| 释义 |
▪ I. siren, n.|ˈsaɪərən|
Forms: α. 4 sereyn, -ayn, 5 -ayne, 6 Sc. seryne, syraine. β. 4–7 pl. sirenes (5 syrenes); 6–8 syrene, 7 sirene (syriney). γ. 5– siren. δ. 5– syren.
[Ultimately ad. Gr. σειρήν (pl. σειρῆνες, first mentioned in Odyss. xii. 39 ff.), through L. Sīrēn and late L. Sīrēna; the latter is the source of It. and Sp. sirena, serena, Pg. sereia, serea, F. sirène, and OF. sereine, seraine, whence the earliest forms in English.]
I.
†1. An imaginary species of serpent. Obs.
This sense is derived from glossarial explanations of L. sirenes in the Vulgate text of Isaiah xiii. 22, where the Wycliffite versions have ‘wengid edderes’ and ‘fliynge serpentis’.
1340Ayenb. 61 An eddre þet hatte serayn, þet yernþ more zuyþere þanne hors, and oþerhuyl vleþ [etc.]. [1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. ix. (Bodl. MS.), In Arabia beþ serpentes wiþ winges, þat beþ icleped Sirene,..and here venym is so stronge þat deþe comeþ tofore þe biting.] c1520Andrew Noble Lyfe iii. lxxxiii, Ther be also in some places of arabye, serpentis named sirenes, that ronne faster than an horse, & haue wynges to flye.
2. Class. Mythol. One of several fabulous monsters, part woman, part bird, who were supposed to lure sailors to destruction by their enchanting singing.
In early use frequently confused with the mermaid.
αc1366Chaucer Rom. Rose 684 Though we mermaydens clepe hem here,..Men clepen hem sereyns in Fraunce. 1481Caxton Myrr. ii. ix. 88 They be called seraynes or mermaydens. 1572Satir. Poems Reform. xxxviii. 33 With sangis lyke the seryne our lyfis thow allurit.
β1387Trevisa Higden II. 369 Þe þre Sirenes, þat were half maydens, half foules, and hadde wynges and clawes. 1390Gower Conf. I. 58 Sirenes of a wonder kynde Ben Monstres,..And in the grete Se thei duellen. c1407Lydg. Reason & Sens. 1772 Hit passed of force and myght Sirenes song,..Which ar meremaydenes of the se. c1430― Misericordias 83 Syrenes, with warblys of swetnesse Blente ther resouns. c1520L. Andrew Noble Lyfe iii. lxxxiii, Syrene, the mermayde is a dedely beste that bringeth a man gladly to dethe. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 18 He must..sayle besydes theyr songes as the enticementes or daungerous rockes of the Sirenes. 1605Daniel Queen's Arcadia i. i, The Foggs and the Syrene offends us more. 1648Hexham ii, Een Meer-minne, a Mer-maide, or a Syriney. 1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Isagoge a vj b, The fabulous [birds] are, the..harpie, stymphalides, sirenes,..phœnix. 1726De Foe Hist. Devil (1822) 265 She talked like an angel, sung like a Syrene.
γc1400Destr. Troy 13286 When the Sirens this sene,..Þai wyn to the wale ship, & walton all vnder. 1598J. Dickenson Greene in Conc. (1878) 148 They hauing Sirens tongues and Crocodiles teares, thereby entic'd him to intangle him. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. ii. vi, Voluntary solitariness..brings on like a Siren..some Sphinx to this irrevocable gulf. 1682Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. (1716) 24 There is no Damocles like unto self opinion, nor any siren to our own fawning conceptions. 1753Hogarth Anal. Beauty vi. 32 The sphinx and siren have been admired, and accounted elegant in all ages. 1776Burney Hist. Music (1789) I. ii. ii. 310 All ancient authors agree in telling us that Sirens inhabited the coast of Sicily. 1831Keightley Myth. Anc. Gr. & It. 246 Hesiod describes the mead of the Sirens as blooming with flowers. 1876A. S. Murray Mythol. iii. (1877) 38 The Sirens are strictly personifications, not of the sea, but of the dangers of the sea-coast to sailors.
