| 释义 |
▪ I. quant, n.1|kwænt, kwɒnt|
Also 5 quante, (qv-), whante, 9 quont.
[? ad. L. contus (Gr. κοντός) boat-pole. Current in E. Anglia and Kent (in the latter also ‘a young oak-sapling, a walking-stick’): the northern equivalent is kent n.1]
1. A pole for propelling a barge, esp. one with a cap at the top and a prong at the bottom to prevent it from sinking in mud. Also attrib., as quant-pole.
c1440Promp. Parv. 418/2 Quante, or sprete, rodde.., contus. Ibid. 523/2 Whante, or qvante. 1687Shadwell Juvenal 38 Contus signifies a Quant or Sprett, with which they shove Boats. 1847–78in Halliwell. 1883G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads iv. 25 When the wind fails, the men betake themselves to the ‘quant’, which is a long slender pole with a knob at one end and a spike and shoulder at the other. 1893Doughty Wherry in Wend. Lands 167 To get all sail off her, and undertake a tough job with the quants. 1901Academy 26 Oct. 389/1 There..lay a large family-boat immovable... A quant-pole stood rigidly upright beside it. 1974Oxf. Jun. Encycl. (rev. ed.) IX. 389/1 On the Norfolk Broads,..boatmen often propel their ‘wherries’ (sailing barges) for short distances by ‘quanting’ with very long, heavy poles called ‘quant-poles’.
2. In a windmill: (see quots. 1936 and 1945). Also Comb.
1924Trans. Newcomen Soc. III. 42 All the framing and gearing of these mills are of wood, the only important parts of iron being the wrought iron gudgeons upon which the shafts revolve, and perhaps the ‘quants’ or spindles which drove the runner stones. 1936P. Hemming Windmills in Sussex ii. 9 The drive from above is called ‘quant-drive’ and is the more usual drive in a windmill. Ibid., This chute vibrates against the lower part of the stone-shaft, which is called the ‘quant’ and which is not circular, but ribbed. 1945Archit. Rev. XCVIII. 78/1 When the stones are overdriven the nuts are mounted on vertical spindles or ‘quants’ which drive the ‘runner stones’ from above. 1957S. Freese Windmills & Millwrighting iii. 48 This forked shaft is called a ‘crutch-pole’ or ‘quant’, because it oscillates like a quant-pole when freed from its upper bearing (the glut⁓box) in order to disengage the stone-nut.
▪ II. † quant, n.2|kwɒnt|
Used for quantum 5. Obs.
1918Phil. Mag. XXXV. 294 Sommerfeld gave a generalization of the quant-conditions which proved to be of very great importance. Ibid. 307 The assumption that the recombining electron comes from one other ring with a higher quant number leads to an equation of the right type. 1926Nature 18 Dec. 874/1 It would seem inappropriate to speak of one of these hypothetical entities as..a corpuscle of light, a light quantum or a light quant, if we are to assume that it spends only a minute fraction of its existence as a carrier of radiant energy. 1932Stiles & Walsh tr. Castelfranchi's Rec. Adv. Atomic Physics II. v. 167 The light energy..always remains concentrated in the form of ‘light quants’, or grains, the magnitude of which depends solely on the colour.
▪ III. quant, v.|kwænt, kwɒnt|
[f. quant n.1]
a. trans. To propel (a boat) with a quant. Also absol.
b. intr. Of a boat: To be propelled with a quant.
1865[implied in quanting vbl. n.]. 1883G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads v. 37 The water was too deep for us to quant our punt. 1887W. Rye Norfolk Broads p. ii, Great disinclinations to quant or scull. 1893Toynbee Rec. 90 Now her stern, now a broadside, is toward us..as she quants against the breeze.
Hence ˈquanting vbl. n. (also attrib.)
1865W. White East. Eng. I. 84 Wherry men, to whom the operation of ‘quanting’ is very familiar. 1883G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads x. 77 There may be a quanting⁓match. 1887W. Rye Norfolk Broads 39 We and the wherry, by dint of very hard quanting, managed..to get as far as the ruins. |