词汇释义
protean UK /prəʊˈtiː.ən/ US /ˈproʊ.t̬i.ən/TEM8 GRE
adj, If you describe someone or something as protean, you mean that they have the ability to continually change their nature, appearance, or behaviour.多变的，变化多端的
外刊例句
1. Water, despite its protean appearance, has a lot of internal structure, particularly when it is cool.(The Economist)
2. For an otherwise protean woman, such sentiments probably do come from conviction.(The Economist)
3. But even these protean stem cells were thought to be limited in the types of cell they could yield. However, as a paper published in this week's Science suggests, such adult stem cells are far more versatile than most researchers had imagined.(The Economist)
4. A 5-CD set from Riverside ("Sonny Rollins, The Freelance Years": 5RCD-4427-2) characteristicaracteristic breadth of his invention, tackling old chestnuts and venturesome originals with the same protean intelligence. Mr Rollins, happily, is still alive, but much of the current state of jazz is being shaped by a 39-year-old Young Turk trumpeter and composer, Wynton Marsalis.(The Economist)
5. But as Lula has so far shown next-door in Brazil, ideology can count for less than a commitment to responsible economic policies and the rule of law. Peronism, that most protean of South American political movements, has survived Argentina's collapse.(The Economist)
6. Entertainment will be on tap to match our moods, while our physical environment, from the view through our windows to the shape of our rooms and the furniture inside them, will have the protean ability to adapt itself to our desires and needs.(The Economist)
7. Instead liberalism is a protean set of beliefs in progress, scepticism towards authority and respect for individuals that have been central to the formation of modern Western democracy.(The Economist)
8. He has a Jesuit education, a prodigious intellect, a fine pedigree (his father, Pat Brown, was one of the state's best and most popular governors) and a protean political identity that allows him to become almost any sort of candidate, as needed.(The Economist)
9. In an organisation as protean as the WHO, her executive instincts may have gone too far.(The Economist）
10. With the exception of "Eugene Onegin", which is both a parody and a prophecy of his own destiny, Pushkin's protean writings are mentioned only in passing.(The Economist)
11. This show proves just how difficult it is to present such a protean creator and thinker like Morris through the narrow lens of art history.(The Economist)
12. In theory, a politician may still transgress beyond what is acceptable, but Bill Clinton's presidency has shown how difficult it can be to reach this boundary. The problem of some politicians is that they just do not seem to possess the protean emotions which the age demands.(The Economist)
13. Unfortunately, this book will not help much. In this section Pleasure principles Resilient mess The puzzler Off balance Local hero Books of laughter and forgetting ReprintsThis is not the authors' fault: Mr Romney is simply too protean.(The Economist)
14. Each variant of the program will, however, behave in precisely the same way.Protean programs like this are not, in themselves, a new idea.(The Economist)
词汇搭配
protean people, writing, appearance, behaviour, belief, nature
词汇来源
"of or pertaining to the Greek sea-god Proteus," 1590s, from Greek Prōteus, son of Oceanus and Tethys, who could change his form at will; hence, "readily assuming different shapes, exceedingly variable." His name is literally "first," from prōtos "first" (see proto-).
近义词
adjustable, alterable, changeable, flexible, modifiable, plastic, variable
反义词
amateur, inexperienced
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