δc1400Destr. Troy 13271, I..sailet þurgh a sea þere Syrens were in. 1657H. Pinnell Philos. Ref. 26 Nimphs, Undens, Melosyns, whose Monsters or bastards are the Syrens that swim upon the water. 1688Holme Armoury ii. 364/1 This is one of the kinds of Mermaids.., and is the right Syren; two of them, about..1670, was brought dead, to our City of Chester,..where I..drew them. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 315 When Ulysses stopped the ears of his crew with wax, on sailing by the Syrens. 1820T. S. Hughes Trav. Sicily I. v. 163 It is of the purest gold, and represents a Syren. 1877Times 17 Feb. 4/4 Projecting from the extreme edges..are, first, 15 birds with human faces—syrens.
3. fig. One who, or that which, sings sweetly, charms, allures, or deceives, like the Sirens.
γ1590Shakes. Com. Err. iii. ii. 47 Oh traine me not sweet Mermaide with thy note, To drowne me in..teares: Sing Siren for thy selfe. c1630Milton At a Solemn Music 1 Blest pair of Sirens,..Sphear-born harmonious Sisters, Voice and Vers. 1653Binning Serm. (1845) 595 These are Blessed Sirens that..Pipe..some sad and woful ditties of men's sin. 1756C. Smart Horace, Sat. ii. iii. (1826) II. 109 That guilty Siren, sloth, must be avoided. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 552 Pleasure is..a very siren, attracting only to devour. 1813Scott Trierm. iii. xxxii, As round the band of sirens trip, He kiss'd one damsel's laughing lip. 1857Hughes Tom Brown i. i, To accept the oft-proffered invitation of these sirens. 1884Christian World 19 June 453/2 The influence of the sirens of the political boudoir.
δ1588Shakes. Tit. A. ii. i. 23 This Queene, This Syren, that will charme Romes Saturnine, And see his shipwracke. 1592Greene Groat's W. Wit (1617) 7 Deceyuing Syrens, whose eyes are Adamants, whose wordes are Witchcrafts. 1627E. F. Hist. Edw. II (1680) 4 This Syren (as some write) came out of Gascoign. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. i. iv, Fortune has seldome yet vouchsaf'd to turn Syren to pervert me. 1756tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) IV. 13 There are too many instances of intrigues..with these wanton syrens, having been revenged with death. 1789Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France I. 176 These pretty syrens were delighted to seize upon us. 1803H. K. White Clifton Grove 108 Why clasp the syren pleasure to his arms. 1848Gallenga Italy I. p. xxv, A rosy syren before—Hope,..always receding from its embrace.
†4. A drone bee. Obs. rare.
1601Holland Pliny I. 318 The Drones at the beginning be termed Sirenes or Cephenes. 1658Rowland tr. Moufet's Theat. Ins. 930 Of the Sirens there are two sorts, the one lesse all of a duskie colour; the other bigger, black mixt with other colours.
5. One or other of the eel-like gradient and tailed amphibians belonging to the family Sirenidæ, native to N. America; esp. the mud-iguana, Siren lacertina.
So named by Linnæus on account of the statement made to him by Dr. Garden, that it had a sort of singing voice.
[1766tr. Linnæus in Phil. Trans. LVI. 192 It must be a new and very distinct genus, and should most properly have the name of Siren.] 1791Shaw Nat. Misc. Pl. 61 The genus with which the Siren has evidently the greatest possible affinity is that of Lacerta or Lizard. 1831Griffith tr. Cuvier IX. 414 The Lacertine Siren (Siren Lacertina). 1855Owen Skel. & Teeth 28 In the siren the pelvic arch and limbs are not developed. 1883Science II. 160/2 This siren will eat crayfish.
6. Anat. (See first quot. and cf. sense 9.)
1839Penny Cycl. XV. 347/2 In another family of [human] monsters, denominated Symeles, or Sirens, the two thoracic or abdominal limbs are fused together into a single member. 1902Brit. Med. Jrnl. 15 Mar. 671 His identification of the Siren with the sympodial fetus..seems exceedingly probable.
