| 释义 |
seraphim, † ˈseraphin|ˈsɛrəfɪm|
Forms: 1, 3–7, 9 arch. seraphin, 3 serafin, 4 serafyn, 5 ceraphin, secheraphym, -phyn, seraphyn, -en, serophyn, syraphyn, 6–7 seraphine, 1, 6– seraphim.
[a. late L. seraphim (Vulg.), in MSS. often seraphin (= Gr. σεραϕίµ, σεραϕείµ, LXX.), a. Heb. s⊇rāphīm (only in Isa. vi), pl. of *sārāph, which is not recorded in the Bible, unless it be identical with the formally coincident word denoting a kind of venomous serpent, which occurs as quasi-adj. or in apposition with nāḥāsh serpent in Num. xxi. and Deut. viii. (Eng. Bible ‘fiery serpents’, after Vulg. ignitos serpentes, serpens adurens; LXX ὄϕεις θανατοῦντας, ὄϕις δάκνων), and in Isa. xiv. 29 and xxx. 6 with the epithet ‘flying’ (Eng. Bible ‘fiery flying serpent’).
Some scholars assume the identity of the word occurring in Isa. vi. with that found in the other passages. On this view the ‘seraphim’ seen by Isaiah flying above the throne of God represent a mythic or symbolic conception which must originally have had the form of a ‘fiery flying serpent’, though in the vision this appears considerably modified. The word sārāph, as the name of a kind of serpent, may belong to the root sāraph to burn, in allusion to the effect of the bite (cf. Gr. πρηστήρ). This etymology has given rise to a conjecture that the celestial ‘seraphim’ originally symbolized the lightning. Of those who reject the identity of sārāph ‘seraph’ with sārāph ‘fiery serpent’, some refer the former to the root of the Arabic sharafa to be lofty or illustrious. Phonologically this is unobjectionable, but on other grounds it is now generally abandoned. Various suggestions of non-Hebrew (Egyptian, Assyrian, etc.) etymology have been made, but have not found wide acceptance.
The L. form seraphin, which is found in many MSS. of the Vulgate, and is the source of all the forms used in Eng. down to the 16th c. (as well as of those in the Rom. langs.), coincides with the Aramaic s⊇rāphīn, but it is very doubtful whether it is more than a scribal error or a euphonic alteration. Cf. F. séraphin (serafin, 12th c.), Pr. serafi, Sp. serafin, Pg. seraphim, It. serafino (all masc. sing.).
In the Latin liturgical passages from which the word first became widely known, it was prob. originally apprehended correctly as a plural, and readers of the Latin Bible would be guided aright by the syntax of Isa. vi. 2; but there is evidence that ‘Cherubim and Seraphim’ were often supposed to be the names of two individual angels. From the 15th to the 18th c. the English plural ending was often appended, but seraphin as a sing. = ‘one of the seraphim’ does not appear in Eng. till late in the 16th c. (the form seraphim in this use not till the 17th c.). After the introduction (perh. by Milton) of the form seraph, the misuse of the plural forms in singular sense gradually became rare, and it is now obsolete.]
1. In Biblical use: The living creatures with six wings, hands and feet, and a (presumably) human voice, seen in Isaiah's vision as hovering above the throne of God.
1382Wyclif Isa. vi. 2 Serafyn stoden up on it. [1535 (Coverdale), 1537, 1539, 1551 the Seraphins; 1540 Seraphins; 1560 (Geneva), 1611 the Seraphims; 1568, 1609 (Douay) Seraphims; 1884 (Revised) the seraphim.]
2. By Christian interpreters the seraphim were from an early period supposed to be a class of angels, and the name, associated with that of the cherubim, was introduced in the Eucharistic preface and subsequently in the Te Deum, and thus became extensively known. The presumed derivation of the word from a Heb. root meaning ‘to burn’ (see above) led to the view that the seraphim are specially distinguished by fervour of love (while the cherubim excel in knowledge), and to the symbolic use of red as the colour appropriate to the seraphim in artistic representations. In the system of the Pseudo-Dionysius, the chief source of later angelology, the seraphim are the highest, and the cherubim the second, of the nine orders of angels.
a. seraphin (obs. exc. poet. as nonce-use), seraphim, used as pl. (Some of the early examples are ambiguous, and may belong to b.)
