| 释义 |
modification|mɒdɪfɪˈkeɪʃən|
[a. F. modification (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), or ad. L. modificātiōnem, n. of action f. modificāre, -ārī to modify.]
1. a. The action of limiting, qualifying, or ‘toning down’ (a statement, etc.); a limitation, restriction, or qualification. (Tends to merge in sense 3.)
1603Florio Montaigne iii. iii. (1632) 459 So that it is naturally a paine unto mee, to communicate my selfe by halves, and with modification. 1626Donne Serm. lxviii. (1640) 691 He that beleeves not every Article of the Christian faith,..Damnabitur (no modification, no mollification, no going lesse), He shal be damned. 1657M. Hawke Killing is M. 49 Mariana..approves the killing of Princes by poison..yet always with this modification, that it is better to poison a Tyrant in his chair, or in his habit,..then to poison his drink. 1660R. Coke Power & Subj. 221 The Commissions and Bulls of the Popes Legate are..to be..published with such cautions and modifications as that Court shall judge expedient for the good of the Kingdom. 1769Junius Lett. xxi, This proposition they have uniformly maintained, without any condition or modification whatsoever. 1881Lockyer in Nature No. 616. 367 We find that the general statement requires a very considerable amount of modification.
†b. ? Appeasing, mollifying. Obs.
1656Sir J. Finett For. Ambass. 48 The French Ambassador [having taken offence]..was entertained by one or two Lords of the Bed-Chamber..with as satisfactory reasons as they could frame for diversion, but with little effect, though Sir Thomas Edmons..were (together with the Master of the Ceremonies) sent to him immediately after to the same purpose of modification.
†2. Philos.
a. The bringing of a thing into a particular mode of existence; determination of a substance into a particular mode or modes of being; differentiation into a variety of forms or ‘modes’. Obs. (merged in 3).
1502Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) iv. xvii. 217 After the cyrcumstaunces and modyfycacyon of mortall synne. 1678Gale Crt. Gentiles iv. iii. vi. 191 If men contend about the terme specification..I can..substitute in the room thereof a terme equivalent thereto in point of efficace, namely, modification, which is used by our acute Dr. Sam. Ward. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. ii. 14 If these powers of Cogitation, and Volition, and Sensation, are neither inherent in Matter as such, nor acquirable to Matter by any motion and modification of it. 1701Grew Cosm. Sacra ii. ii. §26. 40 The Use hereof [sc. of Sense], being only to minister to the Modification of Life in the Vital Principle, wherein the Essence of Sense doth consist. 1836–7Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. viii. (1859) I. 150 The word modification is properly the bringing a thing into a certain mode of existence, but it is very commonly employed for the mode of existence itself.
†b. The form of existence which belongs to a particular object considered as a determination of some wider entity or substance; one of the particular or concrete forms into which a substance or entity is differentiated; a ‘mode’ or variety of being (cf. mode n. 6). Obs.
The philosophical conception having lost currency, the expression is obsolete both in philosophical and in general use, or is merged in sense 4.
1664H. More Myst. Iniq., Apol. 498 There is no Specifical change in the most contrary modifications of Matter imaginable, but onely Accidental. 1665Glanvill Def. Van. Dogm. 21 There is no way then of defending the assertion of the souls being matter, or any modification of it. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xiii. §4 Each different distance is a different modification of space. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 17 Disposition, configuration, and motion, are not substances, but accidents in ancient dialect, or modifications according to modern philosophers. 1779–81Johnson L.P. Pope Wks. IV. 72 His Characters of Men, written with close attention to the operations of the mind and modifications of life. 1836–7[see 2]. 1841D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 128 New modifications of thought create new modes of expression.
3. a. The action of making changes in an object without altering its essential nature or character; the state of being thus changed; partial alteration.
1774Burke Amer. Tax. Wks. II. 402 Sir, a partial repeal, or, as the bon ton of the court then was, a modification, would have satisfied a timid, unsystematic, procrastinating Ministry. 1835Southey Doctor ciii. III. 305 It is a curious instance of the modification which words undergo in different countries. 1853J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. ii. i. 71 Here again was a very powerful instrument in modification of their national character. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. i. (1873) 5 Our oldest domesticated animals are still capable of rapid improvement or modification. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. i. 7 It required but a slight modification of our plans.
b. Biol. The development of non-heritable changes in an organism; cf. sense 4 b.
