abandon ::: v. t. --> To cast or drive out; to banish; to expel; to reject.
To give up absolutely; to forsake entirely ; to renounce utterly; to relinquish all connection with or concern on; to desert, as a person to whom one owes allegiance or fidelity; to quit; to surrender.
Reflexively: To give (one&
abdicant ::: a. --> Abdicating; renouncing; -- followed by of. ::: n. --> One who abdicates.
abdicate ::: to renounce (a throne, power, responsibility, rights, etc.), esp. formally.
abdicate ::: v. t. --> To surrender or relinquish, as sovereign power; to withdraw definitely from filling or exercising, as a high office, station, dignity; as, to abdicate the throne, the crown, the papacy.
To renounce; to relinquish; -- said of authority, a trust, duty, right, etc.
To reject; to cast off.
To disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit.
abjure ::: v. t. --> To renounce upon oath; to forswear; to disavow; as, to abjure allegiance to a prince. To abjure the realm, is to swear to abandon it forever.
To renounce or reject with solemnity; to recant; to abandon forever; to reject; repudiate; as, to abjure errors. ::: v. i.
ablative ::: a. --> Taking away or removing.
Applied to one of the cases of the noun in Latin and some other languages, -- the fundamental meaning of the case being removal, separation, or taking away. ::: --> The ablative case.
abnegative ::: a. --> Denying; renouncing; negative.
abort "programming" To terminate a program or {process} abnormally and usually suddenly, with or without {diagnostic} information. "My program aborted", "I aborted the transmission". The noun form in computing is "abort", not "abortion", e.g. "We've had three aborts over the last two days". If a {Unix} {kernel} aborts it is known as a {panic}. (1997-01-07)
abrenounce ::: v. t. --> To renounce.
abrupt ::: 1. Characterized by sudden interruption or change; unannounced and unexpected; sudden, hasty. 2. Precipitous, steep. 3. Of strata: Suddenly cropping out and presenting their edges.
absolve ::: v. t. --> To set free, or release, as from some obligation, debt, or responsibility, or from the consequences of guilt or such ties as it would be sin or guilt to violate; to pronounce free; as, to absolve a subject from his allegiance; to absolve an offender, which amounts to an acquittal and remission of his punishment.
To free from a penalty; to pardon; to remit (a sin); -- said of the sin or guilt.
To finish; to accomplish.
accentuate ::: v. t. --> To pronounce with an accent or with accents.
To bring out distinctly; to make prominent; to emphasize.
To mark with the written accent.
accusative ::: a. --> Producing accusations; accusatory.
Applied to the case (as the fourth case of Latin and Greek nouns) which expresses the immediate object on which the action or influence of a transitive verb terminates, or the immediate object of motion or tendency to, expressed by a preposition. It corresponds to the objective case in English. ::: n.
Acorn Computers Ltd. "company" A UK computer manufacturer, part of the {Acorn Computer Group} plc. Acorn was founded on 1978-12-05, on a kitchen table in a back room. Their first creation was an electronic slot machine. After the {Acorn System 1}, 2 and 3, Acorn launched the first commercial {microcomputer} - the {ATOM} in March 1980. In April 1981, Acorn won a contract from the {BBC} to provide the {PROTON}. In January 1982 Acorn launched the {BBC Microcomputer} System. At one time, 70% of microcomputers bought for UK schools were BBC Micros. The Acorn Computer Group went public on the Unlisted Securities Market in September 1983. In April 1984 Acorn won the Queen's Award for Technology for the BBC Micro and in September 1985 {Olivetti} took a controlling interest in Acorn. The {Master} 128 Series computers were launched in January 1986 and the BBC {Domesday} System in November 1986. In 1983 Acorn began to design the Acorn RISC Machine (ARM), the first low-cost, high volume {RISC} processor chip (later renamed the {Advanced RISC Machine}). In June 1987 they launched the {Archimedes} range - the first 32-bit {RISC} based {microcomputers} - which sold for under UKP 1000. In February 1989 the R140 was launched. This was the first {Unix} {workstation} under UKP 4000. In May 1989 the A3000 (the new {BBC Microcomputer}) was launched. In 1990 Acorn formed {Advanced RISC Machines} Ltd. (ARM) in partnership with {Apple Computer, Inc.} and {VLSI} to develop the ARM processor. Acorn has continued to develop {RISC} based products. With 1992 revenues of 48.2 million pounds, Acorn Computers was the premier supplier of {Information Technology} products to UK education and had been the leading provider of 32-bit RISC based {personal computers} since 1987. Acorn finally folded in the late 1990s. Their operating system, {RISC OS} was further developed by a consortium of suppliers. {Usenet} newsgroups: {news:comp.sys.acorn}, {news:comp.sys.acorn.announce}, {news:comp.sys.acorn.tech}, {news:comp.binaries.acorn}, {news:comp.sources.acorn}, {news:comp.sys.acorn.advocacy}, {news:comp.sys.acorn.games}. {Acorn's FTP server (ftp://ftp.acorn.co.uk/)}. {HENSA software archive (http://micros.hensa.ac.uk/micros/arch.html)}. {Richard Birkby's Acorn page (http://csv.warwick.ac.uk/~phudv/)}. {RiscMan's Acorn page (http://geko.com.au/riscman/)}. {Acorn On The Net (http://stir.ac.uk/~rhh01/Main.html)}. {"The Jungle" by Simon Truss (http://csc.liv.ac.uk/users/u1smt/u1smt.html)}. [Recent history?] (2000-09-26)
adjective ::: n. --> Added to a substantive as an attribute; of the nature of an adjunct; as, an adjective word or sentence.
Not standing by itself; dependent.
Relating to procedure.
A word used with a noun, or substantive, to express a quality of the thing named, or something attributed to it, or to limit or define it, or to specify or describe a thing, as distinct from something else. Thus, in phrase, "a wise ruler," wise is the adjective,
adnominal ::: a. --> Pertaining to an adnoun; adjectival; attached to a noun.
adnoun ::: n. --> An adjective, or attribute.
ADVENT "games" /ad'vent/ The prototypical computer {adventure} game, first implemented by Will Crowther for a {CDC} computer (probably the {CDC 6600}?) as an attempt at computer-refereed fantasy gaming. ADVENT was ported to the {PDP-10}, and expanded to the 350-point {Classic} puzzle-oriented version, by Don Woods of the {Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory} (SAIL). The game is now better known as Adventure, but the {TOPS-10} {operating system} permitted only six-letter filenames. All the versions since are based on the SAIL port. David Long of the {University of Chicago} Graduate School of Business Computing Facility (which had two of the four {DEC20s} on campus in the late 1970s and early 1980s) was responsible for expanding the cave in a number of ways, and pushing the point count up to 500, then 501 points. Most of his work was in the data files, but he made some changes to the {parser} as well. This game defined the terse, dryly humorous style now expected in text adventure games, and popularised several tag lines that have become fixtures of hacker-speak: "A huge green fierce snake bars the way!" "I see no X here" (for some noun X). "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike." "You are in a little maze of twisty passages, all different." The "magic words" {xyzzy} and {plugh} also derive from this game. Crowther, by the way, participated in the exploration of the Mammoth & Flint Ridge cave system; it actually *has* a "Colossal Cave" and a "Bedquilt" as in the game, and the "Y2" that also turns up is cavers' jargon for a map reference to a secondary entrance. See also {vadding}. [Was the original written in Fortran?] [{Jargon File}] (1996-04-01)
advertise ::: v. t. --> To give notice to; to inform or apprise; to notify; to make known; hence, to warn; -- often followed by of before the subject of information; as, to advertise a man of his loss.
To give public notice of; to announce publicly, esp. by a printed notice; as, to advertise goods for sale, a lost article, the sailing day of a vessel, a political meeting.
AIDX "abuse, operating system" /aydkz/ A derogatory term for {IBM}'s perverted version of {Unix}, {AIX}, especially for the AIX 3.? used in the {IBM RS/6000} series (some hackers think it is funnier just to pronounce "AIX" as "aches"). A victim of the dreaded "hybridism" disease, this attempt to combine the two main currents of the Unix stream ({BSD} and {USG Unix}) became a monstrosity to haunt system administrators' dreams. For example, if new accounts are created while many users are logged on, the load average jumps quickly over 20 due to silly implementation of the user databases. For a quite similar disease, compare {HP-SUX}. Also, compare {Macintrash} {Nominal Semidestructor}, {Open DeathTrap}, {ScumOS}, {sun-stools}. [{Jargon File}] (1995-04-13)
Alpha AXP 21164 "processor" A 1 {GIPS} version of the {DEC Alpha} processor. The first commercially available sequential 1 GIPS processor. Announced 1994-09-7. {(http://digital.com/info/semiconductor/dsc-21164.html)}. (1995-05-10)
alt "character" /awlt/ 1. The alt {modifier key} on many {keyboards}, including the {IBM PC}. On some keyboards and {operating systems}, (but not the IBM PC) the alt key sets bit 7 of the character generated. See {bucky bits}. 2. The "{clover}" or "Command" key on a {Macintosh}; use of this term usually reveals that the speaker hacked PCs before coming to the Mac (see also {feature key}). Some Mac hackers, confusingly, reserve "alt" for the Option key (and it is so labelled on some Mac II keyboards). 3. (Obsolete {PDP-10}; often "ALT") An alternate name for the {ASCII} ESC character (Escape, ASCII 27), after the keycap labelling on some older {terminals}; also "altmode" (/awlt'mohd/). This character was almost never pronounced "escape" on an {ITS} system, in {TECO} or under {TOPS-10}, always alt, as in "Type alt alt to end a TECO command" or "alt-U onto the system" (for "log onto the [ITS] system"). This usage probably arose because alt is easier to say. 4. "messaging" One of the {Usenet} {newsgroup} {hierarchies}. It was founded by {John Gilmore} and {Brian Reid}. The alt hierarchy is special in that anyone can create new groups here without going though the normal voting proceduers, hence the regular appearence of new groups with names such as "alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork". [{Jargon File}] (1997-04-12)
Although the noun when capitalized refers to an officer of the British judiciary or one of several officials of the Exchequer, formally titled the Queen’s or the King’s Remembrancer, who has the responsibility of collecting debts that are owed to the Crown or an official representing the City of London, especially on various ceremonial occasions, or to represents the inters of Parliament, when defined in lower case the first definition given is person who reminds.
