| 释义 |
▪ I. serial, a. and n.|ˈsɪərɪəl|
[ad. mod.L. seriālis, f. seri-ēs: see series and -al1. Cf. F. sérial (1861), sériel (1874).]
A. adj.
a. Belonging to, forming part of, or consisting of a series; taking place or occurring in a regular succession.
1840A. Brisbane tr. Fourier's Social Destiny xxiv. 344 Industry was developed sufficiently..to admit of the application of the Serial mechanism to it. 1854Fairholt's Dict. Terms Art s.v., Serial Pictures are of that order in which a story is carried on consecutively, such as the four seasons, the four ages, &c. 1855Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1872) II. 16 A thinking of the three in serial order—first, second, third. 1864Realm 6 July 8 The last performances of all the great serial concerts.
b. spec. of the publication of a literary work, esp. a story, in successive instalments (as in a periodical magazine or newspaper). Also of a radio play: broadcast in (usu. weekly) episodes.
serial rights, rights attaching to the publication of a story in serial form.
1841F. Vesey Decl. Eng. Lang. 86 Serial publication. 1867E. Yates Black Sheep xxxi, She..had set herself to read the serial story. 1874Athenæum 28 Feb. 293/1 After contributing to the newspapers and the magazines, [he] became a serial novelist. 187919th Cent. 997 Country journals,..instead of using an inferior article, will often purchase the ‘serial right’, as it is called, of stories which have already appeared elsewhere. 1890[see right n.1 9 f]. 1903J. London Let. 10 Mar. (1966) 150 The serial right has passed out of my hands. 1933B.B.C. Year-Bk. 1934 213 Serial plays were a popular innovation: and their exciting episodes seemed to have appealed to..as many grown-ups as youngsters. 1944R.A.F. Jrnl. Aug. 290 The American market..still offers big money for serial rights. 1955Radio Times 22 Apr. 42/1 A new serial play in six parts written for broadcasting. 1960B.B.C. Handbk. 68 An increased output of serial plays and characterized documentaries. 1970[see film rights s.v. film n. 7 c].
c. In scientific use; esp. applied to the disposition of the parts of an organism in a straight line or longitudinal succession. serial section, each of a series of sections through tissue made in successive parallel planes; hence serial-section vb. trans., serial sectioning vbl. n. serial temperatures, temperatures taken at different successive depths between the bottom and the surface of water. In Computing = sequential a. 2 b.
1855T. Williams in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. ii. XVI. 405 The serial history of any given structural element of any given complex organ. 1857A. Gray First Less. Bot. (1866) Gloss., Serial, or Seriate, in rows. 1868Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1872) I. 16 They preserve a serial arrangement: their aggregation is little more than that of close linear succession. 1872Humphry Myology 9 The transverse septa, a serial continuation of those in the tail, are directed from the median line above. 1872Mivart Elem. Anat. 10 Serial symmetry may be much less and much more developed than we find it to be in man. 1877Thomson Voy. Challenger I. 11 Taking bottom and serial temperatures. 1884Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 109 The serial arrangement of the elements of the cork perpendicular to the surface is always very regularly preserved. 1885A. B. Lee Microtomist's Vade-Mecum xxiv. 203 (heading) Serial section mounting. 1897M. L. Hughes Mediterranean Fever iii. 136 The qualitative alterations are both nodal and serial. 1908Q. Jrnl. Exper. Physiol. I. 129 Where the epithelium persists..serial sections show that the cleft is completely closed by it. 1948Gloss. Computer Terms (U.S. Office of Naval Res. Special Devices Center: M.I.T. Servomechanisms Lab. Rep. R-138) 10 Serial programming, execution of complete arithmetic operations one at a time. Coding is simpler and easier to organize where simultaneous arithmetic operations are avoided. Serial programming is possible with either parallel or serial digit transmission. 1960Gregory & van Horn Automatic Data-Processing Systems viii. 248 Latency time for instructions stored in serial-access memories can increase program running time enough to warrant using other arrangements for storing instructions. 1961Lancet 2 Sept. 523/1 The hypothalami..were embedded in celloidin and serial-sectioned. 1964G. H. Haggis et al. Introd. Molecular Biol. v. 113 Consideration of the confusion which would result from the examination of fifty serial-section electron microscope pictures placed on top of each other. 1969P. B. Jordain Condensed Computer Encycl. 449 In character-oriented memory computers, serial addition permits forming sums with inexpensive hardware... In faster, word-organized computers, parallel addition is used. 1977Sci. Amer. Sept. 130/1 Serial-access and block-access memories have access times that depend on the storage location selected. 1979Nature 22 Feb. 596/2 Here was a man who had pioneered..the technique of serial sectioning, which enabled palaeontologists to examine the internal structures of fossils that would never have been accessible for study.
d. Biol. Involving or produced by the propagation of a micro-organism or tissue by means of a series of cultures, each grown from material derived from the previous one.