αa900Cynewulf Elene 754 Syndon tu..þe man Seraphin be naman hateð. a1240Ureisun in Cott. Hom. 191 Heih is þi kinestol onuppe cherubine, Biuoren ðine leoue sune wiðinnen seraphine. c1250Meid. Maregrete lxxv, Cherubin ant serafin, a þousend þer were. 13..Ipotis 92 (Vernon MS.) in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 342 Þe furste ordre is Cherubin And þat oþer Seraphin. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 104 Cherubin and Seraphin an al þe foure [the B and C texts have nine] ordres. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ii. viii. (1495) 34 Seraphyn is a multytude of angellis that is to vnderstonde: brennynge other settynge a fyre..and the propre offyce of thyse angels is to brenne in theymselfe and to moeue other to brenne in the loue of god. c1400Prymer (1891) 21 To thee cherubyn and seraphyn cryeth with uoys with owten ceessynge. c1425St. Mary of Oignies i. vii. in Anglia VIII. 140/3 She sawe oon of Seraphyn, þat is a brennynge aungel. 1486Bk. St. Albans, Her. a iv b, The iiii. Tronli [orders of angels] be theys Principatus Trony Cherubyn and Seraphyn. 1549Bk. Com. Prayer, Te deum, Cherubin, and Seraphin. 1642R. Watson Serm. Schisme 32 The first place or degree is given to the Angels of love, which are termed Seraphin. 1691Norris Pract. Disc. 289 What is it that makes the Seraphin burn and flame above the rest of the Angelical Orders? 1897F. Thompson New Poems 74 You shall..ay, press in Where faint the fledge⁓foot seraphin.
βa1000Andreas 719 (Gr.) Cheruphim et Seraphim þa on sweᵹeldreamum syndon nemned. a1500Adrian & Epotys 92 in Brome Bk. 28 The secund ordyr is secheraphym. 16..Milton At a Solemn Music 10 Where the bright Seraphim in burning row Their loud up-lifted Angel trumpets blow. a1680Charnock Attrib. God (1834) II. 146 The angels..are here called Seraphim, from burning or fiery spirits. 1827Heber Hymn, ‘Thou art gone to the grave’, The sound which thou heard'st was the Seraphim's song! 1829Coleridge Monody Chatterton (later version) 24 Thou..The triumph of redeeming Love dost hymn..to harps of Seraphim. 1864Pusey Lect. Daniel ix. (1876) 533 Like the Seraphim, they are seen in adoring love, about His throne. 1871Rossetti Poems, Ave 104 And from between the seraphim The glory issues for a hymn.
†b. Taken as the name of an angel.
a1300Cursor M. 22600 Þan sal quak sant cherubin, And alsua sal do seraphin. a1400Relig. Pieces fr. Thornton MS. 37 Michaell and Gabrielle and Raphaelle, cherubyn and seraphyn, and all þe oþer angells and archangells.
c. Plural. † seraphins, seraphims (now rare).
αa1400–50Wars Alex. 9415 Þe silloure full of Seraphens & othire sere halows. c1420Virgin's Compl. 88 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903) 241, I sawe angelis with gret lithe of seraphynnys order adowne gan sende. 1490Caxton How to die 22 The cherubyns and the syraphyns come to thyne helpe. 1566Pasquine in Traunce 73 These were their names,..Angels, Arch-angels,..Powers, Cherubines, and Seraphines. 1596Spenser Hymn Heav. Beauty 94 Those eternall burning Seraphins, Which from their faces dart out fierie light. a1610Parsons Leicester's Ghost (1641) 24 Know that the Prince of Heavenly Seraphines..Was tumbled downe for his presumptuous sinne. 1635A. Stafford Fem. Glory, Panegyr. e 7, All the strings Of Seraphins tun'd high, lowd Hymnes did play. 1649Lovelace Elegy on Princ. Katherine 51 Clap wings with Seraphins before the Throne. 1659H. L'Estrange Alliance Div. Off. 76 The Seraphins resound it.
