| 释义 |
▪ I. circumflex, a. and n.|ˈsɜːkəmflɛks|
[As adj., ad. L. circumflex-us bent about, pa. pple. of circumflectĕre; as applied to the accent, it translated Gr. περισπώµεν-ος, lit. ‘drawn around’, in reference to its shape. The n. is partly an absolute use of the adj., partly (senses 2, 3) repr. L. circumflexu-s a bending round.]
A. adj.
1. Gram. A word meaning literally ‘bent round’ applied to an accent-mark ^, ̑, or ˜, placed, originally in Greek, over long vowels having a particular accent or ‘tone’ (see accent 1); and thence transferred to other languages as a mark of length, of contraction, or of a particular variety of long vowel. Sometimes also applied to the tone, quantity, or quality indicated by this mark.
The Greek περισπώµενος was used by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, b.c. 30 (περισπώµεναι λέξεις). According to Arcadius περὶ τόνων (c 200 a.d.), prob. copying Herodian (c 150 a.d.), the sign and name are both attributed to Aristophanes of Byzantium (c 264 b.c.). The original mark is said to have been ^ a combination of ´ and `, and hence called ὀξυβάρεια, for which however Aristophanes is said to have substituted ̑ to avoid confusion of ^ with Lambda (λ). This statement proves at least that the rounded form was the common one c 200. In our oldest accented texts (7–9th c.) both forms ^ and ̑ exist, but the rounded form prevailed, and by later scribes was turned up with a flourish, thus ˜.
The Latin grammarians of 2–3d c. call the mark circumflexus, and generally agree as to its shape being ^ (exc. Capella who used ̑); but it was not actually used in writing Latin till modern times, when sometimes introduced to indicate contraction as in amârunt for amaverunt, or in the ablative sing. in -â. In recent times also it has been introduced in French to mark a long vowel, chiefly due to contraction, as in bête from beste. The circumflex used in normalized printing of Old High German, and other Teutonic langs., to express long quantity, originated in an acute accent ´ (as in O.E.), which being thus made ^, has been confounded with the Romanized form of the circumflex.
In modern English use the mark has no definite value, but is variously used by orthoepists or phonetists to mark long quantity, ‘broad’ quality, or the like.
a1577Gascoigne Wks. (1587) D j b, The grave accent is marked by this caract ´, the light accent is noted thus `, and the circumflex, or indifferent is thus signified ˜. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. vi [vii.] (Arb.) 92 Called the circumflex, or compast accent: and if new termes were not odious, we might very properly call him the (windabout) for so is the Greek word. c1620A. Hume Brit. Tongue (1865) 22 The circumflex accent both liftes and felles the syllab that it possesseth, and combynes the markes of other tuae, thus ^. 1871Roby Lat. Gram. i. xiii. 98 The Romans distinguish between an acute and a circumflex accent.
2. Bent or bending round; † circuitous.
1707J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Comic Wks. (1709) 187, I..took a circumflex Road. 1728Swift Discovery, With a congee circumflex, Bush, smiling round on all, retreats. 1870Hooker Stud. Flora 42 Embryo hooked, folded or circumflex.
3. Anat. Applied to certain structures of curved or winding form, or which bend round others; as the circumflex arteries of the arm (anterior and posterior c. a.), of the thigh (internal and external), of the knee; the circumflex iliac artery and vein; the circumflex nerve of the arm; the circumflex muscle of the palate, or tensor palati.
1831R. Knox Cloquet's Anat. 634 The thoracic and circumflex arteries. 1836–39Todd Cycl. Anat. II. 247/1 The internal circumflex artery is a larger vessel than the external. 1842E. Wilson Anat. Vade Mec. 422 The Branches of the circumflex nerve are muscular and cutaneous. 1881Mivart Cat 278 From the same two nerves there arise the circumflex and the subscapular nerves.
B. n.
1. Gram. A circumflex accent (sign): see A. 1.
1609Douland Ornith. Microl. 70 The Circumflex is that, by which a sillable first raised is carried low. 1656Blount Glossogr., Circumflex is that mark, which is used over the letter (a) in..Amâsti for Amavisti. 1711J. Greenwood Eng. Gram. 240 It would not be amiss if the long i were always mark'd with a Circumflex..thus î. 1883March Comp. Gram. Anglo-Sax. §12 In this book..a circumflex is used over all long vowels and diphthongs.
†b. fig. Obs.
1655W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. iii. (1669) 79/2 This accents the..unholiness of a Saint with a circumflex.
†2. Bending round, winding, curve, a curved line.
1601W. Parry Trav. Sir A. Sherley 24 Every letter (well neere) with his circumflex importeth a whole word. 1655Marquis of Worcester Cent. Inv., A Cypher..so contrived that one line, without returns and circumflexes stands for each and every of the 24 Letters. 1709Tatler No. 7 ⁋16 The Circumflex, which Persons of his Profession take in their Walking. 1773J. Ross Fratricide iii. 928 This terrene Shook with concussive circumflex most dread.
3. A curved line, (or {ob}, bracketing two or more lines of writing. ? Obs.
1801F. Thesiger in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII. Introd. 208 Those Line-of-Battle Ships..within the circumflex were boarded by me in the following order. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxviii. (1856) 231 The limbs of two broken arcs stretching like circumflexes at about 23° distance on each side of the moon.
▪ II. circumflex, v.
[f. L. circumflex- ppl. stem of circumflectĕre: see prec.; but in II. from prec.; in the former case the stress is on -ˈflex, in the latter on ˈcircum-, as in the adj.]
I.
1. trans. To bend or wind round.
1644–58Cleveland Gen. Poems (1677) 39 With a splay mouth, and a nose circumflext. 1673T. Jordan in Heath Grocers' Comp. (1869) 514 A Reynard Gules, with a Goose-neck in his mouth, and her Body circumflex'd over his Back. 1851Times 19 Sept. 4/5 The last coil [of submarine cable] being securely circumflexed at about 4 o'clock.
b. To arch over with something bent round.
1850Browning Christmas Eve 177 Till the heaven of heavens were circumflext [with a rainbow].
†2. intr. To bend round. Obs.
1661Morgan Sph. Gentry ii. i. 13 That doth circumflex and turn down like a Flower de Lice.
II.
3. trans. To put or take a circumflex accent upon; to write or pronounce with a circumflex.
1565Cooper Dict. Hist. s.v. Britannia, Fyndynge in Suidas, that Prytania in greeke, with a circumflexed aspiration, doeth signifie metalles. 1751Wesley Wks. (1872) XIV. 80 Acute-toned words of the First and Second Declensions circumflex all their Genitives and Datives. 1774Mitford Harm. Lang. 66 It was always acuted or circumflexed. 1813Month. Mag. XXXVI. 425 Letters that are circumflexed must be pronounced long.
†b. humorous. To accentuate strongly. Obs.
1661L. Griffin Doctr. Asse, Asse's Compl. 8 We are none of those, That Circumflex their Sermons with their Nose, And mingle Hopkins Rimes, with Wisdomes Prose!
4. To bracket, conjoin in writing with a curved line, (. (Cf. circumflex n. 3.) ? Obs.
1805J. Poole Reply R. Gardiner's Answ. 9 By some flourish of a very free pen..they became circumflexed into one date. |