Delia's fiery glance. 1857R. Hunt Guide Mus. Pract. Geol. 242 Asbestus [ed. 2, 1859, asbestos] cloth..may be exposed to the fire without being consumed. 1861Sala Tw. round Clock 83 Asbestos stoves, gas cooking ranges. 1890R. H. Jones Asbestos viii. 140 Asbestos cement is also very largely used for covering boilers, steam-pipes, hot-blast furnaces, and stills. Ibid. ix. 153 M. Henry Irving..laid special stress on the necessity of shutting off the stage from the auditorium by means of an asbestos curtain. 1920Blackw. Mag. Mar. 336/2 The great asbestos-lagged exhaust from the oil-engines. 1933Archit. Rev. LXXIV. facing p. 47 (caption) The variety of colour in the different plywood, plaster board and asbestos cement coverings placed on the steel pavilions. 1944Coast to Coast 1943 165 The walls were asbestos-lined. 1964N. Freeling Double-Barrel iii. 99 She..moved the asbestos mats..and clanked the lid back on the pot. |