extenuationとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

An adaptation of extenuātiōn-, the oblique stem of the Latin extenuātiō (“a thinning または diminishing”, “rarefaction”; rhetoric “a lessening”, “diminution”, “extenuation”), noun of action from extenuō (“I thin, reduce, または diminish”). Equivalent to extenuate +‎ -ion. Compare the French exténuation.

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /ɛksˌtɛnjʊˈeɪʃən/
• 韻: -eɪʃən

名詞

extenuation (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 extenuations)

1. (countable and uncountable) The action of extenuating; extenuated condition.
   1. The action or process of making or becoming thin; an instance of this; a shrunken condition; leanness, emaciation.
      • 1576, Baker, Jewell of Health, page 171 a:

        This mightily helpeth the extenuation of members.

      • 1655, Culpepper, Riverius, i.v.19:

        A yong man…had an extenuation for want of nourishment in his Limbs.

      • 1707, Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, page 183:

        Galen commends tepid Baths for…curing all Extenuations.

      • 1781 October 27th, Johnson, Let. Mrs. Thrale:

        The extenuation is her only bad symptom.

      • 1825, Walter Scott, Betrothed, xxx:

        The female…exhibited…some symptoms of extenuation.

      • 1828, Biog. in Ann. Reg., page 474/2:

        Some pallid from extenuation.

   2. (of air, obsolete) Making less dense; rarefaction.
      • 1655–60, Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), page 64/2:

        Winds proceed from extenuation of the Air, by the Sun.

   3. (obsolete) The action or process of making slender or diminishing in bulk; an instance of this.
      • 1619, John Donne, Serm. xiv, page 140:

        All Dilatation is some degree of Extenuation.

      • 1665, Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), page 186:

        The Sea is the same at all seasons; what it gets by Rivers and showers, losing by exhalations and extenuations through the excessive heats…within the Torrid Zone.

      • 1777, Joseph Priestley, Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit (1782), volume I, chapter xix, page 229:

        Gregory the Great…says that God penetrates everything without extenuation.

   4. (obsolete) The action of making less or weak; and instance of this; a weakening, impoverishment. Also, mitigation (of blame または punishment).
      • 1542–3, Act 34–5 Hen. VIII, c. 18:

        The saide citie is much decaid…not a little to the extenuacion of that part of this realme.

      • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii], line 22:

        Such extenuation let me begge, As in reproofe of many Tales deuis’d…I may…Finde pardon on my true submission.