| 释义 |
▪ I. intermediate, a. and n.|ɪntəˈmiːdɪət|
[ad. med.L. intermediāt-us, f. L. intermedi-us: cf. mediate, immediate, and F. intermédiat (a 1519 in Godef. Compl.).]
A. adj.
1. Coming or occurring between two things, places, etc.; ‘holding the middle place or degree between two extremes’ (J.); interposed, intervening.
a. in spatial position: Situated in the middle place, or between two things or places.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xix. 154 The two extremes would sufficiently performe the office of sight without the help of the intermediate eyes. 1665Hooke Microgr. 64 All the intermediate points between F and D. 1710Steele Tatler No. 179 ⁋6 The intermediate Spaces are filled up with large Sashes. 1828Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 163 Four antennæ, the intermediate two short. 1884F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 124 Intermediate Wheel..a toothed wheel used to connect two others.
b. Occurring or coming between two points of time or events.
intermediate state (Theol.), the condition of souls after death and before resurrection; hence, Hades or the place of departed spirits.
1623Cockeram, Intermediate speech, a thing spoken betwixt. 16..South Serm. (1717) V. 126 There was no Vacancy, or intermediate Chasm of Time, between the Arian Poyson ceasing, and the Popish Ferment beginning to infest the Church. 1748Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. 350 He fixes all the most remarkable intermediate Events. 1777Priestley Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. xxi. 279 The doctrine of an intermediate state is now retained by few. 1827Hare Guesses Ser. i. (1838) 11 Most idle then are all disquisitions on the intermediate state, founded on the assumption that the soul, when apart from the body, has no perceptions. 1858Sears Athan. ii. iv. 199 He did not tarry with them during the intermediate time.
c. in serial order, e.g. of numbers, or in logical or causal succession.
1641Wilkins Math. Magick i. iv. (1648) 24 And in the like manner are we to conceive of the other intermediate divisions. 1790Paley Horæ Paul. i. (1849) 5 The intermediate steps through which the conclusion is deduced. 1821J. Q. Adams in C. Davies Metr. Syst. iii. (1871) 75 The intermediate measures were different. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 8 The intermediate links which occur..in the passage from unity to infinity.
d. in amount, degree, rank, nature, or character.
Formerly applied to a class of passenger accommodation in steam ships, intermediate between ‘saloon’ and ‘steerage’; now superseded by ‘second class’. Also intermediate education, intermediate school.
1665Hooke Microgr. 58 The two principal colours, Scarlet and Blue, and all the intermediate ones which arise from the composition and dilutings of these two. 1720Welton Suffer. Son of God I. ix. 217 'Twas determined..there should be something Intermediate and Woven, in the Corporeal and Spiritual Nature of Man, of a Third Sort. 1823J. D. Hunter Captiv. N. Amer. 7 A squaw of an intermediate stature. 1842E. Lazarus Let. 19 July in N. E. Eliason Tarheel Talk (1956) 278 There are the primary & the intermediate schools, & the high-school. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. i. 228 The vibrations which excite the other colours are intermediate between these two extremes. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 100 That middle state..intermediate between aristocracy and oligarchy. 1882W. D. Hay Brighter Britain I. ii. 57 It doesn't matter twopence how you go out, whether saloon, intermediate, or steerage, so far as your future prospects are concerned. 1886Kipling Plain Tales from Hills (1888) 120 The four constables saw him safe to Umritsar in an ‘intermediate’ compartment. 1889Act 52–54 Vict. c. 40 (title) An Act to promote Intermediate Education in Wales..sect. 1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, 1889. Ibid. sect. 17 The expression ‘intermediate education’ means a course of education which does not consist chiefly of elementary instruction..but which includes instruction in Latin, Greek, the Welsh and English language and literature,..mathematics, natural and applied science. 1893Harper's Mag. Apr. 806 Oh, she was a rose half-budded, in the intermediate school, And her face and form I studied twice as much as task or rule. 1945C. V. Good Dict. Educ. 223 Intermediate school: a school that enrolls pupils in intermediate grades, usually comprising the fourth, fifth, and sixth years of schoolwork. 1974Times 1 Apr. (Yorkshire & Humberside Suppl.) p. i/2 Yorkshire and Humberside is classified as an ‘intermediate area’. As such, while enjoying the benefits of financial inducements available to incoming and expanding industry, it does not rank for the benefits available in the other two types of aided regions.
e. in position or function: Intervening between persons or parties.
1783Burke 9th Rep. Aff. India Wks. XI. 87 The Company might suffer above, the Natives might suffer below; the intermediate party must profit to the prejudice of both. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xx. IV. 426 How much of it was embezzled by intermediate agents.
2. Specific techn. uses.
a. Petrol. Of a rock: having a silicate content that falls between that of the acidic and that of the basic rocks (cf. acidic a. 2, basic a. 2 b); often spec. having a silicate content between 52 and 66 per cent by weight.
