| 释义 |
A|eɪ|
the first letter of the Roman Alphabet, and of its various subsequent modifications (as were its prototypes Alpha of the Greek, and Aleph of the Phœnician and old Hebrew); representing originally in English, as in Latin, the ‘low-back-wide’ vowel, formed with the widest opening of jaws, pharynx, and lips. The plural has been written aes, A's, As. from A to Z: see Z 3.
c1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 481 And by þat cry men knaw þan Whether it be man or weman, For when it es born it cryes swa. If it be man it says a! a! That þe first letter is of þe nam Of our forme-fader Adam. c1386Chaucer Prol. 161 On which was first i-write a crowned A, And after, Amor vincit omnia. 1401Pol. Poems II. 57 I know not an a [A⃩] from the wynd-mylne, ne a b [B] from a bole-foot. 1678Butler Hudib. iii. i. 1006 And loue your Loues with A's and B's. 1765Tucker Light of Nat. ii. 89 Tully tells us, a hog has been known to make a perfect letter A with his snout upon the ground; but nobody ever saw, or thought it possible to see, the whole poem of Ennius scratched out in that manner: and I believe he might have added safely, that no man ever saw a single A written by a hog, without a multitude of other irregular scratches round about it. a1842Tennyson Epic 50 Mouthing out his hollow oes and aes, Deep-chested music.
The sounds now represented by A are thus symbolized in this work:—
1. |eɪ|in name|neɪm|
2. |ɛə|in bare|bɛə(r)|
3. |æ|in man|mæn|
4. |ɑː|in father|ˈfɑːðə(r)|
5. |ɔː|in water|ˈwɔːtə(r)|
6. |ɒ|in want|wɒnt|
The vowel in chant, past, varies with different speakers from 3 to 4.
1 and 2 are also commonly represented by the digraphs ai, ay, as in pain, pay, pair |peɪn, peɪ, pɛə(r)|; and 5 by au, aw, as in laud, law |lɔːd, lɔː|. Ai, ay rarely represent a diphthong |aɪ|, as in ay, Isaiah |aɪ, aɪˈzaɪə|; au is a diphthong |aʊ| only in foreign words.
In unaccented syllables these vowels are modified, and obscured; thus:—
7. |ɪ|in village, marriage|ˈvɪlɪdʒ, ˈmærɪdʒ|
8. |ɪ/ə|in separate, adj.|ˈsɛpərət, -ɪt|
9. |ə|in lunar, amœba|ˈluːnə(r), əˈmiːbə|
In rapid utterance the ə may become a mere voice glide, or entirely disappear, as separate adj. |ˈsɛpərət, ˈsɛp(ə)rət, ˈsɛprət|. These phonetic variations in actual speech are reflected in variant spellings like mackarel, mackerel, mackrel; abanet, abnet; caravel, carvel; Catharine, Catherine, Cathrine; dependant, dependent; and common ‘mistakes’ in spelling, such as seperate.
II. The letters of the alphabet, or some of them, are also used to indicate serial order and distinguish things in a series, as the notes of the musical scale, the ‘quires’ or sheets of a book, classes of ships, propositions in logic, quantities in algebra, points, and hence lines and figures in geometry. As the order is in some cases fixed, A or a has some specialized uses:
1. In Music: The 6th note of the diatonic scale of C major, or the first note of the relative minor scale of C, corresponding to la in the Tonic Sol-fa notation. Also, the scale of a composition with A as its key-note; as ‘a symphony in A’.
1609Douland Ornith. Microl. 22 In the first part set A Base, in the third D sol re, in the fifth A lamire. 1806J. W. Callcott Gramm. of Music The notes of Music are named from the first seven letters of the alphabet, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. When the Melody, or Tune, exceeds these seven, the same series of letters must be repeated. 1880Grove Dict. Mus. I. 192 The beautiful and passionate Sonata in A which was inspired by and dedicated to his [Beethoven's] friend Madame Ertmann.
2. In Nautical language: see A1 below.
3. In Logic: a universal affirmative.
1866Mansel (in Bowen Logic 201) A is declared by Aristotle to be the most difficult proposition to establish, and the easiest to overthrow.
4. In Abstract reasoning, hypothetical argumentation, Law, etc. A means any one thing or person, B another, C a third, etc.; as, A becomes surety to B for C; C fails in his engagements, on which B, etc.
1870Bowen Logic iii. 49 Every conceivable thing is either A or not-A. Of course A and not-A, taken together, include the universe.
5. In Algebra: a, b, c, and other early letters of the alphabet are used to express known quantities, as x, y, z are to express the unknown.
6. Designating a first-class road.
1921Autocar 29 Oct. 829/2 Those roads, however, which have already received numbers are all of the first, or A, category and it is by no means probable that their numbers will suffer any change after once being fixed... Six boundary roads radiating from London are taken as the basis. Road A1 is that from London to Edinburgh; A2 runs from London to Dover; A3 London to Portsmouth.
7. Used of a type of blood.
1927Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. LXXXVIII. 1422/1 Dr. Karl Landsteiner has suggested the substitution of the well known letters O, A, B and AB for the Jansky numbers I, II, III and IV and the Moss numbers IV, II, III and I. The letters will..express the actual constitution of the blood corpuscles with respect to iso-agglutination, as far as it concerns the separation of the groups. 1928Jrnl. Exper. Med. XLVII. 757 They separate the human bloods into four sharply defined groups designated as O, A, B, and AB.
8. Sociol. Designating the highest (or † lowest) of a series of social classes; now spec. the higher managerial, administrative, or professional class; a member of this. AB (Sociol.): pl., the membership of the two highest social classes A and B; also in sing. and as adj.
1889C. Booth Life & Labour I. i. ii. 33 The 8 classes into which I have divided these people are: A. The lowest class of occasional labourers, and semi-criminals. B. Casual earnings—‘very poor’ [etc.]. 1910F. G. D'aeth in Sociol. Rev. III. 270 The present class structure is based upon different standards of life... These varying standards tend to fall into seven groups..A. The Loafer..B. Low-skilled labour..C. Artizan..D. Smaller Shopkeeper and clerk..E. Smaller Business Class..F. Professional and Administrative Class..G. The Rich. 1936Harrison & Mitchell Home Market xii. 59 Blue Symbols represent A grade—where chief income earner receives {pstlg}10 per week or more. 1950D. C. Jones in Brit. Jrnl. Sociol. I. 51 It will simplify both our analysis and your classification if you begin by thinking in terms of five main social classes, which we have lettered in descending order A, B, C, D, E. 1968M. Abrams in J. A. Jackson Social Stratification vi. 135 In the middle 1950's,..the National Readership Survey came under the direction of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (I.P.A.)... Interviewers recorded the occupation of each respondent... The stratification of respondents into six grades—A, B, C1, C2, D and E—was based exclusively on occupation. 1984Social Trends (Central Statistical Office) No. 14. x. 142 Almost every household in social classes A and B possessed a dictionary in May 1982.
1966Punch 10 Aug. 212/1 We have shown..that the ABs watch the same kind of programmes as everybody else. 1969Listener 31 July 164 Such trusts appeal primarily to AB readers. 1976New Society 1 Jan. 5/1 Upper middle class ABs living in the prosperous southern counties. 1986Age (Melbourne) 18 Jan. 8/4 The social niceties..are very A, B. When I say ‘dick’, Liz pounces.
9. Designating a range of international standard paper sizes (as A0, A1, A2, etc.), based on a proportion of 1: √2, with each size in the series having half the surface area of the previous one (see quot. 1937). Cf. B II. 2 (v), C II. 4.
1932Industr. Standardization III. 203/2 The European main or A-series of paper sizes... The basic sheet with an area of one square meter is designated A0 (A zero); the next smaller sheet by A1; half of this by A2, etc. 1937E. J. Labarre Dict. Paper 277/1 The basic sizes are therefore: A-series = A0 = 841 × 1189 mm; B-series = B0 = 1000 × 1414 mm; C-series = C0 = 917 × 1297 mm. 1958B.S.I. News Nov. 17/2 Another manufacturer..has laid down stocks of its ‘Wove Writing’ paper in three sizes from which the ‘A’ sizes can..be cut. 1962F. T. Day Introd. Paper vii. 71 At present there is much discussion of the advantages of what are termed A and B paper sizes. 1982Financial Times 25 Oct. i. 12/7 The new chassis..is about the size of an A4 sheet of paper. 1983Electronics 1 Dec. 3e (heading) Linear CCD array senses images on A3-size pages.
