| 释义 |
astral, a. (and n.)|ˈæstrəl|
[ad. L. astrālis, f. astr-um star: see -al1.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of, connected with, or proceeding from the stars; consisting of stars, starry.
1605Timme Quersit. i. iv. 14 Those things which are simply formall are astrall and spirituall. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. x. 501 There needs no fatal necessity or astral impulses. 1862Rawlinson Anc. Mon. I. vii. 139 The religion was to a certain extent astral. 1861Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. III. 331 Astral showers covered the heavens.
b. astral spirits: those formerly supposed to live in the heavenly bodies, variously represented as fallen angels, souls of dead men, and spirits originating in fire.
1647H. More Song of Soul Notes 143/2 Neither Astrall spirit nor Angel can prevail against one ray of the Deity. 1769Wesley Wks. (1872) III. 358 All his [Glanvill's] talk of ‘aërial and astral spirits’ I take to be stark nonsense. 1851Carlyle Sterling i. viii, Who could..as the Alchymists professed to do..distil you an ‘Astral spirit’ from the ashes.
2. Star-shaped, star-like. astral lamp: one resembling an Argand lamp, with the oil contained in a flattened ring, and so contrived that uninterrupted light is thrown upon the table below it.
1671Grew Anat. Plants i. iv. §5 Sometimes they [the Hairs] are Astral as upon Lavender. 1831Encycl. Amer. VII. 398/1 In the astral and sinumbral lamps..the oil is contained in a large horizontal ring. 1834I. Taylor Sat. Even. iv. 47 Shines only with an astral lustre. 1852Hawthorne Blithed. Rom. II. vi. 100 The glow of an astral-lamp was penetrating mistily through the white curtain.
3. Theosophy. Pertaining to or consisting of a supersensible substance considered to be next above the sensible world in refinement and held to pervade all space. So astral body, the ethereal counterpart or shadow of a human or animal body.
[1691R. Kirk Secret Commonw. (1815) i. 9 That what the Low-countrey Scotts calls a Wreath..is only exuvious Fumes of the Man approaching Death, exhal'd and congeal'd..and called astral Bodies, agitated as Wild-fire with Wind.] 1877H. P. Blavatsky Isis Unveiled in Secr. Doctrine (1888) II. 74 When those circulations—which Eliphas Levi calls ‘currents of the astral light’—in the universal ether..take place in harmony with the divine spirit, our earth..enjoys a fertile period. 1880Anna Kingsford in Maitland A. Kingsford (1913) I. 401 In man the astral fluid becomes transformed into human life at the moment of conception. Ibid., All they whose bodies have decomposed leave, or have left, their shadow in the astral space. 1881Sinnett Occult World 162 Even our astral bodies, pure ether, are but illusions of matter so long as they retain their terrestrial outline.
4. Cytology. Of or pertaining to an aster.
1896E. B. Wilson Cell ii. 74 The contractile elements are formed by certain of the astral rays which grow into the nucleus. 1901Calkins Protozoa iii. 82 In others they [sc. the rays] are focussed in a central or ‘astral’ granule (Gymnosphæra, Actinophrys, Sphærastrum, etc.), which in some cases has been seen to divide like a centrosome and to form an amphiaster. Ibid. viii. 278 In some cases this structure resembles the astral system of Metazoa. 1910Encycl. Brit. VII. 714/2 The remaining radiations at the two poles of the spindle are the ‘astral rays’.
B. n.
1. An astral lamp. Also attrib.
1838Knickerbocker XII. 57 As she drew the flowers on the centre-table more under the light of the astral. c1860Whittier Maud Müller xlvii, The weary wheel to a spinnet turned, The tallow candle an astral burned. 1883N.Y. World in Glasg. Week. Her. 9 June 8/3 An ordinary tin can..in which astral oil is sold.
2. An astral body.
1880Anna Kingsford in Maitland A. Kingsford (1913) I. 400 The Astral is not an entity, for it cannot reproduce itself. It is an imprint only, a shadow, a reflect, an echo. 1888H. P. Blavatsky Secr. Doctrine (ed. 2) I. 639 Our more intimate astral, or inner man. |