β [1560,1611: see 1.] a1627Sir J. Beaumont Epiphany 38 Who..trie our actions in that searching fire By which the seraphims our lips inspire. 1653Jer. Taylor Serm. for Yr. ii. 16 The joy is so great that it runs over and wets the fair brows and beauteous locks of Cherubims and Seraphims. 1675Abp. J. Sharp Serm. ii. Wks. 1754 I. 58 To know and be known by angels, arch-angels, and seraphims. a1711Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 201 Seraphims, whose Mold is heav'nly Love, Who nearest to the Godhead wait above. 1756–9A. Butler Lives Saints, S. Ludger, God, in whose presence the highest seraphims annihilate themselves. 1924E. Sitwell Sleeping Beauty iv. 23 From flowers as white as seraphims' breath.
d. seraphin, seraphim as a sing. = one of the seraphim, a seraph.
α1579W. Wilkinson Confut. Fam. Love B ij, The Seraphin with his fiery sword not being taken away. c1610Middleton Witch iv. ii. 111 No, he that would soul's sacred comfort win Must burn in pure love, like a seraphin. c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. 35 She would have every thing divine That would befitt a Seraphin.
βa1649Crashaw Carmen Deo Nostro 74 We will pledge this Seraphim [viz. St. Teresa] Bowles full of richer blood [etc.]. a1674Traherne Poet. Wks. (1903) 104 While we see What every Seraphim above admires! 1700J. A. Astry tr. Saavedra-Faxardo I. 168 God gave not the flaming Sword, which guarded Paradise, to a Seraphim. 1802Mrs. West Infidel Father II. 85 Or had you..blended the service of the Deity with the idolatrous worship of a seraphim. 1920‘K. Mansfield’ Let. Nov. (1928) II. 80 A cherubim and a seraphim come winging their way towards me. 1974Times Lit. Suppl. 29 Mar. 314/3 Lamartine is content to be a seraphim.
3. Her.
†a. In Sir John Ferne's fanciful method of blazoning by ‘spirits’, the equivalent of Argent.
1586J. Ferne Blaz. Gentrie 144 A fosse waynee between the two starres artick and antiartick seraphines.
b. The representation of a seraph.
Usually, a child's head with two wings above, two below, and one on each side.
1828–40Berry Encycl. Her. s.v. Carruthers, Crest, a seraphim, volant, ppr.
4. A Swedish order of knighthood. (See quot.)
1784H. Clark Hist. Knighthood II. 213 Sweden. The Order of the Seraphim, or of Jesus..first instituted by Magnus the IId, in the year 1334... It..lay dormant, until February 1748, when it was revived..by Frederick the First.
5. Geol. sing. and collect. A fossil crustacean of the genus Pterygotus.
1839Murchison Silur. Syst. 606 Fig. 4 and 5 belong undoubtedly to the same animal as the Seraphim of the Old Red Sandstone. 1863H. Woodward in Intell. Observ. IV. 229 The ‘Seraphim’, a fossil found in ‘the Arbroath paving⁓stone’ of Forfarshire, which from the wing-like form of some parts of the shell, and the scale or feather-like markings upon its surface, has given rise to this angelic title among the natives. 1894Q. Rev. July 191 The giant crustaceans or arachnids known to the Scotch quarrymen as ‘Seraphim’.
6. A moth of the genus Lobophora. Also seraphim-moth.
1832J. Rennie Butterfl. & Moths 132 The Seraphim (Lobophora hexapterata, Curtis) appears in June... The small Seraphim (Lobophora sexalisata, Curtis) appears in June and August. 1882Cassell's Nat. Hist. VI. 67 In..Lobophoræ there is so large an additional lobe to the hind wing as to give them the appearance of having six wings, whence they are called ‘Seraphims’ by collectors. Ibid., Index to Popular Names, Seraphim Moths. |