American Standard Code for Information Interchange "character, standard" The basis of {character sets} used in almost all present-day computers. {US-ASCII} uses only the lower seven {bits} ({character points} 0 to 127) to convey some {control codes}, {space}, numbers, most basic punctuation, and unaccented letters a-z and A-Z. More modern {coded character sets} (e.g., {Latin-1}, {Unicode}) define extensions to ASCII for values above 127 for conveying special {Latin characters} (like accented characters, or {German} ess-tsett), characters from non-Latin writing systems (e.g., {Cyrillic}, or {Han characters}), and such desirable {glyphs} as distinct open- and close-{quotation marks}. ASCII replaced earlier systems such as {EBCDIC} and {Baudot}, which used fewer bytes, but were each {broken} in their own way. Computers are much pickier about spelling than humans; thus, {hackers} need to be very precise when talking about characters, and have developed a considerable amount of verbal shorthand for them. Every character has one or more names - some formal, some concise, some silly. Individual characters are listed in this dictionary with alternative names from revision 2.3 of the {Usenet} ASCII pronunciation guide in rough order of popularity, including their official {ITU-T} names and the particularly silly names introduced by {INTERCAL}. See {V} {ampersand}, {asterisk}, {back quote}, {backslash}, {caret}, {colon}, {comma}, {commercial at}, {control-C}, {dollar}, {dot}, {double quote}, {equals}, {exclamation mark}, {greater than}, {hash}, {left bracket}, {left parenthesis}, {less than}, {minus}, {parentheses}, {oblique stroke}, {percent}, {plus}, {question mark}, {right brace}, {right brace}, {right bracket}, {right parenthesis}, {semicolon}, {single quote}, {space}, {tilde}, {underscore}, {vertical bar}, {zero}. Some other common usages cause odd overlaps. The "
Amiga "computer" A range of home computers first released by {Commodore Business Machines} in early 1985 (though they did not design the original - see below). Amigas were popular for {games}, {video processing}, and {multimedia}. One notable feature is a hardware {blitter} for speeding up graphics operations on whole areas of the screen. The Amiga was originally called the Lorraine, and was developed by a company named "Amiga" or "Amiga, Inc.", funded by some doctors to produce a killer game machine. After the US game machine market collapsed, the Amiga company sold some {joysticks} but no Lorraines or any other computer. They eventually floundered and looked for a buyer. Commodore at that time bought the (mostly complete) Amiga machine, infused some money, and pushed it through the final stages of development in a hurry. Commodore released it sometime[?] in 1985. Most components within the machine were known by nicknames. The {coprocessor} commonly called the "Copper" is in fact the "{Video} Timing Coprocessor" and is split between two chips: the instruction fetch and execute units are in the "Agnus" chip, and the {pixel} timing circuits are in the "Denise" chip (A for address, D for data). "Agnus" and "Denise" were responsible for effects timed to the {real-time} position of the video scan, such as midscreen {palette} changes, {sprite multiplying}, and {resolution} changes. Different versions (in order) were: "Agnus" (could only address 512K of {video RAM}), "Fat Agnus" (in a {PLCC} package, could access 1MB of video RAM), "Super Agnus" (slightly upgraded "Fat Agnus"). "Agnus" and "Fat Agnus" came in {PAL} and {NTSC} versions, "Super Agnus" came in one version, jumper selectable for PAL or NTSC. "Agnus" was replaced by "Alice" in the A4000 and A1200, which allowed for more {DMA} channels and higher bus {bandwidth}. "Denise" outputs binary video data (3*4 bits) to the "Vidiot". The "Vidiot" is a hybrid that combines and amplifies the 12-bit video data from "Denise" into {RGB} to the {monitor}. Other chips were "Amber" (a "flicker fixer", used in the A3000 and Commodore display enhancer for the A2000), "Gary" ({I/O}, addressing, G for {glue logic}), "Buster" (the {bus controller}, which replaced "Gary" in the A2000), "Buster II" (for handling the Zorro II/III cards in the A3000, which meant that "Gary" was back again), "Ramsey" (The {RAM} controller), "DMAC" (The DMA controller chip for the WD33C93 {SCSI adaptor} used in the A3000 and on the A2091/A2092 SCSI adaptor card for the A2000; and to control the {CD-ROM} in the {CDTV}), and "Paula" ({Peripheral}, Audio, {UART}, {interrupt} Lines, and {bus Arbiter}). There were several Amiga chipsets: the "Old Chipset" (OCS), the "Enhanced Chipset" (ECS), and {AGA}. OCS included "Paula", "Gary", "Denise", and "Agnus". ECS had the same "Paula", "Gary", "Agnus" (could address 2MB of Chip RAM), "Super Denise" (upgraded to support "Agnus" so that a few new {screen modes} were available). With the introduction of the {Amiga A600} "Gary" was replaced with "Gayle" (though the chipset was still called ECS). "Gayle" provided a number of improvments but the main one was support for the A600's {PCMCIA} port. The AGA chipset had "Agnus" with twice the speed and a 24-bit palette, maximum displayable: 8 bits (256 colours), although the famous "{HAM}" (Hold And Modify) trick allows pictures of 256,000 colours to be displayed. AGA's "Paula" and "Gayle" were unchanged but AGA "Denise" supported AGA "Agnus"'s new screen modes. Unfortunately, even AGA "Paula" did not support High Density {floppy disk drives}. (The Amiga 4000, though, did support high density drives.) In order to use a high density disk drive Amiga HD floppy drives spin at half the rotational speed thus halving the data rate to "Paula". Commodore Business Machines went bankrupt on 1994-04-29, the German company {Escom AG} bought the rights to the Amiga on 1995-04-21 and the Commodore Amiga became the Escom Amiga. In April 1996 Escom were reported to be making the {Amiga} range again but they too fell on hard times and {Gateway 2000} (now called Gateway) bought the Amiga brand on 1997-05-15. Gateway licensed the Amiga operating system to a German hardware company called {Phase 5} on 1998-03-09. The following day, Phase 5 announced the introduction of a four-processor {PowerPC} based Amiga {clone} called the "{pre\box}". Since then, it has been announced that the new operating system will be a version of {QNX}. On 1998-06-25, a company called {Access Innovations Ltd} announced {plans (http://micktinker.co.uk/aaplus.html)} to build a new Amiga chip set, the {AA+}, based partly on the AGA chips but with new fully 32-bit functional core and 16-bit AGA {hardware register emulation} for {backward compatibility}. The new core promised improved memory access and video display DMA. By the end of 2000, Amiga development was under the control of a [new?] company called {Amiga, Inc.}. As well as continuing development of AmigaOS (version 3.9 released in December 2000), their "Digital Environment" is a {virtual machine} for multiple {platforms} conforming to the {ZICO} specification. As of 2000, it ran on {MIPS}, {ARM}, {PPC}, and {x86} processors. {(http://amiga.com/)}. {Amiga Web Directory (http://cucug.org/amiga.html)}. {amiCrawler (http://amicrawler.com/)}. Newsgroups: {news:comp.binaries.amiga}, {news:comp.sources.amiga}, {news:comp.sys.amiga}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.advocacy}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.announce}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.applications}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.audio}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.datacomm}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.emulations}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.games}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.graphics}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.hardware}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.introduction}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.marketplace}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.misc}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.multimedia}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.programmer}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.reviews}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.tech}, {news:comp.sys.amiga.telecomm}, {news:comp.Unix.amiga}. See {aminet}, {Amoeba}, {bomb}, {exec}, {gronk}, {guru meditation}, {Intuition}, {sidecar}, {slap on the side}, {Vulcan nerve pinch}. (2003-07-05)
Analogic: (Gr. mystical) Usually employed as a noun in the plural, signifying an interpretation of Scripture pointing to a destiny to be hoped for and a goal to be attained; as an adjective it means, pertaining to the kind of interpretation described above. -- J.J.R.
Analytical Solutions Forum "body, standard" (ASF) The {business intelligence} trade body that, in October 1999, replaced the ineffective {OLAP Council} intending to produce standards for {OLAP}. The ASF managed the remarkably achievement of being even less effective and eventually disappeared, its only achievement having been the issuing of a press release announcing its formation. (2005-05-28)
anathema ::: n. --> A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, and accompanied by excommunication. Hence: Denunciation of anything as accursed.
An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.
Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority.
anathematization ::: n. --> The act of anathematizing, or denouncing as accursed; imprecation.
anathematizer ::: n. --> One who pronounces an anathema.
anathematize ::: v. t. --> To pronounce an anathema against; to curse. Hence: To condemn publicly as something accursed.
anchorite ::: n. --> One who renounces the world and secludes himself, usually for religious reasons; a hermit; a recluse.
Same as Anchoret.
announced ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Announce
announced ::: made known to the mind or senses. announcing.
announcement ::: n. --> The act of announcing, or giving notice; that which announces; proclamation; publication.
announcer ::: n. --> One who announces.
announcers ::: those who present, give notice and/or tell news.
announce ::: v. t. --> To give public notice, or first notice of; to make known; to publish; to proclaim.
To pronounce; to declare by judicial sentence.
announcing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Announce
annunciable ::: a. --> That may be announced or declared; declarable.
annunciate ::: v. t. --> To announce. ::: p. p. & a. --> Foretold; preannounced.
annunciation ::: n. --> The act of announcing; announcement; proclamation; as, the annunciation of peace.
The announcement of the incarnation, made by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary.
The festival celebrated (March 25th) by the Church of England, of Rome, etc., in memory of the angel&
annunciative ::: a. --> Pertaining to annunciation; announcing.
annunciator ::: n. --> One who announces. Specifically: An officer in the church of Constantinople, whose business it was to inform the people of the festivals to be celebrated.
An indicator (as in a hotel) which designates the room where attendance is wanted.
annunciatory ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or containing, announcement; making known.
an ::: --> This word is properly an adjective, but is commonly called the indefinite article. It is used before nouns of the singular number only, and signifies one, or any, but somewhat less emphatically. In such expressions as "twice an hour," "once an age," a shilling an ounce (see 2d A, 2), it has a distributive force, and is equivalent to each, every. ::: conj.
apostate ::: n. --> One who has forsaken the faith, principles, or party, to which he before adhered; esp., one who has forsaken his religion for another; a pervert; a renegade.
One who, after having received sacred orders, renounces his clerical profession. ::: a.
apostatize ::: v. i. --> To renounce totally a religious belief once professed; to forsake one&
apotactite ::: n. --> One of a sect of ancient Christians, who, in supposed imitation of the first believers, renounced all their possessions.
appellatively ::: adv. --> After the manner of nouns appellative; in a manner to express whole classes or species; as, Hercules is sometimes used appellatively, that is, as a common name, to signify a strong man.
Apple Address Resolution Protocol "networking" (AARP) {Apple}'s system to allow {AppleTalk} {protocol} to work over networks other than {LocalTalk}, such as {Ethernet} or {Token Ring}. {AppleTalk} {nodes} announce their presence to the network so that other nodes can address messages to them. AARP maps between AppleTalk addresses and other schemes. It is actually a general address mapping protocol that can be used to map between addresses at any protocol level. [G. Sidhu, R. Andrews, and A. Oppenheimer, "Inside AppleTalk", Addison Wesley, 1990]. (2006-04-18)
apply ::: v. t. --> To lay or place; to put or adjust (one thing to another); -- with to; as, to apply the hand to the breast; to apply medicaments to a diseased part of the body.
To put to use; to use or employ for a particular purpose, or in a particular case; to appropriate; to devote; as, to apply money to the payment of a debt.
To make use of, declare, or pronounce, as suitable, fitting, or relative; as, to apply the testimony to the case; to apply
apposition ::: n. --> The act of adding; application; accretion.
The putting of things in juxtaposition, or side by side; also, the condition of being so placed.
The state of two nouns or pronouns, put in the same case, without a connecting word between them; as, I admire Cicero, the orator. Here, the second noun explains or characterizes the first.
appositive ::: a. --> Of or relating to apposition; in apposition. ::: n. --> A noun in apposition.
approve ::: 1. To confirm or sanction formally; ratify. 2. To speak or think favourably of; pronounce or consider agreeable or good; judge favourably. approves, approved.
aptote ::: n. --> A noun which has no distinction of cases; an indeclinable noun.
AQAL ::: Pronounced “ah-qwul.” Short for “all-quadrants, all-levels,” which itself is short for “allquadrants, all-levels, all-lines, all-states, and all-types.” Developed by philosopher and author, Ken Wilber, AQAL appears to be the most comprehensive approach to reality to date. It is a supertheory or metatheory that attempts to explain how the most time-tested methodologies, and the experiences those methodologies bring forth, fit together in a coherent fashion. AQAL theory’s pragmatic correlate is a series of social practices called Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP). The personal application of AQAL is called Integral Life Practice (ILP). “AQAL” is often used interchangeably with Integral Theory, the Integral approach, the Integral map, the Integral model, and Integral Operating System (IOS).
Arabic Philosophy: The contact of the Arabs with Greek civilization and philosophy took place partly in Syria, where Christian Arabic philosophy developed, partly in other countries, Asia Minor, Persia, Egypt and Spain. The effect of this contact was not a simple reception of Greek philosophy, but the gradual growth of an original mode of thought, determined chiefly by the religious and philosophical tendencies alive in the Arab world. Eastern influences had produced a mystical trend, not unlike Neo-Platonism; the already existing "metaphysics of light", noticeable in the religious conception of the Qoran, also helped to assimilate Plotinlan ideas. On the other hand, Aristotelian philosophy became important, although more, at least in the beginning, as logic and methodology. The interest in science and medicine contributed to the spread of Aristotelian philosophy. The history of philosophy in the Arab world is determined by the increasing opposition of Orthodoxy against a more liberal theology and philosophy. Arab thought became influential in the Western world partly through European scholars who went to Spain and elsewhere for study, mostly however through the Latin translations which became more and more numerous at the end of the 12th and during the 13th centuries. Among the Christian Arabs Costa ben Luca (864-923) has to be mentioned whose De Differentia spiritus et animae was translated by Johannes Hispanus (12th century). The first period of Islamic philosophy is occupied mainly with translation of Greek texts, some of which were translated later into Latin. The Liber de causis (mentioned first by Alanus ab Insulis) is such a translation of an Arab text; it was believed to be by Aristotle, but is in truth, as Aquinas recognized, a version of the Stoicheiosis theologike by Proclus. The so-called Theologia Aristotelis is an excerpt of Plotinus Enn. IV-VI, written 840 by a Syrian. The fundamental trends of Arab philosophy are indeed Neo-Platonic, and the Aristotelian texts were mostly interpreted in this spirit. Furthermore, there is also a tendency to reconcile the Greek philosophers with theological notions, at least so long as the orthodox theologians could find no reason for opposition. In spite of this, some of the philosophers did not escape persecution. The Peripatetic element is more pronounced in the writings of later times when the technique of paraphrasis and commentary on Aristotelian texts had developed. Beside the philosophy dependent more or less on Greek, and partially even Christian influences, there is a mystical theology and philosophy whose sources are the Qoran, Indian and, most of all, Persian systems. The knowledge of the "Hermetic" writings too was of some importance.
arcanes ::: of things known or understood by very few; mysterious; secret; obscure; esoteric. (Employed by Sri Aurobindo as a noun.)
arch- ::: a combining form that represents the outcome of archi- in words borrowed through Latin from Greek in the Old English period; it subsequently became a productive form added to nouns of any origin, which thus denote individuals or institutions directing or having authority over others of their class (archbishop; archdiocese; archpriest): principal. More recently, arch-1 has developed the senses "principal” (archenemy; archrival) or "prototypical” and thus exemplary or extreme (archconservative); nouns so formed are almost always pejorative. Arch-intelligence.
arjava. ::: honesty; straightforwardness; renouncing deception and wrongdoing
ARM800 "processor" A {microprocessor} based on the {ARM8} processor core designed by {Advanced RISC Machines} Ltd. Planned features include a 60-100Mhz {clock rate}; 0.35-0.4 micron silicon fabrication; an improvement on the {ARM7}'s 1.4 cycle/instruction; a 16 Kbyte {cache}. Some estimates were 100 MIPS and 120 Kdhrystones at 70Mhz (twice the {ARM700}). Samples of the ARM800 are expected to be available in late 1995. It may run on a voltage below 3.3V. {Digital Semiconductor}'s Hudson fab is 0.35 micron and they have announced a licensing deal for the ARM architecture (see {StrongARM}). (1995-02-07)
articulated ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Articulate ::: a. --> United by, or provided with, articulations; jointed; as, an articulated skeleton.
Produced, as a letter, syllable, or word, by the organs of speech; pronounced.
As a concrete noun, singular ("a value") or plural ("values"), our term refers either to things which have this property of value or to things which are valued (see below).
asbestos cork award "humour" Once, long ago at {MIT}, there was a {flamer} so consistently obnoxious that another hacker designed, had made, and distributed posters announcing that said flamer had been nominated for the "asbestos cork award". (Any reader in doubt as to the intended application of the cork should consult the etymology under {flame}.) Since then, it is agreed that only a select few have risen to the heights of bombast required to earn this dubious dignity - but there is no agreement on *which* few. [{Jargon File}] (1996-02-06)
asper ::: a. --> Rough; rugged; harsh; bitter; stern; fierce. ::: n. --> The rough breathing; a mark (/) placed over an initial vowel sound or over / to show that it is aspirated, that is, pronounced with h before it; thus "ws, pronounced h/s, "rh`twr, pronounced hra"t/r.
