| 释义 |
‖ protasis|ˈprɒtəsɪs|
[Late L., a. Gr. πρότασις a stretching forward, a proposition, (major) premiss, a hypothetical clause, a problem, the first part of a play, f. πρό, pro-2 + τάσις, n. of action f. τείνειν to stretch.]
1. That which is put forward; a proposition, a maxim. rare.
1656Blount Glossogr., Protasis, a Proposition or Declaration. 1755in Johnson. 1806Monthly Mag. XXII. 210 It is a universally received protasis among grammarians that the first terms of every language were nouns, which were turned into verbs by putting them in action.
2. In the ancient drama, The first part of a play, in which the characters are introduced and the subject entered on, as opposed to the epitasis and catastrophe. Also fig.
a1568R. Ascham Scholemaster (1570) 57 He began the Protasis with Trochaijs Octonarijs. 1616R. C. Times' Whistle, etc. (1871) 111 Thou shalt be both the protasis & catastrophe of my epistle. 1632B. Jonson Magn. Lady i. i, Do you look, master Damplay, for conclusions in a protasis? I thought the law of comedy had reserved [them] to the catastrophe. 1713Swift Frenzy J. Dennis Wks. 1755 III. i. 143, I am sick..of the diction, of the protasis, of the epitasis, and the catastrophe.—Alas, what is become of the drama? 1815Mr. Decastro I. 259 Thus far by way of protasis to the matter..the epitasis whereof..comes next. 1961Listener 5 Oct. 527/2 For a good deal of his new novel one might as well be reading the protasis of a fair-to-middling detective story.
3. Gram. and Rhet. The first or introductory clause in a sentence, esp. the clause which expresses the condition in a conditional sentence; opposed to the apodosis. Also fig.
1588W. Kempe Educ. Children sig. G.4 v, Only the protasis or first part of our similitude is attributed but to Cato, for want of a like similitude garnished with like authoritie. a1638Mede Wks. (1672) 77 Let us examine and consider a little of the Protasis, whereof the words I have now read are the Apodosis. 1879Roby Lat. Gram. iv. §1025 A subordinate (relative, temporal, causal, concessive, or conditional) sentence is often called the protasis, the principal (i.e. demonstrative, conditioned, &c.) sentence is often called the apodosis. 1904[see if-clause s.v. if conj. (n.) 10]. 1922Joyce Ulysses 704 Positing what protasis would the contraction for such several schemes become a natural and necessary apodosis? 1971Language XLVII. 81, I use the term ‘conditional sentence’ to cover the entire complex sentence consisting of a protasis and an apodosis.
4. Ancient Prosody. The first colon of a dicolic line or period.
1890in Cent. Dict. |