| 释义 |
‖ rostrum|ˈrɒstrəm|
Pl. rostra, rarely rostrums.
[a. L. rostrum beak.]
1. Rom. Antiq. The platform or stand for public speakers in the Forum of ancient Rome, adorned with the beaks of ships taken from the Antiates in 338 b.c.; also, that part of the Forum in which this was situated:
a. In pl.
1542N. Udall tr. Erasmus's Apophthegmes ii. f. 315v, The place called Rostra (where oracions wer made to the people). 1579North Plutarch, Cicero (1896) V. 366 Antonius..commaunded his head and his hands should straight be set up over the pulpit for Orations, in the place called Rostra. 1600Holland Livy iv. xvii. 151 The Statues of these Embassadours which were at Fidene murdered, were set up openly at the charges of the citie in the Rostra. 1647R. Stapylton Juvenal 61 The city of Rome had four great forums or piazzas, 1. Forum Romanum or vetus, wherein was the comitium or hall of justice, the rostra or pulpits for orations [etc.]. 1741Middleton Cicero I. v. 393 Before they met, he called the people likewise to the Rostra. 1765Smollett Trav. (1766) II. 128 Their rostra were generally adorned with the heads of some remarkable citizens. 1841Penny Cycl. XX. 176/1 The rostra was between the Comitium, or place of assembly for the Curiæ, and the Forum, properly so called, or place of assembly for the Comitia Tributa. 1879Froude Cæsar xv. 241 Pompey came forward on the Rostra to speak.
b. In sing.; also applied to the orators' stand in the Athenian assembly.
1713Addison Cato ii. ii, Myself will mount the Rostrum in his favour. 1751Earl of Orrery Rem. Swift (1752) 185 What a glorious, what a consistent figure, must Swift have made in the rostrum at Rome. 1770Langhorne Plutarch (1879) I. 191 When he came down from the rostrum, the women paid their respects to him. 1850Grote Greece ii. lvi. (1862) V. 92 Hyperbolus is named by Aristophanes as having succeeded Kleon in the mastership of the rostrum in the Pnyx.
2. transf. A platform, stage, stand, etc., adapted for public speaking.
The singular form, though strictly incorrect, is the one commonly employed in this sense.
1766T. Clap Hist. Yale C. 77 It is built of Brick,..with a Steeple and Galleries, in which are three Rostra for Orations, Disputations, &c. 1776H. Walpole Let. to C'tess Ossory 17 Dec., For want of Parliament General Burgoyne is..making an oration from the rostrum to the citizens of Westminster. 1813Examiner 29 Mar. 198/2 From the old rostrum, he harangued the populace. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge xxxix, Mr. Tappertit mounted on an empty cask which stood by way of rostrum in the room. 1877Black Green Past. xxxix, The auctioneer had an improvised rostrum put up for himself at the end of the long table. 1974R. Adams Shardik xxiv. 186 The rostra, barracoons and blocks of the slave market.
fig.1886Lowell Democracy (1887) 11 This age of publicity, where the newspapers offer a rostrum to whoever has a grievance, or fancies that he has.
b. spec. A pulpit. Also transf. and fig.
1771Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 167 Humphry..owned that he had been encouraged to mount the rostrum by the example and success of a weaver, who was much followed as a powerful minister. 1784Cowper Task ii. 409 The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again. 1816Scott Old Mort. xxxi, As the worthy divine..was advancing towards the rostrum. 1873C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. (1876) 77 Mr. Banks glided into the Rostrum. Ibid. 100 Though mounted withal on the rostrum of Nonconformity. a1964G. Underwood Pattern of Past (1968) ix. 96 Rostra are sloping recumbent stones, sometimes projecting from a hillside, and sometimes half buried in a slanting position on level ground. At their upper points they mark small terminal blind springs, and their situation and appearance suggests that they may have been intended as pulpits. I have named them accordingly.
c. The platform as an institution.
1883Whittier Our Country 43 Free press and rostrum, church and school.
d. A platform for a policeman when superintending the traffic at a crossing.
1930Morning Post 16 July 12/5 First and foremost..there is the constable on the rostrum.
e. Theatr. (See quot. 1951.)
1930W. G. Fay Short Gloss. Theatr. Terms 17 When it is necessary to use a rostrum to get elevation on the stage it is generally concealed behind a ground row. Ibid. 24 Ramp, a slope made of planks from a rostrum to the stage where steps are not used. 1951Oxf. Compan. Theatre 678/1 Rostrum, any platform, from a small dais for a throne to a vast battlement, placed on the stage. It is usually made with a removable top and hinged sides, to fold flat for packing. It is reached by steps or a ramp, and quitted off-stage by ‘lead-off’ steps. A rostrum-front is a canvas-covered flat placed to conceal the front of the platform.
f. Cinemat. and Television. A platform used to support a camera employed in the filming of animated sequences and the like. Also attrib.