A Turkish money of account (formerly a coin), of little
aspirated ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Aspirate ::: a. --> Pronounced with the h sound or with audible breath.
aspirate ::: v. t. --> To pronounce with a breathing, an aspirate, or an h sound; as, we aspirate the words horse and house; to aspirate a vowel or a liquid consonant. ::: n. --> A sound consisting of, or characterized by, a breath like the sound of h; the breathing h or a character representing such a
asramas. ::: the four orders of life &
Assertion: Frege introduced the assertion sign, in 1879, as a means of indicating the difference between asserting a proposition as true and merely naming a proposition (e.g., in order to make an assertion about it, that it has such and such consequences, or the like). Thus, with an appropriate expression A, the notation |−A would be used to make the assertion, "The unlike magnetic poles attract one another," while the notation −A would correspond rather to the noun clause, "that the unlike magnetic poles attract one another." Later Frege adopted the usage that propositional expressions (as noun clauses) are proper names of truth values and modified his use of the assertion sign accordingly, employing say A (or −A) to denote the truth value thereof that the unlike magnetic poles attract one another and |−A to express the assertion that this truth value is truth.
assigned ::: appointed, designated, deputed, allotted, announced as a task. assigner.
assignment "programming" Storing the value of an expression in a {variable}. This is commonly written in the form "v = e". In {Algol} the assignment operator was ":=" (pronounced "becomes") to avoid mathematicians qualms about writing statements like x = x+1. Assignment is not allowed in {functional languages}, where an {identifier} always has the same value. See also {referential transparency}, {single assignment}, {zero assignment}. (1996-08-19)
atmani sannyasya ::: [having renounced (them) into the Self].
attaint ::: v. t. --> To attain; to get act; to hit.
To find guilty; to convict; -- said esp. of a jury on trial for giving a false verdict.
To subject (a person) to the legal condition formerly resulting from a sentence of death or outlawry, pronounced in respect of treason or felony; to affect by attainder.
To accuse; to charge with a crime or a dishonorable act.
attributive ::: a. --> Attributing; pertaining to, expressing, or assigning an attribute; of the nature of an attribute. ::: n. --> A word that denotes an attribute; esp. a modifying word joined to a noun; an adjective or adjective phrase.
avadhut&
A. While Nicholas of Cusa referred to God as "the absolute," the noun form of this term came into common use through the writings of Schelling and Hegel. Its adoption spread in France through Cousin and in Britain through Hamilton. According to Kant the Ideas of Reason seek both the absolute totality of conditions and their absolutely unconditioned Ground. This Ground of the Real Fichte identified with the Absolute Ego (q.v.). For Schelling the Absolute is a primordial World Ground, a spiritual unity behind all logical and ontological oppositions, the self-differentiating source of both Mind and Nature. For Hegel, however, the Absolute is the All conceived as a timeless, perfect, organic whole of self-thinking Thought. In England the Absolute has occasionally been identified with the Real considered as unrelated or "unconditioned" and hence as the "Unknowable" (Mansel, H. Spencer). Until recently, however, it was commonly appropriated by the Absolute Idealists to connote with Hegel the complete, the whole, the perfect, i.e. the Real conceived as an all-embracing unity that complements, fulfills, or transmutes into a higher synthesis the partial, fragmentary, and "self-contradictory" experiences, thoughts, purposes, values, and achievements of finite existence. The specific emphasis given to this all-inclusive perfection varies considerably, i.e. logical wholeness or concreteness (Hegel), metaphysical completeness (Hamilton), mystical feeling (Bradley), aesthetic completeness (Bosanquet), moral perfection (Royce). The Absolute is also variously conceived by this school as an all-inclusive Person, a Society of persons, and as an impersonal whole of Experience.
A word coined by Sri Aurobindo. The suffix ity is used to form abstract nouns expressing state or condition. Hence, cosmicity refers to a cosmic state or condition.
Babism: An initially persecuted and later schismatizing religious creed founded in Persia prior to the middle of the last century. International in its appeal the number of its followers increased largely in America. As a development against orthodox Mohammedanism, the Babis deny the finality of any revelation. The sect's former extreme pantheistic tendency and metaphysical hairsplittings have been effectively subordinated to more pronounced ethical imperatives. -- H.H.
bang 1. A common spoken name for "!" (ASCII 33), especially when used in pronouncing a {bang path} in spoken hackish. In {elder days} this was considered a {CMU}ish usage, with {MIT} and {Stanford} hackers preferring {excl} or {shriek}; but the spread of {Unix} has carried "bang" with it (especially via the term {bang path}) and it is now certainly the most common spoken name for "!". Note that it is used exclusively for non-emphatic written "!"; one would not say "Congratulations bang" (except possibly for humorous purposes), but if one wanted to specify the exact characters "foo!" one would speak "Eff oh oh bang". See {pling}, {shriek}, {ASCII}. 2. An exclamation signifying roughly "I have achieved enlightenment!", or "The dynamite has cleared out my brain!" Often used to acknowledge that one has perpetrated a {thinko} immediately after one has been called on it. [{Jargon File}] (1995-01-31)
beatify ::: v. t. --> To pronounce or regard as happy, or supremely blessed, or as conferring happiness.
To make happy; to bless with the completion of celestial enjoyment.
To ascertain and declare, by a public process and decree, that a deceased person is one of "the blessed" and is to be reverenced as such, though not canonized.
bells, whistles, and gongs A standard elaborated form of {bells and whistles}; typically said with a pronounced and ironic accent on the "gongs".
Besides the universal intelligible being of things, Aristotle was also primarily concerned with an investigation of the being of things from the standpoint of their generation and existence. But only individual things are generated and exist. Hence, for him, substance was primarily the individual: a "this" which, in contrast with the universal or secondary substance, is not communicable to many. The Aristotelian meaning of substance may be developed from four points of view: Grammar: The nature of substance as the ultimate subject of predication is expressed by common usage in its employment of the noun (or substantive) as the subject of a sentence to signify an individual thing which "is neither present in nor predicable of a subject." Thus substance is grammatically distinguished from its (adjectival) properties and modifications which "are present in and predicable of a subject." Secondary substance is expressed by the universal term, and by its definition which are "not present in a subject but predicable of it." See Categoriae,) ch. 5. Physics: Independence of being emerges as a fundamental characteristic of substance in the analysis of change. Thus we have: Substantial change: Socrates comes to be. (Change simply). Accidental change; in a certain respect only: Socrates comes to be 6 feet tall. (Quantitative). Socrates comes to be musical (Qualitative). Socrates comes to be in Corinth (Local). As substantial change is prior to the others and may occur independently of them, so the individual substance is prior in being to the accidents; i.e., the accidents cannot exist independently of their subject (Socrates), but can be only in him or in another primary substance, while the reverse is not necessarily the case. Logic: Out of this analysis of change there also emerges a division of being into the schema of categories, with the distinction between the category of substance and the several accidental categories, such as quantity, quality, place, relation, etc. In a corresponding manner, the category of substance is first; i.e., prior to the others in being, and independent of them. Metaphysics: The character of substance as that which is present in an individual as the cause of its being and unity is developed in Aristotle's metaphysical writings, see especiallv Bk. Z, ch. 17, 1041b. Primary substnnce is not the matter alone, nor the universal form common to many, but the individual unity of matter and form. For example, each thing is composed of parts or elements, as an organism is composed of cells, yet it is not merely its elements, but has a being and unity over and above the sum of its parts. This something more which causes the cells to be this organism rather than a malignant growth, is an example of what is meant by substance in its proper sense of first substance (substantia prima). Substance in its secondary sense (substantia secunda) is the universal form (idea or species) which is individuated in each thing.
bestir ::: v. t. --> To put into brisk or vigorous action; to move with life and vigor; -- usually with the reciprocal pronoun.
betake ::: v. t. --> To take or seize.
To have recourse to; to apply; to resort; to go; -- with a reflexive pronoun.
To commend or intrust to; to commit to.
bethink ::: v. t. --> To call to mind; to recall or bring to recollection, reflection, or consideration; to think; to consider; -- generally followed by a reflexive pronoun, often with of or that before the subject of thought. ::: v. i. --> To think; to recollect; to consider.
bewhore ::: v. t. --> To corrupt with regard to chastity; to make a whore of.
To pronounce or characterize as a whore.
bhava ::: becoming; state of being (sometimes added to an adjective to bhava form an abstract noun and translatable by a suffix such as "-ness", as in br.hadbhava, the state of being br.hat [wide], i.e., wideness); condition of consciousness; subjectivity; state of mind and feeling; physical indication of a psychological state; content, meaning (of rūpa); spiritual experience, realisation; emotion, "moved spiritualised state of the affective nature"; (madhura bhava, etc.) any of several types of relation between the jiva and the isvara, each being a way in which "the transcendent and universal person of the Divine conforms itself to our individualised personality and accepts a personal relation with us, at once identified with us as our supreme Self and yet close and different as our Master, Friend, Lover, Teacher"; attitude; mood; temperament; aspect; internal manifestation of the Goddess (devi), in . her total divine Nature (daivi prakr.ti or devibhava) or in the "more seizable because more defined and limited temperament" of any of her aspects, as in Mahakali bhava; a similar manifestation of any personality or combination of personalities of the deva or fourfold isvara, as in Indrabhava or Aniruddha bhava; in the vision of Reality (brahmadarsana), any of the "many aspects of the Infinite" which "disclose themselves, separate, combine, fuse, are unified together" until "there shines through it all the supreme integral Reality"; especially, the various "states of perception" in which the divine personality (purus.a) is seen in the impersonality of the brahman, ranging from the "general personality" of sagun.a brahman to the "vivid personality" of Kr.s.n.akali. bh bhavasamrddhi
blessing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Bless ::: v. t. --> The act of one who blesses.
A declaration of divine favor, or an invocation imploring divine favor on some or something; a benediction; a wish of happiness pronounces.
bless ::: v. t. --> To make or pronounce holy; to consecrate
To make happy, blithesome, or joyous; to confer prosperity or happiness upon; to grant divine favor to.
To express a wish or prayer for the happiness of; to invoke a blessing upon; -- applied to persons.
To invoke or confer beneficial attributes or qualities upon; to invoke or confer a blessing on, -- as on food.
To make the sign of the cross upon; to cross (one&
Noun: In English and other natural languages, a word serving as a proper or common name (q.v.). -- A.C.
bodhi-sattva (Bodhi-sattwa) ::: in Mahayana Buddhism,"a being who, though having the right to enter Nirvana, deliberately renounces it, electing to work under the conditions and possibly renewed temptations of the world, for the love of one"s fellow man or of the whole sentient world" (The Theosophical Path, March 1915, p. 160).
bomb 1. "software" General synonym for {crash} except that it is not used as a noun. Especially used of software or {OS} failures. "Don't run Empire with less than 32K stack, it'll bomb". 2. "operating system" {Atari ST} and {Macintosh} equivalents of a {Unix} "{panic}" or {Amiga} {guru}, in which {icons} of little black-powder bombs or mushroom clouds are displayed, indicating that the system has died. On the {Macintosh}, this may be accompanied by a decimal (or occasionally {hexadecimal}) number indicating what went wrong, similar to the {Amiga} {guru meditation} number. {MS-DOS} computers tend to {lock up} in this situation. 3. "software" A piece of code embedded in a program that remains dormant until it is triggered. Logic bombs are triggered by an event whereas time bombs are triggered either after a set amount of time has elapsed, or when a specific date is reached. [{Jargon File}] (1996-12-08)
Borland Software Corporation "company" A company that sells a variety of {PC} software development and {database} systems. Borland was founded in 1983 and initially became famous for their low-cost software, particularly {Turbo Pascal}, {Turbo C}, and {Turbo Prolog}. Current and past products include the {Borland C++} C++ and C developement environment, the {Paradox} and {dBASE} {databases}, {Delphi}, {JBuilder}, and {InterBase}. Borland has approximately 1000 employees worldwide and has operations in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Borland sold {Quattro} Pro to {Novell} in 1994 for $100M. Novell later sold the product to {Corel Corporation}, who also bought {Paradox}. dBASE was sold in March(?) 1999 to {dBase Inc.} In Febuary 1998 Borland bought {Visigenic Software, Inc.}. The company changed its name to Inprise Corporation on 1998-04-29 and then on 2000-11-14 they announced they were changing it back to Borland from the first quarter of 2001. Quarterly sales $69M, profits $61M (Aug 1994). $56M, $6.4M (July 2001) {(http://borland.com/)}. Headquarters: 100 Borland Way, Scotts Valley, CA, 95066, USA. Telephone: +1 (408) 431 1000. (2002-03-16)
braille "human language" /breyl/ (Often capitalised) A class of {writing systems}, intended for use by blind and low-vision users, which express {glyphs} as raised dots. Currently employed braille standards use eight dots per cell, where a cell is a glyph-space two dots across by four dots high; most glyphs use only the top six dots. Braille was developed by Louis Braille (pronounced /looy bray/) in France in the 1820s. Braille systems for most languages can be fairly trivially converted to and from the usual script. Braille has several totally coincidental parallels with digital computing: it is {binary}, it is based on groups of eight bits/dots and its development began in the 1820s, at the same time {Charles Babbage} proposed the {Difference Engine}. Computers output Braille on {braille displays} and {braille printers} for hard copy. {British Royal National Institute for the Blind (http://rnib.org.uk/wesupply/fctsheet/braille.htm)}. (1998-10-19)
brings to the public attention, esp. announces in a formal or official manner.
brogue ::: n. --> A stout, coarse shoe; a brogan. ::: v. t. --> A dialectic pronunciation; esp. the Irish manner of pronouncing English.
bulletin ::: n. --> A brief statement of facts respecting some passing event, as military operations or the health of some distinguished personage, issued by authority for the information of the public.
Any public notice or announcement, especially of news recently received.
A periodical publication, especially one containing the proceeding of a society.