10. A-side, of a single-playing gramophone record: (the music recorded on) the side that is being promoted; contr. with B-side s.v. B II 2 b (vi).
1962Melody Maker 7 July 10/1 No doubt the A side will get plenty of spins. 1968Guardian 5 Jan. 18/4 The seven-man band arrived at the London recording studio to make the ‘A’ side of a new ‘single’. 1970J. Lennon in J. Wenner Lennon Remembers (1971) 49 Maybe if he was feeling guilty that he had most of the A-sides or something he'd give me a solo. 1984Sounds 1 Dec. 6/5 The A-side features the inimitable talents of Jim Thirlwell on lead vocal.
III. Abbreviations. (Many abbreviations given here with the full stop are frequently used without it.)
A., a., a., stands for: (1) anno, in the year, as A.D. anno domini, in the year of our Lord; A.M. anno mundi, in the year of the world; A.U.C. anno urbis conditæ, in the year of the city (Rome) having been founded; (2) ante, as ‘a.m.’ ante meridiem, before noon; a. 1600 or a 1600, before 1600; (3) adjective; active (verb); (4) artium, as A.B. artium baccalaureus; A.M. artium magister; which in England are now written B.A., M.A., Bachelor, and Master, of Arts; (5) alto; (6) accepted (of bills); (7) Associate, as A.L.S. Associate of the Linnæan Society; (8) R.A. Royal Artillery, Royal Academy or Academician; F.S.A. Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; F.R.A.S. Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and many similar titles; (9) A.B. able-bodied seaman; (10) a or aa in Med. ana, q.v.; A, adult, designating films suitable for exhibition to adult audiences; A., a., ampere; A, atom(ic); A, in {pstlg}A, Australian; Å., Ångström; A.A., Alcoholics Anonymous (orig. U.S.); also, a member of this organization; A.A., A.-A., anti-aircraft; A.A., Automobile Association; A.A.A., Amateur Athletic Association; A.A.A., American Automobile Association; A.A.F., Auxiliary Air Force; A.A.M., air-to-air missile; A. and R. (see quots.); A.B., Bachelor of Arts; A.B.C., Aerated Bread Company; A.B.C., Australian Broadcasting Corporation (formerly Commission); also, † Australian Broadcasting Company; A.B.C.A., Army Bureau of Current Affairs, an organization which provided troops with information about current affairs during the 1939–45 war; ABM, anti-ballistic missile (orig. U.S.); cf. I.C.B.M. s.v. I III; ABS, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene; freq. attrib., esp. designating a group of metallizable plastics consisting of a rubbery phase dispersed in a hard phase and with uses that include tubing, parts of car bodies, and domestic articles; A.C., A/C, aircraftman; A.C., a.c., alternating current; A.C.C., anodal (or anodic) closure contraction; A.C.C.M., (also with pronunc. ˈækəm), Advisory Council for the Church's Ministry; AC/DC, AC-DC [humorously after A.C. and D.C. (alternating and direct electrical current): see above and D III. 3] slang (orig. U.S.), of a person: bisexual; A.C.L.U., American Civil Liberties Union; A.C.P., African, Caribbean, and Pacific (countries), spec. the signatories to the Lomé Convention (see quot. 19752); A.C.S., antireticular cytotoxic serum; A.C.T., Australian Capital Territory; A.C.T.H., adrenocorticotrop(h)ic hormone; A.C.T.T., Association of Cinematograph, Television, and Allied Technicians; A.C.T.U., Australian (formerly also Australasian) Council of Trade Unions; A.C.V., air-cushion vehicle (see air-cushion (b) s.v. air n.1 B. II); A.C.W., aircraftwoman; A.D.C., aide-de-camp, hence A.D.C.-ship, aide-de-campship; A.D.F., automatic direction finder; A.D.G.B., Air Defence of Great Britain; ADH, antidiuretic hormone; A.D.P., automatic data processing; A.D.(S.), autograph document (signed); A.E.F., American Expeditionary Forces; cf. B.E.F. s.v. B III. 1; A.E.U., Amalgamated Engineering Union; A.F., a.f., audio frequency; A.F.C., Air Force Cross; A.F.M., Air Force Medal; A.F.S., Auxiliary Fire Service; A.F.V., armoured fighting vehicle; A.G., Adjutant-General; A.G., Attorney-General; A.G.M., annual general meeting; A.G.R., advanced gas-cooled reactor; A.H., Anno Hegiræ (see hegira); A.I., Air Interception; A.I., A.I.D., A.I.H., artificial insemination (by donor, husband); AI, artificial intelligence; A.I.D., Aeronautical Inspection Directorate (in quot. 1918 Department); A.I.D. (pron. eɪd) (U.S.), Agency for International Development, established in 1961 to give economic aid to underdeveloped countries; A.I.F., Australian Imperial Force; AIM (pron. eɪm) (U.S.), American Indian Movement; a.k.a. (colloq., orig. U.S.), also known as; A.K.C., American Kennel Club; A level, Advanced level (of the General Certificate of Education examination); A.L.P., Australian Labour Party; A.L.(S.), autograph letter (signed); ALU (Computing), arithmetic and logic(al) unit; A.M., Albert Medal; A.M., amplitude modulation; cf. F.M. s.v. F III. 3 a; A.M.A., American Medical Association; A.M.D.G. [L. ad maiorem Dei gloriam], to the greater glory of God (esp. as a motto of the Jesuits); A.M.G., Allied Military Government; A.N.C., African National Congress; A.N.(S.), autograph note (signed); A.O.N.B., area of outstanding natural beauty; cf. S.S.S.I. s.v. S I. 4 a; A.P., Associated Press; APB (U.S.), all-points bulletin (see all III); A.P.C. (Austral. and U.S.), aspirin (= acetylsalicylic acid), phenacetin, and caffeine, used as an analgesic or antipyretic; a mixture, tablet, or capsule containing these; A.P.I., American Petroleum Institute (used spec. with reference to a scale for expressing the relative density of oil, developed by the Institute, in which higher values correspond to lower densities); APL [now usu. expanded as ‘a programming language’, but see quot. 1966], a high-level computer programming language developed by IBM in the mid-1960s; APR, annual(ized) percentage rate (of interest on money lent on credit); A.P.T., advanced passenger train; ARC, AIDS-related complex; A.R.P. (see air-raid); ASA (also with pronunc. ˈeɪsə), American Standards Association (used spec. in Photogr. with reference to a standard scale for rating film speed); A.S.A.P., a.s.a.p. (also with pronunc. ˈeɪsæp), as soon as possible; A.S.B., Alternative Service Book; A.S.C., Army Service Corps; ASEAN, Asean (pron. ˈeɪsɪən), Association of South-East Asian Nations; ASH (pron. æʃ), Action on Smoking and Health; ASL, American Sign Language; A.S.M., air-to-surface missile; A.S.M., assistant stage-manager; A/S.R.S., Air-Sea Rescue Service; A.S.T.M.S. (also with pronunc. ˈæstəmz), Association of Scientific, Technical, and Managerial Staffs; A.S.V., air(craft) to surface vessel; A.T.A., Air Transport Auxiliary; A.T.&T. (U.S.), American Telephone and Telegraph Company; A.T.C., Air Traffic Control; A.T.C., Air Training Corps; A.T.C., Automatic Train Control; ATM (Banking, orig. U.S.), automated (orig. automatic) teller machine; A.T.S., animal tub-sized; ATV, all-terrain vehicle; A.T.V., Associated Television; Å.U., A.U., Ångström Unit; A.U. = astronomical unit s.v. astronomical a. 3; AUEW, Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers; AV, alternative vote; A.V., Authorized Version (of the Bible); A.V.H., initials of Hungarian secret police, also A.V.O.; A.V.M., Air Vice-Marshal; A.W.O.L., absent without leave (orig. U.S.); A.W.U., Australian Workers' Union; AZT, azidothymidine.
See also (as main entries) ABTA, ACAS, ADAS, AIDS, A-OK, Apex n.2, n.3, Apra, ASCII, F., AWACS.
