| 释义 |
▪ I. background, n.|ˈbækgraʊnd|
[f. back a.]
1. a. The ground or surface lying at the back of or behind the chief objects of contemplation, which occupy the foreground. (Formerly, the part of the stage in a theatre remote from the audience.)
1672Wycherley Love in Wood iii. ii, Ranger retires to the background. 1799Sheridan Pizarro i. i. (1883) 182 Elvira walks about pensively in the background. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 109 The low cottage in the back-ground.
b. esp. as represented in any of the Arts of Design. spec. in Photogr. Also attrib.
1752tr. Gersaint's Etch. Rembrandt 94 The Back-ground is always faint, the Aqua-fortis having failed. 1847Ld. Lindsay Chr. Art. I. 114 The backgrounds are either architectural in the Byzantine style, or mountainous. 1858T. Sutton Dict. Photogr. 29 In taking portraits, it is generally necessary to place a background behind the sitter. This is made by stretching a sheet of canvas..and painting it of an appropriate colour in distemper. 1892Photogr. Ann. II. 756 Makers of exposure meters..Background manufacturers. 1961A. L. M. Sowerby Dict. Photogr. (ed. 19) 47 The following method of preparing a background and painting it will be found reliable.
c. fig. Also attrib.
1854Stanley Sinai & Pal. Introd. 28 Egypt..is the background of the whole history of the Israelites. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1871) I. 160 A statelier dome..shining on the background of the night of Time. 1868Rossetti Let. 7 Oct. (1965) II. 668 Immense variety of background-material for any conceivable outdoor subject. 1928Pref. to Coll. Papers H. Bradley p. vii, These papers..form a background without which his labours on the Dictionary cannot be truly judged. 1930J. B. Priestley Angel Pav. iii. 138 That international English,..a language without roots and background. 1940Camb. Bibliogr. Eng. Lit. I. p. xv, The Middle English Period..(ii) The Political Background..(iii) The Social Background. 1951G. Greene Lost Childhood iii. 121 A young historian..gathering..background material. 1956‘M. Innes’ Old Hall, New Hall i. v. 52 Do some background reading in published sources. 1961B. R. Wilson Sects & Soc. p. ix, Some of the background literature of my subject.
d. A person's cultural knowledge, education, experience, environment, etc.; social surroundings.
1913J. Webster Daddy-Long-Legs 209, I'm glad I don't belong to such a family! I should truly rather have the John Grier Home for a background. 1923Ladies' Home Jrnl. Oct. 236/3 A charming girl lacking only the ‘background’ that wealth makes possible. 1934A. Haskell Balletomania xi. 219 Had she possessed a background of orthodox technical training [etc.]. 1954Manch. Guardian Weekly 9 Dec. 2/2 A military background is not a full and complete preparation for a Chief Executive. 1959Manchester Guardian 1 Aug. 8/3 Pupils are selected by interview... Family background is a major consideration.
e. Music, sound-effects, etc., subordinated to or accompanying some other activity, esp. music used as an accompaniment to a film or broadcast programme. Chiefly attrib. orig. U.S.
1928B.B.C. Hand Bk. 1929 68 A..new design of control room has been decided upon, wherein effects, echoes, background music, etc. can be mixed together. 1934E. B. Marks They all Sang xvii. 215 As the hero was wheeled to the operating room, the strains of ‘You're the Cheese in My Mousetrap’ would trickle into the auditorium as background music. 1937Printers' Ink Monthly Apr. 49/1 Background, any musical or sound effect used in backing up dialog or sound. 1937Times 25 Sept. 8/2 Le Coq d'Or was no longer a musical work ‘before all else’, but only a musical work heard while something else very attractive to the eye was going on. It was in fact the beginning of that process now known to the B.B.C. as ‘background listening’. 1946Scott Goddard in A. L. Bacharach Brit. Mus. i. 28 A rachitic progeny of background music to documentary films. 1949L. Feather Inside Be-Bop ii. 17 Vocals..with fine backgrounds and solos by Bird. 1958Listener 21 Aug. 260/1 As with our own Light Programme the ‘background’ music or entertainment is a comfort and solace to many.
f. background heater (see quot. 1961), background heating.
