| 释义 |
monsoon|mɒnˈsuːn|
Forms: 6 monssoyn, 6–8 monson, 7 monzoon(e, -sone, -coin, -zoin, monthsoune, mon(e)thsone, moonsoon, mounson, -soun(e, munso(o)n, manson, -sound, mossoon, mous(s)on, 8 mounsoon, mous(s)oon, 6– monsoon.
[a. early mod.Du. monssoen, -soyn (Linschoten 1596), a. Pg. monção, in 16th c. also moução (Yule), believed to be a. Arab. mausim lit. season, hence monsoon, f. wasama to mark.
The word is found in all the Rom. langs.: F. mousson (in 17th c. also monson, muesson), Sp. monzon, It. monsone (in 16th c. moson).]
1. a. A seasonal wind prevailing in southern Asia and especially in the Indian Ocean, which during the period from April to October blows approximately from the south-west, and from October to April from the north-east, the direction being dependent upon periodic changes of temperature in the surrounding land-surfaces.
The south-west or summer monsoon is commonly accompanied by heavy and continuous rainfall, and is therefore often referred to as the wet monsoon or rainy monsoon, the north-east or winter monsoon being known as the dry monsoon.
1584Barret in Hakluyt's Voy. (1599) II. i. 278 The times or seasonable windes called Monsons. Ibid. 280 The monson from India for Portugall. 1598W. Phillip tr. Linschoten i. xcii. 143 In Goa they stayed till the Monson, or time of the windes came in to sayle for China. 1615in Danvers & Foster Corresp. III. 268, I departed for Bantam having..the opportunity of the Monethsone. 1615Sir T. Roe Embassy (Hakl. Soc.) I. 36 The Monthsone will else be spent. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. iii. i. i. 1 The proper season for Sailing on the Indian-Sea is called Mousson or Monson, by corruption of Moussem. 1757J. H. Grose Voy. E. Indies 365 The winter monsoon. 1778Orme Hist. Milit. Trans. in Indostan II. 533 The monsoon..warned Admiral Pococke to quit the coast. 1779Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 182 During the north east monsoon, the highest tide is in the night. 1783Justamond tr. Raynal's Hist. Indies I. 47 The dry and rainy monsoons. 1804C. B. Brown tr. Volney's View Soil U.S. 205 The current called the summer monsoon. 1815Elphinstone Acc. Caubul (1842) I. 167 The most remarkable rainy season, is that called in India the south-west monsoon. 1873H. F. Blanford Winds N. India 12 North-east winds are more than twice as frequent in the so-called south-west monsoon as at the opposite season, when the north-east monsoon prevails at sea. Ibid. 23 While the average direction of the summer monsoon is less easterly, that of the winter monsoon is less westerly.
b. the breaking up, change of the monsoon: the period of tempestuous weather which frequently prevails between the north-east and the south-west monsoons.
1693Sir T. P. Blount Nat. Hist. 418 The Tempestuous Months about Autumn, or at the change of the Monsoons. 1698Fryer Acc. E. Ind. & P. 48 The breaking up of the Munsoons. 1761Ann. Reg., Charac. 7/1 Toward the end of October, the rainy season, which they term the change of the monsoon, begins on the coast of Coromandel. 1898F. T. Bullen Cruise Cachalot 99 The change of the monsoon in the Bay of Bengal is beastliness unadulterated.
c. The rainfall which accompanies the south-west monsoon; the rainy season.
1747Scheme Equip. Men of War 23 Like Monsoons or Water-Spouts, the higher they rise, the more they are contracted. 1800Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1837) I. 77, I doubt whether that will be sufficiently early to enable us to conclude matters before the setting in of the monsoon. 1838Lett. fr. Madras (1843) 224 There is a great deal of distress among the natives, owing to the failure of the monsoon. 1869E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 82 The floods of the excessive monsoon which prevails there [i.e. Burmah]. 1877C. Geikie Christ xlix. (1879) 589 The early rains were longed for as the monsoons in India after the summer heat.