7. a. An acoustical instrument (invented by Cagniard de la Tour in 1819) for producing musical tones and used in numbering the vibrations in any note. Cf. sirene.
1820Ann. Reg. ii. 1364 The Syren, a new Acoustical Instrument... In consequence of this property of being sonorous in the water the instrument has been called the Syren. 1870Tyndall Heat viii. App. 256, I placed a syren within a few feet of the singing flame. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2191/1 It has been ascertained by means of the siren that the wings of the mosquito move at the rate of 15,000 times a second. 1884Encycl. Brit. XVII. 104/1 The ‘siren’..consists essentially of a circular plate, revolving on an axis through its centre at right angles to its plane.
b. An instrument, made on a similar principle but of a larger size, used on steamships for giving fog-signals, warnings, etc. Also, more generally, a device which produces a piercing note (freq. of varying tone), used as an air-raid warning, or to signify the approach of a police car, etc.; the noise itself. Formerly, a motor-horn.
1879Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (ed. 6) I. x. 332 He..found that when the syren was sounded no echo was returned. 1880Daily News 27 Dec. 2/2 The Siren can be sounded with either steam or compressed air, made to pass through a fixed flat disc fitted into the throat of a long trumpet. 1897Kipling Capt. Cour. 11 Harvey heard the muffled shriek of a liner's siren. 1907[see cut-out n. 1 b]. 1917Flying 25 July 2/2 Tests with various sirens were made in Central London in order to ascertain whether they would be audible. 1940S. O'Casey Let. 20 Aug. (1975) I. 866 We have a kind of a cellar that we are to go to when the siren sounds. 1943Times (Weekly ed.) 18 Aug. 12/3 The Luftwaffe helps the Church Army. How?—every night there isn't a siren, a Church Army friend puts sixpence in her box and when there is she puts 2s. 6d. in as soon as the ‘All Clear’ goes. 1963Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 22 Nov. (1970) 5 We got in [the car]. Lyndon told the agents to stop the sirens. 1969G. Macbeth War Quartet 43 Then the sirens went, Sucking life underground. 1971Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 22 Oct. 19/3 Pursued by cops, lights flashing, siren wailing, up Brighton Road.
II. attrib. and Comb.
8. a. Attrib., in sense ‘characteristic of, resembling that of, a Siren’, as siren air, siren beauty, siren note, etc.
a1568R. Ascham Scholem. i. (Arb.) 75 Noble personages,..whom all the Siren songes of Italie, could neuer vntwyne from the maste of Gods word. 1588Marprel. Epist. (Arb.) 43 Be not led away by the Syren sounds and intisements of yong Iohn. 1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iii. Furies 787 Whose Syren-notes Inchaunt chaste Susans. 1600Shakes. Sonn. cxix, What potions haue I drunke of Syren teares? 1665J. Spencer Vulg. Proph. 2 Soft and siren words and periods which..make a pretty sound in the ear. 1728–46Thomson Seasons, Spring 991 Her syren-voice, inchanting, draws him on To guileful shores. a1743Savage Valentine's Day 19 Far from that shore, where syren-beauty dwells. 1788Burns Written in Friars-Carse Hermitage iii, Pleasure with her siren air May delude the thoughtless pair. 1827Keble Chr. Y., Wednesday before Easter, Be silent, Praise, Blind guide with siren voice. 1879Farrar St. Paul (1883) 712 The gentle breathing of the south wind..was but a siren song which had lured them to their destruction.
b. Appositive, as siren daughter, siren enemy, siren hag, etc.