1914Times 16 Feb. 6/2 Since the inception of the board [British Board of Film Censors]..627 have been passed for ‘public’ exhibition with the ‘*A’ certificate. 1935Ld. Macmillan Local Govt. Law & Admin. III. 166 It is the practice of the Board of Film Censors to distinguish between films suitable for universal exhibition (‘U’ films) and films suitable for exhibition to adult audiences (‘A’ films) which by implication are unsuitable for children. 1936Sunday Express 13 Dec. 14/1 Cinema Theatres. Academy, Ox.-st. Finnish Epic ‘Fredlos’ (A).
1889S. R. Bottone Electric Bells ii. 56 Or if we like to use the initials of volts, ampères, and ohms..we may write V / R = *A, or Volts / Ohms = Ampères. 1937Rep. Joint Comm. Chem. Soc. Faraday Soc. etc. 11 Ampère (in sub-units) = a.
1945Daily Mirror 8 Aug. 1 (headline) Jap Radio says Evacuate—'Ware *A-Bombs. 1954Britannica Bk. of Year 637/2 A-test, a test explosion of an atomic bomb.
1936Whitaker's Alman. 1937 810/2 Total imports, 1935–36..{pstlg}*A104,687,000.
1941Sat. Even. Post 1 Mar. 10/3 The city editor, the assistant city editor and a nationally known reporter were *A.A.'s. 1943A.A. (Alcoholic Foundation) 1 As an active member of A.A. since 1939, I feel myself a useful member of the human race at last. 1955M. McCarthy Charmed Life i. 13 Drink..was one of the chief local dangers... In a village of four hundred souls, there was..a branch of A.A., with regular Wednesday meetings. 1977M. French Women's Room (1978) ii. 117, I keep thinking I just have to get through today, you know? Like an AA.
1914Times Book of Navy 145 The abbreviations used in the lists are as follows:..*A.A., Anti-air-craft guns. 1917‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 157 The A.-A. batteries have only worried us to the extent of half a dozen shells. 1943N. & Q. CLXXXIV. 107/2 A.-A. barrage was audible from twenty miles away.
1905Autocar 14 Oct. 443/1 Commonsense precautions taken with regard to villages, and at dangerous points, do not concern the *A.A., for therein it is considered lies the duty of the policeman. 1937Discovery July liv/2 (Advt.), Victoria Hotel, A.A. H. & C. Electricity.
1882Amateur Athl. Assoc.: Rules, Laws to be observed at every Athletic Meeting held under the sanction of the *A.A.A. 1955Times 20 July 3/5 B. S. Hewson, the A.A.A. mile champion.
1902Automobile May 1945/1 (heading) Constitution and by-laws of the *A.A.A. 1955Times 4 Aug. 10/2 Colonel Hallington, the chairman of the A.A.A. contest board, said that the decision had been prompted by the accident at Le Mans. 1973C. W. Gear Introd. Computer Sci. vii. 311 Suppose that you have to design an online system for the AAA. It must store the road map of the United States. 1982Financial Times 6 Dec. 1 The AAA contract..constitutes the major portion of Cook's U.S. travellers' cheque business.
1925Flight 15 Jan. 32/2 The designating numbers of the *A.A.F. units will start with 600.
1958Aero-Space Terms 1/1 *AAM, Air-to-air missile.
1958Times 26 May 7/6 *A and R men, dee-jays, pluggers—to use the abbreviated titles by which artists and recording managers, disc jockeys and exploitation men are known. 1959TV Times 14 Aug. 11/1 It all revolves around someone known as an ‘A and R man’. The common translation of ‘A and R’ is Artists and Repertoire—and it is for these two items that the A and R man is responsible.
1773Boston News-Let. 29 Apr. 2/2 Last Friday departed this life..John Alden, *A.B., aged 22. 1842Knickerbocker XIX. 429 A man may..write A.B. after his name, and even A.M., and be no great things either. 1895Rep. to Harvard Club of Chicago 2 (D.A.E.), Educational qualifications equivalent to the Harvard A.B.
1894Punch 15 Dec. 285/1, I pass an *A.B.C., Where I purchase two or three Cakes and scones. 1941E. Blunden Thomas Hardy 120 Afterwards we went to a Lyons tea-shop, at which he [Hardy] was a little alarmed, being used only to an A.B.C.
1931Austral. Broadcasting Co. Ltd. Year Bk. 1930 24 (heading) The widespread ramifications of the *A.B.C. 19331st Ann. Rep. Austral. Broadcasting Commission 9 A.B.C. (Sydney) Symphony Orchestra. 1957‘N. Shute’ On Beach iv. 132 The A.B.C.'s been doing a good job in telling people just the way things are. 1959New Statesman 31 Jan. 151/1 The Australian Broadcasting Commission..is subject to constant pressure, much of it is organised, and ABC officials need remarkable stamina to resist political and sectarian attack. 1984Daily Tel. 7 May 17/4 Air hostesses will become flight attendants and newsmen on the ABC will be journalists.
1942Rep. Comm. on Amenities in Women's Services (Cmd. 6384) 44 *ABCA came into existence in September, 1941, to remedy this ignorance and to mitigate boredom.
1963Missiles & Rockets 16 Sept. 14 (heading) Soviets may have ultimate *ABM. 1984Daily Tel. 2 Feb. 18/6 The Air Vice-Marshal claims that Russia has violated the SALT and ABM treaties.
1964Brit. Plastics Year Bk. (ed. 34) iv. 229/1 *A.B.S. Fabricators. 1967Times Rev. Industry June 76/2 Familiar uses include..PVC or ABS..for decorative use in fascia boards. 1983McGraw-Hill Encycl. Chem. 792/1 Ease of fabrication by a variety of methods, including typical metalworking methods such as cold stamping, has led to the development of new uses for ABS resins.
1889E. J. Houston Dict. Electr. Words 8 *A.C.C.—An abbreviation used in medical electricity for Anodic Closure Contraction, or the contraction observed on closing the circuit when the anode is lying over the muscle. 1893Dunglison Dict. Med. Sci. (ed. 21) p. vii, A.C.C., anodal closure contraction.
1967Church of England Yearbk. 177 Candidates for courses..are specially selected by *ACCM. 1984Oxf. Diocesan Mag. Feb. 15/2 Calls for dis-establishment from Evangelicals, and some Catholics, for an ‘all members ministry’ (to quote ACCM).
1960Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 1/2 *ac-dc, ac/dc,..bisexual. Some jocular use since c1940. 1972D. Lees Zodiac 115 Being suspected of being AC/DC isn't going to ruin anyone these days. 1974K. Millett Flying (1975) i. 91 You can also tell Time Magazine you're bisexual, be AC-DC in the international edition. 1983Him May 7/2 I'm, well, a bit that way myself, if you follow... You know, AC/DC..half and half.
1936Amer. Mercury Dec. 385/2 The fiction of the ‘Liberalism’ of the *ACLU has been firmly implanted in the popular mind. 1980Economist 21 June 28/3 The ACLU may have a strong case.
1975Ann. Reg. 1974 381 Jamaica's Minister of Trade..led the *ACP group. 1975Keesing's Contemp. Archives 27050/1 A five-year convention establishing an overall trading and economic co-operation relationship between the European Economic Community and 46 developing African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries was signed in Lomé (the capital of Togo) on Feb. 28. 1983Financial Times 4 Oct. 14 It offers some protection against declining prices for a range of ACP commodities through the Stabex mechanism; and it is committed to buying 1.3m tons of ACP sugar a year.
1938Official Year Bk. Australia 390 *A.C.T. 1945S. J. Baker Austral. Lang. x. 187 We use A.C.T. or F.C.T. to denote the Australian or Federal Capital Territory where Canberra is situated.
1957Film & TV Technician XXIII. 5/3 The new *A.C.T.T. badges and brooches can be obtained from Head Office. 1974Socialist Worker 26 Oct. 11/2 The ACTT..organise more than 18,000 film and TV workers. 1985Listener 28 Feb. 13/3 The ACTT has taken a strong interest in the development of the independent sector.
