| 释义 |
▪ I. quark, n.1|kvɑːk|
[Ger., = curd(s), cottage or curd cheese.]
A low-fat soft cheese of German origin.
1931E. Sackville-West Simpson iii. 249 Simpson had begun..to taste a spoonful of the bubbly white Quark. 1985Los Angeles Times 25 Apr. 39/1 A wonderful selection of fresh produce,..kibble wheat and a low-fat cheese called quark. 1987N.Y. Times 18 Feb. c6/6 Dr. Lund pointed to carbonated milk beverages under development, cream liqueurs, fermented milk products such as kefir and quark, and specialty cheeses.
▪ II. quark, v.|ˈkwɔːk|
[Imitative, or a. G. quarken.]
To croak. Hence ˈquarking vbl. n.
1860J. F. Campbell Pop. T.W. Highl. II. 145 The gurgling and quarking of spring frogs in a pond. 1893[D. Jordan] Forest Tithes, etc. 186 Rooks..cawing and quarking. Ibid. 190 The herons quarked harshly.
▪ III. quark, n. Physics.|kwɔːk, kwɑːk|
[Invented word, associated with ‘Three quarks for Muster Mark!’ (Joyce Finnegans Wake (1939) ii. iv).
‘I employed the sound ‘quork’ for several weeks in 1963 before noticing ‘quark’ in ‘Finnegans Wake’, which I had perused from time to time since it appeared in 1939... The allusion to three quarks seemed perfect... I needed an excuse for retaining the pronunciation quork despite the occurrence of ‘Mark’, ‘bark’, ‘mark’, and so forth in Finnegans Wake. I found that excuse by supposing that one ingredient of the line ‘Three quarks for Muster Mark’ was a cry of ‘Three quarts for Mister{ddd}’ heard in H. C. Earwicker's pub.’—M. Gell-Mann, private let. to Ed., 27 June 1978.]
Any of a group of sub-atomic particles (orig. three in number) conceived of as having a fractional electric charge and making up in different combinations the hadrons, but not detected in the free state.
1964M. Gell-Mann in Physics Lett. VIII. 214/2 A simpler and more elegant scheme can be constructed if we allow non-integral values for the charges. We can dispense entirely with the basic baryon b if we assign to the triplet t the following properties: spin ½, z = - 1/3, and baryon number 1/3. We then refer to the members u2/3, d-1/3, and s-1/3 of the triplet as quarks q and the members of the anti-triplet as anti-quarks q . [Note] James Joyce, Finnegan's [sic] Wake (Viking Press, New York, 1939) p. 383. 1965New Scientist 4 Mar. 575/2 Just as atoms are composed of particles (protons, neutrons and electrons) so may the heavy particles themselves be made up of combinations of simpler entities, called ‘quarks’. 1967Observer 23 Apr. 2/6 If quarks exist, they would represent a more fundamental building brick of matter than any yet known. 1972Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 24 Feb. 5/2 The physicists hope to make the first observation of ‘quarks’, which many theorists believe are the fundamental building blocks,..by studying the activity of a rare and elusive sub-atomic particle called the omega-minus. 1973L. J. Tassie Physics of Elementary Particles xi. 146 Mesons have B = 0 and are made up of a quark and an antiquark. 1973,1974[see parton]. 1976Sci. Amer. Nov. 50/1 The u quark has a charge of +2/3, and the d quark and the s quark each have a charge of -1/3. 1977Nature 21 July 201/1 Quarks..have not been found free in nature; and if present theories are correct they never will be: they are thought to be permanently confined to the interior of the particles they compose. Ibid. 204/1 Recently hadrons containing a new, heavier quark—the c-quark (for ‘charmed’)—have been discovered. The mass of the c-quark is thought to be roughly 1,500 MeV. The old quarks are much lighter: the u- and d-quarks may even be massless while the s-quark's mass is about 300 MeV. 1978[see psi 1 b]. 1978Sci. Amer. Oct. 67/1 The upsilon resonances present physics with an embarrassment of riches: an unexpected family of new particles composed of an unexpected fifth quark.
▪ IV. quark
var. quawk n. |