| 词组 | predicate |
| 释义 | predicate 1. The use of the verb predicate in the sense of "to base, found" with on or upon is an Americanism attested as early as 1766. George Washington used it. In the middle of the 19th century this use came under sharp attack either on the grounds of infidelity to its Latin roots (Richard Grant White 1870, Gould 1867) or simply as a misuse (Bache 1869, Ayres 1881). The use had, however, already been recorded by Webster 1864, and the use persisted. The issue might have died by the turn of the century (Vizetelly 1906 speaks of it only as a U.S. usage), but Bierce 1909 kept the issue alive and Bernstein 1958, 1965 brought it into mid-century. Aside from Bernstein, no recent critic objects to the usage— even the Heritage 1969 usage panel finds it acceptable. This may fairly be judged a dead issue now, to be found in Harper 1975, 1985, Bremner 1980, and Copperud 1970, 1980 only because Bernstein revived it. The OED Supplement shows that this sense of predicate has entered British usage too. Here are a few examples from our collection: • Such a community predicates its operation upon the containment of various egoistic drives —Reinhold Niebuhr, Yale Rev., Spring 1951 • The grants are predicated on need —Horace Sutton, Saturday Rev., August 1978 • ... their political success is predicated on disaster — Michael Straight, New Republic, 22 Nov. 1954 2. Older senses of predicate, when used in constructions requiring a preposition, take of: • Many distinct ways in which a oneness predicated of the universe might make a difference —William James, Pragmatism, 1907 • And if we predicate simplicity of Hopkins.... —F. R. Leavis, The Common Pursuit, 1952 3. Alford 1864, Hodgson 1889, and Partridge 1942 dislike a use of predicate in the sense of "predict." The OED marks the sense "erroneous," apparently on the basis of the word's etymology, which is discussed at some length by Hodgson. This use dates back to Henry Cockeram's 1623 dictionary of hard words. Cockeram seems to have given us the fitfully appearing expediate (which see) as well as such other sesquipedalian Latinisms as effacination, nundination, repumicate, and succollation; perhaps this predicate was also the result of such self-conscious latinizing. It does seem to have had some genuine use, but we have no recent evidence and the OED Supplement gives none, so such use as it has had may be subsiding. However, books as recent as Longman 1984 tender a warning against confusing predicate with predict. |
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