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单词 aphorism
释义

Definition of aphorism in English:

aphorism

noun ˈafərɪz(ə)mˈæfəˌrɪzəm
  • 1A pithy observation which contains a general truth.

    格言,警句

    the old aphorism ‘the child is father to the man’
    mass noun the debate begins and ends at the level of aphorism, with commentators saying that something must be done
    Example sentencesExamples
    • He came to take great pleasure in his craft with words, honing them like his little wood sculptures, dreaming up pithy wisecracks and aphorisms which he collected and displayed in his office.
    • It is a book of aphorisms - short, pithy, philosophical nuggets.
    • A small, lively man with limpid blue eyes and an unruly thatch of thinning white hair, Hill delighted participants in his workshop with his pithy one-liners and folksy aphorisms.
    • Life, apparently, begins at 40, or so the old aphorism would have us believe.
    • Politics is the art of the possible, as the old aphorism puts it, and progress is usually incremental.
    • The fact of the matter is that he has not put his money where his mouth is, to use the old aphorism.
    • Edison's method was to doggedly persist in searching for an answer to a problem, expressed in his memorable aphorism that invention is ‘ten percent inspiration and ninety percent perspiration.’
    • Of those numbers we are obliged to say they confirm the truth in the Disraeli aphorism, ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.’
    • In all these examples an aphorism as a general truth makes a powerful point in its present context, but it could also make good sense in a very different context.
    • It is a book of hard-won wisdom and stark pleasure in the form of 500 lyrical aphorisms and epigrams.
    • Today, the old aphorism about power has been forgotten.
    • Like most loved aphorisms, it contains a substantial truth, but also disguises the full truth.
    • As with many quotes there's a good deal of truth in it and, as with many aphorisms, that truth becomes more and more shallow and two-dimensional as it is examined.
    • In a neat comment, which like many of his aphorisms contains a creative paradox, he says that ‘translation feeds a national literature’.
    • Americans of a certain age will recall Douglas MacArthur's pithy aphorism: ‘There is no substitute for victory.’
    • Doesn't matter that my most common response is to point out that aphorisms are the cheapest form of intelligent comment, I get reminded now and then that sarcasm just isn't on.
    • This pithy aphorism graphically tells us the sad state of affairs on the roads of India.
    • We all know the old aphorism that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
    • Ethics was about obligations to other people, expressed in aphorisms such as ‘do as you would be done by’.
    • And the loveable curmudgeon is responsible for most of literature's best quotations, maxims and aphorisms.
    • Wilde, who could never resist an aphorism, frequently undermines the seriousness of his beliefs by his brilliant and paradoxical style.
    Synonyms
    proverb, maxim, axiom, adage, saw, tag, motto, precept, epigram, epigraph, dictum, gnome, pearl of wisdom
    saying, maxim, axiom, adage, precept, epigram, epigraph, dictum, gnome, pearl of wisdom, proverb, saw, tag, motto
    1. 1.1 A concise statement of a scientific principle, typically by a classical author.
      箴言
      the opening sentence of the first aphorism of Hippocrates
      Example sentencesExamples
      • His eighth chapter - reproduced on this site from the Levy-Cantera translation - contained 120 aphorisms and generalizations on astrology, highly relevant for the art of horary.
      • There is no connection with the Vedas, and virtually no mathematical usefulness in these aphorisms.

Derivatives

  • aphorist

  • noun
    • Among the elite of aphorists are Samuel Johnson, Oscar Wilde, and Gore Vidal.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • In truth, a great many of the aphorists sound as though they sweated too hard to come up with their punchlines.
      • As an aphorist, Cullen is hard to beat and his supple and punning use of text puts the lie to the whole unthinking bad boy concept.
      • He was at best merely an aphorist, and at worst an opportunist who used selective silence as a means of self-promotion.
      • For such as me, Kierkegaard the humorist - or novelist, or aphorist, or ironist - possesses an unquestioned eminence, whereas Kierkegaard the philosopher - or theologian, or pietist, or polemicist - cuts a far more equivocal figure.
  • aphoristic

  • adjective afəˈrɪstɪkˌæfəˈrɪstɪk
    • Like so many aphoristic cliches, it collapses after a moment's scrutiny.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • Albert Einstein had a more aphoristic way of stating this principle when talking about scientific hypotheses.
      • However, interspersed throughout his reminiscences are observations about his present preoccupations, micro-essays on music, art, and literature, as well as aphoristic sentences.
      • His aphoristic, rhetorical style, lends itself to statements that sound arresting but often mean very little.
      • Each in addition is accompanied by a short, aphoristic gloss below.
  • aphoristically

