| 释义 |
bestiary|ˈbɛstɪərɪ|
[ad. L. bestiārius ‘a fighter with beasts in the public spectacles,’ and med.L. bestiārium a menagerie, also ‘liber de bestiis compositus,’ etc., f. bestia beast: see -ary.]
†1. A beast-fighter in the Roman amphitheatre. (L. bestiarius.) Obs.
1625T. Godwin Rom. Antiq. 20 The Amphitheatre was full of hollow passage..for the convenient keeping of wilde beasts, and beastiaries.
2. A treatise on beasts: applied to the moralizing treatises written during the Middle Ages.
[1834Gentl. Mag. CIV. i. 190 The Bestiarium in the Ashmolean library.] 1840Wright Reliq. Antiq. I. 208 (title) A Bestiary. 1865― Hist. Caricat. vi. (1875) 95 The earliest Bestiaries, or popular treatises on natural history. 1871Sacristy I. 7/1 The Bestiaries..are natural histories of animals treated so that the peculiarities of animals shall convey a wholesome moral. |