1928Econ. Rec. May 108 The 1927 Congress..set itself to construct machinery that might act adequately in the field of Interstate industrial disputes. Hence the new Australasian Council of Trades Unions (*A.C.T.U.). 1972J. Belfrage in G. W. Turner Good Austral. Eng. vi. 108 This is another local reference..to the active pro-labour work of the new President of the ACTU. 1986Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 3 July 4/1 The acting Opposition Leader..said the commission should..not give in to ACTU and Government blackmail tactics.
1962Flight Internat. LXXXI. 113 Free-moving *ACVs will be going into business also, together with hydrofoil craft. 1975Aviation Week & Space Technol. 1 Sept. 17 Slightly smaller and considerably smaller versions of the Russian ACV craft are shown at top and bottom.
1837E. Eden Let. 28 Oct. in Up the Country (1866) I. i. 9 The *A.D.C.'s are very apt to assemble over our cabins at night. 1888Kipling Plain Tales from Hills 10 The A.-D.-C. in Waiting. 1896Punch 4 Jan. 5/2 Permitted to retain his A.D.C.-ship after promotion from field-rank.
1948Shell Aviation News No. 123, 10/2 When homing on a ground station with the *ADF the passage of the aircraft over the station is indicated by a 180° reversal of bearing within a few seconds.
1926Flight 6 May 272/2 The Fighting and Wessex Bombing Areas are under the A.O.C.-in-C., *A.D.G.B. 1944Times 1 Mar. 4/5 Sir Archibald Sinclair disclosed for the first time that the organization responsible for the air defence of this country is now known as A.D.G.B. (Air Defence of Great Britain).
1951H. W. Smith Kidney x. 245 It is only in birds and mammals that *ADH increases the tubular reabsorption of water. 1983Oxf. Textbk. Med. II. xviii. 20/2 Reliable assays for ADH in plasma or urine are now available.
1958Engineering 4 Apr. 424/1 Automatic data processing (or *ADP) is the modern nervous system of corporate bodies.
1861Sotheby & Wilkinson Catal. 1 July Tenison Mss. 36 A. signifies Autograph S. signifies Signed L. signifies Letter D. signifies Document. Ibid. 50 Colbert, A.L.S. to Cavalier Bernino, 1665—Perrault (the architect of the Louvre), *A.D.S. with portrait. 1912F. K. Walter Abbrev. & Techn. Terms Book Catal. 1 A.D., Autograph document. A.D.S., Autograph document signed.
1917U.S. Army A.E.F. Gen. Staff Press Rev. 12 Dec. 1/1 Issued by the Second Section General Staff, G.H.Q.*A.E.F. 1977H. Fast Immigrants iii. 177 He joined in the singing of ‘Smiles’..one of the theme songs of the AEF.
1921Justice 24 Feb. 6/2 (heading) The N.U.R. and the *A.E.U. and also the R.C.A. a1974R. Crossman Diaries (1976) II. 497, I spent the morning with the old A.E.U. members who have A.E.U. pensions.
1919Whitaker's Alman. 144/1 The Air Force Cross. 1918—*A.F.C.—Instituted..for acts of courage or devotion to duty when flying, although not in active operations against the enemy.
1919London Gaz. (Suppl. 5) 19 Dec. 15840/2 Actg. Serjeant Elmo O'Neal Bearden, *A.F.M. (South Russia). 1921S. C. Johnson Medal Collector 237 A.F.M.—As for the A.F.C., but the width of the stripes is 1/16 of an inch... The D.F.M. and A.F.M. ribbon will show at the top corner nearest to the left arm a triangle of white.
1939War Weekly 1 Dec. 166/2 Flying Officer R. C. Graveley, O.B.E., receiving congratulations from members of a Leytonstone *A.F.S. station. 1940New Statesman 21 Dec. 642 Most of its best workers are busy on A.R.P., or A.F.S., or evacuation, or some other emergency job.
1939War Illustr. 18 Nov. p. iii/1 Wartime Abbreviations:..*A.F.V., Armoured Fighting Vehicle. 1942Wardens' Bulletin (City of Oxford Civil Defence) No. 53, 18 June 3 Vehicles. Very dark dull grey with dark brown disruptive design. A.F.V.'s have black cross outlined in white.
1913W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. 7/1 *A.G., Adjutant-General. 1914W. S. Churchill in M. Gilbert Winston S. Churchill (1972) III. Compan. i. 185 A.G., R.M. will make arrangements for their reception in the camps. 1957H. H. Jenkins Diction of ‘Yank’ vi. 55 Many official and quasi-official abbreviations were used in GI speech the world over. The most widely known ones included..‘A.G.’ (the adjutant general, or his office, or a member of his staff).
1889A. J. Balfour Let. 11 Apr. (Br. Libr. Add. MSS 49827 f. 845), My dear *A.G.
a1912W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 7/2 *A.G.M. (gen.), Annual General Meeting. 1952Secretaries Jrnl. 2 Aug. 99/2 It is surely not the intention to enable even private companies to hold their A.G.M.'s on paper with the members in various different places. 1961Architect & Building News 21 June 814/1 Mr. Henry Brooke..spoke up for the need for better architecture when addressing the AGM of the Council for Visual Education recently. 1984National Trust Spring 23/3 The present inordinately long period between June and the AGM caused unnecessary barriers.
1960Gloss. Atomic Terms (H.M.S.O.) 2 *A.G.R., advanced gas-cooled reactor. 1961Ann. Reg. 1960 405 The most advanced of the two schemes was the Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor (AGR), the prototype of which was under construction at Windscale. 1983Listener 14 July 6/1 The American reactor will produce five times as much intermediate waste as the AGR.
1788Gibbon Decl. & F. V. lii. 418 The foundations of Bagdad were laid *a.h. 145, a.d. 762. 1940F. Stark Winter in Arabia iv. 25 It [sc. the wooden minbar] belonged to the year a.h. 693 (1293 a.d.).
1945Electronic Engin. XVII. 683 With the Battle of Britain by night must be associated the use of *A.I. or Air Interception. 1945Flight 21 June 664/2 Later on came airborne interception equipment (A.I.), which comprised a radar set in the aircraft by means of which the target objective could be registered, stalked and attacked.
1971New Scientist 2 Sept. 525 The first major effort of the *AI scientists was directed towards writing computer programs to translate automatically between languages. 1985Business Week 1 July 78 Sales for AI technology will top {pstlg}719 million this year.
1918C. Bright Telegr., Aeronaut. & War xix. 291 Steps should be taken..to introduce into the Aeronautical Inspection Department (*A.I.D.) more who have had a training that would especially fit them for the work in a technical sense. 1931Flight 16 Jan. 56/2 Those who occupy those front offices such as the A.I.D. and the Meteorological Office staff.
1961J. F. Kennedy in N.Y. Times 27 May 2/5 Responsibility..will be assigned to a single agency—the Agency for International Development... The new agency—*A.I.D.—will be headed by an administrator of Under Secretary rank. 1983N.Y. Times 11 Dec. 15/1 The inquiries..involve a {pstlg}14 million A.I.D.-financed contract.
1918Official Year Bk. Australia XI. 1019 Little difficulty was experienced..in..obtaining and training horses for the mounted units of the *A.I.F. 1940War Illustr. 16 Feb. 121 The Second A.I.F.—Australian Imperial Force—consisting of men who have volunteered for service either at home or abroad.
1971Minneapolis Tribune 16 Aug. 12/2 The occupation began..when 25 Indians, most of them members of the American Indian Movement (*AIM) broke a window. 1983N.Y. Times 11 Dec. 33/1 Whether or not the AIM Indians were involved, it was over quickly.
1955R. J. Schwartz Compl. Dict. Abbrev. 8/1 *aka, also known as. 1970New Yorker 5 Dec. 142/1 (Advt.), Cassius Clay, a.k.a. Muhammud Ali. 1982Times 8 Nov. 11/1 He is perhaps a shade too comfortable and not enough of a cad as Johnson, aka Ramirez, the outlaw.
1902Dog Fancier Jan. 3/2 The dog show will be under *A.K.C. rules. 1983Christian Science Monitor 18 Aug. b 22 It [sc. the Dog Museum of America] is located in the same building where the AKC has its headquarters.
1951Joint Matric. Board Gen. Cert. Exam. Reg. 6 If a language is to be specially approved at the *A level. 1952Jrnl. Educ. May 220/2 The award of an ‘O’ level pass on the ‘A’ level papers.
