| 释义 |
sensation|sɛnˈseɪʃən|
[ad. med.L. sensātiōn-em, f. L. sens-us sense n., after late L. sensātus sensate a.: see -ation. Cf. F. sensation (OF. sensacion, Oresme 14th c.), Sp. sensacion, Pg. sensação, It. sensazione.]
1. a. An operation of any of the senses; a psychical affection or state of consciousness consequent on and related to a particular condition of some portion of the bodily organism, or a particular impression received by one of the organs of sense. Now commonly in more precise use, restricted to the subjective element in any operation of one of the senses, a physical ‘feeling’ considered apart from the resulting ‘perception’ of an object.
Often const. of with n. defining the nature of the sensation, as in a sensation of giddiness, nausea, cold, etc.
1615Crooke Body of Man 525 Finally, that our Motions and Sensations should not be rash or phanaticall as they are in such as are phreneticall, that is, haue their braines inflamed. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. iii. 8 Their understanding..submitteth unto the fallacies of sence, and is unable to rectifie the error of its sensations. 1759Porterfield Eye II. 343 The smallest or most refrangible Rays will excite the shortest and weakest Vibrations for making a Sensation of deep Violet. 1785Reid Intell. Powers 599 When I grasp an ivory ball in my hand, I feel a certain sensation of touch. 1804Abernethy Surg. Obs. 192 He said his sensations were such as would induce him to believe that his brain was loose. 1845R. Williams in Encycl. Metrop. VII. 544/2 An uneasy sensation and tension of the præcordia. 1892Bierce In the Midst of Life 23 The familiar sensation of an abraded shin recalled his dazed faculties.
b. In generalized use: The operation or function of the senses; ‘perception by means of the senses’ (J.). Now commonly (esp. in philosophical language) the subjective element in the operation of the senses; physical ‘feeling’.
1642H. More Song of Soul ii. ii. ii. xi, O sunken souls, slaves of sensation. 1677Gale Crt. Gentiles iii. i. iv. 86 As it now appears, science is nothing else than sensation, or a particular experimental feeling knowledge. 1739Hume Hum. Nat. i. i. §2 (1888) 7 Impressions may be divided into two kinds, those of Sensation and those of Reflexion. 1812Shelley Q. Mab i. 24 Or is it only a sweet slumber Stealing o'er sensation? 1876H. Maudsley Physiol. Mind iv. 221 Sensation expresses merely the state of simple feeling, without reference to an external cause.
†c. Observation by the senses, actual seeing or hearing. Obs.
1657J. Sergeant Schism Dispach't 104 The testimony of others founded in their several sensations being faithfully conveyed to us by undeniable tradition, are as unquestionably certain as if we had seen them ourselves.
d. Faculty of perceiving by the senses, physical sensibility.
1799Med. Jrnl. II. 451 When excitement is produced in this system..then a corresponding change is occasioned in the nervous system, and sensation returns. 1869Lancet 18 Dec. 842/2 The woman is of an older age than in other described cases [of scleroderma]. The sensation seemed not to be impaired.
†e. Effect produced on the senses; in quots. = appearance. Obs.
1662Evelyn Chalcogr. Table, How to express the sensation of the Relievo or Extancie of objects, by the Hatches in Graving. 1663Boyle Exp. Colours ii. 10 Colour may be considered, either as it is a quality residing in the body that is said to be coloured, or to modifie the light after such or such a manner; or else as the Light it self, which so modifi'd, strikes upon the organ of sight, and so causes that Sensation, which we call Colour.
f. A popular name for the aura epileptica, the physical premonition of an epileptic seizure.
1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 770 Attacks [of Epilepsy] may consist only of the ‘warning’ or ‘sensation’... This has led to the popular use of the word ‘sensation’ as a synonym for the minor attacks.
2. a. A mental feeling, an emotion. Now chiefly, the characteristic feeling arising in some particular circumstances.
