| 释义 |
culpable, a. (and n.)|ˈkʌlpəb(ə)l|
Forms: 4–5 coupable, (4 -abile, -aple, cupabil, 4–5 cowpable), 4–5 culpabil(l, 4–6 coulpable, 4– culpable.
[ME. coupable, a. OF. coupable (cop-, coulpable, culpable, etc.) guilty:—L. culpābil-is blameworthy, f. culpa fault, blame. The OF. was regularly reduced to coupable in 13th c., but was frequently written culpable after L. in 14th c., coulpable in 16th c.; the latinized form has in Eng. been established both in spelling and pronunciation.]
1. Guilty, criminal; deserving punishment or condemnation. Obs. (or blended with sense 2.)
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 1331 Ȝyf þou..Fordost pore mannys sustynaunce Þat aftyrwarde he may nat lyve Þou art coupable. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xvii. 300 Any creature þat is coupable afor a kynges iustice. 1483Caxton Cato E j b, How be it that they ben gylty and culpable. 1573Bp. of Peterborough in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 196 III. 35 If thei be able justelie..to finde him culpable. 1661Bramhall Just Vind. ii. 22 Meer Schisme..a culpable rupture or breach of the Catholick communion. 1778R. Lowth Isaiah Notes (ed. 12) 343 The inflictor of the punishment may perhaps be as culpable as the sufferer. 1844Thirlwall Greece VIII. lxii. 151 He was considered at Thebes as culpable.
b. Const. of, † in (an offence, sin, wrong, etc.).
a1340Hampole Psalter xxxiv. 13 Þai wild haf made me culpabil of syn. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 312 We ben coupable in þis synne. 1428Surtees Misc. (1890) 8 He was gylty and coulpabyll of all y⊇ trespasse. 1545Brinklow Compl. iii. (1874) 14 What can the pore wyfe..do witthall, being not culpable in the cryme? 1653H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. lvi. 220 They had found themselves culpable of gluttony. 1839James Louis XIV, I. 222 The greatest crime of which a man could render himself culpable.
†c. culpable of (punishment, death, judgement, etc.): deserving, liable to. Also, culpable to be judged, etc. (see first quot.).
c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 16 Sich is coupable aȝens God to be jugid to helle. Ibid., Þat man, as Crist seiþ, is coupable of þe fier of helle. c1450Mirour Saluacioun 4570 He is of the deth coupable. 1557N. T. (Genev.) Matt. v. 21 Whosoeuer killeth, shal be culpable of iudgement. 1612T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 7 Culpable of iudgement. 1612W. Sclater Minister's Portion 45 [Which] makes the offender culpable of death.
2. Deserving blame or censure, blameworthy.
[c1386Chaucer Melib. ⁋575 Þe lawe saith þat he is coupable þat entremettith him or mellith him with such þing as aperteyneþ not vnto him.] 1613R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Culpable, blame-worthy, guiltie. 1651Hobbes Leviath. i. viii. 33 What circumstances make an action laudable, or culpable. 1789Belsham Ess. I. i. 7 Those inclinations..they know to be highly culpable and unworthy. 1875J. Curtis Hist. Eng. 146 With great and culpable disregard to the public weal.
b. Artistically faulty or censurable. rare.
1768W. Gilpin Ess. Prints 2 It [a print] may have an agreeable effect as a whole, and yet be very culpable in its parts. 1851[see culpableness].
†B. n. A guilty person, a culprit. Obs. [So F. coupable.]
1480Robt. Devyll 720 in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 247 Euery vnthryftye culpable. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 411/3 He punysshed the culpables. 1651tr. De las-Coveras' Hist. Don Fenise 209 If he could discover the infamous culpable. a1734North Lives (1808) II. 246 (D.) Those only who were the culpables. |