单词 | mutability |
释义 | mutabilityn. 1. Disposition to change; variableness, inconstancy; fickleness. Now chiefly literary and poetic. ΘΚΠ the mind > will > decision > irresolution or vacillation > inconstancy > [noun] unsteadfastnessa1300 falsenessc1330 unstablenessc1380 varyingc1380 inconstancec1386 variance1390 geriness1412 instabilityc1422 changeability?a1425 mutabilitya1425 changec1425 changeableness1447 unconstancec1449 unstabilitya1470 mutableness1481 unsureness1481 instableness1483 variation1509 inconstancy1526 shittleness1530 fickleness1548 unconstancy1548 unconstantness1551 inconstantness?a1562 pliableness1562 fast and loose1575 volubility1603 levity1604 unconstability1611 flexibleness1623 vagrancy1642 self-inconsistency1655 inconsistency1665 flittingnessa1680 easiness1705 inconsistence1713 versatility1755 contrariety1762 vibration1785 changefulness1791 girouettism1825 pirouettism1839 weathercockism1843 pirouettiveness1844 volatileness1849 unfixity1856 ficklety1888 a1425 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (1987) i. 851 Fortune..sith hire whiel by no way may sojourne, What woostow if hire mutabilite [v.r. mutabilitie], Right as thyselven list, wol don by the? c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) i. 1859 (MED) Þei seyn þat chawng and mutabilite Appropred ben to femynyte. c1475 (a1449) J. Lydgate Minor Poems (1934) ii. 822 (MED) Ye that beth blynde with worldly vanyte, No better myrrour than experience, For to declare his mutabilite. 1548 Hall's Vnion: Edward IV f. cxcj The Duke of Somerset, was incontinently, for his greate mutabilitie and lightnes, behedded at Exam. 1613 G. Markham Second Pt. First Bk. Eng. Arcadia f. 39v His vnkind flight, & her too kind pursuite, was a volume large enough for her to reade the great story of his mutability. 1662 E. Stillingfleet Origines Sacræ ii. vii. §1 It would argue mutability in God to revoke that Law, and establish another instead of it. 1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 162. ¶6 This Mutability of Temper and Inconsistency with our selves is the greatest Weakness of humane Nature, so [etc.]. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia V. ix. ix. 176 He spared neither the Delviles for their insolence of mutability in rejecting or seeking her at their pleasure, nor herself. 1838 C. Thirlwall Hist. Greece (new ed.) III. xviii. 77 He had himself experienced the mutability of the public taste. 1883 L. Villari tr. P. Villari Machiavelli & his Times III. ii. i. 242 Of his easy mutability we find proofs in two of the various Discorsi written by him [sc. Guicciardini]. 1908 M. J. Cawein Poems III. 83 Thy part is—to destroy, and still remain Immutable midst mutability. 1993 P. Ackroyd House of Dr. Dee (1994) iii. 113 I knew them to be actors in an historical tragedy, and so I looked for a prologue upon the theme of mutability. 2. a. Liability or tendency to change.The theme of mutability is a commonplace of much early literary and philosophical writing, esp. with reference to the changeableness and inconstancy of earthly or human affairs as opposed to the heavenly or divine. ΘΚΠ the world > time > change > changeableness > [noun] unstablenessc1340 varyingc1380 uncertaintyc1384 brotelnessc1386 were1390 instabilityc1422 bricklenessa1425 changeability?a1425 changeableness1447 vertibility1447 mutability?a1475 variableness?a1475 inconstance1509 mutationa1542 fickleness1548 variety1548 unconstancy1563 mobility1567 unstability1572 vicissitude1576 variousness1607 inconstancy1613 slipperinessa1618 alterableness1633 versatilousness1640 bottomlessness1642 lability1651 brittlety1652 versatileness1654 fluctuancy1659 fugitivenessa1661 alterability1661 permutability1662 unfixedness1668 mutablenessa1677 flittingnessa1680 frailness1687 flittiness1692 versability1721 plasticity1727 variability1771 unestablishment1776 fluctuabilitya1786 changefulness1791 unsettledness1799 versatility1802 harlequinism1808 fluidity1824 fitfulness1825 sensitiveness1825 insubstantiality1848 contingency1858 rootlessness1859 shiftingness1866 ficklety1888 variancy1888 impredicability1906 proteanism1909 ?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1871) III. 223 (MED) The firste trawthe, whiche is God, may not be where mutabilite [L. commutabilitas] is founde. 