| 词组 | litany |
| 释义 | litany 1. Litany refers literally to a type of prayer in which a series of invocations and supplications are recited by the leader of a congregation, with alternate responses being made by the congregation as a whole. Recent decades have seen the development of two figurative senses, the first of which, "a repetitive recital," relates to the chantlike quality of a litany: • ... a litany of cheering phrases. "One of us is going to make it There's always room at the top "—Herman Wouk, Marjorie Morningstar, 1955 • "B-u-u-t..." and the Middlesex County Democrats picked up the now-familiar litany that the Democrats' vice-presidential candidate has been sounding up and down the land this autumn: "... not Senator Goldwater!" —Pete Hamill, Saturday Evening Post, 10 Oct. 1964 • ... recited with her ... a good-night prayer, a little litany of blessings into which Piet never knew whether or not to insert the names of his parents — John Updike, Couples, 1968 The second figurative sense is "a lengthy recitation or enumeration." It often carries implications of dreary familiarity: • ... whenever she did so she had to listen to a litany of the unrecoverable debts he was owed —Michael McLaverty, The Three Brothers, 1948 But its meaning is sometimes hardly more than "list": • ... published a breathless litany of Mara's virtues — Pete Axthelm, New York, 1 Nov. 1971 • ... its rather obvious litany of major American cities with large black populations —John Rockwell, N. Y. Times, 13 July 1980 These figurative uses of litany have so far met with little criticism. Among the best-known commentators, only Bernstein 1965 recommends restricting litany to its literal sense. 2. Litany, liturgy. Many commentators are at pains to distinguish between litany and liturgy, which means "a rite or body of rites prescribed for public worship." The literal senses of these words do not appear to be subject to confusion, but we have a few citations from recent years in which liturgy is being used figuratively where litany seems to be called for: • ... the final words of the liturgy rang through the blockhouse public address system: "Ignition ... Mainstage ... Lift-off!" —Carmault B. Jackson, Jr., M.D., National Geographic, September 1961 • ... such slogans as "Not An Inch," "No Surrender," and "No Pope Here" are part of their political liturgy —Arthur Roth, Harper's, April 1972 |
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