2. transf. Any wind which has periodic alternations of direction and velocity, caused by variations of temperature between the land surfaces and the surrounding ocean, or by the difference of temperature between the polar and equatorial regions. Cf. trade wind.
1691Ray Creation i. (1692) 79 That the Monsoons and Trade Winds should be so constant and periodical even to the thirtieth Degree of Latitude all round the Globe..is a Subject worthy of the Thoughts of the greatest Philosophers. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. II. 560 Easterly and westerly monsoons..prevail in this country. c1796T. Twining Trav. Amer. (1894) 8 The northwest monsoon was now prevailing. 1855Maury Phys. Geog. Sea xiv. §787 Monsoons are, for the most part, formed of trade-winds. When at stated seasons of the year a trade-wind is deflected in its regular course..it is regarded as a monsoon. 1889W. Ferrel Treat. Winds 199 All the great monsoons..are found in countries and on oceans adjacent to high mountain ranges.
3. fig. and in figurative context.
1785Burke Nabob of Arcot Wks. IV. 320 Those who have seen their friends sink in the tornado which raged during the late shift of the monsoon. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. viii, Such a minnow is Man;..his Ocean the immeasurable All; his Monsoons and periodic Currents the mysterious Course of Providence. 1846De Quincey Antigone of Sophocles Wks. 1862 XIII. 212 In the very monsoon of his raving misery.
4. attrib. and Comb. monsoon forest [tr. G. monsunwälder (A. F. W. Schimper Pflanzengeographie (1898) iii. iii. 281)], a deciduous forest found in regions of heavy seasonal rainfall.
1662J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. 245 Which put us in hope, we should soon have the Manson-wind. 1804A. Seward Mem. Darwin 186 The monsoon winds. 1883Eliot in Ind. Meteorol. Mem. II. 2 These characteristics of the monsoon rains of that year. Ibid. 3 Cyclonic or South-west Monsoon Storm of..July 1878. 1903W. R. Fisher tr. Schimper's Plant-Geography iii. iii. 260 The monsoon forest is more or less leafless during the dry season,..is tropophilous in character, usually less lofty than the rain-forest, rich in woody lianes, rich in herbaceous but poor in woody epiphytes. 1926Tansley & Chipp Study of Vegetation xv. 291 Monsoon forest occurs in regions where the rainfall exceeds 180 cm..but where there is a prolonged dry season during which the forest is more or less leafless. 1960N. Polunin Introd. Plant Geogr. xiv. 439 Widespread though variable are the monsoon forests or similar ‘seasonal’ forests, developed in regions enjoying abundant rainfall during the wet season, but having this alternating with a pronounced drought lasting from four to six months or sometimes longer.
Hence monˈsoonal a., of or relating to a monsoon; monˈsoonish a., suggestive or characteristic of a monsoon; monˈsoonishly adv., as in a monsoon.
1878Encycl. Brit. XVI. 148/2 The heavy monsoonal rains fairly set in. Ibid., The winds of Australia are also strictly monsoonal. 1886Kipling Plain Tales from Hills (1888) 118 Not a mere hill-shower but a good, tepid, monsoonish downpour. 1900― in Academy 17 Mar. 219/1 It rained monsoonishly. 1913J. Murray Ocean iv. 83 The monsoonal deflection of the tradewinds, for some distance out to sea, out of their course to westward. 1936Geogr. Jrnl. LXXXVIII. 297 The arrival of the deep mass of monsoonal air. 1961Aeroplane CI. 504/1 Hundreds of these birds had made their way to Australia by soaring in front of ‘monsoonal fronts’. 1972Kent Life July 82/2 Under the equatorial sun and monsoonal rains, two crops of rice are easily obtained. 1975Bangladesh Observer 22 July 5/3 Two friends from Dacca and I were enjoying a monsoonish evening in Delhi. It had rained not torrentially but heavily enough to flood some areas and bring the temperature down. |