1922Round Table Mar. 409 The federal conference of the *A.L.P., held at Perth in June, 1918. 1973Nation Rev. (Melbourne) 31 Aug. 1434/1 Will the ALP grow a new set of wings?
1851Puttick & Simpson Catal. 29 July, Autograph Letters 1, Letters autograph and signed are thus marked ‘*A.L.s.’
1962Automatic Data Processing Gloss. (U.S. Bureau of Budget) 2/2 *ALU. 1984Byte Jan. 135/1 A basic operation of the ALU will be to accept two 16-bit inputs and to produce a 32-bit product.
1918Times 6 Sept. 3/2 It is notified in Army Orders that officers.. who have been awarded the Albert Medal are now entitled to add the distinctive letters ‘*A.M.’ after their names.
1944*A.M. [see amplitude 6 d]. 1962E. Snow Other Side of River (1963) xlvi. 352 The hi-fi set and typewriter have already been stolen and only a worthless AM set remains. 1982Giant Bk. Electronics Projects i. 27 Reduce hash picked up on AM broadcast sets.
1911Sunset Sept. 284/1 Now and then the ducks left their pond and waddled pompously across the lawn, as if to let the *A.M.A. know that the ‘quacks’ had a right to membership, too. 1959New Statesman 13 June 833/3 One cannot help wondering whether obstruction by the AMA has played any part in preventing Eckstein's book from being published earlier. 1984N.Y. Times 24 Feb. 1a/6 (heading) A.M.A. bids doctors voluntarily freeze their fees for a year.
[1870Catholic Times 13 Aug 1/3 (heading) A.M.G.D.] 1877E. S. Dallas Kettner's Bk. of Table 279 Another liqueur, Bénédictine..is consecrated with the letters *A.M.D.G. (Ad majorem Dei gloriam). 1965N. Freeling Criminal Conversation ii. xiii. 148 We had to write at the top of the page..the Jesuit motto A.M.D.G. 1985Church Times 29 Nov. 13/1 Men and women must be freed from oppression. But freed for what? By way of answer it is always possible to fall back on the Jesuits' formula AMDG.
1953Keesing's Contemp. Archives 13006/1 Mr. Albert Luthuli (president-general of the *A.N.C.). 1959New Statesman 6 June 779/1 The ensuing ban on Luthuli was timed to prevent him..from presiding..at a special national ANC conference in Johannesburg. 1984Daily Tel. 24 Mar. 16/1 For many years the ANC was a peaceful organisation dedicated to changing South Africa through non-violent means.
1912F. K. Walter Abbrev. & Techn. Terms Book Catal. 1 *A.N.S. Autograph note signed.
1957Ann. Rep. Council Preservation of Rural Eng. 1956–7 32/1 The Breckland area of Norfolk and Suffolk has also been considered..for designation as an *A.O.N.B. but rejected as unsuitable. 1973Times 21 Apr. 14/5 Official AONB status allows government grants to be paid for tree-planting and removal of eyesores and enhancement. 1981Economist 24 Jan. 72/2 Together national parks, AONBs and SSIs cover some 21% of the land area of England and Wales.
1879Chicago Tribune 4 Mar. 5/4 Now, the *A.P. may be a very wicked institution, but a ‘Monopoly’ it is not. 1947Mem. Evidence Subm. to Royal Comm. on Press i. 14 The full A.P. service is provided to Press Association and a selection of items is distributed to subscribers in this country. 1960Acronyms Dict. (Gale Research Co.) 38 *APB, all points bulletin. (Police call.) 1973A. Burton Police Telecommunications viii. 255 The necessity occurs..to broadcast to all listening ears and stations a variety of general information broadcasts... These involve..robberies, burglaries..and general informational broadcasts. It is for this reason that the term ‘all points bulletin (APB)’ was adopted as being more descriptive of the intended use than ‘general alarm’. 1979A. Hailey Overload iv. xvii. 382 A man..drove away in a Volkswagen van half an hour before the place was raided. The police have issued an APB for the van.
1943W. G. Sears Materia Medica for Nurses xi. 134 Tablets containing aspirin mixed with other drugs are..commonly used, e.g. Compound aspirin tablet... Tab. *A.P.C., containing aspirin.., phenacetin.., caffeine. 1970G. Jackson Let. 30 Mar. in Soledad Brother (1971) 200 When I ask for medication the M.T.A. gives me an APC or two.
1924Circular U.S. Bureau of Standards No. 154. 2 The American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. Bureau of Mines, and the U.S. Bureau of Standards in December, 1921, agreed to recommend that in the future only the scale based on the modulus 141.5 be used in the petroleum-oil industry, and that it be known as the *A.P.I. scale. 1958Times Rev. Industry June 59/1 Crude oil prices are usually quoted on a scale..the heavier oil commanding..say 2 cents a barrel for each degree A.P.I. more than the lighter. 1984N.Y. Times 26 Feb. ii. 39/2 Check the product's specific gravity (density and viscosity). It should have an API range between 30 and 40 degrees.
1966AFIPS Conf. Proc. XXIX. 677/2 *APL was conceived at the General Motors Research Laboratories to satisfy the need for convenient data handling techniques in a high-level language. Standing for associative programming language, it is designed to be embedded in PL/I as an aid to the user dealing with data structures in which associations are expressed. 1979Sci. Amer. Dec. 90/1 An even more highly developed language in terms of the manipulation of arrays, indeed the most sophisticated of any of the programming languages in this respect, is APL. 1984N.Y. Times 8 Jan. xii. 7/3 He taught himself how to program by sitting at a terminal with a book on APL.
1979Money Which? Sept. 502/2 There are plans to make all lenders quote an annual percentage rate of charge (*APR) worked out in a set way. 1983Which? Oct. 450/3 Ask for written details about payment—find out the difference between cash and credit prices, the terms of any loans you're offered, and what the APR is. 1986Oxford Times 15 Aug. 19/1 (Advt.), Fiat Uno 45... Total credit price {pstlg}4,432.63. 0% APR.
1969Railway Mag. Jan. 22/2 To overcome the lateral forces on passengers when such a fast train negotiates a curve, the *A.P.T. will incorporate a hydraulically-operated vehicle-body tilting mechanism which would be capable of ‘banking’ the bodies of the vehicles by up to 9 deg. to either side. 1971New Scientist 10 June 624/2 The APT is going to be the common or garden inter-city train of the future. 1976P. R. White Planning for Public Transport viii. 173 The first APTs to enter service will probably work the London-Glasgow run.
1984Time 5 Nov. 91/3 Some individuals will develop the full-blown syndrome, others will simply manifest the flulike symptoms of AIDS-related complex (*ARC). Ibid., Some ARC patients do get better. 1986N.Y. Rev. Bks. 16 Jan. 43/1 It was also held to be the cause of the milder form of the illness known as AIDS-related complex (ARC) — a group of symptoms including swollen lymph glands in several parts of the body, night sweating, substantial weight loss, and recurrent diarrhea.
1929Amer. Standards Assoc. Year Bk. 7/2 The *ASA limits itself strictly to those fields in which engineering methods apply. 1943Jrnl. Optical Soc. Amer. XXXIII. 479/2 For general civilian use it would be more satisfactory to employ a name indicating that this value was related to speed. The term American Standard Speed Number was..chosen... The initials ASA may be used in connection with numerical values of Speed Number when determined in accordance with the complete method. 1976Early Music Oct. 451/1 All films have a speed number on the carton—an ASA number—which indicates how sensitive the film is to light.
1955R. J. Schwartz Compl. Dict. Abbrev. 16/3 *ASAP,..as soon as possible (US Army). 1977Times Educ. Suppl. 21 Oct. 51/5 (Advt.), Required A.S.A.P.: Young enthusiastic teacher to take P.E. 1977Daily Tel. 7 Dec. 25 (Advt.), Do it a.s.a.p. He will be happy to talk to you. 1985Washington Post 11 Aug. g4/3 It is selfish and inconsiderate for a guest [at a party] to conclude that he/she will not be entertained adequately and must therefore bail out ASAP.
1978Church Times 14 July 4/4 To exclude the psalms from the *ASB would be to hasten their [sc. hymns'] decline. 1984Daily Tel. 8 Mar. 18/5 There are parishes who have welcomed the freshness of ASB services.
