| 释义 |
Prussian, a. and n.|ˈprʌʃən|
Also joc. Prooshian |ˈpruːʃən|, Prooshan, Prooshun, Proosian.
[ad. mod.L. Prussiān-us adj., f. Prussi-a: see Note below. So F. prussien.]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to Prussia or its inhabitants; also, designating things actually or reputedly coming from Prussia.
Prussian binding (see quot. 1882); Prussian carp, a smaller form of the common carp, now naturalized in England and other countries; Prussian collar (see quot. 1955).
1565R. Shacklock tr. Hosius's Hatchet of Heresies (title-page verso), Fixing his eye on Prussian grounde, He sawe holy Hosius makyng this boke. 1702Toland Acc. Court of Prussia (1705) 36 'Tis at Berlin that his Prussian Majesty dos commonly keep his Court. 1754[W. Faucitt] (title) Regulations for the Prussian Infantry. 1796H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) II. 422 A Prussian Author..has lately favoured the World with various productions. 1837Penny Cycl. VIII. 260/2 The Crucian Carp, or Prussian Carp..is another species of this genus now naturalized. 1844W. Siborne Hist. War in 1815 ii. (1894) 67 The Commander of the Prussian Army in this memorable campaign, the veteran Marshal Prince Blücher von Wahlstadt. 1852G. W. Johnson Cott. Gard. Dict. 531/2 Lactuca, Lettuce... Imperial Grand Admirable, Prussian, Large Roman. 1880Queen 19 June (Advt.), Sun umbrella cover..bound Self, Scarlet, Green, or Blue Prussian Binding. 1882Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework 412/2 Prussian bindings. These are designed for the binding of mantles, dressing-gowns, and waterproofs... They consist of a silk face and cotton back, having a diagonal twill. 1883Chambers' Encycl. VII. 815 This tendency to over-legislation has long been the predominating evil feature of Prussian administration. 1932D. C. Minter Mod. Needlecraft 113/1 Neaten the bottom of a fitting sleeve with lute ribbon or Prussian binding. 1955J. E. Liberty Pract. Tailoring (ed. 2) xi. 211 The Prussian or Double collar, is made to button up to the neck and has a small stand. There are variations of this type, from the style very like the double linen collar worn with a tie, to that where the fall lies flatter on the fronts and does not fit so closely to the stand, 2 to 3½ in. fall, as on uniforms. 1968J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 52 Prussian collar, a fairly high⁓standing turned-down collar, as on military great-coats.
2. a. Prussian blue: a deep blue pigment of great body and covering power, consisting essentially of hydrated ferric ferrocyanide, Fe{ppp}4(Fe{pp}Cy6)3.18(H2O), generally mixed with varying quantities of potassioferrous ferricyanide, (KFe{pp}).Fe{ppp}Cy6. Also ellipt.
Called Prussian from being accidentally discovered by Diesbach, a colour-maker in Berlin, in 1704, and announced as a pigment in the Berlin Miscellanies for 1710. (See T. Thomson Chemistry ed. 3, 1807, Watts Dict. Chem. IV. 741.)
Hence the uses of Prussian in Chemistry and Colouring, also prussiate, prussic, prussous, etc.
1724Phil. Trans. XXXIII. 17 A Process for making the Prussian blue. 1732J. Peele Water-Colours 45 Prussian Blue is next to the Ultramarine for Beauty. 1807T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 329 This powder was called Prussian blue; and the method of procuring it remained concealed, because it had become a lucrative article of commerce, till Dr. Woodward published a process in the Philosophical Transactions for 1724. 1835[see Antwerp]. 1838J. Marcet Conversations Land & Water xi. (1848) 104 Prussian blue and carmine are derived from the animal kingdom. 1868E. L. Ormerod Brit. Soc. Wasps 14 Prussian-blue, known to washerwomen as stone-blue. 1911O. Onions Widdershins iv. 154 The daylight had gone, but I knew that ‘Prussian’ would be about the colour for the eyes. 1940[see Antwerp].
attrib.1848Thackeray Bk. Snobs xxi, Her relations with the Prussian-blue trade.
b. adj. and n., as name of the colour of this substance, sometimes called royal blue; also n., applied to a person dressed in a blue uniform or coat. In Dickens, prob. a variant or intensive of ‘true blue’.
1837Dickens Pickw. xxxiii, ‘Vell, Sammy’, said the father. ‘Vell, my Prooshun Blue’, responded the son. 1899Westm. Gaz. 30 Aug. 3/2 We have no doubt that the true solution [of ‘my Prooshan blue’] is simple enough. The expression is a reference to a public-house sign common enough in the Pickwickian age, and often pictorially presented, namely, the portrait of the ‘King of Prussia’ in a blue uniform. Mod. The colour varies from azure to Prussian blue.
c. Prussian brown, Prussian green, pigments derived from or allied to Prussian blue.