1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie i. ii. 51 The law wherby he worketh, is eternall, and therefore can haue no shew or cullor of mutabilitie. 1596 W. Lambarde Perambulation of Kent (rev. ed.) 480 That heauenly kingdome, which is not subiect to mutabilitie or chaunge. 1622 Bp. J. Hall Contempl. VI. O.T. xvi. 75 How slippery are the stations of earthly honours, and subiect to continuall mutability. 1664 T. Killigrew Thomaso iv. ii, in Comedies & Trag. 360 A humid Flux, or Catarrh, by the mutability of the Air, falls from your head into an Arm or Shoulder. 1712 R. Blackmore Creation (ed. 2) v. 211 There should be a God... The Corporeal World cannot be that Being. Prov'd from Mutability, and the Variety of Forms rising and disappearing. a1800 W. Cowper Yardley-Oak in W. Hayley Life & Posthumous Writings Cowper (1804) III. 412 What exhibitions various hath the world Witnessed, of mutability in all, That we account most durable below! 1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species xiv. 480 The chief facts..which have thoroughly convinced me that species have changed..by the preservation and accumulation of successive slight favourable variations. Why..have all the most eminent living naturalists and geologists rejected this view of the mutability of species? 1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps ii. xxvii. 389 I endeavoured to satisfy myself of the mutability which had been ascribed to them [sc. the veins in glaciers]. 1928 J. Galsworthy Swan Song ii. i, in Mod. Comedy (1929) 610 In his stable at Ascot, the son of Sleeping Dove, from home for the first time, pondered on the mutability of equine affairs. 1991 Struct. Change & Econ. Dynamics 2 207 Both the constancy of the technical coefficients as well as the mutability of output are held to be relative in nature. b. As a count noun: an instance of this; a change. Usually in plural. ΘΚΠ the world > time > change > changeableness > [noun] > instance of mutabilityc1550 vicissitude1631 c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) i. 16 Prosperus men, prouidis nocht to resist the occasions of the mutabiliteis. 1598 B. Yong tr. J. de Montemayor Diana 67 What place is there so strong, where one may be safe from the mutabilities of time? 1648 King Charles I Declar. 22 Nov. in Wks. (1662) 293 It is the humour of those who are of this Weather-cock-like disposition to love nothing but mutabilities. 1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks III. Misc. ii. iii. 95 We Islanders, fam'd for other Mutabilitys, are particularly noted for the Variableness..of our Weather. 1833 E. S. Wortley Poems 126 Dreams, loveliest mutabilities of ever-changeful earth! 1888 E. H. Plumptre Life Thomas Ken I. p. xi (note) One could scarcely find a more striking instance of the mutabilities of history. 1980 T. Wynne-Jones Odd's End xxii. 183 The house was full of a thousand little mutabilities. 3. Biology. The tendency to undergo or capacity for undergoing genetic mutation. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > biological processes > genetic activity > [noun] > changes or actions of genes or chromosomes > mutation > capacity for mutability1869 1869 Nature 18 Nov. 93/1 They use variability and mutability as having one and the same meaning, instead of distinguishing one as referring to subdivision into varieties, and the other as change of specific forms. 1908 J. A. Thomson Heredity iii. 92 It is possible that the prolific multiplication in a new environment may have had something to do with the awakening of the impulsive mutability [in Œnothera lamarckiana]. 1916 Genetics 1 606 (heading) Mutability in different species of Drosophila. 1929 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 15 834 That gene..does not influence the mutability of the miniature-gamma gene. 1974 Nature 9 Aug. 493/2 There was no significant difference in mutability between the two strains. 1989 B. Alberts et al. Molecular Biol. Cell (ed. 2) xxi. 1202 (heading) The enhanced mutability of cancer cells helps them evade destruction by anticancer drugs. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.a1425 |
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