| 释义 |
▪ I. converse, v.|kənˈvɜːs|
[a. F. converser (12th c. in Littré) to pass one's life, live, dwell in or with, in mod.Fr. also to exchange words with; = Pr. and Sp. conversar, It. and late L. conversare:—L. conversārī lit. to turn oneself about, to move to and fro, pass one's life, dwell, abide, live somewhere, keep company with; middle voice of rare conversāre to turn to and fro, freq. of convertĕre to turn about. As with other deponent vbs. the active form was in late L. substituted for the middle, whence the Romanic forms. The transference of sense from ‘live with’ to ‘talk with’ is recent in Fr. and English, and most complete in the latter.]
†1. intr. To move about, have one's being, live, dwell in (on, upon) a place, among (with) people, etc. Obs.
1340[see conversant a. 1]. c1374Chaucer Boeth. i. iii. 10 In whos houses I hadde conuersed and haunted fro my ȝouþe. 1483Caxton Cato B v, Before them emonge the whyche we conuerse and go dayly. 1483― Gold. Leg. 405/4 How many yere arte thou olde and where conuersest thou. 1638Wilkins New World xiv. (1707) 116 Birds..which do most converse upon the Earth..as a Pheasant, Partridge, etc. 1665–9Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. ix. (1675) 224 Impurities..contracted by conversing to and fro in a defiling World. 1691Ray Creation (1714) 26 Cetaceous Fishes which converse chiefly in the northern Sea. Ibid. ii. (1704) 420 Birds have been taught to pronounce Words,—yet Quadrupeds never, though Dogs and Horses converse almost perpetually with Men. 1727De Foe Hist. Appar. Introd. (1840) 3 It converses here, is with us, and among us.
†2. To associate familiarly, consort, keep company; to hold intercourse, be familiar with. Obs.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 861 You shall..Visite the speechlesse sicke, and still conuerse With groaning wretches. 1622–62Heylin Cosmogr. iv. (1682) 134 So rude a Country, as hath not hitherto conversed with more civil Nations. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 184 For ever, sunk Under yon boyling Ocean, wrapt in Chains; There to converse with everlasting groans. 1678Evelyn Mem. (1857) II. 131 Too blessed a creature to converse with mortals. 1780Johnson L.P., Congreve, Having long conversed familiarly with the great, he wished to be considered..as a man of fashion. 1819G. S. Faber Dispensations (1823) I. 322 The old pagans believed that a mighty god..openly conversed with mortals.
†b. To hold sexual intercourse. Obs.
1536Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) I. p. xix, This Albyne, with her fiftie sisteris..conversit with devillis in forme of men, and consavit childrin. 1611Cotgr. s.v. Rifflarde. 1656 S. Winter Serm. 45 They may lawfully converse together as man and wife. 1713Addison Guardian No. 165 ⁋7. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones vi. x, That wench with whom I know he yet converses. 1760C. Johnston Chrysal (1822) III. 31 Liberty..to converse with as many females as he pleased.
†c. To have commercial intercourse, to deal, trade, traffic. Obs.
1598Hakluyt Voy. (R.), They friendly conuerse and exercise mutual traffick together. 1613Sherley Trav. Persia 9 The Turke hauing giuen certaine scales to trade in, out of which..it was vnlawfull for any to converse. 1690Child Disc. Trade (ed. 4) 141 This Law will not at all incommode Gentlemen as to what they buy in shops, neither those that converse in Fairs and Markets. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 183 These Indians had canoes..by which, perhaps, they conversed with the islands near them.
†3. To be engaged in; to have to do with (a thing); to deal with, be familiar or conversant with. Obs. exc. as fig. of 4 or 5, in to converse with books.
1586A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 90 You that converse in these and such like actions. 1602Marston Antonio's Rev. iv. iii, O world, thou art too subtile For honest natures to converse withall. 1607–12Bacon Ess., Nat. Men (Arb.) 364 When they converse in those thinges they doe not affect. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. i. v. §5 Since he hath conversed more with the Orientall traditions. 1688South Serm. Prov. xii. 22 Wheresoever he treads, he sinks, and converses with a bottomless Pit. 1709Strype Ann. Ref. I. xxxi. 354 That ministers should converse in this catechism, and learn true divinity from it. 1719J. Richardson Sc. Connoisseur 204 By conversing with the Works of the Best Masters. 1749Fielding Tom Jones xiv. viii, He had indeed conversed so much with money. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 409 A man..who has conversed, not only with books, but with lawyers and merchants..statesmen and princes.
