| 释义 |
rudiment, n.|ˈruːdɪmənt|
[ad. L. rudīmentum beginning, first principle, etc., f. rudis imperfect, rude a. So F. rudiment (16th c.).]
1. a. pl. The first principles or elements of a subject; those points which are first taught to, or acquired by, one commencing the study or practice of a branch of knowledge, art, etc.
1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. vii. 50 They shoulde by suche maner (as a manne would say) of shadowes and rudimentes, be by litle and litle enstructed to those thinges that belonge vnto true godlynes. c1590Marlowe Faustus i, First I'll instruct thee in the rudiments, And then wilt thou be perfecter than I. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 2 When they had received their first rudiments from you as Apprentices. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) I. 150 From these first Rudiments he grew To nobler Feats. 1727Swift Hist. Vanbrugh's House, From such deep Rudiments as these, V - - is become by due degrees For Building fam'd. 1824–8Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1846 I. 469 We should at least be taught our rudiments before a hard lesson is put into our hands.
b. Const. of (the thing to be learned).
a1548Hall Chron., Edw. IV, 34 b, Chyldren whyche bee there..taughte the rudimentes and rules of Grammer. 1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Acts ii. 13 Teache them that muste be christened the rudimentes and first beginninges of the gospell. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. v. iv. 31 This Boy..hath bin tutor'd in the rudiments Of many desperate studies. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 22 Necessity has taught them some parts of the rudiments of Arithmetick. 1726Swift Gulliver i. vi, At which Time they are supposed to have some Rudiments of Docility. 1772Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) I. 143 Here we acquire..rudiments of knowledge. 1841Young Math. Diss. Pref. p. xii, This class of equations will hereafter be admitted even among the rudiments of algebraic science. 1880L. Stephen Pope i. 4 He picked up some rudiments of learning from the family priest.
transf.1751Johnson Rambler No. 114 ⁋14 If those..had been detected in their rudiments of robbery.
c. sing. A first principle; an initial step or stage, etc. Somewhat rare.
1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Luke ix. 95 This was the first rudimente and entreaunce of the Apostles preachyng. 1579W. Fulke Heskins' Parl. 9 The law..of leauing the old bird..was a good rudiment to teach them to abhor..couetousnes. 1615Crooke Body of Man 31 The Veynes of the Mesentary giue the blood a kinde of rudiment or initiation. 1811Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 160 The political rudiment of the young, and manual of our older citizens.
d. Pl. (With capital initial.) The name of the lowest class in certain Roman Catholic schools and colleges, freq. divided into the ‘third’, ‘second’, and ‘first’ class (of) Rudiments. Cf. figure n. 22 b.
1716[see figure n. 22 b]. a1799in C. Butler Acct. Life Alban Butler (1799) 6 The year after Mr. Alban Butler's arrival at Douay, I was placed in the same school, under the same master, he being in the first class of rudiments, as it is there called, and I in the lowest. 1846in Stonyhurst Mag. (1933) Dec. 415/2 July 25th Sun. Themes judged Rhet... 29th. Themes judged Rudiments. 1885J. Gillow Lit. & Biogr. Hist. Eng. Catholics II. 553 At the period of his liberation Robert Gradwell was in second-class Rudiments. 1893B. Ward Hist. St. Edmund's Coll. iv. 58 The two classes of ‘Figures’ were changed very shortly after this into three classes of ‘Rudiments’, and this term has survived at St. Edmund's to the present day. 1912B. Ward Eve Catholic Emanc. III. xxxiv. 2 He was a boy in the ‘Second of Rudiments’ [Note] Equivalent to the Second or Third form at an English school. 1936M. Trappes-Lomax Bishop Challoner i. 5 The ‘classes’, or forms, were named Figures or Rudiments, Grammar, Syntax, Poetry, and Rhetoric, names which originally were related to the work of the class... This nomenclature is still retained in some of the English Catholic schools. 1972Publ. Catholic Rec. Soc. LXIII. 142 The vast majority of students began their course..in one or other of the Rudiments classes.
2. a. pl. The imperfect beginnings of some (material or immaterial) thing; those parts which are the foundation of later growth or development.
1566Painter Pal. Pleas. I. 78 The same bloude..is readie to nourish the rudimentes of lyfe and lighte. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 219 Certeine raw and unperfect rudiments..of good and kinde fruits. 1664Evelyn Sylva (1679) 4 To raise Trees for Timber..from their Seeds and first Rudiments. 1710Steele Tatler No. 189 ⁋1 The first Rudiments of Thought which they shew in their Letters. 1766Blackstone Comm. II. 9 It was calculated merely for the rudiments of civil society. 1777Priestley Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. xxii. 282 Brutes have the rudiments of all our faculties. 1839Murchison Silur. Syst. i. xxvii. 349 This fault has produced only the rudiments, if I may so speak, of a transverse valley. 1871Darwin Desc. Man I. i. 18 Rudiments, however, may occur in one sex, of parts normally present in the other sex.
b. sing. A beginning; an initial or imperfect form or stage.
1626Bacon Sylva §316 This [maturation of fruits] is effected..by a Rudiment of putrefaction. 1625K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis ii. xx. 135 Care must be had, that these warres against Lycogenes, be..a rudiment against Radirobanes. 1778[W. H. Marshall] Minutes Agric., Observ. 120, I found a Copper Tunnel,..which I was told was the Rudiment of a Rain-Gage. 1796Withering Brit. Pl. (ed. 3) I. 146 The rudiment of a third floret standing upon a little fruit-stalk betwixt the other two florets. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. v. (1860) 148 The whole anterior part of the head is reduced to the merest rudiment. 1880Haughton Phys. Geogr. vi. 282 Several species have been found..with a rudiment of a thumb.
3. rudiments of the world, in renderings or echoes of Biblical passages.
The Gr. original has τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσµου, the Vulgate elementa mundi.
1557N.T. (Genev.) Gal. iv. 3 We, as longe as we were children, were in bondage vnder the rudiments of the worlde. 1577T. Vautrollier Luther on Ep. Gal. 180 Paule..speaketh here euen of the law of God, which he calleth the elements or rudiments of the world. [1628Prynne Love-lockes 35 God commands us..not to subiect our selues to the Rudiments, Lusts, and Ordinances of Carnall, or Worldly men.] 1665Bunyan Holy Citie 176 Not every babbling fellow, nor those that look for their abilities from the rudiments of the world. 1881Bible Gal. iv. 3.
Hence ˈrudiment v., to initiate. rare—1.
1654Gayton Pleas. Notes ii. ii. 37 It is the right discipline of Knight-Errantry, to be rudimented in losses at first. |