1939Martin & Speight Flat Book ii. 25 There are excellent gas convector or background heaters. 1951Good Housek. Home Encycl. 76/1 A ½ watt per cubic foot for background heating. 1961Gloss. Terms Gas Industry (B.S.I.) 62 Background heater, a heater normally in continuous use which supplies heat to a room at such a rate as will provide a general temperature slightly below comfort temperature.
2. a. A less prominent position, where an object is not readily noticed; retirement, obscurity.
1779Sheridan Critic iii. i. (1883) 177 Keep your madness in the background. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 253 Political friends thought it best..that he should remain in the background. 1876Green Short Hist. iv. §2 (1882) 174 This..may have helped to throw into the background its [Parliament's] character as a supreme Court of appeal.
b. attrib. or as adj. Keeping in the background; retiring. colloq.
1896Westm. Gaz. 9 Dec. 2/1 A reticent, background kind of lover. 1904Daily Chron. 11 Feb. 8/6 ‘Cultivate a background manner,’ is the advice of a lady..to governesses seeking situations.
3. Electr. Adventitious signals or effects in the reception or recording of sound. Also attrib.
1927Radio Assoc. Official Handbk. 70 The purity of amplification..and the silence of the ‘background’, owing to successful elimination of atmospherics and ‘mush’, is remarkable. 1942R. C. Norris Radio Engin. ii. 35/1 This tends to introduce background noise, which would be entirely avoided if a really good aerial were in use. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio vii. 132 One of the problems which may arise when tape is re-used is a background ‘chatter’ from the previous recording.
4. Physics. The level of radiation arising from cosmic rays and other natural sources. Also attrib., as background count, the result (in counts or pulses per unit time) of measuring such radiation.
1930Phil. Mag. IX. 642 The aim..was..to deduce the relative number of electrons falling in the central spot, in one of the rings or in the continuous background. 1933Rutherford Coll. Papers (1965) III. 343 This radiation gives rise to an inconvenient background ‘wobble’ in the output from the counting chamber. 1947Sci. News II. 140 If a G-M (Geiger-Müller) counter has a background of 30 pulses per minute. 1950F. Gaynor Encycl. Atomic Energy 26 Background count. 1959C. Hodder-Williams Chain Reaction viii. 98 No trace of radioactivity was detected over and above the normal background count.
▪ II. ˈbackground, v.
1. To form a background to.
1768S. Bentley River Dove 8 Far distant as Vision can go, High Weever back-grounds the gay scene. 1843Mrs. Browning Lett. R. H. Horne I. 70 Where there is no reserve of character to background it [shyness]. 1891C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole 75 The ‘antique spires’ of the College Chapel, backgrounded with crimson sunset. 1904Westm. Gaz. 17 Nov. 4/2 Planted on to the material like a raised embroidery, and backgrounded with manipulations of tulle or chiffon. 1905Ibid. 4 May 4/2 Hair..well dressed can background these [features] with such effect that the face..may become almost beauty.
2. To place in the background, to make inconspicuous. Chiefly fig. Opp. foreground v.
1891‘S. Mostyn’ Curatica xii. 164, I am not sure if there was any bread and butter; if there was, it was..ignominiously back-grounded, so that I did not see it. 1976Word 1971 XXVII. 125 The thesis of this article is that the perceptual salience of certain aspects of events naturally foregrounds certain actions and entities and backgrounds others in a semantically predictable manner, dictating the structure of early sentences. 1980Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Sept. 1045/4 Another tradition of anthropology follows Durkheim in backgrounding the intellectual propositions and foregrounding the moral persuasions of religion.
3. To inform (someone) of the circumstances pertaining to an event, situation, or the like, esp. its causes, history, etc.; to ‘fill in’ (fill v. 15 e).
1961Time 10 Feb. 13/3 Salinger ‘backgrounded’ reporters on the news. 1971Rhodesia Herald 23 June, He has served at The Hague and is completely backgrounded on the territory and the World Court battle. 1977Washington Post 13 Mar. a1 A high-ranking State Department official well backgrounded in African affairs. 1985New Yorker 11 Mar. 121/2 Israel's Embassy in Washington ‘backgrounded’ American reporters. |