| 释义 |
sisterhood|ˈsɪstəhʊd|
Also 4 sosterhode.
[f. sister n. + -hood.]
1. The state or condition of being a sister; sisterly status or relationship. Recently also spec. in feminist use.
1390Gower Conf. II. 268 That was unto Creusa sent.., For Sosterhode hem was betuene. Ibid. III. 278 Thanne..Sosterhode of mariage Was torned into cousinage. 1609Daniel Civ. Wars iv. lxxii, She..left to doo the part Of sisterhood, to doo that of a wife. 1611Cotgr., Demi-lict,..brotherhood, or sisterhood, on th' one side only. a1656Bp. Hall Rem. (1660) 407 There is a kinde of natural equality in Sisterhood. 1780S. J. Pratt Emma Corbett (ed. 4) III. 10 Her last leave of love and sisterhood. 1820Scott Monast. v, I will but salute you with the kiss of sisterhood. a1855C. Brontë Professor xviii, They acknowledged in her a sisterhood of youth and health. 1968Notes from First Year June 18 Sisterhood is powerful! 1974Time 6 May 80 Sisterhood across class lines is a myth. 1980J. R. Richards Sceptical Feminist i. 28 Basic to much recent feminist practice has been the idea of sisterhood, which..involves a determination among members of the women's movement to work together as equals.
transf.1846Grote Greece i. xxii. (1862) II. 541 Connected by colonial sisterhood with the Chalkidic settlements.
2. a. A society of sisters; esp. a society of women who have taken certain vows and live together under conventual rule, or who are otherwise devoted to religious life, or to charitable work as a vocation. Also attrib.
c1592Marlowe Jew of Malta iii, Let me be one, Although unworthy, of that Sister-hood. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. v. iii. 157 Ile dispose of thee, Among a Sisterhood of holy Nunnes. 1606Warner Alb. Eng. xiv. lxxxix. 362 Amongst your Sisterhood I know are amorous Wenches some. 1687T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 80 Own yourself and the rest of your sister-hood to be cheats. 1711Addison Spect. No. 164 ⁋3 To look out a Sisterhood of Nuns among whom to place his Daughter. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xlvii, When she took the vows,..few of the present sisterhood, I believe, were witnesses of the ceremony. 1866Church Times 1 Sept. 277/2 The various works of charity which are chiefly conducted by Sisterhoods. 1889Ruskin Præterita III. 10 The first impression from life at the secluded Sisterhoods was given me at the Convent of St. Michael.
b. Used loosely to denote a number of women having some common aim, characteristic, or calling. Often in a bad sense. Recently also spec. of feminists.
1609Markham Famous Whore (1868) 47 You faire creatures of my sister-hoode I wish this my discourse may do you good. 1637Massinger Guardian iv. iii, I will build An hospital only for noseless bawds,..and be myself The governess of the sisterhood. 1718Free-thinker No. 71. 103 Have the whole Sisterhood of Canting Females banished to some Desart Island. 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. xxiii, One of the sisterhood, a little stale, advised me to take lodgings in a part of the town where I was unknown. 1791Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ode i to Mrs. Paine Wks. 1812 II. 440 The Sisterhood of Billingsgate shall throng. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xi, She lacked..the decided boldness and effrontery of her sisterhood. 1873G. C. Davies Mount. & Mere i. 3 Those members of the female sex..who agitate questions they know nothing about. The Saturday Review calls the latter the ‘Shrieking Sisterhood’. 1880‘Ouida’ Moths I. 82 Lady Dolly and her sisterhood were audacious but cowardly. 1972Newsweek 9 Oct. 104 That book's stinging attack on the women's lib movement achieved for its author a place in the sisterhood's demonology right next to Hugh Hefner. 1981Times 9 Sept. 9/3 At the age of 24 Sarah Daniels must count as a second generation feminist, and if this first play is a portent of what the sisterhood is now brewing up then male chauvinism can breathe again.
c. fig. A group, array, association, or number of things imagined as sisters.
1827R. Pollok Course of T. ii, A little orb [the earth],..With her fair sisterhood of planets seven. 1839Donaldson New Cratylus i. iv. 80 The Celtic nations, the claim of whose speech to a place in the Indo-Germanic sisterhood has lately been established. 1883in Schaff Encycl. Relig. Knowl. III. 2038 A sisterhood of churches covering a large section of country. |