1888J. J. H. Teall Brit. Petrogr. viii. 253 The basic rocks shade into the intermediate rocks, and these again into the acid rocks, in the most gradual manner. 1892F. H. Hatch Text-bk. Petrol. (ed. 2) vi. 107 In respect to the percentage of silica, igneous rocks fall naturally into four groups, viz.:—(1) An acid group with 65–80% of silica... (2) An intermediate group with 55–70% of silica... (3) A basic group with 45–60% of silica... (4) An ultrabasic group with silica between 35 and 50%. 1909Ibid. (ed. 5) iii. i. 152 Arranged in the order of their silica contents, the plutonic rocks can be divided into three groups: 1. Acid, with silica contents above 66 per cent. 2. Intermediate, with silica contents between 66 and 52 per cent; and 3. Basic, with silica contents below 52. 1939A. Johannsen Descr. Petrogr. Ign. Rocks (ed. 2) I. 181 (gloss.) Intermediate rocks, rocks intermediate between the ‘acid’ and ‘basic’ groups. Syn. Neutral rocks, medio⁓silicic. Cf. Acid. 1968B. Bayly Introd. Petrol. vi. 53 The second system is chemical rather than mineralogical, being based on the weight percentage of SiO2 in the rock; thus if SiO2 percentage is: over 66, rock is acid; 52–66, rock is intermediate; 45–52, rock is basic; under 45, rock is ultrabasic.
b. Nuclear Physics. Applied to neutrons with less energy than fast neutrons but more than thermal neutrons, and also to nuclear reactors in which such neutrons are the chief cause of fission.
1947Rep. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission A-4315 (title) A multi-group method for computing critical masses of intermediate piles. 1949Nucleonics Dec. 41/1 Intermediate piles may operate with neutrons at any energy level between thermal and fission or even at several different energy levels. 1956Glasstone Princ. Nucl. Reactor Engin. i. 15 In nuclear reactor work, the term fast neutrons is applied to neutrons having energies of about 0·1 Mev, i.e., 105 ev, or more. Those with energies from 105 ev down to 1 ev are called intermediate neutrons. 1959L. F. Curtiss Introd. Neutron Physics i. 18 Less information has been accumulated about intermediate neutrons than about neutrons of lower energies because of [the] difficulty of finding efficient detectors. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XI. 358/1 An example of an intermediate reactor is the first propulsion reactor for the submarine USS Seawolf. The fuel core consisted of enriched uranium with beryllium as a moderator.
3. Specific collocations: intermediate boson: see boson; intermediate frequency Electronics, the frequency to which an incoming carrier wave is converted by the frequency changer of a superheterodyne receiver; abbrev. I.F.; intermediate host Zool., an organism infected by a parasitic animal which then goes on to complete its life cycle in another host; intermediate-range, used attrib. of a ballistic missile of medium range (less than ‘intercontinental’).
1924Proc. IRE XII. 540 Three intermediate frequency amplifiers. 1947D. G. Fink Radar Engin. x. 504 The [radar receiver] system which avoids the foregoing difficulties is the superheterodyne, which introduces an initial change from radio frequency to a lower frequency (intermediate frequency) followed by a high-gain amplification at this frequency. 1968B. P. Lathi Communication Syst. iii. 202 The advantage of conversion to an intermediate frequency is that to receive different stations it is necessary to tune only the first stage (and the local oscillator). All of the amplification is achieved at a constant intermediate frequency and needs no tuning.
1878Jrnl. R. Microsc. Soc. I. 377 The ultimate form assumed by the larvae whilst still within the body of the intermediate host. 1892[see host n.2 3]. 1901Practitioner Mar. 273 It is parasitic in man and in a certain genus of mosquito (Anopheles); the former is its intermediate host and the latter its definitive host. 1925A. D. Imms Gen. Textbk. Ent. iii. 365 The latter issue from the galls and are divisible into winged gallicolæ migrantes (migrantes), which fly to the intermediate host, and gallicolæ non-migrantes which remain on the spruce and give rise to further fundatrices. 1971E. R. & G. A. Noble Parasitol. (ed. 3) xxiv. 528/1 As a generalization, there is less host specificity when there are two intermediate hosts than when only one is employed.
1956Newsweek 30 Jan. 27/1 Developing a 1,500-mile intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is now largely a question of ‘straightforward engineering’. 1957Economist 30 Nov. 774/2 The Polaris, the intermediate range ballistic missile to be launched from submarines. 1959Listener 18 June 1053/1 Intermediate-range ballistic missiles—in other words, medium-range rockets.
B. n.
1. a. Something intermediate or intervening (in position, time, succession, degree, or character); a middle term; a nexus between two things.
