| 释义 |
commercial, a. and n.|kəˈmɜːʃəl|
[mod. f. L. commerci-um commerce + -al1: cf. mod.F. commercial, Sp. comercial (not found in early 17th c. Dicts.)]
A. adj.
1. a. Engaged in commerce; trading.
a1687Petty Pol. Arith. iv. (1691) 82 The whole Commercial World, or World of Trade, consisteth of about Eighty Millions of Souls, as aforesaid. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 129 What Harbours and Ports there are in the whole Commercial World. 1774Burke Sp. Electors Bristol Wks. III. 21 A rich commercial city..a part of a rich commercial nation. 1817Ponsonby in Parl. Deb. 9 There were in the House many commercial men. 1837Dickens Pickw. xiv, Did you ever hear of the great commercial house of Bilson and Slum? 1856Stanley Sinai & Pal. vi. (1858) 271 The two great commercial states of the ancient world.
b. Of radio or television broadcasting: paid for by the revenue from broadcast advertisements.
1932B.B.C. Year-Bk. 1933 10 The line of least resistance might have been to allow commercial broadcasting for entertainment. 1940Graves & Hodge Long Week-end xxv. 425 Managers of theatres and cinemas were..alarmed by the threat of commercial television. 1956Ann. Reg. 1955 358 The introduction of ‘commercial television’. 1957Observer 11 Aug. 8/2 A quiet campaign for commercial sound radio is now going on.
2. Having reference to, or bearing on commerce, as in commercial law, commercial treaty.
1744J. Campbell (title), Voyages and Travels containing..the commercial History of Chorea and Japan. 1765(title), Commercial Laws, Charters and Decrees. 1789(title), Catalogue of the Commercial Library at Hamburg. 1866Crump Banking Pref. 7 To pass a commercial examination previous to engaging in business. 1889Times 30 Dec. 13/2 Commercial geography, in the strict sense, can hardly be considered as an ordinary school subject.
3. a. Of or pertaining to commerce or trade.
1757Johnson Pref. to Rolt's Dict. Comm. Wks. IX. 422 A time in which..commercial gain was sought with such general emulation. 1825McCulloch Pol. Econ. i. 39 The great principles of commercial freedom. 1848Mill Pol. Econ. iii. xii. §3 There is said to be a commercial crisis when a great number of merchants and traders at once, either have, or apprehend that they shall have, a difficulty in meeting their engagements.
b. Of a motor vehicle: designed or used primarily for the conveyance of goods or paying passengers.
1907Westm. Gaz. 5 Mar. 4/2 The opening of the Commercial Motor Vehicle and Motor-Boat Exhibition at Olympia on Thursday. 1931Economist 28 Feb. 431/2 Ford sales of passenger vehicles (commercial vehicles are excluded from these statistics) numbered 4,295.
4. a. Such as passes current in the transactions of commerce.
1752Johnson Rambler No. 192 ⁋11 My contempt of the commercial dialect. 1821J. Q. Adams in C. Davies Metr. Syst. iii. 115 The corresponding commercial weight proportional to their pound troy. 1879E. Garrett House by Wks. I. 32 The dusty ways of common commercial morality.
b. Forming an article of general commerce.
Generally implying chemical impurity, or a different quality from that which is used for scientific or medical purposes.
c1865Orr's Circ. Sc., Chem. 318 The commercial acid is generally not quite pure. 1875Ure Dict. Arts I. 749 s.v. Catechu, The ordinary commercial catechu is prepared by boiling the chips.
5. Viewed as a mere matter of business; looking toward financial profit. Freq. used pejoratively of any art-form, performance, artist, etc., that sets popular acclaim as measured by financial returns above artistic considerations.
a1871J. R. Planché Extravag. (1879) III. 313 That class of ‘commercial managers’ (to use Boucicault's felicitous designation of them) who care little for the character of the pieces they produce if they will only draw houses. 1882C. Pebody Eng. Journalism x. 71 The Public Advertiser, if not the first English newspaper to be published upon commercial principles, was the first English newspaper that proved a commercial success. a1891Mod. The commercial aspect of the enterprise is not very promising. It is a purely commercial speculation. 1909G. B. Shaw John Bull Pref. p.v, An opportunity which the commercial theatres could not have afforded him. Ibid., Its immediate and enormous popularity with delighted and flattered English audiences..constituted it a successful commercial play. 1926Melody Maker Aug. 35 Commercial orchestration, one arranged for sale by the music publisher and in such a manner that it can be played by all and sundry combinations. 1927Ibid. June 531/2 Arrangers, who have to be what is known as commercial—commercial apparently being another word for old-fashioned, stereotyped, ambitionless, lacking in imagination, hopelessly orthodox and generally being unable to present anything new for fear that it will not be appreciated by the public. 1937Amer. Speech XII. 46/1 Commercial, a term applied to musicians who play in the fashion which the public likes rather than that which other musicians judge best. ‘The band is better, although still pretty commercial on some tunes.’ Downbeat. 1959G. Avakian in M. T. Williams Art of Jazz (1960) ix. 75 When she was trying to ‘go commercial’ and her texts strayed from the authenticity they once had.
6. Phrases. commercial agency U.S., an organization which furnishes its clients with information as to the standing of commercial firms; commercial agent U.S., an agent stationed abroad to attend to commercial interests; commercial art, art employed in commerce, esp. in advertising; hence commercial artist; commercial college, commercial school, commercial university, one for instruction in commercial subjects; commercial letter, commercial note: sizes of writing paper in U.S.; commercial paper (see quot. 1897); † commercial play: cf. commerce 6 b; commercial room: a room in an inn, hotel, etc., for the accommodation of commercial travellers and their customers; commercial sheep, a sheep reared for selling and not for breeding purposes; commercial traveller, (a) an agent for a manufacturer, wholesale trader, etc., who travels over a district, showing samples and soliciting orders; (b) Austral. and N.Z. slang, = swagger n.2 2.