1896Natural Sci. IX. 288 In the life of a single individual it is obvious that no modification can affect variation, since this is necessarily antecedent. 1908Encycl. Relig. & Ethics I. 66/2 Individuals are born different by variation; they become different during their lives by modification. 1960N. Polunin Introd. Plant Geogr. viii. 214 (heading) Modification and distributions of crops (and weeds).
4. a. The result of such alteration; a modified form, a variety. (Cf. sense 2 b.)
1669Holder Elem. Speech 6 The chief..of all signes is..Humane voice, and the several modifications thereof by the Organs of Speech, viz. the Letters of the Alphabet. 1704Newton Opticks (1721) 103 And therefore these Colours are to be derived from some other Cause than the new Modifications of Light by Refractions and Shadows. 1821Craig Lect. Drawing iii. 142 Together with blue, red, yellow, and their modifications and combinations. 1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem, 24 The acid of wood in its original state, or the acetate of lime, which is its next modification. 1823H. J. Brooke Introd. Crystallogr. 96 The secondary forms of crystals have been explained to consist of modifications of the primary, occasioned by decrements on some of their edges or angles. 1857Miller Elem. Chem., Org. (1862) iv. §1. 265 Stearin may exist in three modifications, each of which has a different fusing point. 1867H. Macmillan Bible Teach. vii. (1870) 130 All the parts of a plant, from the seed to the blossom, are mere modifications of a leaf.
b. Biol. The non-heritable changes produced in an organism in response to a particular environment.
1896Natural Sci. IX. 287 In a lucid paper he [sc. Lloyd Morgan] brought forward his useful distinction between variations, which are of germinal origin and congenital, and modifications, which are impressed on the organism by its environment. 1918Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc. VI. 221 If the organisms and their descendants when transplanted again into the original medium are again found to be red, then the change (loss of colour) is a modification. 1926J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. ii. 21 We can now..distinguish definitely between ‘mutations’, which are due to changes in the constitution of the animal—in the hereditary factors themselves—and ‘modifications’, which are due to changes in the environment. 1965Bell & Coombe tr. Strasburger's Textbk. Bot. 353 The modifications induced in the alpine plant [of Taraxacum officinale], probably due principally to the increased amount of ultra-violet light it receives, are not inherited.
5. a. Scots Law. The action of assessing or awarding a legal payment; esp. the determination of the amount of a parish minister's stipend. (Cf. modify v. 5.)
1569Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 665 That he sall satisfie, content and pay all personis skaythit or hurt in thair gudis be him..at the jugement, sicht, discretioun, and modificatioun of Johnne Erskin of Dun. 1578Ibid. III. 30 The ordinar assignationis of the stependis of the ministre contenit in the yeirlie buke of the modificatioun. 1595Extracts Aberdeen Reg. (1848) II. 109 For payment of his vnlaw according to the modificatioun of the consall. 1838W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. s.v. Locality, The decree of the Teind Court, modifying a stipend to a minister from the teinds of the parish, is called a decree of modification.
b. Law. A limitation or conditioning of the holding of property.
1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) IV. 13 An agreement to make some future disposition or modification of real property.
6. Gram.
a. Qualification or limitation of the sense of one word, phrase, etc. by another; an instance or result of this.
1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Modificative, Nouns, and verbs..are susceptible of divers circumstances or modifications. 1845Encycl. Metrop. I. 70/2 In all these instances, it is obvious, that the attribute expressed by the adjective undergoes some modification from the adverb.
b. Alteration of a vowel by ‘umlaut’; an instance or result of this.
1845J. M. Kemble in Proc. Philol. Soc. II. 136 This operation, for which we have no name, is known in Germany by that of Umlaut..: we must content ourselves with the very insufficient rendering ‘modification’. Ibid., These modifications remain, even though the vowel that caused them should have perished by lapse of time. Ibid. 141 The long u, and its modification ý. 1889Pall Mall G. 22 Jan. 1/3 Why..cannot the ‘reader’ of the Revue look after the correct spelling of the German text? The signs of the modification are wanting in almost every case.
7. Mus. ? = meantone temperament (see mean tone).
1811Busby Dict. Mus. (ed. 3), Modification, a term applied to that temperament of the sounds of instruments whose tones are fixed, which gives a greater degree of perfection to one key than another, and produces between them a characteristic difference, as in organs, harpsichords, and piano⁓fortes. |
