| 释义 |
ability|əˈbɪlɪtɪ|
Forms: 4 ablete, 5 abilite, habylite, 5–6 abletee, abilte, habilite, 6 habilitye, abilite, -ti, abylyte, abilyte, abylite, 6–7 habilitie, hability, abilitie, 7– ability.
[a. OFr. ableté:—L. habilitāt-em, n. of quality f. habilis: see able and -ty. The Fr. was in 4–5 refashioned after L., as habilité, habileté, and was followed by the Eng., though the initial h was probably never sounded, and after a long struggle on the part of scholars like More, Ascham, Sidney, Hooker, Bacon, Browne, etc., to preserve this written link with L., it finally disappeared before 1700.]
†1. Suitableness, fitness, aptitude. Obs.
c1380Wyclif Of Confessions Wks. 1880, 331 If his ablete shulde be proued..before he were accepted. 1430Lydgate Chron. Troy ii. xvii, She entre maye the relegyon Of myghty Bachus for habylite. 1509Fisher Eng. Wks. 290 Grete abletees of nature to noble dedes. 1570Dee Math. Præ f. 18 Skillfull hability, also, for any occasion or purpose. 1622M. Fotherby Atheomastix ii. i. §6. 181 The habilitie and capacitie of the matter. 1678Marvell Def. John Howe Wks. 1875 IV. 187 A faculty conserved..includes no such hability and present promptitude in itself to action.
2. The quality in an agent which makes an action possible; suitable or sufficient power (generally); faculty, capacity (to do or of doing something).
c1391Chaucer Astrol. 1, I have perceived well by certeyne evidinces thine abilite to lerne sciences. c1535More Debell. Salem & Byzance Wks. 1557, 1000/1 Yf the onely power and hability to fain, wer a cause sufficient. 1551Robinson More's Utopia 13 Though I be of muche lesse habilitie to do any thinge. 1570–87Holinshed Scot. Chron. (1806) II. 340 We are not of habilitie..to indure sa greit and intollerabil panis. 1594–1600Hooker Serm. iii. Wks. 1617, 729 Furnished with habilitie to annoy. 1605Timme Quersitanus i. iv. 13 The which habilitie of taking forme is in the subject. 1636Healey Cebes 156 A better Hability to have goodnesse infused into them. 1651Life of Father Sarpi (1676) 19 The fame of his prudence and hability of government. 1711F. Fuller Medic. Gymn. 11 The Body of Man..acquires by frequent Motion an Ability to last the longer. 1860Tyndall Glaciers ii. §17. 323 The glacier of the Rhone..its ability to expand laterally is increased.
b. The action itself, a thing within one's ability.
1602Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 2 Be thou assur'd, good Cassio, I will do All my abilities in thy behalfe.
c. Power to do a thing of legal validity; capacity in law.
1528Perkins Prof. Booke (1642) iii. §193. 86 Such persons are of ability in law to take liverie of seisin by force of feoffments of other men of abilities in law to make feoffments. 1649Selden Laws of Eng. (1739) i. xxxvi. 55 The Canonists had in those days brought into custom other ages of ability in matters concerning Marriage.
3. Bodily power; strength. (Still common in Scotland.)
1549J. Olde tr. Erasmus on Ephes. II. 6, I being (as concerning myne owne habilitie) feble and weake. 1576Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 211 To lift a great stone easily Which before divers Lay persons could not stirre with all their strength and abilitie. 1607Topsell Four-footed Beasts (1673) 137 Impudently begging and complaining of bodily weakness where is no want of ability. 1622Wither Motto ‘Nec Habeo’ (1633) 520 I have not found ability so much To carry milstones.
4. Pecuniary power; wealth, estate, means. Obs. exc. in a few phrases in which ‘to give’ is perhaps always mentally added.
1502Arnold Chron. 84 Where as diuers periured fremen of smale abylite haue vsed and daily vse, to bye clothe and other marchaundises of England. 1526Tindale Acts xi. 29 Every man accordinge to his habilite. 1580Baret Alvearie To be of abilitie: to liue like a gentleman. What abilitie or liuing is he of? or what may he dispende a yeere? 1601Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 378 Out of my leane and low ability Ile lend you something: my having is not much. 1665Manley tr. Grotius's Low Countrey Warres 817 Upon most the fine exceeded their ability. 1729Burkitt On New Test. Luke ii. 24 She was to bring a lamb of a year old for a burnt offering, in case she was a person of ability. 1766Goldsmith Vic. W. xiv. A draught upon my neighbour was to me the same as money; for I was sufficiently convinced of his ability.
5. Mental power or capacity; talent, cleverness.
1604Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 247 Though it be fit that Cassio haue his Place For, sure, he fills it vp with great Ability. 1604T. Wright Passions of the Mind v. iii. 177 If a man haue not a good naturall habilitie, it is impossible by art to come to any perfection. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. i. 6 The brain is not so figur'd as is requisite for wit and hability. 1794Sullivan View of Nat. II. 154 A late ingenious writer, who has evidently studied his subject with ability and precision. 1858Buckle Civiliz. I. vii. 427 La Fayette was no doubt inferior to Condorcet in point of ability. 1878M. L. Holbrook Hygiene of the Brain 3 The comparative ability of men is also an interesting subject.
6. A special power of the mind, a faculty. (Usually in pl.)
1587Golding De Mornay xv. 237 Euery abilitie thereof is in..the body, as much in one part as in another, as a whole soule in euery part; notwithstanding that euery seueral abilitie thereof seeme to be seuerally in some particuler member..as the sensitiue ability seemeth to rest in the head, the irefull in the heart, and [the] quickning in the liuer. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 179 All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes. 1651Hobbes Leviathan i. viii. 32 Such abilityes of the mind, as men praise. 1776Gibbon Decl. & Fall I. xiii. 267 His abilities were useful rather than splendid. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 130/1 Their natural abilities, combined with excellent taste. |