| 释义 |
curfew|ˈkɜːfjuː|
Forms: α. (3 coeverfu), 4 corfu, -feu, 4–7 corfew, curfewe, 5 curfu, 5–6 courfeu(e, curpheue, 6–7 curfue, 7 curphew, 8 corfeu, -fue, -phew, curfeu, 5– curfew; β. 4 corfour, 5–6 curfur, 6 courfyre, curfoyr, 7 curfure, -phour; 6 curfle. Also (etymological restorations) 7 couvrefeu, coverfeu, -few.
[a. AF. coeverfu, = OF. cuevre-fu, quevre-feu, covre-feu (13th c.), f. couvre, imper. of couvrir to cover + feu fire: cf. the med.L. names ignitegium, pyritegium, from tegĕre to cover. The corrupt forms in -four, -fur, etc. appear to be of phonetic origin, though in some cases associated with fire.]
1. a. A regulation in force in mediæval Europe by which at a fixed hour in the evening, indicated by the ringing of a bell, fires were to be covered over or extinguished; also, the hour of evening when this signal was given, and the bell rung for the purpose. Also transf. and fig. b. Hence, the practice of ringing a bell at a fixed hour in the evening, usually eight or nine o'clock, continued after the original purpose was obsolete, and often used as a signal in connexion with various municipal or communal regulations; the practice of ringing the evening bell still survives in many towns. In extended use: a restriction imposed upon the movements of the inhabitants of an area for a specified period.
The primary purpose of the curfew appears to have been the prevention of conflagrations arising from domestic fires left unextinguished at night. The earliest English quotations make no reference to the original sense of the word; the curfew being already in 13th c. merely a name for the ringing of the evening bell, and the time so marked.
[1285Stat. London Stat. I. 102 Apres Coeverfu personé a Seint Martyn le graunt.] c1320Seuyn Sag. (W.) 1429 Than was the lawe in Rome toun, That, whether lord or garsoun That after Corfu be founde rominde, Faste men scholden hem nimen and binde. c1386[see 3]. c1400Leges Quat. Burgorum lxxxi. in Sc. Acts I. 349 [He] sal gang til his wache wyth twa wapnys at þe ryngyng of þe courfeu. c1440Promp. Parv. 110/2 Curfu, ignitegium. 1495in Arnolde Chron. (1811) 90 Yf ther bee any Parishe Clarke yt ringyth curfew after the curfue be ronge at Bowe chirche. 1530Palsgr. 210/1 Courfewe, a ryngyng of belles towarde evenyng. 1570Levins Manip. 190 Curfle, operitio ignis. 1561Bp. Parkhurst Injunctions, If they doo ring at the buriall of the deade, noone or Curpheue. 1570Burgh Rec. Peebles 324 (Sc. Burgh Rec. Soc.) To regne xij houris, vj houris, and courfyre nychtlie. 1608Merry Devil Edm. in Hazl. Dodsley X. 251 Well, 'tis nine o'clock, 'tis time to ring curfew. 1610Shakes. Temp. v. i. 40. 1632 Milton Penseroso 74 Oft on a plat of rising ground, I hear the far-off curfew sound. 1750Gray Elegy i, The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day. 1825Cobbett Rur. Rides (1830) I. 317, I got to this place about half an hour after the ringing of the eight o'clock bell, or Curfew. 1850Lyell 2nd Visit U.S. II. 43 Every evening, at nine o'clock, a great bell, or curfew, tolls in the market-place of Montgomery, after which no coloured man is permitted to be abroad without a pass. 1922Joyce Ulysses 414 When the curfew rings for you. 1929D. H. Lawrence Pansies 103 The curfew of our great day..the tocsin of this our civilisation. 1939Punch 18 Oct. 435/1 The attempt..to get a nine o'clock curfew imposed on members of the Women's Land Army in training..to prevent them going out with soldiers. 1964Ann. Reg. 1963 309 The new Prime Minister..imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Jerusalem. 1970D. Stuart Very Sheltered Life 70 There was an immediate curfew. Everyone had to be off the streets.
¶ The statement that the curfew was introduced into England by William the Conqueror as a measure of political repression has been current since the 16th century, but rests on no early historical evidence. See Freeman Norm. Conq. (1875) III. 185 as to what ‘seems to be the origin of the famous and misrepresented curfew’.
1568Grafton Chron. II. 9. 1647 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. lvi. (1739) 102 It is affirmed, that the Normans did impose a new custom called Coverfeu. 1743–6Shenstone Elegies xv, So droop'd, I ween, each Britons breast of old When the dull curfew spoke their freedom fled. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. 412.
†c. Applied also to the ringing of a bell at a fixed hour in the morning. Obs.
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iv. iv. 4 Come, stir, stir, stir, The second Cocke hath Crow'd, The Curphew Bell hath rung, 'tis three a clocke. 1673in L'pool Munic. Rec. (1883) I. 342 Ring Curphew all the yeare long at 4 a clock in the morning and eight at a night. 1704Ibid. II. 83 Ringing Curfew Bell at four of y⊇ clock in y⊇ morning, and eight at night.
2. A cover for a fire; a fire-plate, a cover-fire.
a1626Bacon (J.), For pans, pots, curfews, counters and the like. 1779Gentl. Mag. XLIX. 406 He had gotten a piece of household furniture of copper, which he was pleased to call a curfew..F. G...has described it as a curfew, from its use of suddenly putting out a fire. 1837[see cover-fire].
3. attrib. and Comb., as curfew-knoll, curfew-law, curfew-note, curfew-order, curfew-time.
c1386Chaucer Miller's T. 459 The dede sleepe..Fil on this carpenter..Aboute corfew tyme [v.r. corfeu, curfewe]. 1778W. Pearce Haunts Shaks. 12 At curfew-time lull'd by the lone village bell. 1814Wordsw. Excursion viii. 172 The curfew-knoll That spake the Norman Conqueror's stern behest. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xxvii, That sleep should have visited his eyes after such a curfew-note, was impossible. 1897J. Bryce Impr. S. Afr. xxi. 447 Cape Colony has a so-called ‘curfew law’, requiring natives who are out of doors after dark to be provided with a pass. 1931Daily Express 16 Oct. 11/3 The curfew order of the university is that no cars may be used after nine without leave.
4. curfew-bell. (See sense 1.) Also fig.
c1320Seuyn Sag. (W.) 1497 Corfour belle ringge gan. 1509Bury Wills (1850) 112, I gyve toward y⊇ ryngers charge off the gret belle in Seynt Mary Chirche, callyd corfew belle. 1597–8Bp. Hall Sat. iii. iv. 15 But a new rope, to ring the couure-feu bell. a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Consid. Parl. Wks. (1711) 187 That there shall be cover-feu bells rung..after the ringing of which no man shall be found upon the streets. 1702C. Mather Magn. Chr. iii. iii. (1852) 542 He..would ring a loud courfeu bell wherever he saw the fires of animosity. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. I. 103 A law of police which directed all fires to be put out at the tolling of a bell called Curfew bell, is by later chroniclers ascribed to Wm. the Conqueror, but without any countenance from the early writers. |