释义 |
civic, a.|ˈsɪvɪk| Also 6 ciuike, 7 -icke, 7–8 -ick. [a. L. cīvic-us belonging to citizens, f. cīvis citizen; cf. F. civique.] 1. a. Of, pertaining, or proper to citizens.
1790Burke Fr. Revol. Wks. V. 271 Of late they distinguish it by the name of a Civick Education. 1805Ann. Rev. I. 298 Volney printed a civic catechism. 1827Southey Penins. War II. 596 Efforts..for organizing a civic and national resistance. 1871Blackie Four Phases i. 16 He displayed a civic virtue on other occasions. b. (a) civic crown († civic coronet, civic garland, civic wreath) [L. corōna cīvica]: a garland of oak leaves and acorns, bestowed as a much-prized distinction upon one that saved the life of a fellow-citizen in war. This was app. the earliest use of the word: it was also the chief use in Latin.
1542Udall Erasm. Apophth. 254 a, A garlande ciuike..whiche was woont to bee made of oken leues. 1601Holland Pliny I. 115 The ciuick coronets..presented vnto such as had rescued a Romane citizen, and saued his life. 1629Massinger Picture ii. ii, The civic garland, The mural wreath. 1649Marvell Poems Wks. I. Pref. 53 Our civil warrs have lost the civick crowne. 1842Tennyson Vision of Sin iv, Freedom, gaily doth she tread; In her right a civic wreath, In her left a human head. (b) Arch. ‘A garland of oak leaves and acorns, often used as an ornament’ (Gwilt). 2. a. Of or pertaining to a city, borough, or municipality; = city attrib.
1656Blount Glossogr., Civick, pertaining to the city. 1816Byron Ch. Har. iii. lxiv, The unambitious heart and hand of a proud, brotherly, and civic band. 1835T. Hook G. Gurney III. ii. (L.), In the civic acceptation of the word, I am a merchant;—amongst the vulgar, I am called a drysalter. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 354 The first civic magistrate. 1876Green Short Hist. iv. §4. (1882) 191 London took the lead in this new development of civic life. b. Of a city as a particular kind of locality.
1821Byron Juan v. xxxvii, That he..Should now be butcher'd in a civic alley. 1836Hor. Smith Tin Trump. I. 24 His shoulders, like some of the civic streets, are widened at the expence of the corporation. 1845R. Hamilton Pop. Educ. iii. (ed. 2) 51 Civic residence is our peculiarity. 1877Mrs. Oliphant Makers Flor. vi. 165 This mood of mind is essentially civic, belonging to that straitened atmosphere of the town. c. civic centre: the headquarters of a municipality; an area in which the principal public buildings of a municipality are grouped together, often in a unified architectural scheme.
1909H. I. Triggs Town Planning i. 12 Every effort should be made..to make the open spaces more extensive the farther they are removed from the civic centre. Ibid. iv. 183 Enlarged plans of two civic centres. 1934A. Huxley Beyond Mexique Bay 270 Give to London all the town planning, all the civic centres, all the garden suburbs that the ingenuity of man can devise. 1944J. S. Huxley Living in Revol. ii. 24 For the majority of boroughs today, the only civic centre is the town hall. 1960Times 6 Jan. 6/3 A new building on the civic centre site. 3. Of or pertaining to citizenship; occasionally in contrast to military, ecclesiastical, etc.; civil. civic oath [F. serment civique]: an oath of allegiance to the new order of things, demanded from citizens in the French Revolution.
1789Sparks Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853) IV. 262 Your military rank holds its place in my mind notwithstanding your civic glory. 1791Burke Lett. Member Nat. Assembly Wks. VI. 15 [Cromwell] chose an Hales for his chief justice, though he absolutely refused to take his civick oaths, or to make any acknowledgement whatever of the legality of his government. 1832tr. Sismondi's Ital. Rep. xvi. 344, 4000 soldiers drawn only from among families having a right to sit in the council-general, were called the civic militia. 1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 56 Every individual possessing the civic franchise. 1866Felton Anc. & Mod. Gr. II. i. 13 That career of progress which afterwards made her [Greece] the teacher, not only of science, letters, and art, but of civic wisdom. 4. Comb., as civic-minded a., inclined to concern oneself with civic affairs; public-spirited; so civic-mindedness.
1942M. McCarthy Company she Keeps (1943) vi. 203 His methodical habits, his civic-mindedness, his devout sense of what was proper. 1947N. Cardus Autobiogr. 207 He..was not civic-minded, and could never be trusted at a garden-party. 1967J. Wainwright Talent for Murder 166 Alfred Merriam began to wish he had not been so civic-minded. |