But while Peirce thought of pragmatism as akin to the mathematical method, James' motivation and interest was largely moral and religious. Thus in his Will to Believe (New World, 1896) he argues, in line with Pascal's wager, that "we have the right to believe at our own risk any hypothesis that is live enough to tempt our will," i.e. if it is not resolvable intellectually. Speaking of religious scepticism, he says. "We cannot escape the issue by remaining sceptical . . . because, although we do avoid error in that way if religion be untrue, we lose the good, if it be true, just as certainly as if we positively choose to disbelieve". The position of the religious skeptic is: ''Better risk loss of truth than chance of error, . . ." Later, in 1907 in the Lowell Lectures he stated that "on pragmatistic principles, if the hypothesis of God works satisfactorily in the widest sense of the word, it is true", and took a position between absolutism and materialism which he called "pragmatistic or melioristic" theism. In the same lectures he announces that " 'the true', to put it briefly, is only the expedient in the way of thinking, . . ." James also identifies truth with verifiability, thus anticipating both the experimentalism of Dewey and the operationalism of Bridgman and the logical positivists.
byte "unit" /bi:t/ (B) A component in the machine {data hierarchy} larger than a {bit} and usually smaller than a {word}; now nearly always eight bits and the smallest addressable unit of storage. A byte typically holds one {character}. A byte may be 9 bits on 36-bit computers. Some older architectures used "byte" for quantities of 6 or 7 bits, and the PDP-10 and IBM 7030 supported "bytes" that were actually {bit-fields} of 1 to 36 (or 64) bits! These usages are now obsolete, and even 9-bit bytes have become rare in the general trend toward power-of-2 word sizes. The term was coined by Werner Buchholz in 1956 during the early design phase for the {IBM} {Stretch} computer. It was a mutation of the word "bite" intended to avoid confusion with "bit". In 1962 he described it as "a group of bits used to encode a character, or the number of bits transmitted in parallel to and from input-output units". The move to an 8-bit byte happened in late 1956, and this size was later adopted and promulgated as a standard by the {System/360} {operating system} (announced April 1964). James S. Jones "jsjones@graceland.edu" adds: I am sure I read in a mid-1970's brochure by IBM that outlined the history of computers that BYTE was an acronym that stood for "Bit asYnchronous Transmission E..?" which related to width of the bus between the Stretch CPU and its CRT-memory (prior to Core). Terry Carr "bear@mich.com" says: In the early days IBM taught that a series of bits transferred together (like so many yoked oxen) formed a Binary Yoked Transfer Element (BYTE). [True origin? First 8-bit byte architecture?] See also {nibble}, {octet}. [{Jargon File}] (2003-09-21)
callings ::: 1. (i.e. an animal or bird) that calls. 2. Things or voices that announce or address in a clear and often authoritative voice.
canonical (Historically, "according to religious law") 1. "mathematics" A standard way of writing a formula. Two formulas such as 9 + x and x + 9 are said to be equivalent because they mean the same thing, but the second one is in "canonical form" because it is written in the usual way, with the highest power of x first. Usually there are fixed rules you can use to decide whether something is in canonical form. Things in canonical form are easier to compare. 2. "jargon" The usual or standard state or manner of something. The term acquired this meaning in computer-science culture largely through its prominence in {Alonzo Church}'s work in computation theory and {mathematical logic} (see {Knights of the Lambda-Calculus}). Compare {vanilla}. This word has an interesting history. Non-technical academics do not use the adjective "canonical" in any of the senses defined above with any regularity; they do however use the nouns "canon" and "canonicity" (not "canonicalness"* or "canonicality"*). The "canon" of a given author is the complete body of authentic works by that author (this usage is familiar to Sherlock Holmes fans as well as to literary scholars). "The canon" is the body of works in a given field (e.g. works of literature, or of art, or of music) deemed worthwhile for students to study and for scholars to investigate. The word "canon" derives ultimately from the Greek "kanon" (akin to the English "cane") referring to a reed. Reeds were used for measurement, and in Latin and later Greek the word "canon" meant a rule or a standard. The establishment of a canon of scriptures within Christianity was meant to define a standard or a rule for the religion. The above non-technical academic usages stem from this instance of a defined and accepted body of work. Alongside this usage was the promulgation of "canons" ("rules") for the government of the Catholic Church. The usages relating to religious law derive from this use of the Latin "canon". It may also be related to arabic "qanun" (law). Hackers invest this term with a playfulness that makes an ironic contrast with its historical meaning. A true story: One Bob Sjoberg, new at the {MIT AI Lab}, expressed some annoyance at the incessant use of jargon. Over his loud objections, {GLS} and {RMS} made a point of using as much of it as possible in his presence, and eventually it began to sink in. Finally, in one conversation, he used the word "canonical" in jargon-like fashion without thinking. Steele: "Aha! We've finally got you talking jargon too!" Stallman: "What did he say?" Steele: "Bob just used "canonical" in the canonical way." Of course, canonicality depends on context, but it is implicitly defined as the way *hackers* normally expect things to be. Thus, a hacker may claim with a straight face that "according to religious law" is *not* the canonical meaning of "canonical". (2002-02-06)
Catechetic: Noun ordinarily employed in the plural, denoting the method and practice of imparting religious instruction orally by means of questions and answers, especially to children. -- J.J.R.
Charles Babbage "person" The British inventor known to some as the "Father of Computing" for his contributions to the basic design of the computer through his {Analytical Engine}. His previous {Difference Engine} was a special purpose device intended for the production of mathematical tables. Babbage was born on December 26, 1791 in Teignmouth, Devonshire UK. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1814 and graduated from Peterhouse. In 1817 he received an MA from Cambridge and in 1823 started work on the Difference Engine through funding from the British Government. In 1827 he published a table of {logarithms} from 1 to 108000. In 1828 he was appointed to the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge (though he never presented a lecture). In 1831 he founded the British Association for the Advancement of Science and in 1832 he published "Economy of Manufactures and Machinery". In 1833 he began work on the Analytical Engine. In 1834 he founded the Statistical Society of London. He died in 1871 in London. Babbage also invented the cowcatcher, the dynamometer, standard railroad gauge, uniform postal rates, occulting lights for lighthouses, Greenwich time signals, and the heliograph opthalmoscope. He also had an interest in cyphers and lock-picking. [Adapted from the text by J. A. N. Lee, Copyright September 1994]. Babbage, as (necessarily) the first person to work with machines that can attack problems at arbitrary levels of {abstraction}, fell into a trap familiar to {toolsmiths} since, as described here by the English ethicist, Lord Moulton: "One of the sad memories of my life is a visit to the celebrated mathematician and inventor, Mr Babbage. He was far advanced in age, but his mind was still as vigorous as ever. He took me through his work-rooms. In the first room I saw parts of the original Calculating Machine, which had been shown in an incomplete state many years before and had even been put to some use. I asked him about its present form. 'I have not finished it because in working at it I came on the idea of my {Analytical Machine}, which would do all that it was capable of doing and much more. Indeed, the idea was so much simpler that it would have taken more work to complete the Calculating Machine than to design and construct the other in its entirety, so I turned my attention to the Analytical Machine.'" "After a few minutes' talk, we went into the next work-room, where he showed and explained to me the working of the elements of the Analytical Machine. I asked if I could see it. 'I have never completed it,' he said, 'because I hit upon an idea of doing the same thing by a different and far more effective method, and this rendered it useless to proceed on the old lines.' Then we went into the third room. There lay scattered bits of mechanism, but I saw no trace of any working machine. Very cautiously I approached the subject, and received the dreaded answer, 'It is not constructed yet, but I am working on it, and it will take less time to construct it altogether than it would have token to complete the Analytical Machine from the stage in which I left it.' I took leave of the old man with a heavy heart." "When he died a few years later, not only had he constructed no machine, but the verdict of a jury of kind and sympathetic scientific men who were deputed to pronounce upon what he had left behind him, either in papers or in mechanism, was that everything was too incomplete of be capable of being put to any useful purpose." [Lord Moulton, "The invention of algorithms, its genesis, and growth", in G. C. Knott, ed., "Napier tercentenary memorial volume" (London, 1915), p. 1-24; quoted in Charles Babbage "Passage from the Life of a Philosopher", Martin Campbell-Kelly, ed. (Rutgers U. Press and IEEE Press, 1994), p. 34]. Compare: {uninteresting}, {Ninety-Ninety Rule}. (1996-02-22)
classic "jargon" An adjective used before or after a noun to describe the original version of something, especially if the original is considered to be better. Examples include "Star Trek Classic" - the original TV series as opposed to the films, ST The Next Generation or any of the other spin-offs and follow-ups; or "PC Classic" - {IBM}'s {ISA}-bus computers as opposed to the {PS/2} series. (1996-10-27)
collective ::: a. --> Formed by gathering or collecting; gathered into a mass, sum, or body; congregated or aggregated; as, the collective body of a nation.
Deducing consequences; reasoning; inferring.
Expressing a collection or aggregate of individuals, by a singular form; as, a collective name or noun, like assembly, army, jury, etc.
Tending to collect; forming a collection.
comminatory ::: a. --> Threatening or denouncing punishment; as, comminatory terms.
Commodore Business Machines "company" (CBM) Makers of the {PET}, {Commodore 64}, {Commodore 16}, {Commodore 128}, and {Amiga} {personal computers}. Their logo is a {chicken head}. The Commodore name is controlled by Commodore Licensing BV, now a subsidiary of Asiarim. Commodore USA signed an agreement with Commodore Licensing BV. On 1994-04-29, Commodore International announced that it had been unable to renegotiate terms of outstanding loans and was closing down the business. Commodore US was expected to go into liquidation. Commodore US, France, Spain, and Belgium were liquidated for various reasons. The names Commodore and Amiga were maintained after the liquidation. After 1994, the rights to the Commodore name bounced across several European companies. On 1995-04-21, German retailer {Escom AG} bought Commodore International for $14m and production of the Amiga resumed. Netherlands-based {Tulip Computers} took over the brand. Production of the 8-bit range alledgedly never stopped during the time in liquidation because a Chinese company were producing the {C64} in large numbers for the local market there. In 2004, Tulip sold the Commodore name to another Dutch firm, Yeahronimo, that eventually changed its name to Commodore International. In April 2008 three creditors took the company to court demanding a bankruptcy ruling. On 2010-03-17, Commodore USA announced that it was to release a new PC in June 2010 which looks very similar to the old Commodore 64 but comes with a {Core 2 Duo}, {Core 2 Quad}, {Pentium D} or {Celeron D} processor and with {Ubuntu} {Linux} or {Windows 7} installed. {PC World article (http://pcworld.com/article/192415)}. (2010-09-14)
Commonwealth Hackish "jargon" Hacker jargon as spoken outside the US, especially in the British Commonwealth. It is reported that Commonwealth speakers are more likely to pronounce truncations like "char" and "soc", etc., as spelled (/char/, /sok/), as opposed to American /keir/ and /sohsh/. Dots in {newsgroup} names (especially two-component names) tend to be pronounced more often (so soc.wibble is /sok dot wib'l/ rather than /sohsh wib'l/). The prefix {meta} may be pronounced /mee't*/; similarly, Greek letter beta is usually /bee't*/, zeta is usually /zee't*/, and so forth. Preferred {metasyntactic variables} include {blurgle}, "eek", "ook", "frodo", and "bilbo"; "wibble", "wobble", and in emergencies "wubble"; "banana", "tom", "dick", "harry", "wombat", "frog", {fish}, and so on and on (see {foo}). Alternatives to verb doubling include suffixes "-o-rama", "frenzy" (as in feeding frenzy), and "city" (examples: "barf city!" "hack-o-rama!" "core dump frenzy!"). Finally, note that the American terms "parens", "brackets", and "braces" for (), [], and {} are uncommon; Commonwealth hackish prefers "brackets", "square brackets", and "curly brackets". Also, the use of "pling" for {bang} is common outside the United States. See also {attoparsec}, {calculator}, {chemist}, {console jockey}, {fish}, {go-faster stripes}, {grunge}, {hakspek}, {heavy metal}, {leaky heap}, {lord high fixer}, {loose bytes}, {muddie}, {nadger}, {noddy}, {psychedelicware}, {plingnet}, {raster blaster}, {RTBM}, {seggie}, {spod}, {sun lounge}, {terminal junkie}, {tick-list features}, {weeble}, {weasel}, {YABA}, and notes or definitions under {Bad Thing}, {barf}, {bum}, {chase pointers}, {cosmic rays}, {crippleware}, {crunch}, {dodgy}, {gonk}, {hamster}, {hardwarily}, {mess-dos}, {nibble}, {proglet}, {root}, {SEX}, {tweak} and {xyzzy}. [{Jargon File}] (1995-01-18)
communiqué ::: an official communication or announcement, esp. to the press or public.
Concert/C "language, parallel" A {parallel} extension of {ANSI C} with {asynchronous} {message passing}, developed at the {IBM} {TJWRC} in July 1993. Concert/C provides {primitives} to create and terminate {processes} and communicate between them. The programmer explicitly expresses parallelization and distribution. {1994 Announcement (http://www.cs.bu.edu/~best/courses/cs551/projects/concert.txt)}. (2013-05-05)
condemnation ::: n. --> The act of condemning or pronouncing to be wrong; censure; blame; disapprobation.
The act of judicially condemning, or adjudging guilty, unfit for use, or forfeited; the act of dooming to punishment or forfeiture.
The state of being condemned.
The ground or reason of condemning.
condemned ::: 1. Pronounced judgment against; sentenced. 2. Forced into a specific state or activity. condemning.
condemned ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Condemn ::: a. --> Pronounced to be wrong, guilty, worthless, or forfeited; adjudged or sentenced to punishment, destruction, or confiscation.
Used for condemned persons.
condemn ::: v. t. --> To pronounce to be wrong; to disapprove of; to censure.
To declare the guilt of; to make manifest the faults or unworthiness of; to convict of guilt.
To pronounce a judicial sentence against; to sentence to punishment, suffering, or loss; to doom; -- with to before the penalty.
To amerce or fine; -- with in before the penalty.
To adjudge or pronounce to be unfit for use or service;
contracted ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Contract ::: a. --> Drawn together; shrunken; wrinkled; narrow; as, a contracted brow; a contracted noun.
Narrow; illiberal; selfish; as, a contracted mind; contracted views.