1842Francis Dict. Arts, Prussian Green, a celebrated pigment, consisting of an imperfect Prussian blue, containing excess of the oxyde of iron, to which the yellow tincture of French berries is added. 1873E. Spon Workshop Receipts Ser. i. (1888) 95 Prussian Green.—The sediment of the process of making Prussian Blue from bullock's blood or horns, before it has had the hydrochloric acid added to it. 1875Ure's Dict. Arts, Prussian brown, a fine deep brown colour obtained by adding the yellow prussiate of potash (ferrocyanide of potassium) to a solution of sulphate of copper.
d. A variety of pea with large, bluish seeds. Also ellipt.
1804J. Gardiner Amer. Gardener 43 Spanish morottos, rouncivals, prussians, green and white, marrowfats, and other large late peas are the kinds to sow this month. 1824J. C. Loudon Encycl. Gardening (ed. 2) iii. viii. 618 The egg, the Moratto, the Prussian blue, and the Rouncivals,..are all very fine eating peas. 1832J. Tod Annals Rajast'han II. 765, I never saw finer crops of Prussian-blues,..cauliflowers, celery, and all that belongs to the kitchen-garden. 1915N. & Q. 6 Nov. 370/1 Prussian blues are a particular description of peas. Those and Marrowfats were in my early days considered the best varieties of that vegetable.
†3. Hence, Chem. Prussian acid = prussic acid; Prussian alkali, potassium ferrocyanide.
1788Trans. Soc. Arts VI. 134 Yielded a blue precipitate on adding the Prussian Alkali. 1796Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 487 Prussian, or Prussiated alkali, formerly called the phlogisticated alkali, is an alkali united to a particular tinging substance by the intermediation of iron, calcined. Ibid. 488 Iron..forms, with the Prussian acid, compounds of two different kinds; the one fully saturated, the other unsaturated. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 757 A determinate quantity of the Prussian alkali must be tried previously.
B. n.
1. A native or inhabitant of Prussia (the ethnic territory, or the former duchy or kingdom).
1554W. Prat tr. Discr. Aphrique sig. B6v, The Germaynes, Italyons, Spanyardes, Frenchemen, Scottes, Iryshmen, the Danes, Liuones Prussiens. 1565R. Shacklock tr. Hosius's Hatchet of Heresies f.2v This agrement of fayth..floryshed among..the Germanes..Catholyke Russians, Prussians, or Masouians. 1677E. Browne Trav. Germany 82 To the Classis, or Natio Saxonum, were reduced Saxons.., Prussians, Livonians. 1746H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 112 The King of Sardinia..has made himself as considerable in the scale as the Prussian. 1844W. Siborne Hist. War in 1815 ii. (1894) 67 He was eminently fitted to be both the representative and the leader of the Prussians. 1879Smith's Smaller Hist. Eng. xxxv. 310 The Prussians strained every nerve to reach the field [of Waterloo].
joc.1843Dickens Mart. Chuz. (1844) xix. 239 Some people..may be Rooshans, and some may be Prooshans; they are born so, and will please themselves. 1871F. C. Burnand More Happy Thoughts (ed. 2) xxix. 214 The Gay Prooshians have no end of ships. 1878W. S. Gilbert H.M.S. Pinafore ii. 28 For he might have been a Roosian, A French, or Turk, or Proosian, Or perhaps Itali-an! 1899Kipling Stalky 128 ‘My word!’ said M‘Turk,..‘The Prooshian Bates has an infernal straight eye.’ 1914R. Brooke Let. 24 Aug. (1968) 611 To Hell with the Prooshians. 1922Joyce Ulysses 324 The Prooshians and the Hanoverians.
2. = Old Prussian n. b.
1888J. Wright tr. Brugmann's Elem. Compar. Gram. Indo-Gmc. Lang. I. 11 The Baltic division consists of Prussian, Lithuanian, and Lettic. 1972W. B. Lockwood Panorama Indo-European Lang. 139 A catechism, in Prussian and German, was twice printed in 1545.
[Note. The name Prussia (in early writers Pruscia, Pruschia, Prucia, Prusya, Prusia) was a deriv. of Pruzzi, Prutzci, Pruci, Prussi, Prusi, latinized forms, in the mediæval writers, of the name of a Balto-slavonic people, who inhabited a territory now included in the Baltic Republics of the Soviet Union and Poland, which was conquered in the 12th c. by the Knights of the Teutonic Order, and afterwards became a dukedom or duchy, at length under the rule of the elector of Brandenburg, who in 1700 thence assumed the title of König von Preuszen, King of Prussia. In 1947 the territory of Prussia was divided among East and West Germany, Poland, and the Soviet Union.
The German forms are ein Preusze a Prussian, Preuszen Prussians and Prussia. For the French and ME. forms see Pruce. Other med.L. names were Borussi, and Prut(h)eni, whence the adj. Prut(h)enicus Prutenic.] |