1755J. Shebbeare Lydia (1769) II. 421, I feel a sensation of distress in my bosom which is intolerable. 1758Johnson Idler No. 100 ⁋8 She smiles not by sensation, but by practice. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (ed. 3) III. 312 How distinct and different the sensation of positiveness is from the sense of certainty. 1821Scott Kenilw. xl, All other sensations were, for the time, lost in the agony which his haughty spirit felt. 1883F. M. Peard Contrad. iii, ‘At last I have realized a dream’, she said. ‘Do you know the sensation?’
b. Mental apprehension, sense or ‘realization’ of something.
1639Rouse Heav. Univ. (1702) 157 To have a continual sensation of thee. 1753Hogarth Anal. Beauty xi. 82 The nice sensation we naturally have of what certain quantities..are fittest. 1775Johnson Tax. no Tyr. 9 Those who look but little into futurity, have perhaps the quickest sensation of the present. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. iv. 85 Therefore is it the prime merit of genius..so to represent familiar objects as to awaken..freshness of sensation. 1864Bagehot Lit. Stud. II. 139 Men of ordinary nerves who feel a little of the pains of society, who perceive what really passes..could well observe how keen was Thackeray's sensation of common events.
†c. Capacity for (moral) feeling, sensibility.
1742Johnson's Debates (1787) II. 247 (St. Aubyn) He has undoubtedly a most passionate love for his native country, a passion which a man of any sensation can hardly divest himself of.
†d. What is felt or thought; sentiment, opinion.
1788Jefferson Writ. (1859) IV. 127 You would of course, however, wish to know the sensations here on those facts.
3. An excited or violent feeling.
a. An exciting experience; a strong emotion (e.g. of terror, hope, curiosity, etc.) aroused by some particular occurrence or situation. Also, in generalized use, the production of violent emotion as an aim in works of literature or art.
1808Pike Sources Mississ. (1810) 237 We may be supposed to have also had our sensations. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede lii, He..was free from that periodicity of sensations which we call post-time. 1863Mansel Lett., Lect., etc. (1873) 242 The cheap publications which supply sensation for the million in penny and halfpenny numbers. 1867Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. Rousseau (1870) 346 [Petrarch was] an intellectual voluptuary, a moral dilettante, the first instance of that character, since too common, the gentleman in search of a sensation. 1905C. Whitney Jungle Trails xi. 303, I knew it was a tiger..; and as the jerky roar grew nearer and nearer, I stood there having sensations—I do assure you.
b. A condition of excited feeling produced in a community by some occurrence; a strong impression (e.g. of horror, admiration, surprise, etc.) produced in an audience or body of spectators, and manifested by their demeanour.
1779Earl Malmesbury Diaries & Corr. I. 257 What had passed already caused a great sensation in foreign Courts. 1818Southey in Q. Rev. XVIII. 10 His death produced what in the phraseology of the present day is called, a great sensation. 1837Dickens Pickw. xxxiv, A slight sensation was perceptible in the body of the court. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvii. IV. 46 The sensation produced by this work was immense. 1879McCarthy Own Times III. xliv. 333 His death created a profound sensation. 1885Hall Caine Shadow of Crime xlii, Amid much sensation, the witness gave the name of the Sheriff of Cumberland.
c. An event or a person that ‘creates a sensation’.
1864Times 11 Apr. 1/4 The greatest sensation of the day: grand Incantation Scene from Der Freischütz. 1884St. James's Gaz. 29 Nov. 6 The sensation of a London season was the appearance of a new ballerina in a new ballet.
4. colloq. and slang. A ‘taste’, small quantity.
1859F. Fowler South. Lights 52 A Sensation. [i.e.] Half-a-glass of sherry. 1859Hotten's Slang Dict., Sensation, a quartern of gin.
5. attrib. and Comb. (chiefly in sense 3 a).
a. simple attrib., as sensation drama, sensation-novel, sensation novelist, sensation-paragraph, sensation-scene, sensation story, etc.;
b. objective, as sensation-monger, sensation-seeker; sensation-giving, sensation-hungry, sensation-mongering, sensation-seeking adjs.c. Special comb.: † sensation cell, a sense-cell (obs.).
1892Liew & Beyer tr. Ziehen's Introd. Physiol. Psychol. 160 He has lost the acoustic memory-cells, but retained the acoustic *sensation-cells. 1904E. B. Titchener tr. Wundt's Physiol. Psychol. I. 289 It thus becomes necessary to posit the existence of two sorts of cortical cells: sensation cells and idea cells.
