词源

源自拉丁語 (“清洗的”)。与英語 同源。

发音

• (通用美式) 國際音標^(幫助)：/ˈpɝɡəˌtɔɹi/
• (標準英音) 國際音標^(幫助)：/ˈpɜːɡətɹi/
• US：pur‧ga‧to‧ry
• UK：pur‧ga‧tory

名词

(可數 和 不可數，複數)

1. (基督教) (“炼狱”)的大小寫替代形式
2. （尤指作为救赎的一部分所经历的）磨难，苦痛
   • 1605, Nicholas Breton, An Olde Mans Lesson, and a Young Mans Loue, London: Edward White,

     […] many Gods breedeth heathens miseries, many countries trauailers humors, many wiues mens purgatories, and many friends trustes ruine:

   • 1774, 约翰·伯戈因, The Maid of the Oaks, London: T. Becket, Act I, Scene 1, p. 6,

     I laid my rank and fortune at the fair one’s feet, and would have married instantly; but that Oldworth opposed my precipitancy, and insisted upon a probation of six months absence—It has been a purgatory!

   • 1853, 伊丽莎白·盖斯凯尔, 《露丝》，章节25，

     It might be […] that Ruth had worked her way through the deep purgatory of repentance up to something like purity again; God only knew!

   • 1904, 厄普顿·辛克莱，《屠场》，章节10，

     Later came midsummer, with the stifling heat, when the dingy killing beds of Durham’s became a very purgatory; one time, in a single day, three men fell dead from sunstroke.

   • 1997, 约翰·马克斯维尔·库切，《男孩》，Penguin, Chapter 11, p. 100,

     […] that would mean he would be irrecoverably Afrikaans and would have to spend years in the purgatory of an Afrikaans boarding-school, as all farm-children do, before he would be allowed to come back to the farm.

形容词

(比較級，最高級)

1. 赎罪的
   • 1600，Philemon Holland（译者），李维所著《罗马史》，London, Book 41, p. 1103,

     Last of all, the prodigie of Siracusa was expiat by a purgatory sacrifice, by direction from the soothsaiers to what gods, supplications and sacrifice should be made.

   • 1790，埃德蒙·伯克，《对法国大革命的反思》，London: J. Dodsley, p. 272,

     This purgatory interval is not unfavourable to a faithless representative, who may be as good a canvasser as he was a bad governor.

参见