1904Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. XL. 277 In investigating the persistence of the (+) and (-) characters in the individual strains, the writer has begun a number of serial cultures. 1947Ann. Rev. Microbiol. I. 26 During the early period of study the original culture on serial plating continued to produce colonies about 5 per cent of which contained only z30 and 95 per cent contained z30z31. 1970L. T. Morton Med. Bibliogr. (ed. 3) 609 Laveran and Mesnil discovered that trypanosomes could be maintained indefinitely in rats and mice by serial passage.
e. Educ. and Psychol.: serial learning, the learning of words, numbers, etc., as a series so that each item acts as a stimulus for the next; serial position, the position of items in a serial test studied for its effect on learning; hence attrib. as serial-position curve, serial position effect; serial test, a test of ability that makes use of items in serial arrangement; hence serial testing. Also serial reproduction.
1926H. Head Aphasia I. ii. i. 149 The order in which these serial tests are applied must be varied to suit the circumstances of the case. 1926Jrnl. Exper. Psychol. IX. 195 (title) Specific serial learning; a study of backward association. 1926Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. XXXVII. 538 It is apparent..that the effects of serial position upon memorization still constitute something of an issue. 1932F. C. Bartlett Remembering vii. 173 There is some suggestion that material treated by way of serial reproduction may gain a kind of group stamp or character. 1948E. R. Hilgard Theories of Learning iv. 97 (caption) Serial position effect in the memorization of a list of 15 nonsense syllables. 1952McGeoch & Irion Psychol. Hum. Learning iv. 115 (heading) Learning as a function of serial position. Ibid. x. 369 The results of one series of experiments by the method of serial reproduction..are important for their bearing upon the social diffusion of information. 1962E. R. Hilgard Introd. Psychol. (ed. 3) ix. 273/2 Serial learning is easier than paired-associates learning. 1971Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. LXXXV. 100 RFT performance was not found to be stable..but rather changed in the direction of greater field dependence on serial testing. 1972Jrnl. Social Psychol. LXXXVI. 106 For both liked and disliked names the typical serial position curve was noted with most errors occurring in the middle of the lists. 1979A. C. Catania Learning x. 243 Another variety of intraverbal relation occurs in serial learning, the learning of a list of items in a particular order.
f. In grammatical terminology; spec. in certain West African languages, designating a construction consisting of a series of verbs.
1933L. Bloomfield Language xii. 195 Endocentric constructions are of two kinds, co-ordinative (or serial) and subordinative (or attributive). 1957S. Potter Mod. Linguistics v. 114 It [sc. the phrase good men] is a subordinate or attributive construction as opposed to such a phrase as men and women, which is said to be co-ordinate or serial. 1963Jrnl. Afr. Languages II. ii. 145 One..feature of the syntax of Twi and many other West African languages which seems to have escaped the notice of the grammar-writers is that the only possible position for an object pronoun is immediately after a verb... It is necessary to introduce an extra verb to take the extra object pronoun... This introduction of an extra verb in this way results in a serial verbal construction. 1971G. Ansre in J. Spencer Eng. Lang. W. Afr. 157 Many of them [sc. the languages of West Africa] exhibit similarities in their grammatical patterning, such as the occurrence of a sequence of verbal forms within the same sentence which has come to be known as ‘serial verbal construction’. 1977E. A. Gregersen Lang. in Afr. v. 49 A distinctive feature of many West African languages is a multiple verb construction, known in the literature as serial verbs.
g. serial number, a number assigned to a person, item, etc., indicating position in a series; spec. a number printed on a banknote or manufactured article by which it can be identified.
