| 释义 |
▪ I. diploma, n.|dɪˈpləʊmə|
Pl. -as, sometimes -ata.
[a. L. diplōma a state letter of recommendation, an official document conferring some favour or privilege, a. Gr. δίπλωµα (-µατ-), (lit. a doubling), a folded paper, a letter of recommendation, later a letter of licence or privilege, f. διπλό-ειν to double, to bend or fold double, f. διπλό-ος double. Cf. F. diplome (Aubert 1728).]
1. A state paper, an official document; a charter.
‘In modern times, a general term for ancient imperial and ecclesiastical acts and grants, public treaties, deeds of conveyance, letters, wills, and similar instruments, drawn up in forms and marked with peculiarities varying with their dates and countries’ (Encycl. Brit. s.v.)
c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. ii. 19 The king of Spain..was forced to publish a diploma wherein he dispens'd with himself (as the Holland story hath it) from payment. 1684Scanderbeg Rediv. vi. 150 To pass a Diploma constituting his Lordship a Count of the Empire. 1845S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. I. 425 They carefully avoided consulting the elector, and kept the diploma of his nomination to themselves. 1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iv. i. 196 The curious diploma addressed to Eric..respecting the genealogy of William St. Clair. 1877Encycl. Brit. VII. 254/1 The Merovingian sovereigns authenticated their diplomas by the addition of their signature.
b. An original document as a matter of historical investigation or literary study; pl. historical or literary muniments.
[1697H. Wanley Let. to T. Smith in Lett. Eminent Persons (1813) I. 80 My present design..is more relating to the nature of Letters, than to the Diplomata or Charters themselves.] 1845De Quincey Suspiria Wks. 1890 XIII. 347 If in the vellum palimpsest, lying amongst the other diplomata of human archives or libraries, there is anything fantastic. 1891H. H. Howorth in Spectator 12 Dec. 843/1 It [the Old Canon of Scripture]..contained books originally written in Hebrew, in so-called Chaldee, and in Greek..all of them treated as their most sacred diplomata by the early Christians and the early Councils.
2. A document granted by a competent authority conferring some honour, privilege, or licence; esp. that given by a university or college, testifying to a degree taken by a person, and conferring upon him the rights and privileges of such degree, as to teach, practise medicine, or the like.
a1658Cleveland Gen. Poems, etc. (1677) 153 You have Ennobled me with your Testimony, and I shall keep your Paper as the Diploma of my Honour. 1682Grew Anat. of Plants Pref. A ij a, The Printer, whose Name was to be inserted therein, not having received his Diploma till that time. 1702C. Mather Magn. Chr. iv. (1853) II. 26 This university did present their President with a diploma for a doctorate. 1703Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 110 This morning our Diplomata were presented to us..to certify we had visited all the holy places. 1711Lond. Gaz. No. 4812/4 Pretends to be a Physician, having a Diploma to that effect from the College of Doway. 1772Wesley Jrnl. 28 Apr., They..presented me with the freedom of the city. The diploma ran thus. 1795in Sir J. Sinclair Corr. (1831) II. 21 My sincere thanks..for the diploma..admitting me a foreign honorary member of the Board of Agriculture. 1841Borrow Zincali I. i. §i. 15 The writ of diploma or privilege of settling near the free and royal towns. 1849Lewis Authority in Matters Opin. ix. §17. 330 The granting of diplomas by universities or other learned bodies proceeds on the supposition that the public require some assistance to their judgment in the choice of professional services, and that such an official scrutiny into the qualifications of practitioners is a useful security against the imposture or incompetency of mere pretenders to skill. 1863Emerson Misc. Papers, H. D. Thoreau Wks. (Bohn) III. 333 No college ever offered him a diploma, or a professor's chair.
b. attrib., as diploma picture (in chartered academies and societies of art), one given to the society by a member on his election; in the case of the Royal Academy kept in the Diploma Gallery.
1861Thornbury Turner (1862) I. 258 Turner's diploma picture was ‘Dolbadern’..full of the grand solemnity of evening. 1883Pall Mall G. 10 Oct. 1/2 The least known public collection of art in London is certainly the Diploma Gallery of the Royal Academy.
¶3. The following mediæval L. senses are also given in dictionaries, but with no claim to English use.
a. = diploe 1;
b. A folded cloth;
c. A double vessel used in chemical operations.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey) (a and b). 1823Crabb Technol. Dict. (c), Thus, ‘To boil in diploma’ is to put the vessel..into a second vessel, to which the fire is applied. 1853A. Soyer Pantropheon 262 (c).
Hence diˈplomaless a., without a diploma.
1837G. Wilson Let. in Life (1860) II. 82 Diplomaless folks. 1873H. Curwen Hist. Booksellers 61 A diplomaless doctor.
▪ II. diˈploma, v.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To furnish with a diploma. Chiefly in ppl. a. diplomaed (partly from the n.: cf. certificated).
1831E. J. Trelawny Adv. Younger Son I. 238 Surgical knowledge, superior to many of the diploma'd butchers. 1843Carlyle Past & Pr. iv. vii, Doggeries never so diplomaed, bepuffed, gas-lighted, continue doggeries, and must take the fate of such. 1869W. R. Greg Lit. & Social Judg. (ed. 2) 400 They have, as it were, been diploma-ed and laureated to this effect, stamped with the Hall Mark. |
