Ancientとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

From Middle English auncyen, borrowed from Old French ancien (“old”), from Vulgar Latin root *anteanus, from Latin ante (“before”). Compare antique.

別の表記

• anchient, aunchient, auncient, auntient, awncient, awntient (廃れた用法)
• antient (廃れた用法 outside freemasonry)

形容詞

ancient (comparative ancienter または more ancient, superlative ancientest または most ancient)

1. Having lasted from a remote period; having been of long duration; of great age, very old.

   an ancient city  an ancient forest

   • 1749, Joakim Philander [pseudonym; Friedrich Christian Schoenau], “The Adventure of the Inn”, in Vitulus Aureus: The Golden Calf. Or, A Supplement to Apuleius’s Golden Ass. […], London: Printed for T. Cooper, […], OCLC 5211642, page 119:

     [P]ut the Caſe that the Nobleman of the ancienter Family does not indeed diſgrace his Dignity, but adds nothing to it; having nothing extraordinary to recommend him or diſrecommend him: Whereas the other, by his perſonal Merit, has rais'd himſelf to an equal Dignity. Which of the two in this Suppoſition deſerves the greater Eſteem?

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword: The Turk Street Mile”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, OCLC 483591931, page 2:

     'I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,' the Chief was saying. 'An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War. They tell me there was a recognized swag-market down here.'

2. Existent or occurring in time long past, usually in remote ages; belonging to or associated with antiquity; old, as opposed to modern.

   an ancient author  an ancient empire

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion, OL 4103950W:

     Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands.

   • 2013 July–August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 101, number 4:

     Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.

3. (historical) Relating to antiquity as a primarily European historical period; the time before the Middle Ages.
4. (obsolete) Experienced; versed.
   • 1550, Thomas Cranmer, A Defence of the True and Catholick Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ; with a Confutation of sundry Errors concerning the same, grounded and stablished upon God's Holy Word, and approved by the consent of the most ancient Doc. tors of the Church

     approved by the consent of the moste ancient doctors of the Churche [part of the book title]

5. (obsolete) Former; sometime.
   • 1715, Homer; [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book II”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], OCLC 670734254:

     They mourned their ancient leader lost.

同意語

• (very old): aged, eldern, hoary; see also Thesaurus:old

反意語

• modern

派生語

関連する語

名詞

ancient (複数形 ancients)

1. A person who is very old.
   • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney: Ure Smith, published 1965, page 131:

     Hetty and Mrs. Piper watched them with a lynx-eyed understanding and before the ancient was well upon his road his way was blocked by Hetty.

2. A person who lived in ancient times.
3. (Britain, law) One of the senior members of the Inns of Court or of Chancery.
4. (obsolete) A senior; an elder; a predecessor.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     Junius and Andronicus […] in Christianity […] were his ancients.

同意語

• (person who is very old): geriatric, oldster, senior citizen; see also Thesaurus:old person
• (person who lived in ancient times): antique
• (predecessor): antecessor, forerunner; see also Thesaurus:predecessor

語源 2

Corruption of ensign.

名詞

ancient (複数形 ancients)

1. (heraldry, archaic) A flag, banner, standard or ensign.
   • c. 1597, [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fovrth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, OCLC 932916628, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     […] diſcarded, vniuſt ſeruingmen, yonger ſonnes to yonger brothers, reuolted tapſters, and Oſtlers, tradefalne, the cankers of a calme world, and a long peace, ten times more diſhonourable ragged then an olde fazd ancient, […]

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests..

2. (obsolete, rare) the bearer of a flag; ensign
   • c. 1597, [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fovrth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, OCLC 932916628, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     I preſt mee none but such toſtes and butter with hearts in their bellies no bigger then pianes heades, and they haue bought out their ſeruices, and now my whole charge conſiſts of Ancients, Corporals, Lieutenants, gentlemen of companies: ſlaues as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the gluttons dogs licked his ſores, and ſuch as indeed were neuer ſouldiours, […]