1935F. W. Crofts Crime at Guildford xiv. 201 All these high-class cameras bore a serial number. 1938L. M. Harrod Librarians' Gloss. 135 Serial Number, the number indicating the order of publication in a series. 1959Ibid. (ed. 2) 246 Serial Number... 2. One of the consecutive numbers appearing in front of an entry in a bibliography or catalogue. 1960Bedside ‘Guardian’ IX. 135 It shows a willingness to surrender but a refusal to reveal one's serial number. 1962L. Deighton Ipcress File i. 11 People posted to him..were..given a new serial number from the batch..reserved for Civil Servants seconded to military duties. 1968‘R. Simons’ Death on Display iv. 55 Crow..took himself off to check on the serial numbers of the five-pound notes. 1971R. K. Smith Ransom (1972) iii. 121 Very good field glasses for a kid... Probably stolen. He typed the serial number on the form. 1976J. Crosby Snake (1977) xxiv. 129 She paid cash with bills that had been carefully laundered... Elf doubted whether the Feds had the serial numbers on her bills but she was taking no chances.
h. Mus. Applied to a type of composition which takes as its starting-point an arrangement of the twelve tones of the chromatic scale. Cf. dodecaphonic a., series 20; twelve-note, -tone s.v. twelve numeral a. and n. III. c.
1947H. Searle in Penguin Music Mag. Dec. 22 Fartein Valen, whose Sonetto di Michelangelo..uses a serial technique derived from Berg. 1958Times 6 June 4/4 Reti considers a number of alternatives to serial tonality, which is what dodecaphonists now practise in default of the milk of the word of Schönberg. 1963Times Lit. Suppl. 3 May 320/4 Most of us reserve the term ‘series’ for an ordered succession of notes, as in the works of Schoenberg, but do not apply it to a collection of pitches such as are found in the works of Scriabine or Debussy. Mr. Perle extends ‘serial composition’ to both classes of music. 1978P. Griffiths Conc. Hist. Mod. Music vii. 88 The plate opposite shows the opening of his [sc. Webern's] Symphony (1928), arranged to display the serial structure. 1982Sunday Times 25 July 41/6 In his [sc. Eisler's] film music he made bold use of the technique of montage, juxtaposing elements from jazz, cabaret and serial polyphony.
B. n.
a. A serial or periodical publication, esp. a novel published in serial (as opposed to book) form.
1846Athenæum 5 Dec. 1237/1 A fresh serial from the prolific pen of Dickens. 1859Jrnl. Soc. Arts 25 Feb. 213/2 How valuable would be some of our serials with all their advertisements—The Gentleman's Magazine, for instance. 1882A. W. Ward Dickens ii. 20 When the popularity of the serial was once established, it grew with extraordinary rapidity.
attrib.1872Lowell Milton Wks. 1890 IV. 59 A practised serial writer.
b. A film shown in a number of episodes; a radio or television play broadcast in (usu.) weekly episodes.
1914R. Grau Theatre of Science xi. 245 The latter arranged with the late Thomas W. Hanshew..to prepare a serial. 1939BBC Handbk. 20 An interesting aspect of the year's radio-dramatic work was the development of serial plays. The serial feature, which is the backbone of American radio, had made comparatively few appearances here before 1938... Publishers..found that the ‘Monte Cristo’ serial caused a great demand for the novel. 1950G. Webb Inside Story of Dick Barton i. 13 One certain way of arousing interest and gaining an audience was through the medium of the radio serial. 1955Radio Times 22 Apr. 21/1 Counterspy, the six-part serial which begins in Children's Hour on Friday. 1964K. C. Lahue (title) Continued next week: a history of the moving picture serial. 1974Broadcast 22 July 14/1 There is abundant evidence that the serial, or its twin brother the series, is a popular form of TV programming. People seem to like stories in which the same characters appear and reappear.
Hence seriality |sɪərɪˈælɪtɪ|, serial arrangement.
1855Spencer Princ. Psychol. iv. i. 500 The advance of the correspondence of itself necessitates a growing seriality in the psychical changes.
Add:[B.] c. A military unit or group of units organized under a single commander for troop movements or for drill; hence more generally, any squad, esp. of police officers, formed for a special purpose. orig. U.S.
1942Garber & Bond Mod. Mil. Dict. (ed. 2), Serial, one or more march units, preferably with the same march characteristics, placed under a single commander for march purposes. 1974C. Ryan Bridge too Far iii. i. 137 A special serial of 38 gliders carrying General Browning's Corps Headquarters, bound for Nijmegen, travelled with them. 1976Daily Mail 8 Nov. 14/5 What a dreadful example of management it is to send serials (squads) of 20 constables containing two, three and sometimes more women to potentially violent demonstrations. 1987Daily Tel. 29 Jan. 3/2 Pc Alan Tappy recalled seeing a number of youths running off to get reinforcements as the police serial and firemen reached the Tangmere block where rioters had set fire to the supermarket.
