| 释义 |
▪ I. stammer, n.|ˈstæmə(r)|
[f. stammer v.]
A stammering mode of utterance.
1773Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. ii. i, This stammer in my address,..can never permit me to soar above the reach of a milliner's prentice. 1835Dickens Sk. Boz, Parish i, The beadle..states the case without a single stammer. 1842Penny Cycl. XXII. 429/1 Stammer with this spasm distorts the utterance by an involuntary extension of some part of the syllable. Ibid., In the looseness of language..all kinds of difficult and defective utterance are misnamed stammer... 1895R. H. Shepherd in N. & Q. Ser. viii. VII. 503 Lamb..made the..witty retort, conveyed in his usual roll of stammers: ‘I n-nev-never-h-heard-you-d-do-anything else’.
transf.1898Kipling Fleet in Being iv. 45 The little demon [a Maxim gun] set up the ‘irritating stammer’ that the nine point two gun found so objectionable.
▪ II. stammer, v.|ˈstæmə(r)|
Forms: α. 1 stamerian, stomrian, 2 stamerie, 4–5 stamere, 5 stammery, Sc. stemer, stummer, 4–7 stamer, 5– stammer. β. 6 stamb(b)re, stambur, 6–7 stamber.
[OE. stamerian, stǫmrian = WFris. stammerje, NFris. stamere, (M)LG., (M)Du. stameren:—W.Ger. *stamrōjan, f. *stamro- (OE. stamor adj., NFris. stamer stammering) f. *stam- (see stam a.). A parallel formation with suffix l instead of r is found in (M)LG., (M)Du. stamelen, OHG. stamalôn (mod.G. stammeln) to stammer, f. WGer. *stamlo- adj. (OHG. stamal), stammering. Other synonymous verbs from the same root are OHG. stam(m)ên, ON. stama, OE. stǫmmettan.]
1. intr. To falter or stumble in one's speech; esp. to make one or more involuntary repetitions of a consonant or vowel before being able to pass from it to the following sound. Cf. stutter v.
Stammering may be the result of indecision, or of sudden emotion (as fear, anger, delight, or grief), or may proceed from pathological conditions of the organs of speech or of the nervous system.
αc1000Prudentius Glosses in Germania N.S. XI. 392/2 Balbutit, stamaraþ. a1200Sidonius Glosses in Anecd. Oxon. I. v. 43/15 Balbutire .i. stamerie. c1330Arth. & Merl. 2854 Ac he stamered a litel wiȝt. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxi. (1495) 128 Dronken men stamere whan they ben tomoche in moysture in the brayne. 1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. 4648 Neptolonius..in speche stamered whan he spak. 14..Lat.-Eng. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 567/19 Balbutio, to stamery. 1522World & Child 231, I shall myghtly make hym to stamer and stowpe. a1529Skelton E. Rummyng 339 Her felow did stammer and stut. 1530Palsgr. 732/1 It is a worlde to here hym stammer whan he is angryd. 1574A. L. Calvin's 4 Serm. ii. D iiij, When he stammereth so in himself that he cannot draw foorth one only woord. 1638Junius Paint. Ancients 315 They..going about to tell a tale doe nothing but stutte and stammer. 1654H. Lestrange Chas. I, 1 His vocall impediment..was..to wise men an index of his wisdome:..since there was never, or very rarely, known a fool that stammered. 1710Steele Tatler No. 244 ⁋2 A Man that stammers, if he has Understanding, is to be attended with Patience. 1818Byron Juan i. clxiii, He stood in act to speak, or rather stammer. 1834Macaulay Ess., Pitt (1897) 311 He stammered, stopped, and sat down. 1848Dickens Dombey xli, Stammering and blushing, Mr. Toots affects amazement. 1879Froude Cæsar xviii. 305 The eloquent tongue forgot its office. Cicero stammered, blundered, and sat down.
βc1500Col. Blowbol's Test. 332 in Hazl. E.E.P. I. 106 Beer..Whiche makyth oft tymes men to stambur. 1526Tindale Mark vii. 32 They brought vnto him won that was deffe, and stambred [1557, Geneva, stambbred] in hys speche. 1570Levins Manip. 79/6 To stamber, titubare.
b. fig. Also † to stammer it out.
