释义 |
▪ I. † Dan1 Obs. Also 4–5 daun, danz, daunz, 4–6 dane, 5 dann; see also Sc. dene, den. [a. OF. dan (also dant, dam, damp, in nom. dans, danz) = mod.F. dom, Pr. don, dompn, Sp., Pg. don, It. donno:—L. dominus lord. Cf. dam n.4] An honourable title = Master, Sir: a. used in addressing or speaking of members of the religious orders; cf Dom; b. applied to distinguished men, knights, scholars, poets, deities, etc.; its modern affected application to poets appears to be after Spenser's ‘Dan Chaucer’.
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 73 Dane Phelyp was mayster þat tyme. c1330― Chron. Wace (Rolls) 8829 With hem wente daunz Merlyn ffor þo stones to make engyn. 1340Ayenb. 1 Þis boc is dan Michelis of Northgate. c1386Chaucer Monk's Prol. 41 My lorde the Monk quod he..Wher shal I calle yow my lord daun Iohn, Or daun Thomas, or elles daun Albon? Of what hous be ye? 1393Gower Conf. III. 86 Lo, thus Danz Aristoteles These thre sciences hath devided. 1483Cath. Angl. 89 A Dan; sicut monachi vocantur. 1523Skelton Garl. Laurel 391 The monke of Bury..Dane Johnn Lydgate. 1587Turberv. Trag. T. (1837) 9, I undertook Dan Lucans verse. 1596Spenser F.Q. iv. ii. 32 Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyld. 1714Pope Imit. Hor., Sat. ii. vi. 153 Our friend Dan Prior. 1717Prior Alma ii. 120 Pray thank Dan Pope who told it me. 1832Tennyson Dream Fair Women 5 Dan Chaucer, the first warbler. ▪ II. Dan4|dæn| The name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel and of a town in its territory, taken to represent the northern limit of Israelite settlement in Old Testament times, and used in proverbial phrases to indicate a farthest extremity, esp. in phr. from Dan to Beersheba. (Cf. Judges xx. 1, II Samuel xxiv. 2, I Kings iv. 25.)
1738Swift Polite Conv. i. 76, I remember, you told me, you had been with her from Dan to Bersheba. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ. I. 85, I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, 'Tis all barren. 1828Scott Jrnl. 9 Apr. (1941) 222 The whole saving will not exceed a guinea or two for being cursd and damnd from Dan to Beersheba. 1905H. G. Wells Mod. Utopia ix. 268 The Utopians distinguished two extremes of this Kinetic class according to the quality of their imaginative preferences, the Dan and Beersheba, as it were, of this division. |