1641Milton Ch. Govt. ii. Wks. 1851 III. 149 The invocation of Dame Memory and her Siren Daughters. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) II. 76 How silly were their Sages heretofore To fright their Heroes with a Syren-whore? 1742Pope Dunc. iv. 541 Others the Syren Sisters warble round, And empty heads console with empty sound. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 561 Then the siren enemies are busiest about us. 1794Coleridge Lines on a Friend who died of a frenzy Fever, Vice, siren-hag! in native ugliness. 1836Newman Siren Isles in Lyra Apost., The craft of Siren choirs. 1871Farrar Witn. Hist. ii. 76 When..the music of Memory and her syren daughters has been brought low. 1923E. Sitwell Bucolic Comedies 90 Where siren-birds sip Bohea.
c. Forming adjs. or advs., as siren-haunted, siren-voiced; siren-like.
a1617Bayne Lect. (1634) 235 Siren-like songs. a1704T. Brown Libertine i. Wks. 1711 IV. 144 No more shall your Voice, Syren-like, charm my Heart. 1819Mrs. Hemans Tales & Hist. Scenes, Death of Conradin 244 Bid him guide Thy steps Those syren-haunted seas beside. 1879Geo. Eliot Theo. Such ii. 44 The siren-haunted sea.
9. In sense 6, as siren form, siren formation, siren-like.
1831South Otto's Path. Anat. i. 32 The most perfect degree of coalescence in the human subject, the syren formation, in which even the whole of the lower extremities are united into one common limb. 1849–52Todd's Cycl. Anat. IV. ii. 964/1 Sympodia or Siren-like form. 1883Encycl. Brit. XVI. 764/2 Another curious result of defective separation of symmetrical parts is the siren form of fœtus.
10. In sense 7 b, as siren alarm, siren signal, siren-trumpet; siren suit, a one-piece costume resembling overalls or a boiler-suit, orig. designed for wear by women in air-raid shelters; later, worn by either sex, and as a fashion garment.
1950G. B. Shaw Farfetched Fables ii. 107 He is interrupted by a siren alarm, followed by an artillery salvo. 1976Ld. Home Way Wind Blows iv. 72 Some time in the early hours of the next morning there was a siren alarm, and we all trooped down to the basement of No. 10.
1899F. T. Bullen Way Navy 70 Making our presence known to one another by siren signals.
1939English Autumn 346 Ladies' dress-shops ambiguously advertise ‘siren suits’ for the Air Raid Shelter. 1942C. King Jrnl. 17 July in With Malice toward None (1970) 183 The Prime Minister..was in his blue siren-suit. 1959R. Collier City that wouldn't Die vii. 102 In a minute he [sc. Winston Churchill] came—black silk dressing-gown embroidered with gold pheasants over the baby-blue siren suit he called ‘my rompers’. 1977Belfast Tel. 19 Jan. 18/7 (Advt.), Good reductions in children's coats and fur siren suits.
1879Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (ed. 6) I. x. 332 The aërial echoes heard when standing behind the syren-trumpet at the South Foreland.
▪ II. ˈsiren, v.
Also syren.
[f. prec.]
1. trans. To allure, entice, persuade. rare.
1690Secr. Hist. Chas. II & Jas. II, 50 The advantageous league which she had pleasantly syren'd her brother to make with the French Monarch. 1935L. MacNeice Poems 14 Two [women] there are, as I drive in the city... The one sirening me to draw up by the kerb. 1960T. Stacey Brothers xxx. 353 They heard brilliant rippling music like some huge wooden xylophone. With this intricate sound still sirening them they found themselves on a hill top.
2. intr. To make signals with the siren. Also (of a police car, etc.), to proceed with siren blaring; to make one's way thus. Also ˈsirening ppl. a.
1895Westm. Gaz. 2 Feb. 5/1 The statement that ‘it is the custom of the North German Lloyds to run ‘syrening and flaring’ down the North Sea’..was absurd. 1940‘M. Innes’ Secret Vanguard x. 106 A sirening ambulance or fire-engine. 1951R. Bradbury Silver Locusts 50 They slammed the police-wagon door and drove him off into the early morning, his face pressed to the rear window, and just before they sirened over a hill, he saw the red fire..on an ordinary Monday morning on the ordinary planet Earth. 1960Guardian 21 Oct. 13/4 He was sirening up the Henry Hudson parkway. 1965D. S. Davis Pale Betrayer xxviii. 206 Fitzgerald sirened his way through the crowd, not leaving the car. 1978J. I. M. Stewart Full Term viii. 86 An ambulance went wildly sirening into St. Giles'. |