| 释义 |
breviary|ˈbriːvɪərɪ|
Also 6–7 breuiarie, 7 breauarye, breaviary, breviari.
[ad. L. breviārium ‘summary, abridgement’, from neuter of breviārius adj. ‘abridged’, f. brevi-s short.]
1. a. A brief statement, summary, epitome. ? Obs.
1547Boorde Brev. Health Pref. 5 b, Namynge this booke accordyng to the matter, which is, the Breuiary of health. 1580North Plutarch 421 Lucullus..layed a great wager..that he would write the Breviary of the Marsean Wars in Verse or Prose. 1635N. R. tr. Camden's Hist. Eliz. ii. 139 marg. note, A breaviary of the Queene of Scots discourse. 1667E. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. iii. x. (1743) 224 The Navy Office, Excise Office, etc. etc., are of lesser Note than can be particularized in this Breviary. 1728Newton Chronol. Amended Introd. 2 Hippias, the Elean..published a breviary or list of the Olympic Victors. 1801W. Playfair (title) Statistical Breviary, showing the Resources of every State in Europe.
†b. transf. and fig.; cf. epitome.
1609Bp. Andrewes Serm. II. 243 This little word is a breviary of all that good is. 1628Feltham Resolves i. xli. Wks. (1677) 67 In all which he is but the great worlds Breviary. 1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. xv. §27 Christs discipline was the breviary of all the wisdom of the best men.
2. a. In the Roman Catholic Church, the book containing the ‘Divine Office’ for each day, which those who are in orders are bound to recite.
The Office consists of psalms, collects and ‘lections’ or readings from the Scripture and the lives of the Saints. Those who are only in ‘Minor Orders’, i.e. below the grade of sub-deacon, are not required to say Office.
1611Bible Pref. 9 What alterations haue they made..of their Seruice bookes, Portesses, and Breuiaries. 1794D'Israeli Cur. Lit. (1848) I. 17 The psalms of a breviary or the prayers of a missal. 1832tr. Sismondi's Ital. Rep. viii. 178 He recited his breviary. [1836J. H. Newman Tracts for Times No. 75 The word Breviarium first occurs in..the eleventh century, and is used to denote a compendium or systematic arrangement of the devotional offices of the Church.] 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 204 While breviaries and mass books were printed at Oxford under a royal licence..Baxter was in gaol; Howe was in exile.
b. fig.
1826C. Butler Grotius xi, It was the breviary of all French aspirants to political distinction. 1877Shields Final Philos. 46 Montaigne of Bordeaux..whose sprightly ‘Essays’, more Pagan than Christian, have been styled the breviary of free-thinkers. 1878Morley Diderot II. 115 She habitually called the Spirit of Laws the breviary of Kings.
c. fig. phr. matter of breviary (= matiere de breviaire, Rabelais, Pantagruel IV. viii): a thing that admits of no question or doubt.
1694Motteux tr. Rabelais iv. viii. 35 It is written Mihi vindictam, &c. matter of breviary, Mark ye me; that's holy stuffe. 1889Sat. Rev. 12 Jan. 29/1 It is a matter of breviary with Gladstonians that Unionist journals are not to be trusted. 1894Ibid. 27 Oct. 463 Is it not..rather matter of controversy than matter of breviary whether the distinction applies? |