| 释义 |
contingency|kənˈtɪndʒənsɪ|
[f. as prec. with later form of suffix: see -ency.]
I.
†1. = contingence 1. Obs.
a1646J. Gregory Posthuma (1650) 39 When the Sun shall com to L the Point of Contingencie..then the Shadow of the Style shall cut the Horizon in M. 1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. vi. 119 Though they [two spheres] were contiguous only in the point of contingency.
2. Close connexion or affinity of nature; close relationship.
In Sc. Law, connexion between two or more processes, such that the circumstances of one are likely to throw light on the others, in which case that first enrolled is considered as the leading process, to which the others may be remitted ob contingentiam.
1612Drayton Poly-olb. iv. Notes 73 As well from identitie of countryship..as from contingencie of blood twixt the Engle-Saxon Kings and the Norman Dukes. 1861W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 224 If cases having a contingency are enrolled the same week, that enrolled before the senior Lord Ordinary is deemed the leading process. 1868Act 31–32 Vict. c. 100 §74 If..the said Lord Ordinary..shall be of opinion that there is contingency between the said processes.
II.
3. The quality or condition of being contingent. a. The condition of being liable to happen or not in the future; uncertainty of occurrence or incidence.
1635Wentworth in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 276 III. 283 Things in contingencye are never more then probable. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. iii. (1686) 9 Considering the Contingency in their Events. 1765Sterne Tr. Shandy (1802) VIII. xix. 154 'Twas a matter of contingency, which might happen or not. 1827Jarman Powell's Devises II. 217 Where an estate in remainder is limited in terms of contingency, on the happening of certain events. 1873H. Spencer Stud. Sociol. xiii. 325 The contingency of the results is so great, that definite relations of antecedents and consequents cannot be established.
b. The befalling or occurrence of anything without preordination; chance; fortuitousness.
1623Cockeram, Contingency, chance. 1704J. Trapp Abra-Mulé i. ii. 256 Our Prophet..leaves our Empire to be steer'd at random By blind Contingency. 1754Edwards Freed. Will ii. iii. (ed. 4) 63 This contingency, this efficient nothing, this effectual No-Cause. 1813Shelley Q. Mab vi. 170 All seems unlinked contingency and chance.
c. The condition of being free from predetermining necessity in regard to existence or action; hence, the being open to the play of chance, or of free will.
1561Sc. Confession of Faith iii, Nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 3 There can be no Contingency in their Actions, because all Volitions are determined by a Necessary antecedent Understanding. 1687H. More App. Antid. vi. (1712) 193 The Idea..intimates nothing either of the Necessity or Contingency of the Existence of the Substance of this Being. 1796Bp. Watson Apol. Bible x. 368 If his omniscience enables him to know them, what think you of the Contingency of human actions? 1847Hamilton Reid's Wks. 977/1 Others admitted absolute necessity—no contingency—no liberty. 1877E. Caird Philos. Kant ii. xvi. 587 Beneath the play of contingency in the phenomenal world, there is an absolutely necessary Being in the intelligible world.
d. The quality or condition of being subject to chance and change, or of being at the mercy of accidents.
1858Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims, Pers. Poetry Wks. (Bohn) III. 238 [In the desert] life hangs on the contingency of a skin of water. 1861E. Garbett Boyle Lect. 13 The contents of the Scriptures do not depend for their existence, or their obligation, on the contingency of human belief.
4. a. A chance occurrence; an event the occurrence of which could not have been, or was not, foreseen; an accident, a casualty. future contingency: a thing that may or may not happen.
1616Donne Serm. Prov. xxii. 11 Exposed to the disposition of the tyde, to the rage of the winde, to the wantonness of the eddy, and to innumerable contingencies. 1620Melton Astrolog. 53 Drawing from the starres the euents of future contingencies. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. (1843) 5/2 He [King James] knew not how to wrestle with desperate Contingencies. 1745De Foe's Eng. Tradesman (1841) I. xix. 182 Life, and all the contingencies of life, are subjected to the dominion of providence. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) I. 76 The second time we had been left together by a parcel of nonsensical contingencies. 1819Shelley Cenci iii. ii, Are we the fools of such contingencies?
b. A conjuncture of events occurring without design; a juncture.