1616R. Johnson Kingd. & Comm. 61 Neither doth he [sc. the Grand Seignor] stammer in his comparison of twenty Bashawes within his conquests [i.e. does not hesitate to assert each of them to be greater than our king]. 1653Ld. Vaux tr. Godeau's St. Paul 351 Although in his rapture he had seen the most profound mysteries of God, yet he accommodated himself to the weakness of his disciples, and stammered it out with them. 1818Keats Endym. i. 134 That I may dare, in wayfaring, To stammer where old Chaucer used to sing. 1822Byron Vis. Judgm. lvii, The grammar Of the last phrase, which makes the stanza stammer. 1837Emerson Address Amer. Schol. Wks. (Bohn) II. 183 Long he must stammer in his speech; often forego the living for the dead.
c. said of the tongue.
c1050Malchus in Assmann Ags. Hom. xviii. 380 Me þinceð, þæt me sio tunge stomriᵹe. 14..Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903) 253, & his Tonge shal stameren oþer famelen. 1628Wither Brit. Rememb. viii. 2545 The tongue, that stammers now, shall then speak plain. 1855Tennyson Maud i. vi. ix, The new strong wine of love, That made my tongue so stammer and trip.
d. Path. (See stammering vbl. n. 2.)
2. trans. To utter or say with a stammer.
α1810Scott Lady of L. iii. x, Childhood's babbling trill Of curses stammer'd slow. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Passion & Princ. vii. III. 83 He stammered a few words which were as unintelligible as unmeaning, and resumed his chair. 1897Pemberton Queen of Jesters iii. 118 The bailiff stammered an answer.
β1608R. Armin Nest Ninn. (1880) 52 Playes on thoughts as girls with beads, When their masse they stamber.
b. with quoted words or clause as object.
1847Tennyson Princess iii. 190, I stammer'd that I knew him. 1859― Elaine 419 [It] Abash'd Lavaine..But left him leave to stammer, ‘is it indeed?’ 1897‘O. Rhoscomyl’ White Rose Arno 12 ‘Why—no,’ stammered the young man. ‘I—that is, sir―’.
c. with forth, out. Also fig.
1587Higgins Mirr. Mag., Pinnar Lenuoye ii, If hee vnstatelike stammer out the same, With staylesse staggering footed verse, by ame. 1782F. Burney Cecilia viii. i, Cecilia..stammered out, ‘No, no―.’ 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvii. IV. 17 The judges..had roared down the arguments feebly stammered forth by the prisoners. 1874Burnand My time viii. 68, I was about to stammer out an excuse. 1902V. Jacob Sheep-Stealers x, ‘I was—I mean—I have been trying to get introduced to you for ever so long,’ he stammered out at last.
transf.1825Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Superannuated Man, I stammered out a bow, and..went home.
3. intr. To stagger in walking; said especially of horses. Now dial.
c1400Anturs Arth. 109 Hit stemered, hit stonayde, hit stode as a stone. c1440[implied in stammering vbl. n. 1]. c1470Gol. & Gaw. 624 Thair stedis stakkerit in the stour, and stude stummerand. 1607Markham Caval. iv. (1617) 27 Giue him a good chocke in the mouth, that you may make him stammer and shuffle his legs confusedly together. 1707J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 380 My Legs naturally stammer. a1774R. Fergusson Hallowfair Poems (1845) 16 But if a birkie's oure weel sair'd [i.e. served (with drink)] It gars him often stammer To ploys that bring to the Guard And eke the Council Chammer. 1825Brockett N.C. Gloss., Stammer, to stagger. 1831R. Blakey Free Will 62 The shot plied like hailstones round the old veteran... But he had the good fortune to escape unhurt, and when he was stammering back the Russians gave him three cheers.
†4. trans. To nonplus; = stagger v. 7. Obs.
1640Sanderson Serm. Ad Aulam xii. (1660) 232 If they should take away his life, that were indeed a sure course; but Nicodemus had stammered them all..when he told them that they could not do it by law.
Hence ˈstammered ppl. a.
a1858Bryant Burial of Love vi, We shall..miss..The patter of his little feet, Sweet frowns and stammer'd phrases sweet. 1913Quiller-Couch Hetty Wesley iii. iii. 297 He would rise from the table on some stammered excuse. |