1906Army & Navy Gaz. 2 June 510/2 C.S.M. Yates, *A.S.C., Dublin. 1941W. Fortescue Trampled Lilies xxviii. 267 She continued to cope throughout the day, marshalling her men like a General of the A.S.C.
[1963F. D. Fawcett Cycl. Initials & Abbrev. 13/2 ASEA, Assocn. of S.E. Asia.] 1967Times 9 Aug. 4/1 Leaders of five Asian countries today called for collective action to prevent outside interference in the region..after signing the joint declaration setting up the new Association of South-East Asian Nations (*A.S.E.A.N.). 1968Economist 23 Mar. 33/1 We must not think that Asean is a common market. 1968Ann. Reg. 1967 91 Early in August, Malaysia and Singapore participated together with Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia in the establishment in Bangkok of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). 1977Bangladesh Times 19 Jan. 11/6 The meeting would mark the first anniversary of the ASEAN summit meeting in Bali last year. 1983Listener 2 June 16/1 Hanoi said it was pulling out an unspecified number of these as a gesture of good will towards Vietnam's non-Communist neighbours in ASEAN.
1968Christian Science Monitor 30 Jan. 5/1 Most recently there is the formation of the brand new Action on Smoking and Health (*ASH) to act as a legal arm of the antismoking forces. 1971C. Fletcher in R. G. Richardson Proc. Second World Conf. Smoking & Health (1972) 6 As chairman of ASH I also wish to express our thanks..for..financial support to help voluntary agencies to collaborate in action with the effects of legislative measures. 1983Listener 30 June 36/1 After talking to ASH..I use the word ‘lethal’ advisedly.
1965W. C. Stokoe et al. Dict. Amer. Sign Lang. 293 Some ‘signs’ for numbers in *ASL are simply configurations shown as letters are. 1983A. Neisser Other Side of Silence i. 16 They..had spent five years trying to teach ASL to Washoe.
1958Aero-Space Terms 4/1 *ASM, air-to-surface missile.
1926J. Saville Let. (unpubl.) 12 May, Mr. Denville wants you to do *A.S.M. 1949K. S. Allen A.B.C. of Stagecraft for Amateurs iv. 30 The A.S.M. often combines the duties of a stage-hand with that of ‘props’ or stage-carpenter, or for any useful purpose around the stage. 1982S. Brett Murder Unprompted xviii. 156 He had a word with the A.S.M. before the show.
1967in Hughes & Pollins Trade Unions in Gt. Brit. (1973) xliii. 200 A new body—the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs—would be established. The Executive Council of the *ASTMS would consist of six members each from the Executives of the present unions. 1979Jenkins & Sherman White-Collar Unionism ii. 31 ASTMS..has over 440,000 members and is a general union.
1944U.S. War Dept. Techn. Man., TM 11–467 364 *A.S.V. 1945Flight 23 Aug. 210/1 A centimetric A.S.V., the device carried in Coastal Command aircraft which directed them to the surfaced U-boat.
1921Harper's Mag. Oct. 632/2 Organized in 1885 for long-lines construction, the ‘*A. T. & T.’ had grown steadily more powerful. 1965J. A. Michener Source (1966) 884 Until the day when A.T. and T. drops to forty and you have an economic crisis. 1976Washington Post 19 Apr. a6/2 AT&T..owns most intercity long distance lines.
1949Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LIII. 959/2 The inefficiency of *A.T.C. (Air Traffic Control) procedures and patterns.
1934Railway Mag. Apr. 290 (caption) Diagram of Signum *A.T.C. system. 1958Engineering 14 Mar. 336/1 Before the Second World War..in general, the Great Western Railway had A.T.C. and the other British railways did not.
1976Business Week 28 June 45 On the basis of the trial the average cost of a transaction with 60 *ATMs would be $1.25 vs. 40 cents using a live teller. 1979Good Housekeeping Aug. 215/1 To use an ATM you need a plastic bank card.
a1912Spalding & Hodge's Paper Terminol. ii. 1 Animal Tub-sized, or *A.T.S., is a term employed to denote the more costly method of passing the manufactured sheet through a bath or ‘tub’ of animal size.
1970Time 23 Nov. 41 Marauders on *ATVs or snowmobiles occasionally strip hunters' shacks or loot vacation homes. 1987Washington Post 21 Apr. a3/1 The rockhounds, the ranchers.., the All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) enthusiasts, all are resolved to..try to stop the idea.
1957Daily Mail 4 Sept. 12/8 *ATV announce The {pstlg}4,000 Question on September 14.
1927H. N. Russell et al. Astron. I. App. p.i., 1 astronomical unit (*A.U.) = 1·4945 × 108 km. 1975Kaye & Laby Tables Physical & Chem. Constants (ed. 14) i. 129 Primary constants. Measure of 1 AU... 1·496 00 × 1011m. 1984Aviation Week & Space Technol. 2 Jan. 48/3 Halley will be..0·97 AU from Earth at the time of the Giotto encounter.
1971Times 9 Nov. 19/7 The 1.4 m member *AUEW—the most important craft union in the country. 1986Financial Times 13 Aug. 10/3 In the days of the joint GEC–Hitachi there were a number of unions recognised at the plant—the EETPU (716 members), AUEW (223), ASTMS (87), [etc.].
1965New Statesman 6 Aug. 174/1 His colleagues would happily settle for the single-member-constituency *AV system. 1983Financial Times 2 Nov. 15 It is most unlikely in Australia, where the alternative vote (AV) system applies in the most important elections.
1868B. F. Westcott Gen. View Hist. Eng. Bible iii. 334 In the later (Irish) editions of the ‘Rhemes and Doway’ Bible and New Testament there are considerable alterations, and the text is far nearer to that in the *A.V. 1982G. Hammond Making of Eng. Bible 237 The same phrase occurs twice in Genesis... Tyndale renders both as ‘speak kindly’. The AV follows his rendering.
1953N.Y. Times 29 Mar. §vi. 9/3 The structure of terror in Hungary consists of many overlapping..agencies: It is a pyramid with the Allam Vedelmi Hasotag (State Security Authority, or secret police), at the apex. *A.V.H., which has 50,000 men and women in its force, is..the party's harsh punitive arm. 1956New Statesman 22 Dec. 818/1 The..lynching of many persons, A.V.H. men and Party members in particular.
1929T. E. Lawrence Let. 22 Jan. (1938) v. 640, I could do nothing, with the *A.V.M., of what I'd hoped.
1956Times 29 Nov. 10/5 The Kadar Government is also concerned..at the treatment being meted out by the population to former members of the *A.V.O. (secret police).
1921Outing (U.S.) June 137/1, I was surprised to find one day that unless I left the following morning to rejoin my regiment I would be an ‘*a-w-o-l’. 1929Amer. Speech IV. 351 Absence without leave is a military offense designated by the abbreviation awol, usually written without periods and sometimes with small letters, in the pronunciation of which each letter is pronounced. 1949Wodehouse Mating Season x. 98 Nothing sticks the gaff into your chatelaine more than a guest being constantly a.w.o.l. 1957B. & C. Evans Dict. Contemp. Amer. Usage 9/2 awol..in World War I..was pronounced as four letters; in World War II, it was pronounced as a word.
1911C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling xxxviii. 337 The situation, however, was supposed to be solved when the *A.W.U...issued instructions that the train must not be interfered with. 1983Financial Times 25 Nov. 6/1 Mr. Frank Mitchell, federal secretary of the..Australian Workers' Union (AWU), issued an immediate rebuff to Mr. Dolan, saying work would proceed.
1985Business Week 2 Dec. 86/2 Technically known as azidothymidine (*AZT), the drug has been tested on only 20 patients at the National Cancer Institute and Duke University. 1987Daily Tel. 19 Jan. 4/8 Researchers said patients tested with AZT had benefitted in many ways, including improved neurological functions and reduced instances of opportunistic infections. 1987Sci. Amer. Apr. 75/1 The prospect of long-term use has..heightened concerns about AZT's considerable toxicity to bone-marrow cells, the precursors of blood cells.
IV. Phrases.
1. A per se: the letter A when standing by itself, especially when making a word.
The word a was formerly spelt ‘a-per-se, a,’ that is, ‘a by itself makes the word a,’ whence also the letter itself was sometimes called A-per-se-A. So also I per se, O per se, &-per-se (and-per-se, an-per-se, ampersee).
b. Hence fig. (also formerly Apersie, Apersey, A per C) the first, chief, most excellent, most distinguished, or unique person or thing; one who is facile princeps, or in modern phrase, A 1.