▸ Of a person: that repeatedly or regularly performs a specified activity; inveterate, persistent; spec. (of a criminal) repeatedly committing the same offence and typically following a similar characteristic behaviour pattern. Of an action or practice: performed by the same person on a regular or sequential basis; habitual, recurrent.
Later uses in this sense are probably influenced by the frequency of the compounds serial killer and serial killing (treated separately below).
a1961S. Kracauer in Webster's 3rd New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. (1961) 2072/3 [He] denies that he is the pursued serial murderer. 1968Etc. June 235 Yet we must also admit that this revolution has created serious problems which express themselves among adults as an increase in serial polygamy, neighborhood ‘key clubs’, partner-swap parties, [etc.]. 1980Washington Post 29 Nov. d4/5 The program focused..on sexual homicides, mass murders and ‘serial’ murder—murders spaced out over a period of time. 1993Independent on Sunday 22 Aug. (Weekend) 9 In Leisure World, everyone is old. Behind the barbed-wire in Southern California, ‘active retirees’ become serial golfers, swimmers, gymnasts. 1997Scotl. on Sunday (Electronic ed.) 2 Nov. According to both Bukhanovsky and Tkachenko serial killing with the spin-off of serial cannibalism happens most in heavily militarised countries where the individual is relatively impotent. 2001Guardian 26 May (Saturday Rev.) 2/6 A serial espouser of every reactionary cause.
▸ serial killer n. a person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and usually following a similar, characteristic pattern of behaviour.
1981N.Y. Times Mag. 3 May 66/1 Some Atlantans fear racial violence if a ‘*serial’ killer is discovered to be white. 1994Time 4 Apr. 66/1 Birnes and Norris have divided the serial-killer life into seven phases of activity, a repeating cycle that begins with desire and ends with morose feelings—aura, trolling, wooing, capture, murder, totem and depression. 2001Evening Chron. (Newcastle) (Electronic ed.) 24 Jan. A gruesome serial killer was running amok in the streets.
▸ serial killing n. and adj. (a) n. (any of) a series of murders with similar characteristics committed by the same person; the committing of such murders (also in extended use); (b) adj. that is a serial killer.
1984U.S. News & World Rep. 30 Apr. 53/1 The phenomenon of *serial killings has been recognized since a man dubbed Jack the Ripper murdered seven London prostitutes in 1888. 1990Entertainm. Weekly (Electronic ed.) 28 Dec. A serial-killing investment banker who skins women alive. 1997Sporting Life (Electronic ed.) 3 Mar. In the early hours of Friday morning, during a serial killing of claret bottles, he was to be heard whingeing quietly. 2000Daily Record (Glasgow) (Electronic ed.) 6 July The FBI have already admitted that serial killing has reached an ‘almost epidemic proportion’ in the United States, with between 35 and 50 killers currently on the loose. 2000Bath Chron. (Electronic ed.) 27 Sept. Christian Bale..caused controversy in America with his role as a serial killing Wall Street trader in American Psycho.
▸ serial marriage n. (participation in) a series of successive short-lived marriages.
1970A. Toffler Future Shock xi. 223 *Serial marriage—a pattern of successive temporary marriages—is cut to order for the Age of Transience. 1993New Yorker 20 Sept. 90/1, I was told of one Name whose vivid taste for serial marriage was finally quenched when, anticipating possible losses, he put all his assets in his wife's name.
▸ serial monogamist n. a person who practises serial monogamy.
1986Chicago Tribune 23 Feb. v. 3/2 Frankly, in today's economy, I find one woman at a time to be just about all I care to handle, thank you. Call me a ‘*serial monogamist’. 2001Mirror (Electronic ed.) 16 Jan. (M mag.), Longest time he's been celibate?..‘Three weeks, because he's a serial monogamist.’
▸ serial monogamy n. (participation in) a series of successive, often short-lived monogamous relationships.
1963W. Davenport in Biennial Rev. Anthropol. 3 202 Freilich..calls the brittle and variable marriages of West Indian peasant societies ‘serial polygyny’ (others have called them ‘*serial monogamy’). 1970Saturday Rev. 25 Apr. 23/3 The full-scale emergence of serial monogamy has been accompanied by an explosive upswing of experimentation. 1994Independent on Sunday 16 Jan. 1/8 Among young people, the most common life-style is serial monogamy—they stop sleeping with one person before they start sleeping with another.
▪ II. serial
variant of cerrial a. Obs. |