| 释义 |
elasticity|iː-, ɛlæˈstɪsɪtɪ|
[f. as prec. + -ity: cf. Fr. élasticité.]
The quality of being elastic.
1. In literal sense. Cf. elastic 2, 3.
1664Power Exp. Philos. iii. 175 The External and Internal Ayr were come to the same..Elasticity. 1674Petty Dis. Royal Soc. 119 Elasticity is the power of recovering the Figure, upon removal of such Force. 1685Boyle Effects of Mot. 111 The Elasticity that Iron, Silver and Brass acquire by hammering. 1721in Bailey. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. iii. §3 (1819) 32 By its own elasticity returning..to its former position. 1834M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. xxv. (1849) 262 The elasticity or tension of steam..varies inversely as its volume. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. ii. (1879) 31 Sufficient stress does not appear to have been laid on the elasticity of the spine. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. §16. 312 The substance, after stretching, being..devoid of that elasticity which would restore it to its original form.
2. fig.
a. Energy, vigour, buoyancy of mind or character; capacity for resisting or overcoming depression. Cf. elastic A. 2 b.
1678Norris Coll. Misc. (1699) 232 This spring of my soul (my Appetitive Faculty)..presses and endeavours with its whole Elasticity. 1728Pope Dunc. i. 182 Me emptiness and dulness could inspire, And were my elasticity and fire. 1815Scott Guy M. xxi, Nature had given him that elasticity of mind which rises higher from the rebound. 1829I. Taylor Enthus. iv. (1867) 72 To break the elasticity of the inventive faculty. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 41 Our old men have lost the elasticity of youth.
b. Capacity for being ‘stretched’; expansiveness, flexibility, accommodatingness. Cf. elastic A. 3 b.
1801Jane Austen Let. 8 Jan. (1952) 106 Appleshaw, that village of wonderful Elasticity, which stretches itself out for the reception of everybody who does not wish for a house on Speen Hill. 1858O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf. T. iii. 21 There is no elasticity in a mathematical fact. 1863J. Murphy Comm. Gen. iii. 23 Good, evil, life, and death are striking specimens of this elasticity of signification. 1865Pall Mall G. 17 Oct. 1 ‘Elasticity’, that is to say, a discretionary issue of bank-notes. 1874Morley Compromise (1886) 3 There are some common rules..but their application is a matter of..the widest elasticity.
c. Econ. Flexibility in supply or demand in response to variations in other factors.
1925S. E. Thomas Elem. Econ. iv. 37 The Elasticity and Inelasticity of Demand. 1959Oxf. Univ. Gaz. 16 Mar. 797/1 Analysis of the interaction of beef, milk and feed prices and the elasticities in livestock production within the United Kingdom. 1966A. Battersby Math. in Management ix. 232 The quantity ‘e’ is related to the economists' ‘elasticity of demand’. |
