| 释义 |
speculator|ˈspɛkjʊleɪtə(r)|
Also 6–7 -our.
[a. L. speculātor, agent-noun f. speculārī to speculate, or ad. F. spéculateur, = It. specul-, specolatore, Sp. and Pg. especulador.]
1. One who speculates on abstruse or uncertain matters; one who devotes himself to speculation or theoretical reasoning.
1555Eden Decades (Arb.) 367 The philosophers, speculatours of naturall thynges, saye that it is engendered of substaunce more watery then fyerie. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xiii. 137 The Writers of Mineralls and naturall speculators, are of another beliefe. 1664Power Exp. Philos. iii. 193 The old Dogmatists and Notional Speculators, that onely gaz'd at the visible effects and..Resultances of things. 1798Malthus Popul. (1878) 5 The most enthusiastic speculator cannot suppose a greater increase. 1855Paley Aeschylus Pref. (1861) p. xii, Pythagoras, one of the most deep-minded speculators of the ancient world, speaks in every page of Aeschylus. 1871C. Davies Metric Syst. iii. 285 Some philosophical speculators have started doubts whether the metre is really the forty millionth part of the circumference of the earth.
b. Used as the title of periodicals.
1790[N. Drake], etc. The Speculator. 1801title, The Speculator, containing essays on men and things.
2. A watchman, sentry, or look-out.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 406 It is reported by a certain Greek writer that, if their speculator do not give them the watch-word,..they tear him in pieces with their teeth. 1661Burney κέρδ. Δῶρον 104, I am the speculator and sentinel that chase away all evil with my eyes. 1663Butler Hud. i. i. 711 We,..Like Speculators, should foresee From Pharos..Portended Mischiefs [etc.]. 1725Broome Observ. in Pope's Odyss. xii. III. 215 All the boats had one speculator in common, to give notice when the fish approach'd. 1820T. S. Hughes Trav. Sicily I. iv. 139 The speculator or man who descries the movements of the fish.
†3. One who engages in occult observations or studies. Obs.
1652Gaule Magastrom. 9 Diviners, Speculators, Circulators, Prognosticators,..&c. 1658Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. (ed. 4) vi. xiv. 416 The Hebrew letters in the heavens, made out of the greater and lesser Stars, which put together do make up words, wherein Cabalistical Speculators conceive they read the events of future things. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 244 Dee..appointed his Friend Kelley to be his Seer or Skryer or Speculator, that is to take notice what the Spirits did.
†4. An observer, spectator. Obs.—1
1647Nye Gunnery xviii. 95 As they wriggle to and fro, they will pull one another after them, to the speculatour a great deal of content.
5. A messenger sent to consult an oracle. rare—1.
1794T. Taylor Pausanias' Descr. Greece III. 149 They sent speculators (theoroi) to Delphos.
6. One who engages in commercial or financial speculation.
1778Hamilton Wks. (1886) VII. 560 The speculators in the city have been bidding against the commissaries. 1786Jefferson Writ. (1859) I. 578 There are even speculators in America who will purchase it. 1827Hone Every-day Bk. II. 1476 He was a keen..speculator, well versed in the mystery of the bulls and bears. 1848Dickens Dombey vi, One or two bold speculators had projected streets. 1884Fortn. Rev. Mar. 346 There are a class of speculators in the fag ends of leases. |