| 释义 |
sedentary, a. and n.|ˈsɛdəntərɪ|
[ad. F. sédentaire, ad. L. sedentārius, f. sedent-em, pr. pple. of sedēre to sit: see sedent and -ary. Cf. Sp., Pg., It. sedentario.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of habits, occupations, etc.: Requiring continuance in a sitting posture.
1603Florio Montaigne i. xxiv. (1632) 66 To divert them from all militarie exercises, and ammuse them to idle, secure, and sedentarie occupations. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xiii. 184 If thy life be sedentary, exercise thy body. 1693Locke Educ. §190. 242 Reading and Writing and all other sedentary Studies. 1777Robertson Hist. Amer. (1778) II. vi. 223 The habits of a sedentary and pacific profession. 1817Jebb Corr. (1834) II. 331 The first sedentary morning I have had for weeks. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola i, A short man..whose bent shoulders told of some sedentary occupation.
b. Of a quality.
1815Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xiii. (1818) I. 428 The sedentary cunning of the lynx.
2. a. Of persons: Accustomed or addicted to sitting still; engaged in sedentary pursuits; not in the habit of taking physical exercise.
1662Wiseman Treat. Wounds i. 40 A Sedentary young Gentleman of an ill habit of Body. 1693Locke Educ. §192. 244 Since..sedentary or studious Men should have some Exercise, that at the same time might divert their Minds, and employ their Bodies. 1711Addison Spect. No. 115 ⁋4 The Spleen, which is so frequent in Men of studious and sedentary Tempers. 1781Cowper Conversat. 207 But sedentary weavers of long tales Give me the fidgets, and my patience fails. 1809Med. Jrnl. XXI. 322 A Gentleman of Kensington, of middle age, plethoric, and sedentary, but active in his mind. 1816T. L. Peacock Headlong Hall vii, Sedentary victims of unhealthy toil. 1840Hood Up Rhine 263 Fancy a sedentary usher,..suddenly called upon to unlearn all his scholar-like habits. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xvi, A few sedentary characters..remained at table full a quarter of an hour.
absol.1732Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Aliments, etc. i. 261 The Blood of labouring people is more dense than that of the sedentary. 1813J. Thomson Lect. Inflam. 433 Thus, the aged, the sedentary, and the dissipated, are known to be more liable to ulcers of the lower extremities, than the young, active, and sober.
†b. Slothful, inactive. Obs.
1625Hart Anat. Ur. i. ii. 17 Our Physitians, being like vnto the lazie sedentarie Physitians of Alexandria,..are ashamed to aske of the patient the..symptomes. 1671Milton Samson 571 Till length of years And sedentary numness craze my limbs To a contemptible old age obscure. 1707Floyer Pulse-Watch 160 They are Slothful without Cares or Study, Sedentairy [sic], Idle.
†c. Not engaged in active business. Obs.
1738Warburton Div. Legat. I. iii. iv. 396 The Egyptians; whose Sages were not sedentary scholastic Sophists, like the Grecian; but employed and busied in the public Affairs of Religion and Government. 1751Chesterfield Lett. cccxxviii. IV. 116 Abercrombie is to be the Sedentary, and not the acting Commander.
3. a. Remaining in one place of abode; not migratory. Of a tribunal, an assembly, a judge or other official: Established in one place; not moving from place to place in the course of official duty; opposed to ambulatory. Now rare (in modern use perh. a Gallicism).
1598Dallington Meth. Trav. Q 2 b, That [Court of Parliament] of Paris..at first was ambulatory: but since Philip le bel, it hath beene sedentary in this Citie. a1628J. Doddridge Eng. Lawyer (1631) 33 As well the Iudges itinerate.., as those that were sedentarie in the King's High Courts of Iustice. 1642Howell For. Trav. (Arb.) 11 To bee a Sedentary Traveller only, penn'd up between Wals, and to stand poring all day upon a Map,..is like him, who thought to come to bee a good Fencer, by looking on Agrippa's book-postures only. 1794Heron Inform. War 176 The Convention declares itself sedentary in the capital, and permanent, till the conclusion of a peace. 1803Malthus Popul. (1817) I. 184 The sedentary labourer is more exposed to the vicissitudes of fortune than he who leads a wandering life. 1857Colton's Atlas, Russia in Asia, The Tchuktchi..consist of two tribes, one sedentary and the other nomadic. 1891Daily News 16 Mar. 6/1 Does England..in promising to effect the removal of ‘sedentary establishments’ undertake to forbid her subjects raising any construction, such for example as the lobster factories. 1899Ibid. 13 Nov. 7/7 The remedy consists in adding to the sedentary forces as if we were a State like Switzerland.
†b. Of a material thing: Continuing in one place, motionless. Obs.
1667Milton P.L. viii. 32 And on thir Orbs impose Such restless revolution day by day Repeated, while the sedentarie Earth,..attaines Her end without least motion. 1786–7Bonnycastle Astron. ii. 32 The absurdity of supposing the earth a sedentary and immoveable body.
c. Zool. Inhabiting the same region through life; not migratory. Also of mollusca, etc.: Confined to one spot, not locomotory. Of spiders: see B.
1851Woodward Mollusca 11 The sedentary tribes settle in the place they intend to occupy during the remainder of their lives. 1854A. Adams, etc. Man. Nat. Hist. 274 Sedentary Spiders (Sedentaria). Ibid. 316 Sedentary⁓Annelids (Tubicola). 1872H. A. Nicholson Palæont. 241 Most of them [Gasteropods] being free and locomotive, though some are sedentary. 1902Cornish Naturalist on Thames 153 No one has satisfactorily answered the question why there are sedentary species and migratory species so closely allied in habits and food.
†4. Deliberate. Obs. rare.
1647Fuller Good Th. in Worse T. ii. x. 75 Lord, pardon my cursory, and preserve me from sedentary sinnes. 1673Marvell Reh. Transp. ii. 74 He..proceeded to take away their Lives; not in the hot and Military way..but in the cooler blood and sedentary execution of an High Court of Justice.
5. Geol. Of a soil or sediment: = residual a. 2 f.
1870S. W. Johnson How Crops Feed ii. iii. 143 Sedentary soils, or Soils in place, are those which have not been transported by geological agencies. 1906[see residual a. 2 f]. 1929Daily Tel. 22 Jan. 4/7 The soil being considered ‘sedentary’ in character. 1943Millar & Turk Soil Sci. i. 4 Since they have not suffered the mixing that accompanies transportation by ice and water there are many variations in the characteristics, both physical and chemical, of sedentary materials. 1975Flegmann & George Soils iv. 103 This visual gradation is particularly obvious when a soil has been formed in situ by the gradual weathering of parent rock, such soils being referred to as sedentary.
6. Comb., as sedentary-looking adj.
1937W. B. Yeats Vision (rev. ed.) 37 Aherne..was stout and sedentary-looking.
B. n. [absolute use of A. 3 c.] Zool. One of a group of spiders (Sedentariæ) which take their prey by means of a web in or near which they remain watching.
1815Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xiii. (1818) I. 425 Walckenaer,..terming those already mentioned which spin webs and nets, Sedentaries. 1842Brande Dict. Sci., etc., Sedentaries. |