1475Henryson Test. of Cresseide 78 (Speght's Chaucer) The floure and A per se of Troie and Grece. a1500MS. Cantab. Ff. ii. 38 f. 51 Thow schalt be an apersey, my sone, In mylys ij, or thre. 1501Dunbar Poems, Supplt. (1865) 277 London, thowe arte of townes A per se. 1567Drant Horace Epist. ii. i If they make them A per se Aes that none are like to them. 1578Gude and Godlie Ballates 128 Christ Jesus is ane A per C, And peirlesse Prince of all mercy. 1602Middleton Blurt iii. iii Who that is the a-per-se of all, the very cream of all.
2. A 1. Applied in Lloyd's Register to ships in first-class condition, as to hull and stores alike. ‘The character A denotes New ships, or Ships Renewed or Restored. The Stores of Vessels are designated by the figures 1 and 2; 1 signifying that the Vessel is well and sufficiently found.’—Key to the Register. Added to the names of ships, as ‘the fast-sailing ship ‘Sea-breeze’, A 1 at Lloyd's’, or used attributively, ‘the splendid A 1 clipper-built ship ‘Miranda’.’
Hence, fig. (familiar and savouring of commercial phraseology), A 1, or in U.S. A No. 1, is used adjectively for ‘prime, first-class’.
1837Dickens Pickw. 341 (1847) ‘He must be a first-rater,’ said Sam. ‘A 1,’ replied Mr. Roker. 1851Mrs. Stowe Dred i. 313 An A number one cook, and no mistake. 1861Col. G. Wolseley in Reynolds' Newsp. Nov. 24 The Chinese police are certainly A 1 at such work.
Add:[II.] 11. Biochem. Designating a form taken by double-stranded DNA in conditions of low relative humidity, consisting of a right-handed double-helix in which the base pairs form an angle of about 70° with the helix axis. Cf. *B II. 2 b (vii).
1953Franklin & Gosling in Nature 25 Apr. 740/1 JimboSodium Thymonucleate fibres give two distinct types of X-ray diagram. The first corresponds to a crystalline form, structure A, obtained at about 75 per cent relative humidity... At higher humidities a different structure, structure B, showing a lower degree of order, appears and persists over a wide range of ambient humidity. The change from A to B is reversible. 1963Science 31 May 946/2 A full account of A DNA will shortly be available. 1974Jrnl. Molecular Biol. LXXXVIII. 524 We prepared specimens of D-DNA under the minimum retained salt conditions that would normally yield an A-DNA. 1988P. W. Kuchel et al. Schaum's Outl. Theory & Probl. Biochem. vii. 185 This is a result of a change to the A form, in which the base pairs are not perpendicular to the helix axis.
[III.] A.O.B., any other business.
1974J. Paxton Everyman's Dict. Abbrev. 28/1 *A.O.B.,..any other business. 1985Faith & Worship Spring 13 It appeared as the last item before A.O.B.
A.O.C., Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée.
1957L. W. Marrison Wines & Spirits v. 97 Cognac and armagnac are also covered by *A.O.C.'s. 1965A. Sichel Penguin Bk. Wines iii. 129 The A.O.C. is accorded to a region, such as Bordeaux, to a secondary area within that region, such as Médoc, or to a village within the secondary area, such as Saint-Julien. 1984Times 4 Oct. 1/5 It is still too early to predict..what the quality of the AOC wines will be like.
AS (also A/S) level, Advanced Supplementary level (of the General Certificate of Education).
1984Times 2 May 3/1 The advanced supplementary, or *AS level, will require two years of study, cover at least half the ground of an A level, and be worth half an A level to employers and..admission tutors. 1986Times 7 July 3/2 It is envisaged that students will take two A levels and two A/S levels, preferably in contrasting areas. 1990Guardian 1 Aug. 3/2 Mr Dawson defended traditional A levels, dismissing both AS levels and the five-subject international baccalaureate.
Add:[III.] ABH Brit. Law, actual bodily harm (see *actual a. 7).
1980S. McConville in Michaels & Ricks State of Lang. 529 Convenience in the processing of large numbers of prisoners and the frequent repetition of certain operations led to a superabundance of initials. These range from designations of the crimes and characteristics of the prisoners to the routines of institutional life. *ABH stands for actual bodily harm, which is to be distinguished from GBH—grievous bodily harm. 1988K. Amis Difficulties with Girls xviii. 253, I'll be up before him again in a couple of weeks, charged with assault occasioning, as it's familiarly known, meaning occasioning ABH, that's actual bodily harm. 1992Independent 6 Jan. 14/7 If it's going to make anyone feel happy so you can nick me for ABH.., or whatever you're going to get me nicked for, I'll admit it.
ADA Biochem. and Med. = adenosine deaminase s.v. *adenosine n.; esp. in ADA deficiency, an inherited deficiency of the enzyme ADA, which can cause severe immune deficiency and other immunological disorders.
1972Lancet 18 Nov. 1069/1 If the *A.D.A. deficiency is causally related to the immunological impairment, then [etc.]. 1980Clin. Genetics XVII. 293 (title) Prenatal detection of a probable heterozygote for ADA deficiency and severe combined immunodeficiency disease using a microradioassay. 1988Mouse News Let. Nov. 84 We have developed a highly sensitive biochemical microassay for ADA which is capable of detecting femtomolar amounts of reaction product in a single blastomere. 1992Analog Sci. Fiction & Fact Feb. 78/1 An example of such an enzyme selected for gene therapy is ADA (adenosine deaminase).
▸ from A to B and variants: from one designated place or point to another, esp. from one's starting point to one's destination (or, sometimes, to the first significant stage); also in extended use, denoting any finite process of development, progress, or transfer. Cf. from A to Z at Z n. 3.
[c1400in J. O. Halliwell Rara Mathematica (1839) 65 Þe quadrat bitwene A and B mote be persede reulefully, in whilk persyng put a chippe..bot it sale be moveable fro A to B.] [1797T. J. Mathias Pursuits of Lit. iv. 33 Be regular: from science A to science B proceed, I hate your zig-zag verse and wanton heed.] 1857J. K. Angell & T. Durfee Law of Highways viii. v. 412 If there be an exclusive ferry from A. to B., this does not prevent persons from going in another boat from A. directly to C. c1876R. V. Rogers Law of Road 114 He remarked that the words usually printed on them..created a contract on the part of the company to convey the holder in one continuous journey from A to B. 1942H. R. Desilva Why We have Automobile Accidents i. 5 People like automobiles because ‘everybody wants to go from A to B sitting down’. 1957‘H. MacDiarmid’ Parable of Chamberlain in Compl. Poems (1994) II. 954 All the bourgeoisie are alike in this, Running the whole gamut of life from A to B... They have all the same pettifogging spirit, So narrow it shows little but its limits. 1971New Scientist 1 July 5/1 In traffic-choked cities the slender bike is the fastest means of getting from A to B. 2001New Yorker 20 Jan. 71/2, I thought..if you give the people a chance to vote they'll solve the problem. But I didn't realize that from A to B was so far.
▸ A and E n. (also A&E) chiefly Brit. and N.Z. = accident and emergency n. at accident n. Additions.
1975N.Z. Med. Jrnl. 82 229/1 Table 1 shows the number of sports injuries that passed through the Wellington and Hutt hospital accident and emergency (*A and E) departments during the survey. 1980Nursing Mirror 13 Nov. 151 (title) Accident and emergency uniteamwork—an essential part of A and E. 1998T. McHale Casualty (BBC TV post-production script) 13th Ser. Episode 1. 11 Charlie is running through the main gates on his way towards A & E.
▸ AAVE n. Linguistics African-American Vernacular English; cf. BEV n. at B n. Additions.
1993Amer. Speech 68 371 The theoretical and political implications of Labov's study for scholarship on the historical and current status of *AAVE were wide-ranging. 2003E. Richardson Afr. Amer. Literacies i. 19 Sociolinguists have laid the groundwork for researchers to investigate the ways in which we might employ AAVE in literacy education.