†4. To communicate or interchange ideas (with any one) by speech or writing or otherwise. Obs.
1590Shakes. Com. Err. ii. ii. 162 Did you conuerse sir with this gentlewoman?.. I never spake with her in all my life. 1650Sir E. Nicholas in N. Papers (Camden) I. 177, [As] I have att noe tyme soe much ease and content as when I converse with you, I hope I shall gaine pardon for this tedious letter. 1712Pope Lett. 28 May, It is not only the disposition I always have of conversing with you, that makes me so speedily answer your obliging letter. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. vi. 151 Like ships at sea, they must converse by signals. 1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) II. 137 He conversed little with the painters..except Velasquez, with whom he continued a correspondence of letters.
b. To hold inward communion, commune with.
1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. i. 26 Well let them practise and conuerse with spirits. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. ix. ii. (1821) 415 He knows how to converse with himself, and truly to love and value himself. 1686A. Horneck Crucif. Jesus iv. 66 Before he eats, converses with himself, while he is eating converses with God, and after he hath eaten, converses with the holy angels. 1747T. Warton Pleas. Melancholy (R.), Remote from man, conversing with the spheres. 1864Lowell Fireside Trav. 233 So you..have time to converse with your sensations.
5. spec. ‘To convey the thoughts reciprocally in talk’ (J.); to engage in conversation, to talk with (a person), on, upon (a subject), in (a language, voice). The ordinary current sense.
1615J. Stephens Satyr. Ess. (ed. 2) 249 If..you desire to converse with him, you must tarry till he be awake. 1653Walton Angler i. 32, I have conversed with those which have conversed with him. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. i. 6 Adam's posterity learnt to speak immediately from him, and so to converse with one another. 1745Wesley Answ. Ch. 7 My Heart clave to him as soon as he spoke. And the more we convers'd, so much the more did I esteem..him. 1799Southey Lyric Poems, Old Man's Comforts, You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death. 1825Lytton Falkland 41 We had been conversing with Lady Margaret on indifferent subjects. 1841Borrow Zincali II. xi. 136 Wishing to converse..in a language unknown to the Spaniards. 1853C. Brontë Villette xxi, Talk for you is good discipline. You converse imperfectly.
6. trans.
†a. To keep company with;
b. To render familiar or well acquainted;
c. To communicate with, talk with. Obs.
d. To talk (any one) out of, etc.
1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. Exhort. §9 Such a life without which human society cannot be conversed. 1665J. Sergeant Sure-footing 84 Not conversing him daily or very often. 1683D. A. Art Converse Pref., Whether we Converse our Superiours, Inferiours, or Equals. 1704Swift Batt. Bks. Wks. 1768 I. 176 This Temple having been Educated and long Conversed among the Ancients. 1718Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 354 After I have conversed himself, and read his theses. 1824S. E. Ferrier Inher. lxvii, She called her daughter to her, and contrived to converse her out of the room.
▪ II. converse, n.1|ˈkɒnvəs|
[f. converse v., c 1600; orig., like the vb., stressed conˈverse.]
†1. Intercourse; = conversation 2, 3. Obs. exc. in certain expressions now referred to 3.
1610J. Guillim Heraldry iii. vi. (1611) 103 The mutuall conuerse of humane Society. 1615G. Sandys Trav. i. 50 Enfeebled with the continual conuerse of women. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 378 By converse or copulation. 1653H. More Antid. Ath. ii. iv. (1712) 51 Sociableness or love of Converse. 1719De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. ix. 202 Free converse, traffic, and commerce. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 175 ⁋16 Thus numerous are the dangers to which the converse of mankind exposes us. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey v. vii. 205 Converse with the world will do more for you. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola i. v, I have returned from the converse of the streets as from a forgotten dream.
†b. Formerly with a and pl. Obs.
1660N. Ingelo Bentiv. & Ur. ii. (1682) 113 God..nourish'd it by a Converse with the first Man whom he made. 1676Glanvill Seas. Refl. 176 Thus we dress ourselves for publique converses.
