| 释义 |
▪ I. casket, n.1|ˈkɑːskɪt, -æ-|
Also 6 caskytt, 7 cascate, 9 casquet.
[Of uncertain etymology: the form suggests a dim. of cask; but casket in fact occurs earlier than cask, and is without precedent as to meaning in Fr. or other lang.
F. casquet is quoted by Littré only of 16th c. in sense ‘light helmet’, which is also the sense of Sp. casquete. Skeat conjectures that casket may have been corrupted from Fr. cassette ‘small casket, chest, cabinet’, etc., dim. of casse box, chest, case; this would give the sense, but evidence of, or analogy for, the corruption is wanting. Moreover Littré has F. cassette only from 16th c., when it may have been adopted from It. cassetta: there is no trace of it in Eng. in 15th or 16th c.]
1. a. A small box or chest for jewels, letters, or other things of value, itself often of valuable material and richly ornamented.
1467in Eng. Gilds (1870) 379 The same quayer to be put in a boxe called a Casket. 1471J. Paston Lett. 670 III. 7 Syche othyr wryghtynges and stuff as was in my kasket. 1530Palsgr. 203/1 Casket or hamper, escrayn. 1570in Arnot Hist. Edinburgh 30 The confident of the Earl of Bothwell..delivered to the Earls servant his Casket of letters. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. ii. vii. 18. 1712 Pope Rape Lock i. 133 This casket India's glowing gems unlocks. 1876H. N. Humphreys Coin Coll. Man. i. 6 A richly carved casket of ivory.
†b. Money-box or ‘chest’ (? pseudo-arch).
1832L. Hunt Sir R. Esher (1850) 357 An order on the King's casket for a thousand pounds.
2. fig.
a. In general uses.
1595Shakes. John v. i. 40 They found him dead..An empty Casket, where the Iewell of life..was rob'd and tane away. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. A iij b, Ransack this Cascate (therefore) where you'l find Plenty of Jewels to adorn the Mind. 1805Wordsw. Prelude v. (1850) 113 A volume..Poor earthly Casket of immortal verse. 1822Hazlitt Table-t. II. x. 223, I unlock the casket of memory.
b. Sometimes used as the title of a selection of musical or literary ‘gems’.
1850(title) Casket of Modern and Popular Songs. 1871(title) Casquet of Gems for the Pianoforte. 1877(title) Casquet of Literature.
3. A coffin. U.S.
1849C. Spencer Let. 20 Mar. in N. E. Eliason Tarheel Talk (1956) 264 The casket, which held this jewel [sc. her dead friend], was worthy of it. 1863Hawthorne Our Old Home 102 ‘Caskets’! a vile modern phrase, which compels a person..to shrink..from the idea of being buried at all. 1870Corresp. in New York, In America a coffin is called a casket. 1881Times 24 Sept. 6 (New York Corresp.) Here the casket will be placed on the train for Cleveland. 1885Times 6 Aug. 5 Members..mounted guard and stood around the casket in the funeral coach. 1895Daily News 29 June 2/1 The strange-looking mahogany coffin (it is called a casket in the United States). 1948Atlantic Monthly Sept. 87/2 Shrouds have long since become slumber robes, and coffins caskets. 1963J. Mitford Amer. Way Death v. 180 The only difference between an English ‘casket’ and a ‘coffin’ is in the shape, the former being rectangular, and the latter, tapered or ‘kite-shaped’.
▪ II. casket, n.2
obs. form of casquet, a helmet.
▪ III. casket, n.3
another form of gasket.
▪ IV. ˈcasket, v.
[f. casket n.1]
trans. To enclose or put up in a casket. Hence ˈcasketed ppl. a.
1601Shakes. All's Well ii. v. 26, I have writ my letters, casketted my treasure. 1603Harsnet Pop. Impost. 82 The Priests themselves doe full devoutly Casket up as homelie & brayed wares as these. 1636Heywood Challenge v. i. Wks. 1874 V. 77 This Mirrour, which Ile casket, As my best jewell. 1822W. Irving Braceb. Hall (1845) 32 The beauties casketed like gems within these walls. |