| 释义 |
decadent, a.|ˈdɛkədənt, dɪˈkeɪdənt|
[f. decadence: see -ent. So mod.F. décadent (Hatzf.).]
1. That is in a state of decay or decline; falling off or deteriorating from a prior condition of excellence, vitality, prosperity, etc.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. i. ii, Those decadent ages in which no Ideal either grows or blossoms? 1872Blackie Lays Highl. Introd. 50 A grey, old town with an air of decadent respectability about it. 1885Mme. Darmesteter in Mag. of Art Sept. 477/1 To establish in his kingdom the already decadent and modern art of Italy.
‖2.
a. Said of a French school which affects to belong to an age of decadence in literature and art. Hence n., a member of this fraternity.
[1885Figaro 22 Sept., Le décadent n'a pas d'idées. Il n'en veut pas. Il aime mieux les mots..C'est au lecteur à comprendre et à mettre des idées sous les mots. Le lecteur s'y refuse généralement. De là, mépris du décadent pour le lecteur.] 1888Sat. Rev. 6 Oct. 417/2 M. Darmesteter has written in a style occasionally a little decadent and over-elaborate. 1890Ibid. 22 Nov. 602/2 The very noisy and motley crew of younger writers in France..naturalists, decadents, scientific critics, and what not. 1889Daily News 8 Nov. 5/2 A wonderful piece of ‘decadent’ French, in a queer new style, as if Rabelais's Limousin had been reborn, with a fresh manner of being unintelligible.
b. Said of other schools of literature and art characterized by decadence; spec. = æsthetic a. 4. So as n.
1894Beerbohm in Yellow Bk. II. 284 English literature..must fall at length into the hands of the decadents. 1906R. Brooke Let. Jan. (1968) 37, I contrive to keep the mens insana in corpore sano which is all the English decadent may hope for. 1942Wyndham Lewis Let. (1963) 324 The artist is labelled ‘decadent’ who departs from the Salon norm, or that of the Royal Academy, by the Hitlerite pundit of ‘sanity’. 1958Times 20 May 3/7 The last public appearance of Dadaism was that of an aesthetic outlaw under the Nazi ban and during the campaign of 1937 against ‘Decadent Art’. 1961M. Levy Studio Dict. Art Terms 39 Decadent movement, a critical and disparaging term sometimes used loosely as a synonym for the Aesthetic Movement.
Hence ˈdecadently adv.
1892Sat. Rev. 23 Apr. 492/2 It is very prettily and decadently written. |