†2. Familiar engagement or occupation (with things); = conversation 4. Obs.
a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. vii. 347 Dwelling..in a carnal converse with these sacramental symbols. 1665Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 199 Long Experience, and continual Converse among Troubles. 1665–6Phil. Trans. I. 114 A strange Diver, by his continual converse in water, degenerated. 1725J. Reynolds View of Death (1735) 2 T' abandon all that's dear..My friends and studies too, And all my known converses here.
3. Familiar interchange of thoughts; discourse, talk; = conversation 7. Now poetic or rhet.
(Quot. 1604 may belong to 1.)
[1604Shakes. Oth. iii. i. 40 A meane to draw the Moore Out of the way, that your conuerse and businesse May be more free.] 1614R. Taylor Hog lost Pearl i. i, It [Latin] is so much my often converse, that if there be none but women in my company, yet cannot I forbear it. 1650S. Clarke Eccl. Hist. i. (1654) 171 Upon converse, finding his sufficiency, he inquired the cause of his voyage. 1725Pope Odyss. xv. 355 Sweet is thy converse to each Social ear. 1859Tennyson Geraint & Enid 520 And told her all their converse in the hall. 1888Burgon 12 Gd. Men II. xii. 416 His converse at such seasons was always elevating.
†b. Formerly with a and pl. Obs.
1647W. Browne tr. Polexander ii. 113 In this manner ended the first converse between Z. and A. 1669Woodhead St. Teresa ii. vii. 61 It will be difficult in these converses not to talk of secular matters. 1672Cave Prim. Chr. i. iii. (1673) 37 By daily converses build them up and make them better. 1798S. Rogers Ep. to Friend 99 Still prompt to charm with many a converse sweet.
c. Interchange of thoughts otherwise than by speech.
1758S. Hayward Serm. p. xi, The leading topics of our epistolary converse. 1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. iii. 35 The same signs [i.e. gestures] serve as a medium of converse.
4. Spiritual or mental intercourse; communion.
1668Howe Bless. Righteous (1825) 87 In the wonted course of our converses with God. 1678R. Barclay Apol. Quakers ii. §7. 32 Gods Converse with Man..was by the immediate manifestation of his Spirit. 1750Shenstone Rural Elegance 217 With Nature here high converse hold. a1831A. Knox Rem. (1844) I. 74 A person who is much occupied in inward converse with God. 1872Holland Marb. Proph. 10 In converse with the thoughts of manlier men.
†5. Manner of life, ‘conversation’. Obs.
c1660South Serm. 1 Kings xiii. 33 The true Worship of God, and the Converse of those that use it. 1702Echard Eccl. Hist. (1710) 28 To be avoided in all affairs of civil society and converse, as..persons of infectious converse.
▪ III. † converse, a.1 and n.2 Obs.
Also 3–6 convers.
[a. F. convers, -se, ad. L. conversus turned, pa. pple. of convertĕre to convert.]
A. adj. Converted in mind or feeling.
a1300Cursor M. 19736 (Cott.) Fra þat time men cald him ai Conuers paule in godds lai. 1436Pol. Poems (1859) II. 203 That oure verry foo Mow be to us convers and torned.
B. n.
1. A convert.
1388Wyclif 1 Chron. xxii. 2 Conuersis for hethenesse to the lawe of Israel. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 178/3 Somme converses of the Jewes wold mynysshe the bounte of the grace of god.
2. Eccl. A lay member of a convent; a lay brother or sister.
Orig. applied to those who were converted from a secular to ‘religious’ life in adult age, as opposed to the nutriti who had been brought up in the monastic life from childhood: see Du Cange.
14..Prose Leg. in Anglia VIII. 135 In þe steppes of þe conuerses or monkes. 1483Caxton Golden Leg. 240/2 A frere conuerse began to be tormented of the deuyl. c1500Melusine 100 Thabbot and an houndred monkkis, beside the convers. 1512C'tess Richmond in Nichols Royal Wills (1780) 368 Oon perpetuell brother, called a converse..specially to serve the same monks at their masses. 1691tr. Emilianne's Observ. Journ. Naples 178 The Fifth Monastery..contains the Brothers Converses.
‖b. Often in the L. form conversus, pl. -i.
1777Archæol. IV. 38 He was conversus, a lay-brother. 1863J. R. Wallran Mem. Fountains Abbey (Surtees) 71 It [South Park Abbey] contained not less than sixty-six monks and one hundred and fifty conversi.