1897Bouvier's Law Dict. I. 357/2 Commercial Agency. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXX. 634/1 Mercantile, or commercial, agencies in America.
1877Ibid. VI. 317/1 The United States commercial agents, although appointed by the president, receive no exæquatur. They..are distinct from the consular agents.
1922Commercial Art Oct. 1/1 There are some fastidious people who will not suffer the term ‘Commercial Art’ being used. Ibid. Dec. 48/1 The only test of commercial art is: Will it sell the goods?
Ibid. 52/1 The commercial artist of the new school appeals to the imagination. 1955H. Read Grass Roots of Art vii. 132 A ‘commercial’ artist, which term might include poster-artist, fashion-designer, book-illustrator or artist-potter.
1802Monthly Mag. XIV. 261/2 Dr. Alderson, of Hull, has issued Proposals for establishing a Commercial College. 1908W. H. Dawson Evol. Mod. Germany 101 A Leipzig institution of recent origin, the Commercial College, founded in 1898 by the Chamber of Commerce of that town.
1836in W. L. Mackenzie Van Buren (1846) 176 The demoliton of the Usury laws, in relation to commercial paper,..is probably desirable. 1897Bouvier's Law Dict., Commercial Paper, negotiable paper given in due course of business, whether the element of negotiability be given it by the law merchant or by statute.
1749Chesterfield Lett. II. 247 Are they little commercial play, are they music, are they la belle conversation, or are they all three? 1774Ibid. I. 318 Do [your Amusements and Pleasures] consist in little commercial play (un petit jeu de société) in good company?
1837Dickens Pickw. xiv, In the evening the ‘commercial room’ was filled with a social circle.
1889Sonnenschein's Cycl. Educ. 440/2 The training of the commercial school will not make a boy a clever buyer and seller. 1901Hooper & Graham Comm. Educ. 13 State-supported Technical and Commercial Schools and Institutions.
1914Scotsman 10 Sept. 9/6 A big, strong commercial sheep.
1807Southey Espriella's Lett. II. xxxvii. 137 A commercial traveller..gave us some useful information concerning Manchester. 1830Commercial traveller [see traveller 3]. 1855(title), Commercial Traveller in Light and Shade. 1860Dickens (title), Uncommercial Traveller. 1933L. G. D. Acland in Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) 30 Sept. 15/7 Commercial, or c. traveller, slang for swagger. 1959J. Braine Vodi v. 79 An ex-commercial traveller with a wife as fat and cheerful and black-haired as himself.
1853Scott. Educ. & Lit. Jrnl. July 438 A movement..for the establishment of a Commercial University.
B. n.
1. a. Short for commercial traveller. Also, a man engaged in commerce.
1855Dickens in Story of his Life (ed. 2) 225 A most amusing and sprightly speech upon ‘Commercials’. 1861― Gt. Expect. xiii, A waiter..said..‘The Commercials sent up their compliments’. 1939D. L. Sayers In Teeth of Evidence 90 Do you know anything about a commercial called Slater? 1962Times 6 Aug. 9/6 Among the ‘commercials’ the terms of assignment are usually longer and a man may be in India for five or even 10 years.
b. Applied to a vagrant and, in Australia and N.Z., a swagman.
1886Tit-Bits 31 July 252 (Farmer), He is one of the cleverest commercials (that is the polite name for rogues and vagabonds generally) on the road. 1933[see commercial traveller, sense 6].
2. An advertisement broadcast on radio or television. Also transf. orig. U.S.
1935Fortune Nov. 193 We used no media other than radio to feature this soup..using one-third of our commercials on Campbell's Chicken Soup. 1936Variety 24 June 55/2 Commercials are restricted to 190 words on an hour program. 1942Q. Jrnl. Speech Feb. 7/1 The mixture of ghastly, forced gayety and jolly-doggism in this commercial makes it a comic example. 1957New Yorker 26 Oct. 50/1 Somehow, as in the television commercials, an alluring young lady seemed to be a built-in accessory of each of these cars. 1959N. Marsh Singing in Shrouds 14 The T.V. bloke that does the Jolyon Swimsuits commercial. 1960Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 117/2 Commercial, any laudatory statement; praise; a good reference. 1962Friend 16 Mar. 313/1 A visit to Bulgaria. (A quick commercial here, apropos of the last item: Young Friends would be pleased to hear from any older Friend who happens not to be using his/her car/van/Minibus during the period August 15–September 15!). 1967M. McLuhan Medium is Massage 126 Up until very recently, television commercials were regarded as simply a bastard form.
▸ commercial A n. the symbol {at}, so called from its use in calculating prices (as ‘four apples at——’); = at sign n.
1894Amer. Dict. Printing & Bookmaking 107/2 *Commercial A, a mark ({at}) used instead of at. 2000Oxf. Dict. Writers & Editors (ed. 2) 1/1 {at}, the ‘commercial a’ used in calculating from prices; used in the domain name in email addresses.
▸ commercial at n. = commercial A n. at Additions.
1969V. Cerf Request for Comments (Network Working Group) (Electronic text) No. 20. 5 (table) Symbol..{at}... Name..*Commercial At. 1996Independent 22 Jan. (Suppl.) 11/1 Diligent research..uncovered the fact that printers call it the ‘commercial at’. |