Contradictio in adjecto: A logical inconsistency between a noun and its modifying adjective. A favorite example is the phrase "round square." -- A.C.
correlative ::: a. --> Having or indicating a reciprocal relation. ::: n. --> One who, or that which, stands in a reciprocal relation, or is correlated, to some other person or thing.
The antecedent of a pronoun.
corsned ::: n. --> The morsel of execration; a species of ordeal consisting in the eating of a piece of bread consecrated by imprecation. If the suspected person ate it freely, he was pronounced innocent; but if it stuck in his throat, it was considered as a proof of his guilt.
cosmicity ("s) ::: a word coined by Sri Aurobindo. The suffix ity is used to form abstract nouns expressing state or condition. Hence, cosmicity refers to a cosmic state or condition.
couch ::: v. t. --> To lay upon a bed or other resting place.
To arrange or dispose as in a bed; -- sometimes followed by the reflexive pronoun.
To lay or deposit in a bed or layer; to bed.
To transfer (as sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire cloth mold to a felt blanket, for further drying.
To conceal; to include or involve darkly.
To arrange; to place; to inlay.
country ::: adv. --> A tract of land; a region; the territory of an independent nation; (as distinguished from any other region, and with a personal pronoun) the region of one&
countryman ::: n. --> An inhabitant or native of a region.
One born in the same country with another; a compatriot; -- used with a possessive pronoun.
One who dwells in the country, as distinguished from a townsman or an inhabitant of a city; a rustic; a husbandman or farmer.
CratyIus of Athens: A Heraclitean and first teacher of Plato. Carried the doctrine of irreconcilability of opposites so far that he renounced the use of spoken language. Plato's dialogue of same name criticized the Heraclitean theory of language. -- E.H.
croak ::: v. i. --> To make a low, hoarse noise in the throat, as a frog, a raven, or a crow; hence, to make any hoarse, dismal sound.
To complain; especially, to grumble; to forebode evil; to utter complaints or forebodings habitually. ::: v. t. --> To utter in a low, hoarse voice; to announce by croaking;
crock [American scatologism "crock of shit"] 1. An awkward feature or programming technique that ought to be made cleaner. For example, using small integers to represent error codes without the program interpreting them to the user (as in, for example, Unix "make(1)", which returns code 139 for a process that dies due to {segfault}). 2. A technique that works acceptably, but which is quite prone to failure if disturbed in the least. For example, a too-clever programmer might write an assembler which mapped {instruction mnemonics} to numeric {opcodes} {algorithm}ically, a trick which depends far too intimately on the particular bit patterns of the opcodes. (For another example of programming with a dependence on actual opcode values, see {The Story of Mel}.) Many crocks have a tightly woven, almost completely unmodifiable structure. See {kluge}, {brittle}. The adjectives "crockish" and "crocky", and the nouns "crockishness" and "crockitude", are also used. [{Jargon File}]
C
Cynics: A school of Greek Philosophy, named after the gymnasium Cynosarges, founded by Antisthenes of Athens, friend of Socrates. Man's true happiness, the Cynics taught, lies in right and intelligent living, and this constitutes for them also the concept of the virtuous life. For the Cynics, this right and virtuous life consists in a course of conduct which is as much as possible independent of all events and factors external to man. This independence can be achieved through mastery over one's desires and wants. The Cynics attempted to free man from bondage to human custom, convention and institution by reducing man's desires and appetites to such only as are indispensable to life and by renouncing those whicn are imposed by civilization. In extreme cases, such as that of Diogenes, this philosophy expressed itself in a desire to live the natural life in the midst of the civilized Greek community. -- M.F.
daemon "operating system" /day'mn/ or /dee'mn/ (From the mythological meaning, later rationalised as the acronym "Disk And Execution MONitor") A program that is not invoked explicitly, but lies dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur. The idea is that the perpetrator of the condition need not be aware that a daemon is lurking (though often a program will commit an action only because it knows that it will implicitly invoke a daemon). For example, under {ITS} writing a file on the {LPT} spooler's directory would invoke the spooling daemon, which would then print the file. The advantage is that programs wanting files printed need neither compete for access to, nor understand any idiosyncrasies of, the {LPT}. They simply enter their implicit requests and let the daemon decide what to do with them. Daemons are usually spawned automatically by the system, and may either live forever or be regenerated at intervals. {Unix} systems run many daemons, chiefly to handle requests for services from other {hosts} on a {network}. Most of these are now started as required by a single real daemon, {inetd}, rather than running continuously. Examples are {cron} (local timed command execution), {rshd} (remote command execution), {rlogind} and {telnetd} (remote login), {ftpd}, {nfsd} (file transfer), {lpd} (printing). Daemon and {demon} are often used interchangeably, but seem to have distinct connotations (see {demon}). The term "daemon" was introduced to computing by {CTSS} people (who pronounced it /dee'mon/) and used it to refer to what {ITS} called a {dragon}. [{Jargon File}] (1995-05-11)
Darwin, Charles: (1809-1882) The great English naturalist who gathered masses of data on the famous voyage of the Beagle and then spent twenty additional years shaping his pronouncement of an evolutionary hypothesis in The Origin of Species, published in 1859. He was not the first to advance the idea of the kinship of all life but is memorable as the expositor of a provocative and simple explanation in his theory of natural selection. He served to establish firmly in all scientific minds the fact of evolution even if there remains doubt as to the precise method or methods of evolution. From his premises, he elaborated a subsidiary doctrine of sexual selection. In addition to the biological explanations, there appear some keen observations and conclusions for ethics particularly in his later Descent of Man. Evolution, since his day, has been of moment in all fields of thought. See Evolutionism, Natural Selection, Struggle for Existence. -- L.E.D.
database management system "database" (DBMS) A suite of programs which typically manage large structured sets of persistent data, offering ad hoc query facilities to many users. They are widely used in business applications. A database management system (DBMS) can be an extremely complex set of software programs that controls the organisation, storage and retrieval of data (fields, records and files) in a database. It also controls the security and integrity of the database. The DBMS accepts requests for data from the application program and instructs the operating system to transfer the appropriate data. When a DBMS is used, information systems can be changed much more easily as the organisation's information requirements change. New categories of data can be added to the database without disruption to the existing system. Data security prevents unauthorised users from viewing or updating the database. Using passwords, users are allowed access to the entire database or subsets of the database, called subschemas (pronounced "sub-skeema"). For example, an employee database can contain all the data about an individual employee, but one group of users may be authorised to view only payroll data, while others are allowed access to only work history and medical data. The DBMS can maintain the integrity of the database by not allowing more than one user to update the same record at the same time. The DBMS can keep duplicate records out of the database; for example, no two customers with the same customer numbers (key fields) can be entered into the database. {Query languages} and {report writers} allow users to interactively interrogate the database and analyse its data. If the DBMS provides a way to interactively enter and update the database, as well as interrogate it, this capability allows for managing personal databases. However, it may not leave an audit trail of actions or provide the kinds of controls necessary in a multi-user organisation. These controls are only available when a set of application programs are customised for each data entry and updating function. A business information system is made up of subjects (customers, employees, vendors, etc.) and activities (orders, payments, purchases, etc.). Database design is the process of deciding how to organize this data into record types and how the record types will relate to each other. The DBMS should mirror the organisation's data structure and process transactions efficiently. Organisations may use one kind of DBMS for daily transaction processing and then move the detail onto another computer that uses another DBMS better suited for random inquiries and analysis. Overall systems design decisions are performed by data administrators and systems analysts. Detailed database design is performed by database administrators. The three most common organisations are the {hierarchical database}, {network database} and {relational database}. A database management system may provide one, two or all three methods. Inverted lists and other methods are also used. The most suitable structure depends on the application and on the transaction rate and the number of inquiries that will be made. Database machines are specially designed computers that hold the actual databases and run only the DBMS and related software. Connected to one or more mainframes via a high-speed channel, database machines are used in large volume transaction processing environments. Database machines have a large number of DBMS functions built into the hardware and also provide special techniques for accessing the disks containing the databases, such as using multiple processors concurrently for high-speed searches. The world of information is made up of data, text, pictures and voice. Many DBMSs manage text as well as data, but very few manage both with equal proficiency. Throughout the 1990s, as storage capacities continue to increase, DBMSs will begin to integrate all forms of information. Eventually, it will be common for a database to handle data, text, graphics, voice and video with the same ease as today's systems handle data. See also: {intelligent database}. (1998-10-07)
dative ::: a. --> Noting the case of a noun which expresses the remoter object, and is generally indicated in English by to or for with the objective.
In one&
declaration ::: n. --> The act of declaring, or publicly announcing; explicit asserting; undisguised token of a ground or side taken on any subject; proclamation; exposition; as, the declaration of an opinion; a declaration of war, etc.
That which is declared or proclaimed; announcement; distinct statement; formal expression; avowal.
The document or instrument containing such statement or proclamation; as, the Declaration of Independence (now preserved in
declare ::: v. t. --> To make clear; to free from obscurity.
To make known by language; to communicate or manifest explicitly and plainly in any way; to exhibit; to publish; to proclaim; to announce.
To make declaration of; to assert; to affirm; to set forth; to avow; as, he declares the story to be false.
To make full statement of, as goods, etc., for the purpose of paying taxes, duties, etc.
declension ::: n. --> The act or the state of declining; declination; descent; slope.
A falling off towards a worse state; a downward tendency; deterioration; decay; as, the declension of virtue, of science, of a state, etc.
Act of courteously refusing; act of declining; a declinature; refusal; as, the declension of a nomination.
Inflection of nouns, adjectives, etc., according to the
defective ::: a. --> Wanting in something; incomplete; lacking a part; deficient; imperfect; faulty; -- applied either to natural or moral qualities; as, a defective limb; defective timber; a defective copy or account; a defective character; defective rules.
Lacking some of the usual forms of declension or conjugation; as, a defective noun or verb.
defy ::: v. t. --> To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce.
To provoke to combat or strife; to call out to combat; to challenge; to dare; to brave; to set at defiance; to treat with contempt; as, to defy an enemy; to defy the power of a magistrate; to defy the arguments of an opponent; to defy public opinion. ::: n.
delate ::: v. --> To carry; to convey.
To carry abroad; to spread; to make public.
To carry or bring against, as a charge; to inform against; to accuse; to denounce.
To carry on; to conduct. ::: v. i.
demean ::: v. t. --> To manage; to conduct; to treat.
To conduct; to behave; to comport; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun.
To debase; to lower; to degrade; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun.
Management; treatment.
Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor.
Demon Internet Ltd. "company" One of the first company to provide public {Internet} access in the UK. The staff of Demon Systems Ltd., an established software house, started Demon Internet on 1992-06-01 and it was the first system in the United Kingdom to offer low cost full {Internet} access. It was started with the support of about 100 founder members who discussed the idea on {Compulink Information Exchange}, and were brave enough to pay a year's subscription in advance. They aimed to have 200 members in the first year to cover costs, ignoring any time spent. After about two weeks they realised they needed nearer 400. By November 1993 they had over 2000 subscribers and by August 1994 they had about 11000 with 20% per month growth. All revenues have been reinvested in resources and expansion of service. Demon link to {Sprintlink} in the United States making them totally independent. They peer with {EUNet} and {PIPEX} to ensure good connectivity in Great Britain as well as having links to the {JANET}/{JIPS} UK academic network. A direct line into the {Department of Computing, Imperial College, London (http://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk)} from their Central London {Point of Presence} (PoP) (styx.demon.co.uk) gives access to the biggest {FTP} and {Archie} site in Europe. Demon provide local call access to a large proportion of the UK. The central London {PoP} provides {leased line} connections at a cheaper rate for those customers in the central 0171 area. Further lines and {PoPs} are being added continuously. Subscribers get allocated an {Internet Address} and can choose a {hostname} within the demon.co.uk {domain}. They can have any number of e-mail address at that host. In October 1994 Demon confirmed a large contract with the major telecommunications provider {Energis}. They will supply guaranteed bandwidth to Demon's 10Mb/s {backbone} from several cities and towns. Several {PoPs} will be phased out and replaced with others during 1995. E-mail: "internet@demon.net". {(ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/)}. {(http://demon.co.uk/)}. {Usenet} newsgroup: {news:demon.announce}. Telephone: +44 (181) 349 0063. Address: Demon Internet Ltd., 42 Hendon Lane, Finchley, London N3 1TT, UK. (1994-11-08)
demster ::: n. --> A deemster.
An officer whose duty it was to announce the doom or sentence pronounced by the court.
denaturalize ::: v. t. --> To render unnatural; to alienate from nature.
To renounce the natural rights and duties of; to deprive of citizenship; to denationalize.
denounced ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Denounce
denouncement ::: n. --> Solemn, official, or menacing announcement; denunciation.
denouncer ::: n. --> One who denounces, or declares, as a menace.
denounce ::: v. t. --> To make known in a solemn or official manner; to declare; to proclaim (especially an evil).
To proclaim in a threatening manner; to threaten by some outward sign or expression.
To point out as deserving of reprehension or punishment, etc.; to accuse in a threatening manner; to invoke censure upon; to stigmatize.
denouncing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Denounce
denunciate ::: v. t. --> To denounce; to condemn publicly or solemnly.
denunciation ::: n. --> Proclamation; announcement; a publishing.
The act of denouncing; public menace or accusation; the act of inveighing against, stigmatizing, or publicly arraigning; arraignment.
That by which anything is denounced; threat of evil; public menace or accusation; arraignment.
denunciator ::: n. --> One who denounces, publishes, or proclaims, especially intended or coming evil; one who threatens or accuses.
deny ::: v. t. --> To declare not to be true; to gainsay; to contradict; -- opposed to affirm, allow, or admit.
To refuse (to do something or to accept something); to reject; to decline; to renounce.
To refuse to grant; to withhold; to refuse to gratify or yield to; as, to deny a request.
To disclaim connection with, responsibility for, and the like; to refuse to acknowledge; to disown; to abjure; to disavow.
deport ::: v. t. --> To transport; to carry away; to exile; to send into banishment.