▪ IV. converse, a.2 and n.3|ˈkɒnvɜːs|
[ad. L. convers-us turned about, transformed, pa. pple. of convertĕre: see convert. La converse occurs in F. from 13th c., = Pr. and med.L. conversa.]
A. adj.
1. Turned round; opposite or contrary in direction or action; acting in reverse manner.
1794Sullivan View Nat. I. 355 The transformation of vapour into air [and] the converse change. 1862H. Spencer First Princ. i. iv. §26 As in this case..so in the converse case. 1873Burton Hist. Scot. VI. lxxi. 218 The converse arts of destruction and defence. 1876Gladstone Synchr. Homer. 227 Now of Zephuros Euros is the converse wind from the opposite point of heaven.
†2. Math. converse ratio, proportion: see quots.
1570Billingsley Euclid v. Def. xiii. 134 Conuerse proportion, or proportion by conuersion is, when the consequent is taken as the antecedent, and so is compared to the antecedent as to the consequent. 1660Barrow Euclid v. Def. xvi, Converse ratio is when the antecedent is compared to the excess wherein the antecedent exceeds the consequent. 1695W. Alingham Geom. Epit. 19 Converse Reason or proportion is the comparing the Antecedent to the excess, wherein the Antecedent exceeds the Consequent.
B. n.
1. gen. A statement or form of words derived from another by the turning about or transposition of two important antithetical members; e.g. ‘the possession of wealth without learning’, ‘the possession of learning without wealth’; ‘a quiet day and a noisy night’, ‘a noisy day and a quiet night’. [This use occurs in OF. in 13th c.]
1798Malthus Popul. (1878) 240 The converse of this will be also true. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Compensation Wks. (Bohn) I. 41 The theory of the mechanic forces is another example. What we gain in power is lost in time; and the converse. 1855Maury Phys. Geog. Sea ix. §446 A series of observations the converse of this, viz. winter in the North Atlantic, summer in the South. 1861Tulloch Eng. Purit. ii. 278 ‘All wickedness is weakness’. The converse he seems to have believed. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 23 The thesis..is the converse of that of Thrasymachus..not right is the interest of the stronger, but right is the necessity of the weaker.
b. A thing or action which is the exact opposite of another. [Occurs in OF. in 14th c.]
1786Tooke Purley 11 They travelled backwards..adopting the converse of the principle. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. xxi. 330 By evaporation water is carried up into the air; by the converse of evaporation, it falls down upon the earth. 1833M. Scott Tom Cringle xiii. (1859) 295 She was the very converse of our old ship, she never missed stays although I did cruelly. a1852D. Webster Wks. (1877) III. 453 The natural converse of accession is secession; and therefore when it is stated that the people of the States acceded to the Union, it may be more plausibly argued that they may secede from it. 1869T. Graham in Sci. Opinion 10 Feb. 270/2 This contraction of the wire is in length only. The result is the converse of extension by wire-drawing. 1879Mallock Life worth Living 135 The positions of the two moralists are in fact the exact converses of each other.
2. Math. (One proposition is the converse of another, when the datum and conclusion of the one are respectively taken as the conclusion and datum of the other.)
1570Billingsley Euclid i. vi. 16 The 8 proposition being the conuerse of the fourth. 1660Barrow Euclid i. axiom viii. note, Things which agree together are equal one to the other. The converse of this Axiome is true in right lines and angles, but not in figures, unless they be like. 1726tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 53 The Converses of these are evident. Mod. This proposition is the converse of the preceding.
3. Logic. A converted proposition: formerly applied to the original proposition upon which conversion is performed (called by Hamilton the convertend), but now usually to that which results from converting the original.
1827Whately Logic ii. ii. §4 Conversion can then only be illative when no term is distributed in the Converse, which was not distributed in the Exposita. 1837–8Sir W. Hamilton Logic I. 256 The original or given proposition is called the Converse or Converted..It would be better to call [it] the Convertend..This language I shall use. Ibid. I. 257 The Quantity of the Proposition in Conversion remains always the same; that is, the absolute quantity of the Converse must be exactly equal to that of the Convertend. 1884Jevons Stud. Deduct. Logic 32 It must be observed that the converse, obverse, and contrapositive are all true if the original proposition is true. |