  • adverbafəˈrɪstɪk(ə)liˌæfəˈrɪstɪk(ə)li
    • Chapter 1 reflected aphoristically on the textual condition of medieval literatures: their status in the manuscript and the technologies of reproduction that made them so enigmatic to modern scholars.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • Poetry can suddenly, almost aphoristically, define what the mood of the time is.
      • As W.J.T. Mitchell once aphoristically put it, ‘When the tigers break into the temple and profane the altar too regularly, their appearance rapidly becomes part of the sacred ritual.’
      • ‘In a field like entertainment,’ he says aphoristically, ‘appearance - and a subset of appearance is race - keeps coming up.’
      • He did not write aphoristically, but his writing combined brilliant clarity with some of the properties of aphorism: vivid wit, terse enigmatic utterance, decoding left to the reader.
  • aphorize

  • verb ˈafərʌɪzˈæfəˌraɪz
    • reporting verb Make a pithy observation that contains a general truth.

      格言,警句

      with direct speech he aphorized, ‘Science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom’
      Example sentencesExamples
      • Whereupon he smilingly aphorized with a paradox worthy of Wilde, ‘Because novels are true, and histories are false.’
      • He was fond of aphorizing that a good surgeon is one who knows when not to operate.
      • As Hippocrates aphorized the body itself is the healer.

Origin

Early 16th century: from French aphorisme or late Latin aphorismus, from Greek aphorismos 'definition', from aphorizein 'define'.

Definition of aphorism in US English:

aphorism

nounˈæfəˌrɪzəmˈafəˌrizəm
  • 1A pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it.”

    the old aphorism “the child is father to the man”
    mass noun the debate begins and ends at the level of aphorism, with commentators saying that something must be done
    Example sentencesExamples
    • Americans of a certain age will recall Douglas MacArthur's pithy aphorism: ‘There is no substitute for victory.’
    • Ethics was about obligations to other people, expressed in aphorisms such as ‘do as you would be done by’.
    • And the loveable curmudgeon is responsible for most of literature's best quotations, maxims and aphorisms.
    • Today, the old aphorism about power has been forgotten.
    • Doesn't matter that my most common response is to point out that aphorisms are the cheapest form of intelligent comment, I get reminded now and then that sarcasm just isn't on.
    • We all know the old aphorism that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
    • The fact of the matter is that he has not put his money where his mouth is, to use the old aphorism.
    • This pithy aphorism graphically tells us the sad state of affairs on the roads of India.
    • In a neat comment, which like many of his aphorisms contains a creative paradox, he says that ‘translation feeds a national literature’.
    • Edison's method was to doggedly persist in searching for an answer to a problem, expressed in his memorable aphorism that invention is ‘ten percent inspiration and ninety percent perspiration.’
    • As with many quotes there's a good deal of truth in it and, as with many aphorisms, that truth becomes more and more shallow and two-dimensional as it is examined.
    • Wilde, who could never resist an aphorism, frequently undermines the seriousness of his beliefs by his brilliant and paradoxical style.
    • He came to take great pleasure in his craft with words, honing them like his little wood sculptures, dreaming up pithy wisecracks and aphorisms which he collected and displayed in his office.
    • Life, apparently, begins at 40, or so the old aphorism would have us believe.
    • A small, lively man with limpid blue eyes and an unruly thatch of thinning white hair, Hill delighted participants in his workshop with his pithy one-liners and folksy aphorisms.
    • Of those numbers we are obliged to say they confirm the truth in the Disraeli aphorism, ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.’
    • In all these examples an aphorism as a general truth makes a powerful point in its present context, but it could also make good sense in a very different context.
    • Like most loved aphorisms, it contains a substantial truth, but also disguises the full truth.
    • It is a book of hard-won wisdom and stark pleasure in the form of 500 lyrical aphorisms and epigrams.
    • It is a book of aphorisms - short, pithy, philosophical nuggets.
    • Politics is the art of the possible, as the old aphorism puts it, and progress is usually incremental.
    Synonyms
    proverb, maxim, axiom, adage, saw, tag, motto, precept, epigram, epigraph, dictum, gnome, pearl of wisdom
    saying, maxim, axiom, adage, precept, epigram, epigraph, dictum, gnome, pearl of wisdom, proverb, saw, tag, motto
    1. 1.1 A concise statement of a scientific principle, typically by an ancient classical author.
      箴言
      the opening sentence of the first aphorism of Hippocrates
      Example sentencesExamples
      • His eighth chapter - reproduced on this site from the Levy-Cantera translation - contained 120 aphorisms and generalizations on astrology, highly relevant for the art of horary.
      • There is no connection with the Vedas, and virtually no mathematical usefulness in these aphorisms.

Origin

Early 16th century: from French aphorisme or late Latin aphorismus, from Greek aphorismos ‘definition’, from aphorizein ‘define’.

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更新时间:2024/12/27 19:37:13