To carry or demean; to conduct; to behave; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun. ::: n. --> Behavior; carriage; demeanor; deportment.
detest ::: v. t. --> To witness against; to denounce; to condemn.
To hate intensely; to abhor; to abominate; to loathe; as, we detest what is contemptible or evil.
devote ::: v. t. --> To appropriate by vow; to set apart or dedicate by a solemn act; to consecrate; also, to consign over; to doom; to evil; to devote one to destruction; the city was devoted to the flames.
To execrate; to curse.
To give up wholly; to addict; to direct the attention of wholly or compound; to attach; -- often with a reflexive pronoun; as, to devote one&
dieresis ::: n. --> The separation or resolution of one syllable into two; -- the opposite of synaeresis.
A mark consisting of two dots [/], placed over the second of two adjacent vowels, to denote that they are to be pronounced as distinct letters; as, cooperate, aerial.
Same as Diaeresis.
Digital Equipment Corporation "company, hardware" (DEC) A computer manufacturer and software vendor. Before the {killer micro} revolution of the late 1980s, hackerdom was closely symbiotic with DEC's pioneering {time-sharing} machines. The first of the group of hacker cultures nucleated around the {PDP-1} (see {TMRC}). Subsequently, the {PDP-6}, {PDP-10}, {PDP-20}, {PDP-11} and {VAX} were all foci of large and important hackerdoms and DEC machines long dominated the {ARPANET} and {Internet} machine population. The first PC from DEC was a {CP/M} computer called {Rainbow}, announced in 1981-82. DEC was the technological leader of the minicomputer era (roughly 1967 to 1987), but its failure to embrace {microcomputers} and {Unix} early cost it heavily in profits and prestige after {silicon} got cheap. However, the {microprocessor} design tradition owes a heavy debt to the {PDP-11} {instruction set}, and every one of the major general-purpose microcomputer {operating systems} so far (CP/M, {MS-DOS}, {Unix}, {OS/2}) were either genetically descended from a DEC OS, or incubated on DEC {hardware} or both. Accordingly, DEC is still regarded with a certain wry affection even among many hackers too young to have grown up on DEC machines. The contrast with {IBM} is instructive. Quarterly sales $3923M, profits -$1746M (Aug 1994). DEC was taken over by {Compaq Computer Corporation} in 1998. In 2002 Compaq was in turn acquired by {Hewlett-Packard} who sold off parts of Digital Equipment Corporation to {Intel} and absorbed the rest. The Digital logo is no longer used. (2012-07-29)
Digital Signature Standard "cryptography, standard" The {NIST}'s {standard} for {digital signatures} (authenticating both a message and the signer) that was first announced in 1991. It is based on an {algorithm} using {discrete logarithms}, which is a variant of the {Elgamal algorithm} with Schnorr's improvements. DSS's security is currently considered very strong - comparable to {RSA}. It is estimated that DSS's 1024-bit keys would take 1.4E16 {MIPS}-years to crack. (1995-11-16)
Digital Versatile Disc "storage" (DVD, formerly "Digital Video Disc") An optical storage medium with improved capacity and bandwidth compared with the {Compact Disc}. DVD, like CD, was initally marketed for entertainment and later for computer users. [When was it first available?] A DVD can hold a full-length film with up to 133 minutes of high quality video, in {MPEG-2} format, and audio. The first DVD drives for computers were read-only drives ("DVD-ROM"). These can store 4.7 GBytes - over seven times the storage capacity of CD-ROM. DVD-ROM drives read existing {CD-ROMs} and music CDs and are compatible with installed sound and video boards. Additionally, the DVD-ROM drive can read DVD films and modern computers can decode them in software in {real-time}. The DVD video standard was announced in November 1995. Matshusita did much of the early development but Philips made the first DVD player, which appeared in Japan in November 1996. In May 2004, Sony released the first dual-layer drive, which increased the disc capacity to 8.5 GB. Double-sided, dual-layer discs will eventually increase the capacity to 17 GB. Write-once DVD-R ("recordable") drives record a 3.9GB DVD-R disc that can be read on a DVD-ROM drive. Pioneer released the first DVD-R drive on 1997-09-29. By March 1997, {Hitachi} had released a rewritable DVD-RAM drive (by false analogy with {random-access memory}). DVD-RAM drives read and write to a 2.6 GB DVD-RAM disc, read and write-once to a 3.9GB DVD-R disc, and read a 4.7 GB or 8.5 GB DVD-ROM. Later, DVD-RAM discs could be read on DVD-R and DVD-ROM drives. {Background (http://tacmar.com/dvd_background.htm)}. {RCA home (http://imagematrix.com/DVD/home.html)}. (2006-01-07)
diphthongalize ::: v. t. --> To make into a diphthong; to pronounce as a diphthong.
diphthong ::: n. --> A coalition or union of two vowel sounds pronounced in one syllable; as, ou in out, oi in noise; -- called a proper diphthong.
A vowel digraph; a union of two vowels in the same syllable, only one of them being sounded; as, ai in rain, eo in people; -- called an improper diphthong. ::: v. t.
diptote ::: n. --> A noun which has only two cases.
disclaimer ::: n. --> One who disclaims, disowns, or renounces.
A denial, disavowal, or renunciation, as of a title, claim, interest, estate, or trust; relinquishment or waiver of an interest or estate.
A public disavowal, as of pretensions, claims, opinions, and the like.
disclaim ::: v. t. --> To renounce all claim to deny; ownership of, or responsibility for; to disown; to disavow; to reject.
To deny, as a claim; to refuse.
To relinquish or deny having a claim; to disavow another&
disprofess ::: v. t. --> To renounce the profession or pursuit of.
distributive ::: a. --> Tending to distribute; serving to divide and assign in portions; dealing to each his proper share.
Assigning the species of a general term.
Expressing separation; denoting a taking singly, not collectively; as, a distributive adjective or pronoun, such as each, either, every; a distributive numeral, as (Latin) bini (two by two). ::: n.
DjVu "application, compression, file format, graphics, web" (pronounced like "deja vu") An {image compression} {algorithm} and program developed by {Yann LeCun}'s research group at {AT&T Labs}. DjVu provides high {resolution} {digital images} for distribution over the {Internet}. DjVu is five to 20 times more efficient than {JPEG} or {GIF}. A free {web browser} {plug-in} allows users to display DjVu images. {(http://djvu.research.att.com/)}. (1999-10-07)
donuts (Obsolete) A collective noun for any set of memory bits. This usage is extremely archaic and may no longer be live jargon; it dates from the days of {ferrite core memories} in which each bit was implemented by a doughnut-shaped magnetic {flip-flop}. [{Jargon File}]
DOOM "games" A simulated 3D moster-hunting action game for {IBM PCs}, created and published by {id Software}. The original press release was dated January 1993. A cut-down shareware version v1.0 was released on 10 December 1993 and again with some bug-fixes, as v1.4 in June 1994. DOOM is similar to Wolfenstein 3d (id Software, Apogee) but has better {texture mapping}; walls can be at any angle, of any thickness and have windows; lighting can fade into the distance or come from point sources; floors and ceilings can be of any height; many surfaces are animated; up to four players can play over a network or two by serial link; it has a high {frame rate} (comparable to TV on a {486}/33); DOOM isn't just a collection of connected closed rooms like Wolfenstein but sounds can travel anywhere and alert monsters of your approach. The shareware version is available from these sites: {Cactus (ftp://cactus.org/pub/IHHD/multi-player/)}, {Manitoba (ftp://ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca/pub/doom/)}, {UK (ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/games/id/)}, {South Africa (ftp://ftp.sun.ac.za/pub/msdos/games/id/)}, {UWP ftp (ftp://archive.uwp.edu/pub/msdos/games/id/)}, {UWP http (http://archive.uwp.edu/pub/msdos/games/id/)}, {Finland (ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/msdos/games/id)}, {Washington (ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/games/doom)}. A {FAQ} by Hank Leukart: {UWP (ftp://ftp.uwp.edu/pub/msdos/games/id/home-brew/doom)}, {Washington (ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/games/doomstuff)}. {FAQ on WWW (http://venom.st.hmc.edu/~tkelly/doomfaq/intro.html)}. {Other links (http://gamesdomain.co.uk/descript/doom.html)}. {Usenet} newsgroups: {news:rec.games.computer.doom.announce}, {news:rec.games.computer.doom.editing}, {news:rec.games.computer.doom.help}, {news:rec.games.computer.doom.misc}, {news:rec.games.computer.doom.playing}, {news:alt.games.doom}, {news:comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action}, {news:comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.announce}, {news:comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.misc}. Mailing List: "listserv@cedar.univie.ac.at" ("sub DOOML" in the message body, no subject). Telephone: +44 (1222) 362 361 - the UK's first multi-player DOOM and games server. (1994-12-14)
doom ::: v. t. --> Judgment; judicial sentence; penal decree; condemnation.
That to which one is doomed or sentenced; destiny or fate, esp. unhappy destiny; penalty.
Ruin; death.
Discriminating opinion or judgment; discrimination; discernment; decision.
To judge; to estimate or determine as a judge.
To pronounce sentence or judgment on; to condemn; to
DOS/360 "operating system" The {operating system} announced by {IBM} at the low end for the {System/360} in 1964 and delivered in 1965 or 1966. Following the failure of {OS}, IBM designed DOS for the low end machines, able to run in 16KB(?) and 64KB memory. DOS/360 used three {memory partitions}, but it had no serious {memory protection}. The three partitions were not specialised, but frequently one was used for {spooling} {punched cards} to {disk}, another one for {batch job} execution and another for spooling disk to printers. With DOS/VS, introduced in 1970, the number of partitions was increased, {virtual memory} was introduced and the minimum memory requirements increased. Later they released DOS/VSE and ESA/VSE. DOS/360 successors are still alive today (1997) though not as popular as in the late 1960s. Contrary to the Hacker's {Jargon File}, {GECOS} was not copied from DOS/360. (1997-09-22)
dual ::: a. --> Expressing, or consisting of, the number two; belonging to two; as, the dual number of nouns, etc. , in Greek.
each ::: a. / a. pron. --> Every one of the two or more individuals composing a number of objects, considered separately from the rest. It is used either with or without a following noun; as, each of you or each one of you.
Every; -- sometimes used interchangeably with every.
edict ::: n. --> A public command or ordinance by the sovereign power; the proclamation of a law made by an absolute authority, as if by the very act of announcement; a decree; as, the edicts of the Roman emperors; the edicts of the French monarch.
electronic mail "messaging" (e-mail) Messages automatically passed from one computer user to another, often through computer {networks} and/or via {modems} over telephone lines. A message, especially one following the common {RFC 822} {standard}, begins with several lines of {headers}, followed by a blank line, and the body of the message. Most e-mail systems now support the {MIME} {standard} which allows the message body to contain "{attachments}" of different kinds rather than just one block of plain {ASCII} text. It is conventional for the body to end with a {signature}. Headers give the name and {electronic mail address} of the sender and recipient(s), the time and date when it was sent and a subject. There are many other headers which may get added by different {message handling systems} during delivery. The message is "composed" by the sender, usually using a special program - a "{Mail User Agent}" (MUA). It is then passed to some kind of "{Message Transfer Agent}" (MTA) - a program which is responsible for either delivering the message locally or passing it to another MTA, often on another {host}. MTAs on different hosts on a network often communicate using {SMTP}. The message is eventually delivered to the recipient's {mailbox} - normally a file on his computer - from where he can read it using a mail reading program (which may or may not be the same {MUA} as used by the sender). Contrast {snail-mail}, {paper-net}, {voice-net}. The form "email" is also common, but is less suggestive of the correct pronunciation and derivation than "e-mail". The word is used as a noun for the concept ("Isn't e-mail great?", "Are you on e-mail?"), a collection of (unread) messages ("I spent all night reading my e-mail"), and as a verb meaning "to send (something in) an e-mail message" ("I'll e-mail you (my report)"). The use of "an e-mail" as a count noun for an e-mail message, and plural "e-mails", is now (2000) also well established despite the fact that "mail" is definitely a mass noun. Oddly enough, the word "emailed" is actually listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. It means "embossed (with a raised pattern) or arranged in a net work". A use from 1480 is given. The word is derived from French "emmailleure", network. Also, "email" is German for enamel. {The story of the first e-mail message (http://pretext.com/mar98/features/story2.htm)}. {How data travels around the world (http://www.akita.co.uk/movement-of-data)} (2014-10-07)
elogist ::: n. --> One who pronounces an eloge.
Emacs "text, tool" /ee'maks/ (Editing MACroS, or Extensible MACro System, GNU Emacs) A popular {screen editor} for {Unix} and most other {operating systems}. Emacs is distributed by the {Free Software Foundation} and was {Richard Stallman}'s first step in the {GNU} project. Emacs is extensible - it is easy to add new functions; customisable - you can rebind keys, and modify the behaviour of existing functions; self-documenting - there is extensive on-line, context-sensitive help; and has a real-time "what you see is what you get" display. Emacs is writen in {C} and the higher levels are programmed in {Emacs Lisp}. Emacs has an entire {Lisp} system inside it. It was originally written in {TECO} under {ITS} at the {MIT} {AI lab}. AI Memo 554 described it as "an advanced, self-documenting, customisable, extensible real-time display editor". It includes facilities to view directories, run compilation subprocesses and send and receive {electronic mail} and {Usenet} {news} ({GNUS}). {W3} is a {web browser}, the ange-ftp package provides transparent access to files on remote {FTP} {servers}. {Calc} is a calculator and {symbolic mathematics} package. There are "modes" provided to assist in editing most well-known programming languages. Most of these extra functions are configured to load automatically on first use, reducing start-up time and memory consumption. Many hackers (including {Denis Howe}) spend more than 80% of their {tube time} inside Emacs. GNU Emacs is available for {Unix}, {VMS}, {GNU}/{Linux}, {FreeBSD}, {NetBSD}, {OpenBSD}, {MS Windows}, {MS-DOS}, and other systems. Emacs has been re-implemented more than 30 times. Other variants include {GOSMACS}, CCA Emacs, UniPress Emacs, Montgomery Emacs, and {XEmacs}. {Jove}, {epsilon}, and {MicroEmacs} are limited look-alikes. Some Emacs versions running under {window managers} iconify as an overflowing kitchen sink, perhaps to suggest the one feature the editor does not (yet) include. Indeed, some hackers find Emacs too {heavyweight} and {baroque} for their taste, and expand the name as "Escape Meta Alt Control Shift" to spoof its heavy reliance on keystrokes decorated with {bucky bits}. Other spoof expansions include "Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping", "Eventually "malloc()'s All Computer Storage", and "Emacs Makes A Computer Slow" (see {recursive acronym}). See also {vi}. Version 21.1 added a redisplay engine with support for {proportional text}, images, {toolbars}, {tool tips}, toolkit scroll bars and a mouse-sensitive mode line. {FTP} from your nearest {GNU archive site}. E-mail: (bug reports only) "bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org". {Usenet} newsgroups: {news:gnu.emacs.help}, {news:gnu.emacs.bug}, {news:alt.religion.emacs}, {news:gnu.emacs.sources}, {news:gnu.emacs.announce}. [{Jargon File}] (1997-02-04)
emphasize ::: v. t. --> To utter or pronounce with a particular stress of voice; to make emphatic; as, to emphasize a word or a phrase.
enclitic ::: v. i. --> Alt. of Enclitical ::: n. --> A word which is joined to another so closely as to lose its proper accent, as the pronoun thee in prithee (pray thee).
engine ::: n. --> (Pronounced, in this sense, ////.) Natural capacity; ability; skill.
