elementaryとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From 中期英語 elementare, from Latin elementārius (“elementary”), from elementum (“one of the four elements of antiquity; fundamentals”) + -ārius (adjective-forming suffix). Cognate with French élémentaire. By surface analysis, element +‎ -ary.

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˌɛlɪˈmɛntəɹi/, /ˌɛlɪˈmɛntɹi/
• (General American) enPR: ĕl'ə-mĕn′tə-rē, -trē, IPA: /ˌɛləˈmɛntəɹi/, /ˌɛləˈmɛntɹi/
• 韻: -ɛntəɹi, -ɛntɹi
• ハイフネーション: el‧e‧ment‧a‧ry

形容詞

elementary (comparative more elementary, superlative most elementary)

1. Relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something.
2. Very simple.
3. Relating to an elementary school.
4. (sciences) Fundamental: serving as a building block for more complicated structures or processes.
   1. (physics) Relating to a subatomic particle.
   2. (chemistry, of a reaction) Involving only a single reaction step and transition state.
   3. (mathematics, of a square matrix) Which performs a row or column operation on another matrix when the two are multiplied; see Elementary matrix on Wikipedia.Wikipedia (Such matrices are called "elementary" because they generate the general linear group).
   4. (mathematics, of a symmetric polynomial) Arising from Vieta's formulas; see Elementary symmetric polynomial on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
   • 2012 March, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 146:

     The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.

5. (mathematics, of an argument or proof) Straightforward, employing only basic techniques; not requiring substantial knowledge (of some particular domain, object, etc.).
   1. (number theory, of an argument or proof, mostly historical outside the phrase "Elementary number theory") Making no use of complex analysis.
6. (archaic) Sublunary; not celestial; belonging to the sublunary sphere, to which the four classical elements (earth, air, fire and water) were confined; composed of or pertaining to these four elements.

派生語

名詞

elementary (countable and uncountable, plural elementaries)

1. (countable and uncountable, informal) Ellipsis of elementary school.

   At Lakeside Elementary I learned to appreciate the forest.

   • 2011 May 3, Lee Livingston, “Cleveland – Summer of 1962”, in In the Rearview Mirror: A Road Trip into the Heart of Another Country – America 1961, Carthay Press, →ISBN, page 146:

     He was my dentist. My mom took me to him back in elementary and junior high.

2. (countable, mythology, mysticism) A supernatural being associated with the elements.
   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 45:

     The demon (or elementary) of the South-West wind was particularly dreaded, as being the gini of fever and madness.

   • 2003, H P Blavatsky, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky, volume 1:

     […] the spiritual man is either translated like Enoch and Elias to the higher state, or falls down lower than an elementary again […]

   • 2007, Gerald Massey, The Natural Genesis, page 332:

     But, in Africa these became definite in their Egyptian Types, by means of which we can follow their development from the elementaries of Chaos and Space into Celestial Intelligencers […]

参照