| 释义 |
▪ I. python1|ˈpaɪθən, ˈpɪθən|
[a. L. Pȳthōn, a. Gr. Πυθων, name of the serpent fabled to have been slain near Delphi by Apollo. So F. python.
The Gr. word is supposed to have been connected in some way with Πῡθώ or Πῡ́θων, the ancient name of the locality; and both, according to some, with πῡ́θειν to rot, πῡ́θεσθαι to be rotten, because the serpent was said to have rotted there. According to one form of the legend, the oracle originally belonged to or was guarded by the serpent, and, on the extermination of the latter, became the oracle of Apollo.]
1. Gr. Mythol. (With capital initial.) The huge serpent or monster fabled to have been slain near Delphi by Apollo; hence poet. any monster or pestilential scourge.
1590Peele Polyhymnia Wks. (1861) 571 Entering the lists, like Titan arm'd with fire When in the queachy plot Python he slew. 1603Holland Plutarch Explanation of Words, Apollo Pythius..who tooke that name of Python there slaine by him and lying putrified. 1667Milton P.L. x. 531 [Satan] Now Dragon grown, larger then whom the Sun Ingenderd in the Pythian Vale on slime, Huge Python. 1757Akenside Pl. Imag. i. (Ald.) 94 The laurel boughs That crown'd young Phœbus for the Python slain. 1851C. L. Smith Tasso iv. v, Hydras hiss, and Pythons whistling wail.
2. Zool. A genus of large non-venomous snakes inhabiting the tropical regions of the Old World, which kill their prey by constriction; the rock-snakes; popularly, any large snake which crushes its prey; loosely including the boas of tropical America, etc. diamond python: see quot. 1896.
1836Penny Cycl. V. 19/2 The murderous power and voracity of the Indian boas or Pythons. 1841Ibid. XIX. 176/1 The size to which the Pythons grow is fully equal to that attained by the Boæ. 1847Carpenter Zool. §508 The true Boas are restricted to America; the name of Python being given to the large Serpents of Africa and India. 1865Livingstone Zambesi iv. 89 Two pythons were observed coiled together among the branches of a large tree. 1896List Anim. Zool. Soc. 605 Python spilotes,..Diamond-Python. Hab. Australia.
3. Comb. as python-like adj., python-slayer, python-steak, python-stretch.
1874Geo. Eliot Coll. Breakf. P. 320 As Python-slayer of the present age. 1898C. Reynolds in Wide World Mag. Oct. 93/1 The boy is knocked over by a blow from his [a conger's] python-like head. 1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 177 The great muscular python-stretch of her tail. 1953R. Campbell Mamba's Precipice ii. 26 He and Nyali had had python-steak for supper.
▪ II. python2|ˈpaɪθən, ˈpɪθən|
Also 7 pithon(e.
[ad. late L. pȳthō, -ōnem (Vulg.) or late Gr. πῡ́θων (New Test.), a familiar spirit, the demon possessing a soothsayer; in pl. πῡ́θωνες persons speaking by professed divine inspiration, ventriloquists (Plutarch). In Gr. the same word in form as prec., but the sematology is not clear; in sense obviously related to πῡ́θιος, Πῡθία Pythia, and their derivatives.]
A familiar or possessing spirit; also, one possessed by such a spirit and acting as its mouthpiece.
1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1327 Those spirits speaking within the bellies of possessed folkes, such as in old time they called Engastrimithi [= ventriloquists],..and be now termed Pythons, entred into the bodies of Prophets. 1609Bible (Douay) Deut. xviii. 11 Neither let there be a sorcerer, nor inchanter, nor that consulteth with pithone, or diviners [Vulg. nec qui pythones consulat, LXX ἐγγαστρίµυθος, Wyclif 1388 hem that han a feend spekynge in the wombe]. Ibid., Isa. xix. 3 They shal aske their idols, and their diviners, and Pythons, and Southsayers [Vulg. pythones et ariolos, LXX τοὺς ἐκ τῆς γῆς ϕωνοῦντας, και τοὺς ἐγγαστριµύθους]. Ibid. Index II, Saul... In distresse he consulted a Pithon spirite. 1611Bible Acts xvi. 16 A certaine Damosell possessed with a spirit of diuination [marg. or, of Python; 1881 R. V. marg. or, a spirit, a Python: Gr. πνεῦµα Πύθωνα (v.r. -ος), Vulg. spiritum pythonem]. 1678Phillips (ed. 4), Python..also a familiar or prophesying Spirit, or one possessed with it. 1880W. E. Scudamore in Smith & Cheetham Dict. Chr. Antiq. s.v. Python, The attributes of the demon and the serpent were interchanged... The python slain by Apollo at Delphi was thought to have inspired the oracle before the god took his place... Hence..both in Jewish and Christian antiquity the name of python was given to prophesying spirits.
▪ III. python3 Mil.|ˈpaɪθən|
[A code name.]
Leave granted at the end of the 1939–45 war to members of the British forces who had served a long period overseas. Also attrib., as python leave.
1945L. Durrell Spirit of Place (1969) 82, I took down a pomegranate..and tried to send it to her with a friend on python. 1945Punch 22 Aug. 166/1 Naturally they are all either due for Python or their Age and Service Groups, and the last few days we have suffered from a constant round of farewell parties. 1949D. E. Stevenson Vittoria Cottage xiv. 95 When men come home from FARELF after doing their three years they say they are coming home on Python... FARELF..means Far Eastern Land Forces. 1959I. Jefferies Thirteen Days iii. 37 Your python must be coming up soon. 1969A. G. Thomas in L. Durrell Spirit of Place 82 Under Python leave any soldier who had been in the Middle East for more than four years was granted one month at home with his family and then three months in some unit in Britain. 1976R. Lewin Slim xv. 252 Python, the scheme for repatriation of men who had served a minimum of three years and four months in the Far East. |