Anything used to effect a purpose; any device or contrivance; an agent.
Any instrument by which any effect is produced; especially, an instrument or machine of war or torture.
A compound machine by which any physical power is applied to produce a given physical effect.
enough ::: a. --> Satisfying desire; giving content; adequate to meet the want; sufficient; -- usually, and more elegantly, following the noun to which it belongs. ::: adv. --> In a degree or quantity that satisfies; to satisfaction; sufficiently.
enounced ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Enounce
enouncement ::: n. --> Act of enouncing; that which is enounced.
enounce ::: v. t. --> To announce; to declare; to state, as a proposition or argument.
To utter; to articulate.
enouncing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Enounce
enunciate ::: v. t. --> To make a formal statement of; to announce; to proclaim; to declare, as a truth.
To make distinctly audible; to utter articulately; to pronounce; as, to enunciate a word distinctly. ::: v. i. --> To utter words or syllables articulately.
enunciation ::: n. --> The act of enunciating, announcing, proclaiming, or making known; open attestation; declaration; as, the enunciation of an important truth.
Mode of utterance or pronunciation, especially as regards fullness and distinctness or articulation; as, to speak with a clear or impressive enunciation.
That which is enunciated or announced; words in which a proposition is expressed; an announcement; a formal declaration; a
Envoy {Motorola}'s integrated personal wireless communicator. Envoy is a {personal digital assistant} which incorporates two-way wireless and wireline communication. It was announced on 7 March 1994 and released in the third quarter of 1994. It runs {Genral Magic}'s {Magic Cap} {operating system} and Telescript(TM) communications language on Motorola's {Dragon} chip set. This includes the highly integrated {Motorola 68349} processor and a special purpose {application specific integrated circuit} (ASIC) referred to as Astro. This chip set was designed specifically for {Magic Cap} and {Telescript}. A user can write on the Envoy communicator with the accompanying stylus or a finger, to type and select or move objects on its screen. An on-screen keyboard can be used to input information, draw or write personal notations, or send handwritten messages and faxes. Envoy can send a wireless message to another Envoy, {PC} or fax; broadcast a message to a group, with each member of that group receiving the message in their preferred format; gather information based on your requirements; schedule a meeting and automatically invite attendees; screen, route and organise messages; send a business card to another Envoy across a conference room table; access real-time scheduling and pricing information for US airline flights, then order tickets via fax or {electronic mail}; keep track of contacts through an address book; receive daily news summaries and stock information; capture, organize and review business and personal expenses on-the-go; gather, edit and analyze information in spreadsheets and graphs compatible with {Lotus 1-2-3} and {Excel}; shop in an electronic mall. {(http://motorola.com/MIMS/WDG/Technology/Envoy/)}. [Was it released in Q3 '94?] (1995-01-18)
epicene ::: a. & n. --> Common to both sexes; -- a term applied, in grammar, to such nouns as have but one form of gender, either the masculine or feminine, to indicate animals of both sexes; as boy^s, bos, for the ox and cow; sometimes applied to eunuchs and hermaphrodites.
Fig.: Sexless; neither one thing nor the other.
equalize ::: v. t. --> To make equal; to cause to correspond, or be like, in amount or degree as compared; as, to equalize accounts, burdens, or taxes.
To pronounce equal; to compare as equal.
To be equal to; equal; to match.
evangel ::: n. --> Good news; announcement of glad tidings; especially, the gospel, or a gospel.
Evolutionism: This is the view that the universe and life in all of its manifestations and nature in all of their aspects are the product of development. Apart from the religious ideas of initial creation by fiat, this doctrine finds variety of species to be the result of change and modification and growth and adaptation rather than from some form of special creation of each of the myriads of organic types and even of much in the inorganic realm. Contrary to the popular notion, evolution is not a product of modern thought. There has been an evolution of evolutionary hypotheses from earliest Indian and Greek speculation down to the latest pronouncement of scientific theory. Thales believed all life to have had a marine origin and Anaximander, Anaximenes, Empedocles, the Atomists and Aristotle all spoke in terms of development and served to lay a foundation for a true theory of evolution. It is in the work of Charles Darwin, however, that clarity and proof is presented for the explanation of his notion of natural selection and for the crystallization of evolution as a prime factor in man's explanation of all phases of his mundane existence. The chief criticism leveled at the evolutionists, aside from the attacks of the religionists, is based upon their tendency to forget that not all evolution means progress. See Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Thomas Hemy Huxley, Natural Selection, Evolutionary Ethics. Cf. A. Lalande, L'Idee de dissolution opposee a celle de l'evolution (1899), revised ed. (1930): Les Illusions evolutionistes. -- L.E.D.
excommunication ::: n. --> The act of communicating or ejecting; esp., an ecclesiastical censure whereby the person against whom it is pronounced is, for the time, cast out of the communication of the church; exclusion from fellowship in things spiritual.
execrate ::: v. t. --> To denounce evil against, or to imprecate evil upon; to curse; to protest against as unholy or detestable; hence, to detest utterly; to abhor; to abominate.
expatriate ::: v. t. --> To banish; to drive or force (a person) from his own country; to make an exile of.
Reflexively, as To expatriate one&
Exponible: Employed as a noun and as an adjective, applied to an obscure proposition which needs an exposition or explanation owing to a hidden composition. Kant applied it to propositions including an affirmation and a concealed negation, which an exposition makes apparent. -- J.J.R.
exsufflate ::: v. t. --> To exorcise or renounce by blowing.
Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code "character, standard" /eb's*-dik/, /eb'see`dik/, /eb'k*-dik/, /ee`bik'dik`/, /*-bik'dik`/ (EBCDIC) A proprietary 8-bit {character set} used on {IBM} {dinosaurs}, the {AS/400}, and {e-Server}. EBCDIC is an extension to 8 bits of BCDIC (Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code), an earlier 6-bit character set used on IBM computers. EBCDIC was [first?] used on the successful {System/360}, anounced on 1964-04-07, and survived for many years despite the almost universal adoption of {ASCII} elsewhere. Was this concern for {backward compatibility} or, as many believe, a marketing strategy to lock in IBM customers? IBM created 57 national EBCDIC character sets and an International Reference Version (IRV) based on {ISO 646} (and hence ASCII compatible). Documentation on these was not easily accessible making international exchange of data even between IBM mainframes a tricky task. US EBCDIC uses more or less the same characters as {ASCII}, but different {code points}. It has non-contiguous letter sequences, some ASCII characters do not exist in EBCDIC (e.g. {square brackets}), and EBCDIC has some ({cent sign}, {not sign}) not in ASCII. As a consequence, the translation between ASCII and EBCDIC was never officially completely defined. Users defined one translation which resulted in a so-called de-facto EBCDIC containing all the characters of ASCII, that all ASCII-related programs use. Some printers, telex machines, and even electronic cash registers can speak EBCDIC, but only so they can converse with IBM mainframes. For an in-depth discussion of character code sets, and full translation tables, see {Guidelines on 8-bit character codes (ftp://ftp.ulg.ac.be/pub/docs/iso8859/iso8859.networking)}. {A history of character codes (http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/characcodehist.html)}. (2002-03-03)
Extended Industry-Standard Architecture "architecture, standard" (EISA) /eesa/ A {bus} standard for {IBM compatibles} that extends the {ISA} bus architecture to 32 bits and allows more than one {CPU} to share the bus. The {bus mastering} support is also enhanced to provide access to 4 GB of memory. Unlike {MCA}, EISA can accept older {XT bus architecture} and {ISA} boards. EISA was announced in late 1988 by compatible vendors as a counter to {IBM}'s MCA in its {PS/2} series. Although somewhat inferior to the MCA it became much more popular due to the proprietary nature of MCA. [Main sponsors? Open standard?] (1996-06-25)
Factor – As a noun, it is a number or symbol which divides evenly into a larger number. As a verb, it means to find two or more values whose product equals the original value.
farewell ::: interj. --> Go well; good-by; adieu; -- originally applied to a person departing, but by custom now applied both to those who depart and those who remain. It is often separated by the pronoun; as, fare you well; and is sometimes used as an expression of separation only; as, farewell the year; farewell, ye sweet groves; that is, I bid you farewell. ::: n.
feature key "hardware" (Or "flower", "pretzel", "clover", "propeller", "beanie" (from propeller beanie), {splat}, "command key") The {Macintosh} {modifier key} with the four-leaf clover graphic on its keytop. The feature key is the Mac's equivalent of a {control key} (and so labelled on some Mac II keyboards). The proliferation of terms for this creature may illustrate one subtle peril of iconic interfaces. Macs also have an "Option" {modifier key}, equivalent to Alt. The cloverleaf-like symbol's oldest name is "cross of St. Hannes", but it occurs in pre-Christian Viking art as a decorative motif. In Scandinavia it marks sites of historical interest. An early {Macintosh} developer who happened to be Swedish introduced it to Apple. Apple documentation gives the translation "interesting feature". The symbol has a {Unicode} character called "PLACE OF INTEREST SIGN" (U+2318), previously known as "command key". The Swedish name of this symbol stands for the word "sev"ardhet" (interesting feature), many of which are old churches. Some Swedes report as an idiom for it the word "kyrka", cognate to English "church" and Scots-dialect "kirk" but pronounced /shir'k*/ in modern Swedish. Others say this is nonsense. {(http://fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2318/index.htm)}. [{Jargon File}] (2005-09-15)
few ::: superl. --> Not many; small, limited, or confined in number; -- indicating a small portion of units or individuals constituing a whole; often, by ellipsis of a noun, a few people.
File Request 1. The {FidoNet} equivalent of {FTP}, in which one {BBS} system automatically dials another and {snarfs} one or more files. Often abbreviated "FReq"; files are often announced as being "available for FReq" in the same way that files are announced as being "available for/by {anonymous FTP}" on the {Internet}. 2. The act of getting a copy of a file by using the File Request option of the {BBS} mailer. [{Jargon File}] (1995-01-05)
film at 11 "jargon" (MIT, in parody of US TV newscasters) 1. Used in conversation to announce ordinary events, with a sarcastic implication that these events are earth-shattering. "{ITS} crashes; film at 11." "Bug found in scheduler; film at 11." 2. Also widely used outside MIT to indicate that additional information will be available at some future time, *without* the implication of anything particularly ordinary about the referenced event. For example, "The mail file server died this morning; we found garbage all over the root directory. Film at 11." would indicate that a major failure had occurred but that the people working on it have no additional information about it as yet; use of the phrase in this way suggests gently that the problem is liable to be fixed more quickly if the people doing the fixing can spend time doing the fixing rather than responding to questions, the answers to which will appear on the normal "11:00 news", if people will just be patient. [{Jargon File}] (1998-03-24)
fn yoga one uses the inner will and compels the vital to sub- mit itself to tapasyS so that it may become calm, strong, obe- dient— or else calls down the calm from above obliging the vital to renounce desire and become quiet and receptive. The vital is a good instrument but a bad master. If you allow it to follow its likes and dislikes, its fancies, its desires, its bad habits, it becomes your master and peace and happiness are no longer possible. It becomes not your instrument or the instrument of the Divine Shakli, but of any force of the Ignorance or even any hostile force that is able to seize and use it.
foobar "jargon" Another common {metasyntactic variable}; see {foo}. Hackers do *not* generally use this to mean {FUBAR} in either the slang or jargon sense. According to a german correspondent, the term was coined during WW2 by allied troops who could not pronounce the german word "furchtbar" (horrible, terrible, awful). [{Jargon File}] (2003-07-03)
forego ::: to abstain from, go without, deny to oneself; to let go or pass, omit to take or use; to give up, part with, relinquish, renounce, resign. foregone.
forego ::: v. t. --> To quit; to relinquish; to leave.
To relinquish the enjoyment or advantage of; to give up; to resign; to renounce; -- said of a thing already enjoyed, or of one within reach, or anticipated. ::: v. i. --> To go before; to precede; -- used especially in the
forerun ::: v. t. --> To turn before; to precede; to be in advance of (something following).
To come before as an earnest of something to follow; to introduce as a harbinger; to announce.
forisfamiliate ::: v. t. --> Literally, to put out of a family; hence, to portion off, so as to exclude further claim of inheritance; to emancipate (as a with his own consent) from paternal authority. ::: v. i. --> To renounce a legal title to a further share of paternal inheritance.