1860E. Cowell Jrnl. 13 Mar. in M. W. Disher Cowells in Amer. (1934) 36 We..saw Matilda Heron..in a ‘new *sensation Drama’ called ‘Mathilde’. 1861Thackeray Round. Papers, On Two Round. Papers, At the theatres they have a new name for their melodramatic pieces, and call them ‘Sensation Dramas’. 1863Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1866) 336 When we see in Piccadilly a file of men with blank boards on their shoulders, we become aware that a sensation drama has been put in hand at one of the leading theatres.
1865Mill Exam. Hamilton's Philos. xxvii. 526 The knowledge-giving and the *sensation-giving properties of an impression of sense.
1951Koestler Age of Longing v. 86 She was sorry to disappoint the expectations of *sensation-hungry journalists.
1882A. Matheson in Macm. Mag. XLVI. 496 What mere *sensation-monger would have chosen this morally obtuse old Pharisee?
1925W. Deeping Sorrell & Son xvi. 147 It wasn't..our hard work, Stephen, that saved us, but luck, and the noise made by a section of a *sensation-mongering press. 1937Downside Rev. LV. 402 The idea of his indulging in ‘sensation-mongering’ of any sort or kind was ridiculous. 1980Times Lit. Suppl. 24 Oct. 1210/5 They have given a..sober account of..the trial, leaving all the sensation-mongering to frequent interspersions from newspaper headlines.
1863Q. Rev. Apr. 486 A *sensation novel, as a matter of course, abounds in incident. 1864Edin. Rev. July 53 Two or three years ago nobody would have known what was meant by a Sensation Novel.
1863*Sensation novelist [see purpose n. 3]. 1932Q. D. Leavis Fiction & Reading Public ii. iv. 154 Mrs. Radcliffe makes an appeal less to the nerves than to the imagination... The sensation novelists make a brute assault on the feelings and nerves in quite another way.
1861Illustr. Lond. News 25 May 485/1 The local inditers of ‘screamers’ and ‘*sensation’ paragraphs.
1861H. Morley Jrnl. London Play-goer (1866) 282 Mr. Falconer's ‘Peep o' Day’..deserves full houses..for what is called, according to the new term in theatrical slang, which Mr. Boucicault imported for us from the other side of the Atlantic, its ‘*sensation’ scene. 1865Earle Sax. Chron. 340 One of the established sensation scenes of History.
1976D. Francis In Frame i. 21 All day..cars..disgorged crowds of reporters, photographers and plain *sensation-seekers.
1923R. Macaulay Told by Idiot iv. 296 It was a queer affair, born of the emotionalism and *sensation-seeking that beset many people at that time.
1869L. M. Alcott Little Women II. xi. 157 She took to writing *sensation stories—for..even all-perfect America read rubbish.
1862Athenæum 23 Aug. 233 Much of his pamphlet is mere ‘*sensation’ writing.
d. Audiometry. sensation level, the number of sensation units by which the loudness of a sound (supposedly proportional to its pressure amplitude) exceeds the loudness at which it would be barely perceptible; sensation unit, the unit of loudness by which two sounds differ if one is louder by a factor 100.05. (Both terms are disused.)
If loudness were truly proportional to pressure (or displacement) amplitude, and hence to the square root of power, a sensation unit would be equal to a decibel.
1925J. C. Steinberg in Physical Rev. XXVI. 508 By sensation level is meant the number of units that the amplitude of any sound wave must be reduced in order to reach the threshold. 1927Ibid. XXIX. 597 A unit of loudness somewhat better for our purpose would have been the least perceptible increment of loudness of a 700 cycle tone compared with its sensation level. 1929H. Fletcher Speech & Hearing iii. 68 A change of the power level of a sound by one decibel is approximately the smallest that the ear can detect. When this unit is used in this connection the term ‘sensation unit’ has come into use. The sensation level of any sound reaching the ears is the number of sensation units it is above the threshold level for audition. 1931Stewart & Lindsay Acoustics ix. 224 For the sake of convenience several authors are using the terms sensation unit and sensation level. |