▸ ABS n. Motoring anti-lock (occas. anti-locking) braking (or brake) system.
1982Road Test Ann. 266/1 There was no doubting..the benefit of having *ABS in the event of an emergency. 2003Chatelaine Jan. 28/2 ABS won't always stop a vehicle in a shorter distance than conventional brakes.
▸ A.C.H. n. R.A.F. (now hist. and rare) = aircraft hand n. at aircraft n. Compounds 2.
1925T. E. Lawrence Let. 7 Oct. (1938) 484 Five are fitters, five are riggers, five are *A.C.H.'s. 1941‘L. A. C. Errant’ R.A.F.'ing It iv. 18 A.C.H., ‘Aircraft Hand’..designates as a rule the non-tradesman.
▸ ADD n. Psychiatry (orig. U.S.) = attention deficit disorder n. at attention n. Additions; (also in quot. 1979 attentional deficit disorder).
1979Hosp. Pract. Jan. 66/1 The next edition of the American Psychiatric Association's official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM III) will have relabeled ‘hyperactivity’ and MBD syndrome as attentional deficit disorder (*ADD). 1979M. H. Duncan in Jrnl. Clin. Child Psychol. 8 180/1 (heading) Attention deficit disorder (ADD). 1994Face Sept. 29/1 ADD..is only just being recognised in Britain as a genuine medical syndrome and a potential nightmare of late-twentieth century living. 2000Record (Bergen County, New Jersey) (Electronic ed.) 4 Sept. h1 ADD involves an inability to stay focused or to complete the tasks at hand, while ADHD includes the additional symptoms of impulsivity and irritability. Doctors say the two terms are often incorrectly used interchangeably.
▸ ADHD n. Psychiatry (orig. U.S.) = attention deficit hyperactivity disorder n. at attention n. Additions; (also in quot. 1987) attention deficient-hyperactivity disorder.
1987Behavioral Assessment 9 228 If *AD-HD is viewed as a dimensional disorder lying on a continuum with normal child behavior..then another approach to assessment is required. 1988Seminars in Neurol. 8 97 Management of children with ADHD involves multimodal treatment. 1994N.Y. Times 24 July iv. 1/4 Today, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn surely would have been diagnosed with both conduct disorder and ADHD. 2000Independent 23 Mar. ii. 8/1 Now his ADHD is assaulted daily with a barrage of alternative remedies including flower extracts and taurine.
▸ ADSL n. Computing and Telecomm. asymmetric (also asynchronous) digital subscriber line (or loop), a technology for the transmission of digital data over standard copper telephone lines which allows the high-speed transmission of signals from the telephone network to an individual subscriber, but a slower rate of transmission from the subscriber to the network.
1991Telephony 10 June 28/2 The *ADSL concept grew out of Bellcore's developmental work for high-rate digital subscriber line. 1996Daily Tel. (Electronic ed.) 5 Nov. VideoNet delivers the television signals from its central server via standard copper telephone wires using ADSL technology, which operates at 2 Mb/s—60 times faster than today's fastest modems. 2001Personal Computer World Jan. 42/1 Breakdowns of its nascent ADSL service began shortly after the company threw a triumphant two-day seminar.
▸ aet n. Sport (orig. and chiefly Association Football) after extra time.
1971Times 13 Apr. 7/2 Hertfordshire Senior Cup: Final: St Albans 1, Bishop's Stortford 1 (*a.e.t.). 1979Guardian 12 Dec. 24 Swindon 4, Arsenal 3 (aet). 2003Irish Independent (Nexis) 30 June Cahill Cup... Gortnahoe 1-13 Upperchurch 0-13 (aet).
▸ AFV n. chiefly U.S. = alternative fuel vehicle n. at alternative adj. and n. Additions.
1982N.Y. Times 8 Jan. d2/6 The car, called *AFV, for alternative-fuel vehicle, will be on display at the Detroit Auto Show later this month and, if built, would be ‘slightly more expensive’ to buy than conventional gasoline-powered cars. 2003News Observer (Raleigh, N. Carolina) (Nexis) 16 June a9 Auto manufacturers also produce a whole array of other AFVs that operate on natural gas, propane and electricity.
▸ AFV n. = armoured fighting vehicle n. at armoured adj. Additions.
1927Times 15 July 11/5 The expression ‘armoured fighting vehicles’ (*A.F.V.) has been added to the Army vocabulary. Something of the sort was needed, in order to distinguish vehicles that are self-contained for actual fighting from those which are used to move the other arms of the Service about. 1999W. B. Haworth Bradley & how it got that Way xi. 145 Congress, wary of the expense and ambition of the Army's Heavy Forces Modernization (HFM) effort to implement the AFV, had long resisted the program.
▸ AK n.> n.) an automatic kalashnikov rifle; esp. (more fully AK-47) a model of this rifle, first manufactured in 1947.
1963T. Nelson World's Submachine Guns I. 22 The end result was that the Avtomat Kalashnikov (*AK), which is, in the opinion of many students of contemporary small arms design, the finest weapon in its class in the world. 1970Bull. Concerned Asian Scholars 2 85 All of the 50 or so Cambodian soldiers present are carrying Chinese-made, Soviet designed AK-47 rifles. 1978T. O'Brien Going after Cacciato xiv. 89 Stink said it didn't sound like an AK, anyway. ‘No crack,’ he said. 1996E. Afr. Standard (Nairobi) 23 May 1/6 How do you expect a policeman, who is confronted by a criminal brandishing an AK47 rifle, to behave?
▸ ALA phr. (also A.L.A., a.l.a., ala) Brit. (in personal advertisements) all letters answered.
1974Gay News 28 Mar. 18/1 Gay male, 26, wishes to make new friends... Please write. Photo appreciated. *ALA. 1987Time Out 21 Oct. 119/1 Colin ‘lookalike’ is looking for his Barry. Is it you?.. Photo/phone. a.l.a. 2004Asian Post 11 June 16/4 (advt.) Jat Sikh male (highly attractive of course!) WLTM meet [sic] female for friendship leading to romance, must have good sense of humor, come on lets live life to the max! A.L.A.
▸ AM n. Brit. Assembly Member; (the official abbreviation in English for) a member of the Welsh Assembly; cf. MWA n. at M n. Initialisms 3.
1999EGi Web News Newswire (Nexis) 10 May [She]..has been elected to the New National Assembly for Wales as the Labour *AM (Assembly Member) for Cardiff North. 2006S. Wales Echo (Nexis) 29 Apr. 1 The Pontypridd AM was at an awards presentation at Tonyrefail Primary School.
▸ API n. Computing = application programming interface n. at application n. Compounds 2a; (also) = application program interface n. at application n. Compounds 2a.
1982Computerworld (Nexis) 29 Nov. 87 It also includes the Application Program Interface (*API), a host facility that allows user-written CICS applications to access Disoss document-related functions. 1996Linux Jrnl. Dec. 38/1 New features include API apprentice, which reduces complicated API calls down to filling out a dialog box,..code block selections and hex editing. 2001Financial Times (Nexis) 13 Mar. 34 API allows third-party websites to set up auctions using eBay's technology.
▸ ASV n. = American Standard Version n. at American n. and adj. Special uses 3a.
1905Christian Observer 12 July 7/3 Scholars who know the many excellencies of this ‘*A.S.V.’ can advocate its conservative use in the study, the family, the Bible class. 2001Jrnl. Biblical Lit. 120525 The NASB and NRSV translate as ‘when the wine had gone out of Nabal’, closely following the AV and ASV.
▸ ATF n. U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (Bureau), a law enforcement agency within the U.S. Justice Department responsible (since 1968) for enforcing laws and regulations relating to firearms, alcohol, tobacco, explosives, and arson (made an independent bureau within the Treasury Department in 1972, and moved to the Justice Department in 2003).
1970R. W. Thrower in Firearms Legislation (U.S. Congr. Senate Comm. Judiciary) 43 In Maine the local police requested *ATF assistance in tracing a weapon used in a murder. 1981Cook's Mag. Sept.–Oct. 16/3 The ATF decided to identify California wines ‘distinguished by unique characteristics such as climate, soil, and elevation’. 2002Washington Post (Home ed.) 10 Oct. a33/2 New federal enforcement tools..would beef up the ability of ATF to crack down on gun trafficking. |