| 释义 |
calamity|kəˈlæmɪtɪ|
Also 5–6 calamyte, 6–7 calamitie.
[a. F. calamité, f. L. calamitȧt-em (nom. calamitas), damage, disaster, adversity; by Latin writers associated with calamus straw, corn-stalk, etc., in the sense of damage to crops from hail, mildew, etc. But there is difficulty in reconciling this with the force of the suffix, which etymologically could give only some such sense as ‘the quality of being a calamus, reed, or straw’ (cf. cīvitas, auctoritas, bonitas); hence some would refer it to a lost *calamis ‘injured, damaged’, whence incolumis ‘uninjured, sound’.
Bacon (Sylva §669) thus fancifully etymologized the word ‘Another ill accident is drouth, at the spindling of the corn, which with us is rare, but in hotter countries common; insomuch as the word calamitas was first derived from calamus, when the corn could not get out of the stalke.’]
1. The state or condition of grievous affliction or adversity; deep distress, trouble, or misery, arising from some adverse circumstance or event.
1490Caxton Eneydos xxii. 80 He was restored..from anguisshe and calamyte in to right grete prosperite. c1529Wolsey in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 103 II. 6, I shalbe releuyd and in this my calamyte holpyn. 1555Eden Decades W. Ind. ii. i. (Arb.) 109 They fell from one calamitie into an other. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. iii. 3 Thou art wedded to calamitie. 1623Cockeram, Calamity, misery. 1752Johnson Rambl. No. 203 ⁋3 So full is the world of calamity, that every source of pleasure is polluted. 1754Richardson Grandison III. xxx. 352, I am in calamity, my dear. I would love you if you were in calamity. 1841–44Emerson Ess., Compensation Wks. (Bohn) I. 54 Yet the compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time.
2. A grievous disaster, an event or circumstance causing loss or misery; a distressing misfortune.
1552Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 32 Thair is na calamitie..that may chance to man or woman. 1586Cogan Haven Health lxxv. (1636) 81 A griefe of the head, proceeding of a rheume, which is a common calamity of Students. 1671Milton Samson 655 The bearing well of all calamities. 1683Burnet tr. More's Utopia 143 Because of any great Calamity that may have fallen on their Person. 1748Johnson L.P. Wks. 1816 X. 325 It was not his custom to look out for distant calamities. 1871Morley Voltaire (1886) 60 Voltaire saw his [Newton's] death mourned as a public calamity.
3. attrib. and Comb., as calamity-howler, calamity-howling, calamity-prophet, calamity-shouting (U.S. colloq.); Calamity Jane, the nickname of Martha Jane Burke (née Canary) (? 1852–1903), a famous American horse-rider and markswoman, applied to a prophet of disaster.
1892Congress. Rec. 2 Mar. 1654/1 We had some ‘calamity howlers’ here in Washington. 1905D. G. Phillips Plum Tree 264, I..sent Woodruff East to direct a campaign of calamity-howling in the eastern press.
1876Cheyenne (Wyoming) Daily Leader 23 Nov. in N. Mumey Calamity Jane (1950) 55 Calamity Jane..now slingeth hash as a waiter in a Custer City Hotel. 1882Street & Smith's New York Weekly 16 Jan. 1 Calamity Jane, the Queen of the Plains. A Tale of Daring Deeds by a Brave Woman's Hands. 1885E. L. Wheeler (title) Deadwood Dick on deck; or, Calamity Jane the heroine of Whoop-up. 1930N. & Q. 27 Sept. 232/1 A crepe-hanger is the ultimate in depressing persons; ‘wet-blankets’, ‘gloomy Gus's’, ‘calamity Janes’, are all a degree milder. 1960TV Times 8 Jan. 11/1 I'm a real Calamity Jane.
1894Republican Campaign Text-bk. for 1894 229 This is going to be a bad, sad year for the calamity prophets of both parties. 1911J. C. Lincoln Cap'n Warren's Wards i. 3 The pair of calamity prophets broke off their lament.
1892Congress. Rec. 17 Mar. 2160/2 Calamity-shouters whose occupation is gone unless they can prove that calamity stalks abroad. |