1951Halas & Privett How to Cartoon for Amateur Films 105 Let's leave the camera on one side for the moment and consider the rostrum. That is the frame on which the camera and the board which holds the animation drawings are mounted. 1959Halas & Manvell Technique Film Animation xix. 235 Such scenes as night bombing, wrecked aircraft, submarines under water and flying through cloud were done with one or two drawings, a little wood-carving, cotton-wool and the full use of single and multiplane shooting on the animation rostrum. Ibid., Rostrum camera, apparatus for producing an image on cine-film. Its minimum requirements for animation work are that it must be capable of exposing one frame or film at a time when required. 1975Gloss. Terms Motion-Picture Industry (B.S.I.) 9 Rostrum, adjustable but rigid support for the camera and the animation table, so constructed that they do not alter position relative to each other in an uncontrolled way. 1976Oxf. Compan. Film 19/2 In the diagram, the camera (a) is shown mounted on the rostrum (US term ‘animation stand’). 1977Broadcast 18 Apr. 43/2 Vacancy for aerial image rostrum cameraman.
3. Rom. Antiq. A beak-like projection from the prow of a warship; = beak n.1 7.
1674Evelyn Navigation & Commerce Misc. Writ. (1825) 637 The Thasii added decks; Pisæus the rostrum, or beak⁓head. a1700― Diary June 1645, The beakes of these vessells are like the ancient Roman rostrums. 1705Addison Italy 14 An old Rostrum of a Roman Ship, that stands over the Door of their Arsenal. 1841Penny Cycl. XX. 176/1 It pointed towards the Comitium, and the rostra were affixed to the front of it, just under the arches.
b. transf.
1782H. Walpole Let. 18 May (1904) XII. 251 To-day we hear that Sir George Rodney has defeated—ay, and taken—Monsieur de Grasse in his own ship... These naval rostra arrived very opportunely to stay our impatience for a victory over the Dutch.
4.
†a. The beak or nose of an alembic or still.
1660Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. viii. 64 The Rostrum or Nose of it..was Hermetically closed. 1684tr. Blancard's Phys. Dict., Rostrum, the Pipe to conveigh the Liquor distilling into the Receiver. [Also in various later Dicts.]
†b. The nozzle of a pair of bellows. Obs.
1706E. Baynard Cold Bathing II. 236 Bellows to draw the Aereal Niter in at the Valve or Clack..which closing by the Pressure of the Hand, squeezeth it out of the Rostrum or Nose.
†c. (See quot.) Obs.
1722Quincy Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Rostrum, is used..also for a crooked Scissars which the Surgeons in some Cases make use of for the Dilatation of Wounds. [Hence in Johnson, and various later Dicts.]
†d. (See quot.) Obs.
1740J. Grassineau Mus. Dict. 205 Rostrum, is the name of an instrument wherewith they rule paper for musical compositions. 1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v., Rostrum is also used to signify an instrument wherewith paper is ruled for musical compositions.
5. Zool., etc.
a. A beak or snout; an oral apparatus of an elongated form.
1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v., The rostrum or snout in fishes varies very much in figure. 1803P. Russell Indian Fishes II. 69 The length from the rostrum to the caudal fin. 1834McMurtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 303 A sucker or siphon,..in the form of an acute inarticulated rostrum,..fulfils the functions of a mouth. 1871Darwin Desc. Man I. viii. 255 In some weevil-beetles there is a great difference between the male and female in the length of the rostrum or snout.
Comb.1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. xxxiv. 514 The Rhynchophorous or rostrum-bearing beetles.
b. A process or formation resembling a beak.
1815Burrow Conchol. 33 Cauda, rostrum or beak; the elongated bases of the belly, lips and columella. 1831Knox Cloquet's Anat. 37 This aspect..presents on the median line a ridge, called the rostrum or azygous process. 1878Holden Hum. Osteol. (ed. 2) 79 The rostrum of the sphenoid would fit into the gap between them. 1884–5Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) I. 373 The apex of this phragmocone is enveloped in a second calcareous shell, the rostrum or guard.
6. Bot. (See quots.)
1832Lindley Introd. Bot. (1839) 170 The whole mass of the corona is the orbiculus..; certain horn-like processes are cornua, or horns; the upper end of these is the beak, or rostrum. 1841Penny Cycl. XX. 176/2 Rostrum, a botanical term applied to any rigid prolongation of remarkable length, or to any additional process at the end of any of the parts of a plant. 1866Treas. Bot., Rostrum, any beak-like extension; as in the stigma of some asclepiads. |