creatureとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From Middle English creature in the original sense of “a created thing”, borrowed via Old French creature, criature, from Latin creātūra, from creō.^[1] Displaced native 古期英語 ġesċeaft. Doublet of craythur and critter.

発音

• (Received 発音) enPR: krē'chə, IPA^(key): /ˈkɹiːt͡ʃə/
• (General American) enPR: krē'chər, IPA^(key): /ˈkɹiːt͡ʃəɹ/
• (古風な用法) enPR: krē.āʹtyo͝or, IPA^(key): /kɹiːˈeɪtjʊə/
• 韻: -iːtʃə(ɹ)

名詞

creature (複数形 creatures)

1. A living being; an animal.

   insects and other creatures

   • 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds

     But what would be the sentiment of uppertendom, when it should be rumored that the beautiful young creature, of the proud Clarence Delwood's choice, had stooped so low, as to maintain herself by her own hands?

2. (sometimes derogatory) A human.

   He's a creature of habit.

   • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:

     According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.

3. (now rare, religion) A created thing, whether animate or inanimate; a creation.
   • 1633, John Donne, "Sapho to Philænis":

     Thoughts, my mindes creatures, often are with thee, / But I, their maker, want their libertie.

   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.10:

     the natural truth of God is an artificial erection of Man, and the Creator himself but a subtile invention of the Creature.

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎^[1]:

     She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.

4. A being subservient to or dependent upon another.
   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford 2003, p. 240:

     they, too, despite the appearance of being creatures rather than creators of the Union, could assert the prior sovereignty of their states, for each had formed a state constitution […] before petitioning Congress for admission to the Union.

使用する際の注意点

• For an explanation of the specialised use of the alternative spelling creäture, see its entry's usage notes.
• Adjectives often applied to "creature": evil, living, little, mythical, poor, strange, beautiful, wild, rational, marine, social, legendary, good, mysterious, curious, magical, dangerous, mythological, bizarre, monstrous, unhappy, huge, lowly, ugly, happy, unique, odd, weird, demonic, divine, imaginary, hideous, fabulous, nocturnal, angelic, political.

下位語

• See also Thesaurus:creature

派生語

• creatural
• creature comfort
• (from dialectal forms) critter, creetur, cratur, craythur

関連する語

参照