| 词组 | incredulous, incredible |
| 释义 | incredulous, incredible Many books on usage explain the distinction between these words, which is that incredible means "impossible to believe" or "hard to believe" ("an incredible story") and incredulous means "unwilling to believe; disbelieving" ("an incredulous audience"). What the commentators are chiefly concerned about is the use of incredulous where incredible is usual: • ... so began the incredulous success story we all know —Disco 45 Annual 1976 Such usage was once in good repute. The OED gives "not to be believed" as an obsolete sense of incredulous and shows it occurring in the works of such writers as Sir Thomas Browne and William Shakespeare: • No obstacle, no incredulous or unsafe circumstance —Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, 1602 But this sense of incredulous had fallen into disuse by the end of the 18th century. Its reappearance in recent years has been sporadic, although there are signs that the usage may be growing more widespread: • I think it's rather incredulous to say that you can't defend this country without a 10 percent increase — Senator Pete Domenici, quoted in Springfield (Mass.) Morning Union, 8 Apr. 1983 • ... their tales of woe seemed almost incredulous — William L. Shirer, The Nightmare Years, 1984 • ... her incredulous performance It does strain credibility —People, 3 June 1985 Even so, incredible is still the usual and standard word in such contexts. Most writers continue to restrict incredulous to its "disbelieving" sense, and we recommend that you do so as well: • He was greeted with incredulous laughter —Robert M. Hutchins, Center Mag., September 1968 • The author was incredulous and investigated. "It was true," he discovered. —Mel Gussow, NY. Times Mag., 1 Jan. 1984 See also credible, creditable, credulous. |
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