1650C. Elderfield Tythes 339 My eye upon the main, diverts and takes me off from..giving all I think of the intermediates. 1784J. Barry in Lect. Paint. vi. (Bohn 1848) 217 The association or dissociation of colours with or without those intermediates of compound, half, or broken colour. 1792T. Taylor Proclus I. Dissert. 71 Infinite intermediates cannot intervene between two finite terms. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1818) III. 123 By no intermediate could they be preserved in lasting adhesion. 1870Hooker Stud. Flora 120 All the so-called species are connected by intermediates.
b. Math. A syzygetic function of two quantics of the same order.
1858Cayley in Math. Papers (1889) II. 515.
c. Chem. and Biochem. A compound which after being produced by one reaction participates in another; esp. one manufactured from naturally occurring materials for use in the synthesis of dyes, plastics, or other substances.
1919E. de B. Barnett Coal Tar Dyes i. ii. 29 Aniline.—This is the most important intermediate, and is invariably manufactured by the reduction of nitrobenzole. Ibid. 31 Factories preparing their own intermediates. 1938Nature 30 July 203/2 Mr. F. P. Garvan's appreciation of the dependence of the United States on Germany for dyes, intermediates, photographic chemicals, medicinals, etc., led him to organize the Chemical Foundation. 1953Nature 27 June 1160/2 (heading) Occurrence of hydroxylamine in lake waters as an intermediate in bacterial reduction of nitrate. 1961Times 30 May (I.C.I. Suppl.) p. xvi/1 All of them are ‘intermediates’—the raw materials of other products such as Terylene or plastics. 1962J. Hine Physical Org. Chem. (ed. 2) vii. 163 In most of the SN1 reactions that have been studied kinetically the carbonium ion is a very reactive intermediate that is rapidly transformed into the final product. 1962[see homocysteine].
2. A person who intervenes between others.
1879Farrar St. Paul II. 445 Representing God as a Being so far removed..that they could only approach him through a series of angelic intermediates. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. II. iii. lxiv. 470 Rendering a little homage to decency by seeking to do it through intermediates.
▸ intermediate technology n. (a) a technology that is intermediate between other technologies or represents a transitional stage between them; (b) technology devised for the developing world which is simpler, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than that of the developed world, and so is better suited to local resources and knowledge, but which is more efficient or productive than traditional local crafts; the development or advocacy of such technology; cf. appropriate technology n. at appropriate adj. and n. Additions
1962Q. Jrnl. Econ. 76 97 Such points of discontinuity are found in the case of two (or more) alternative techniques where there is no smooth transition between them in terms of a continuous series of *intermediate technologies. 1965E. F. Schumacher in R. Robinson Industrialisation in Developing Countries 96 The ‘intermediate technology’ will not reject any..devices, but it..does not depend on them. 1990Hindu (Madras) 16 Jan. 17/1 The farms are suited for organic farming and application of intermediate technology. 2001Financial Times (Nexis) 11 Apr. 20 Nokia said it expected a mass-market in GPRS—an intermediate technology on the way to full 3G—to take off at the beginning of 2002 ‘as millions of users start to subscribe to new non-voice data services’.
▪ II. intermediate, v.|ɪntəˈmiːdɪeɪt|
Also 7 enter-.
[f. inter- 1 + mediate v.]
†1. intr. To come in or occur between, to intervene. Obs.
1652French Yorksh. Spa xv. 113 The full proportion [must] be not taken at once, but at several times, exercise intermediating.
†2. To come in among others in the way of action; to interfere, interpose. Obs.
1610Holland Camden's Brit. i. 135 They had an opinion, that she intermediated in humane affaires. 1611Florio, Intermediare, to enter-mediate. 1638Ford Lady's Trial v. i, I'll tell you what conditions threaten danger Unless you intermediate. 1694,1716[see intermediating below].
3. To act between others; to mediate.
1624Bp. R. Montagu Immed. Addr. 118 It is either because they will not intermediate for vs..Or because they cannot. 1838Moore Diary 26 May in Mem. (1856) VII. 226 Leaving the whole conduct of the death-bed scene to an abbé, who intermediated. 1872Huxley Phys. viii. 190 To intermediate between these agents and the nerves of sight and hearing.
4. trans. To join by parts of intermediate character. rare.
1880Waldstein Pythag. Rhegion 27 In poor work, the muscles, joints, &c...are not intermediated—they seem put together; while in good work..all flows together, as in nature.
Hence interˈmediating ppl. a., interposing, acting as an intermediary.
1694tr. Milton's Lett. State, to Charles Gustavus May an. 1655, That you would..by interposing your intermediating Authority, endeavour to avert the horrid Cruelty of this Edict. 1716M. Davies Athen. Brit. II. 382 That the Son..proceeded Naturally and Necessarily from the Father without his Intermediating Fiat or Creating Volition. 1866J. H. Newman Let. Pusey (ed. 2) 90 It is the Divine Presence which is the intermediating Power by which we reach her [Mary] and she reaches us. |