1806Southey Lett. (1856) I. 367 One such contingency indeed certainly happened at Devizes some thirty years ago. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. ii. 126 Advantage might be taken of some political contingency for a private arrangement. 1860Motley Netherl. (1868) I. i. 20 He was far superior to the States at this contingency.
5. a. An event conceived or contemplated as of possible occurrence in the future.
a1626Bacon Max. & Uses Com. Law xx. 71 If the first parties have put it in the power of a third person, or of a contingency, to give a perfection to their acts. a1734North Life J. North (1826) III. 258 To weigh the contingencies of life, and possibilities of good or evil that may concern them. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. ii. 135 The express contingency had arisen which was contemplated in the constitution of the canon law. 1868Gladstone Juv. Mundi ii. (1870) 51 Poludamas, speaking of the possible destruction of the Greek army in Troas, thus describes that contingency.
b. A possible or uncertain event on which other things depend or are conditional; a condition that may be present or absent.
1646H. Lawrence Comm. Angells 161 They [worldly hopes] are built upon uncertainties and contingencies. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. Pref., The Compleat Finishing and Publication of them, will..depend upon many Contingencies. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) VI. 474 Where the devisor..gives a future estate of freehold, to arise either upon a contingency, or at a period certain.
6. A thing or condition of things contingent or dependent upon an uncertain event.
1818Hallam Mid. Ages (1872) II. v. 84 All the princes of Hesse or Saxony had reciprocal contingencies of succession, or what our lawyers call cross-remainders, to each other's dominions. 1862Trollope Orley F. ii (ed. 4) 10 They had received their fortunes, with some settled contingencies to be forthcoming on their father's demise.
7. A thing incident to something else; an uncertain incident; an incidental expense, etc.
a1626Bacon Max. & Uses Com. Law viii, Any accessory before the fact is subiect to all the contingencies pregnant of the fact, if they bee pursuances of the same fact. 1663Pepys Diary 3 Apr., The charge of this year's work of the Mole will be {pstlg}13,000, besides..the fortifications and contingencys, which puts us to a great stand. 1667Ibid. 11 Apr., Despatched the business of Balty's 1500{pstlg} he received for the contingencies of the fleete. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ. Prol., All the effects of strangers..dying in France are seized by virtue of this law..The profit of these contingencies being farmed, there is no redress. 1817Cobbett Pol. Reg. 15 Feb. 204 All the other various and ever-varying contingencies of marriage, number of children, etc.
†8. = contingent B. 5. Obs. rare.
1723Lond. Gaz. No. 6130/2 Not having paid a Penny of the several Contingencies they are obliged to.
9. attrib. (occas. in pl.); contingency fund, one set aside for conditional or incidental expenses.
1901Guinness Trust (Fulham) 10 The ‘nett income’..is exclusive of {pstlg}17,361 6s. 6d. placed to the credit of ‘depreciation and contingency fund’ during the same period. 1924Act. 14 & 15 Geo. V c. 38 §67 A corresponding increase in the amounts to be carried to the Contingencies Fund. 1931Economist 10 Jan. 80/2 The sum of {pstlg}30,000 is placed to contingency reserve. 1934T. S. Eliot Rock i. 23 If they haven't any contingency fund to draw on, that's their look⁓out. 1963Punch 3 Apr. 471/2 A regular system of contingency planning. Ibid., The Cabinet failed to instruct our defence planners to prepare a contingency plan for the cancellation of Skybolt. 1969New Scientist 17 July 116/2 Armstrong will..scoop up a ‘contingency sample’ of the lunar material. 1970D. Craig Young Men may Die xxvi. 190 They had their contingency plans nicely polished and when it didn't work either way they were nowhere.
▸ contingency fee n. Law (orig. and chiefly U.S.) a sum of money paid to a lawyer only if a case is won, esp. one determined as a percentage of compensation received; cf. contingent fee n. (b) at contingent adj. and n. Additions.
1905Chicago Tribune 17 Oct. 4/3 The policy holders' legal advisers were actuated by the promise of a *contingency fee if they won the decision in the case. 1948Mich. Law Rev. 46 401 The attorney was to receive a 40 percent contingency fee. 2002Spectator (Hamilton, Ont.) (Nexis) 21 Oct. a11 Contingency fees would be a good way to allow Canadians who are struggling financially to access justice through lawsuits. |