| 释义 |
‖ punctum|ˈpʌŋktəm|
Pl. puncta.
[L. ‘point’, orig. neuter of punctus, pa. pple. of pungĕre to prick: cf. point n.1]
†1. A point, in various figurative senses. Obs.
c1590Greene Fr. Bacon ix. 33 Mongst the quadruplicitie Of elementall essence, Terra is but thought To be a punctum squared to the rest. a1619M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. ix. §4 (1622) 298 God is that Punctum,..from whom, euery Creature..doth proceede;..and vnto whom, they bee destinated. a1679T. Goodwin Knowl. God ii. v, The punctum of which [assertion] lies in this, that in our Christ, God and man are become one person. 1683Kennet tr. Erasm. on Folly 95 Which sentence is a Species of discrete Quantity, that has no permanent punctum.
†2.
a. A (geometrical) point: = point n.1 A. 18.
1628Feltham Resolves ii. xxii, Like a Piramide, lessening it selfe by degrees, till it grows at last to a punctum, to a nothing. 1735H. Walpole Let. to R. West 9 Nov., They plod on in the same eternal round, with their whole view confined to a punctum, cujus nulla est pars.
†b. A mere point of time, an instant: = point n.1 A. 7. Obs.
1682Boyle 2nd Pt. Contn. New Exp. v. viii, I cast a flie into it, which died in one punctum of time.
†3. A chief or main point (see point n.1 A. 5), as opposed to punctilio (punctilio 4). Obs.
1651Biggs New Disp. Pref. 2 Though not the Punctilio's, yet the Puncta's the full points.
4. Nat. Hist. and Path.
a. A minute rounded mark or visible object; a speck, dot; a minute rounded spot of colour, or of elevation or depression (esp. the latter), upon a surface: = point n.1 A. 2.
1665Needham Med. Medicinæ 195 The least Creature that we can see without the help of Art, is a Mite, it resembling a little white Punctum or Point. 1808Med. Jrnl. XIX. 164 The dark puncta of the petals and capsules afford this essential oil. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. xxxi. 245 In many of the hawkmoths..it [the skin of the pupa] is covered with impressed puncta. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 478 These papules..often disclose a central punctum.
b. punctum lachrymale, pl. puncta lachrymālia (also lachrymal punctum, or simply punctum), the minute orifice of each of the two lachrymal canals at the corner of the eye. punctum saliens (cf. salient a. 3), the first trace of the heart in an embryo, appearing as a pulsating point or speck; also fig.
For the origin of the latter cf. Aristotle Hist. Anim. vi. iii. τοῦτο δὲ τὸ σηµεῖον πηδᾷ καὶ κινεῖται.[1651Harvey De Generat. Animalium 49 Apparet punctum sanguineum saliens, quod jam movetur (ait Aristoteles).] 1663R. Boyle Consid. Usef. Nat. Philos. ii. i. 18 In Hen-eggs..you may observe the Punctum saliens, or Heart, to be ever and anon full of conspicuously red Blood. 1693tr. Blancard's Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Lachrymale punctum, an Hole made in the Bone of the Nose, by which the Matter that makes Tears, passes to the Nostrils. Ibid. s.v., In the growth of an Egg you see a little Speck or Cloud,..which growing gradually thicker, acquires a kind of slimy Matter, in the middle whereof you see first this Punctum saliens (a little Speck that seems to leap). 1780W. Blizard in Phil. Trans. LXX. 243 The steel pipe was passed into the inferior punctum. 1812Edin. Rev. July 169 To discover the origin of the punctum saliens in the incubated egg. 1814M. Birkbeck Jrnl. 18 Sept. in Notes Journey through France 83 Paris is the punctum saliens, the organ of political feeling; elsewhere political feeling is absorbed in the love of tranquillity. 1977Language LIII. 56 The ‘punctum saliens’ is that it was the ‘paradigmatic’ alternation u ∼ o which was felt to render the constituent structure opaque.
5. In mediæval music.
a. (See quots.)
[1879Helmore Plainsong 8 The Point (Punctum), having the value of a short note (i.e. a Semibreve).] 1901H. E. Wooldridge Oxf. Hist. Mus. I. 116 The punctum or old grave accent, which signified a descending note, and the virga or old acute accent, which was used when the note ascended... The virga became the longa..and the punctum the brevis..of Discant. 1905Gram. Plainsong 12 There are three forms of the single note: the square note or punctum, the tailed note, or virga, and the diamond.
b. A kind of inflexion used in singing collects, etc.
1853Dale tr. Baldeschi's Rom. Rite 304 When the Prayer concludes with Qui vivis or Qui tecum, the Punctum only is used, as above in Spiritus Sancte Deus.
6. punctum indifferens (cf. indifferent a.1 8 a), a neutral point.
1923A. T. Quiller-Couch Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing p. xv, Such a man is the Friar in this play; its steadying sane mind, its punctum indifferens. 1932J. Buchan Sir W. Scott xiii. 342 This punctum indifferens is the peaceful anchorage of good sense from which we are able to watch with a balanced mind the storm outside. 1976‘J. Davey’ Treasury Alarm i. 11 Things may rearrange themselves around me just because I'm there—as a punctum indifferens.
7. Palæogr. A point used as a (weak) mark of punctuation in medieval manuscripts.
1952,1975[see punctus]. 1975Anglo-Saxon England IV. 117 The poems in lyric metres are written across the page as prose, but each verse line is separated by at least a punctum (or greater punctuation if the syntax requires it). 1978N. & Q. Oct. 396/1 Each octosyllabic couplet is written as one line, divided by a mid-line punctum. |