Form, logical: See Logic, formal. Forma: Latin noun meaning shape, figure, appearance, image; also plan, pattern, stamp, mould. As a philosophic term used by Cicero and Augustine in the sense of species, and similarly by Scotus Eriugena. Boethius and fhe mediaeval writers employed it in the Aristotelian sense of a constituent of being, synonymous with causa formalis. Generally speaking it is an intrinsic, determining, perfective principle of existence of any determinate essence. More strictly it is a forma substantialis, or that constitutive element of a substance which is the principle or source of its activity, and which determines it to a definite species, or class, and differentiates it from any other substance. It is distinguished from a forma accidentalis which confers a sort of secondary being on a substance already constituted in its proper species and determines it to one or other accidental mode, thus a man may become a musician. A forma corporeitatis is one by which a being is a body, on which its corporeal nature and essence depend and which is its principle of life. A forma non-subsistens or materialis is one whose existence depends on matter without which it cannot exist and be active. It is distinguished from a forma subsistens or immaterialis which can exist and act separately from matter. An immaterial form may be an incomplete substance, like the human soul, which is created to be united with a body to complete its own species, or a complete substance, a pure spirit, which is not destined to be united with matter to which it cannot communicate its being, hence it is also called a forma separata. -- J.J.R.
forsake ::: 1. To give up (something formerly held dear); renounce. 2. To leave altogether; abandon. forsaking.
forsake ::: v. t. --> To quit or leave entirely; to desert; to abandon; to depart or withdraw from; to leave; as, false friends and flatterers forsake us in adversity.
To renounce; to reject; to refuse.
forsay ::: v. t. --> To forbid; to renounce; to forsake; to deny.
forswearer ::: n. --> One who rejects of renounces upon oath; one who swears a false oath.
forswear ::: v. i. --> To reject or renounce upon oath; hence, to renounce earnestly, determinedly, or with protestations.
To deny upon oath.
To swear falsely; to commit perjury.
Fury ::: Jhumur: “These are the Greek forces of retribution. Fury is a kind of collective noun.”
Gautama Buddha: (Skr. Gautama, a patronymic, meaning of the tribe of Gotama; Buddha, the enlightened one) The founder of Buddhism. born about 563 B.C. into a royal house at Kapilavastu. As Prince Siddhartha (Siddhattha) he had all worldly goods and pleasures at his disposal, married, had a son, but was so stirred by sights of disease, old age, and death glimpsed on stolen drives through the city that he renounced all when but 29 years of age, became a mendicant, sought instruction in reaching an existence free from these evils and tortures, fruitlessly however, till at the end of seven years of search while sitting under the Bodhi-tree, he became the Buddha, the Awakened One, and attained the true insight. Much that is legendary and reminds one of the Christian mythos surrounds Buddha's life as retold in an extensive literature which also knows of his former and future existences. Mara, the Evil One, tempted Buddha to enter nirvana (s.v.) directly, withholding thus knowledge of the path of salvation from the world; but the Buddha was firm and taught the rightful path without venturing too far into metaphysics, setting all the while an example of a pure and holy life devoted to the alleviation of suffering. At the age of 80, having been offered and thus compelled to partake of pork, he fell ill and in dying attained nirvana. -- K.F.L.
gazette ::: n. --> A newspaper; a printed sheet published periodically; esp., the official journal published by the British government, and containing legal and state notices. ::: v. t. --> To announce or publish in a gazette; to announce officially, as an appointment, or a case of bankruptcy.
GCC "compiler, programming" The {GNU} {Compiler} Collection, which currently contains front ends for {C}, {C++}, {Objective-C}, {Fortran}, {Java}, and {Ada}, as well as libraries for these languages (libstdc++, libgcj, etc). GCC formerly meant the GNU {C} compiler, which is a very high quality, very portable compiler for {C}, {C++} and {Objective C}. The compiler supports multiple {front-ends} and multiple {back-ends} by translating first into {Register Transfer Language} and from there into {assembly code} for the target architecture. {(http://gcc.gnu.org/)}. {Bug Reports (http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/)}. {FTP} gcc-2.X.X.tar.gz from your nearest {GNU archive site}. {MS-DOS (ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/msdos/djgpp/)}. Mailing lists: gcc-help@gcc.gnu.org, gcc-announce@gcc.gnu.org (announcements). ["Using and Porting GNU CC", R.M. Stallman, 1992-12-16]. (2003-08-05)
gender ::: n. --> Kind; sort.
Sex, male or female.
A classification of nouns, primarily according to sex; and secondarily according to some fancied or imputed quality associated with sex.
To beget; to engender. ::: v. i.
General Public Licence "spelling" It's spelled "{General Public License}". (In the UK, "licence" is a noun and "license" is a verb (like "advice"/"advise") but in the US both are spelled "license"). (1995-05-12)
generalship ::: n. --> The office of a general; the exercise of the functions of a general; -- sometimes, with the possessive pronoun, the personality of a general.
Military skill in a general officer or commander.
Fig.: Leadership; management.
genitive ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to that case (as the second case of Latin and Greek nouns) which expresses source or possession. It corresponds to the possessive case in English. ::: n. --> The genitive case.
gentile ::: a. --> One of a non-Jewish nation; one neither a Jew nor a Christian; a worshiper of false gods; a heathen.
Belonging to the nations at large, as distinguished from the Jews; ethnic; of pagan or heathen people.
Denoting a race or country; as, a gentile noun or adjective.
gerund ::: n. --> A kind of verbal noun, having only the four oblique cases of the singular number, and governing cases like a participle.
A verbal noun ending in -e, preceded by to and usually denoting purpose or end; -- called also the dative infinitive; as, "Ic haebbe mete to etanne" (I have meat to eat.) In Modern English the name has been applied to verbal or participal nouns in -ing denoting a transitive action; e. g., by throwing a stone.
gillion "unit" /gil'y*n/ or /jil'y*n/ (From {giga-} by analogy with mega/million and tera/trillion) 10^9. Same as an American billion or a British "milliard". How one pronounces this depends on whether one speaks {giga-} with a hard or soft "g". [{Jargon File}] (1995-03-17)
give ::: n. --> To bestow without receiving a return; to confer without compensation; to impart, as a possession; to grant, as authority or permission; to yield up or allow.
To yield possesion of; to deliver over, as property, in exchange for something; to pay; as, we give the value of what we buy.
To yield; to furnish; to produce; to emit; as, flint and steel give sparks.
To communicate or announce, as advice, tidings, etc.; to
Good Thing "convention" (From the 1930 Sellar and Yeatman parody "1066 And All That") Often capitalised; always pronounced as if capitalised. 1. Self-evidently wonderful to anyone in a position to notice: "The {Trailblazer}'s 19.2 K{baud} {PEP} mode with {on-the-fly} {Lempel-Ziv compression} is a Good Thing for sites relaying {netnews}". 2. Something that can't possibly have any ill side-effects and may save considerable grief later: "Removing the {self-modifying code} from that {shared library} would be a Good Thing". 3. When said of software tools or libraries, as in "{Yacc} is a Good Thing", specifically connotes that the thing has drastically reduced a programmer's work load. Opposite: {Bad Thing}, compare {big win}. [{Jargon File}] (1995-05-07)
gopher "networking, protocol" A {distributed} document retrieval system which started as a {Campus Wide Information System} at the {University of Minnesota}, and which was popular in the early 1990s. Gopher is defined in {RFC 1436}. The protocol is like a primitive form of {HTTP} (which came later). Gopher lacks the {MIME} features of HTTP, but expressed the equivalent of a document's {MIME type} with a one-character code for the "{Gopher object type}". At time of writing (2001), all Web browers should be able to access gopher servers, although few gopher servers exist anymore. Sir {Tim Berners-Lee}, in his book "Weaving The Web" (pp.72-73), related his opinion that it was not so much the protocol limitations of gopher that made people abandon it in favor of HTTP/{HTML}, but instead the legal missteps on the part of the university where it was developed: "It was just about this time, spring 1993, that the University of Minnesota decided that it would ask for a license fee from certain classes of users who wanted to use gopher. Since the gopher software being picked up so widely, the university was going to charge an annual fee. The browser, and the act of browsing, would be free, and the server software would remain free to nonprofit and educational institutions. But any other users, notably companies, would have to pay to use gopher server software. "This was an act of treason in the academic community and the Internet community. Even if the university never charged anyone a dime, the fact that the school had announced it was reserving the right to charge people for the use of the gopher protocols meant it had crossed the line. To use the technology was too risky. Industry dropped gopher like a hot potato." (2001-03-31)
gorets /gor'ets/ The unknown ur-noun, fill in your own meaning. Found especially on the {Usenet} newsgroup alt.gorets, which seems to be a running contest to redefine the word by implication in the funniest and most peculiar way, with the understanding that no definition is ever final. [A correspondent from the Former Soviet Union informs me that "gorets" is Russian for "mountain dweller" - ESR] Compare {frink}. [{Jargon File}]
govern ::: v. t. --> To direct and control, as the actions or conduct of men, either by established laws or by arbitrary will; to regulate by authority.
To regulate; to influence; to direct; to restrain; to manage; as, to govern the life; to govern a horse.
To require to be in a particular case; as, a transitive verb governs a noun in the objective case; or to require (a particular case); as, a transitive verb governs the objective case.
grammar "language" A formal definition of the syntactic structure (the {syntax}) of a language. A grammar is normally represented as a set of {production rules} which specify the order of constituents and their sub-constituents in a {sentence} (a well-formed string in the language). Each rule has a left-hand side symbol naming a syntactic category (e.g. "noun-phrase" for a {natural language} grammar) and a right-hand side which is a sequence of zero or more symbols. Each symbol may be either a {terminal symbol} or a non-terminal symbol. A terminal symbol corresponds to one "{lexeme}" - a part of the sentence with no internal syntactic structure (e.g. an identifier or an operator in a computer language). A non-terminal symbol is the left-hand side of some rule. One rule is normally designated as the top-level rule which gives the structure for a whole sentence. A {parser} (a kind of {recogniser}) uses a grammar to parse a sentence, assigning a terminal syntactic category to each input token and a non-terminal category to each appropriate group of tokens, up to the level of the whole sentence. Parsing is usually preceded by {lexical analysis}. The opposite, generation, starts from the top-level rule and chooses one alternative production wherever there is a choice. In computing, a formal grammar, e.g. in {BNF}, can be used to {parse} a linear input stream, such as the {source code} of a program, into a data structure that expresses the (or a) meaning of the input in a form that is easier for the computer to work with. A {compiler compiler} like {yacc} might be used to convert a grammar into code for the parser of a {compiler}. A grammar might also be used by a {transducer}, a {translator} or a {syntax directed editor}. See also {attribute grammar}. (2009-02-06)
gritch /grich/ 1. A complaint (often caused by a {glitch}). 2. To complain. Often verb-doubled: "Gritch gritch". 3. A synonym for {glitch} (as verb or noun). (1995-01-31)
gymnosophist ::: n. --> One of a sect of philosophers, said to have been found in India by Alexander the Great, who went almost naked, denied themselves the use of flesh, renounced bodily pleasures, and employed themselves in the contemplation of nature.
hairy 1. Annoyingly complicated. "{DWIM} is incredibly hairy." 2. Incomprehensible. "{DWIM} is incredibly hairy." 3. Of people, high-powered, authoritative, rare, expert, and/or incomprehensible. Hard to explain except in context: "He knows this hairy lawyer who says there's nothing to worry about." See also {hirsute}. The adjective "long-haired" is well-attested to have been in slang use among scientists and engineers during the early 1950s; it was equivalent to modern "hairy" and was very likely ancestral to the hackish use. In fact the noun "long-hair" was at the time used to describe a hairy person. Both senses probably passed out of use when long hair was adopted as a signature trait by the 1960s counterculture, leaving hackish "hairy" as a sort of stunted mutant relic. 4. "topology" {hairy ball}. [{Jargon File}] (2001-03-29)
haque "spelling, jargon" /hak/ ({Usenet}) A variant spelling of {hack}, used only for the noun form and connoting an {elegant} hack. [{Jargon File}] (1995-02-22)
hash character "character" "
hendiadys ::: n. --> A figure in which the idea is expressed by two nouns connected by and, instead of by a noun and limiting adjective; as, we drink from cups and gold, for golden cups.
he ::: obj. --> The man or male being (or object personified to which the masculine gender is assigned), previously designated; a pronoun of the masculine gender, usually referring to a specified subject already indicated.
Any one; the man or person; -- used indefinitely, and usually followed by a relative pronoun.
Man; a male; any male person; -- in this sense used substantively.
herald ::: n. --> An officer whose business was to denounce or proclaim war, to challenge to battle, to proclaim peace, and to bear messages from the commander of an army. He was invested with a sacred and inviolable character.
In the Middle Ages, the officer charged with the above duties, and also with the care of genealogies, of the rights and privileges of noble families, and especially of armorial bearings. In modern times, some vestiges of this office remain, especially in
heralds ::: those who proclaim or announce.
hereticate ::: v. t. --> To decide to be heresy or a heretic; to denounce as a heretic or heretical.
heretification ::: n. --> The act of hereticating or pronouncing heretical.
her ::: pron. & a. --> The form of the objective and the possessive case of the personal pronoun she; as, I saw her with her purse out. ::: pron. pl. --> Alt. of Here
herself ::: pron. --> An emphasized form of the third person feminine pronoun; -- used as a subject with she; as, she herself will bear the blame; also used alone in the predicate, either in the nominative or objective case; as, it is herself; she blames herself.
Her own proper, true, or real character; hence, her right, or sane, mind; as, the woman was deranged, but she is now herself again; she has come to herself.
heteroclite ::: a. --> Deviating from ordinary forms or rules; irregular; anomalous; abnormal. ::: n. --> A word which is irregular or anomalous either in declension or conjugation, or which deviates from ordinary forms of inflection in words of a like kind; especially, a noun which is
heterosis ::: n. --> A figure of speech by which one form of a noun, verb, or pronoun, and the like, is used for another, as in the sentence: "What is life to such as me?"
hie ::: v. i. --> To hasten; to go in haste; -- also often with the reciprocal pronoun. ::: n. --> Haste; diligence.
himself ::: pron. --> An emphasized form of the third person masculine pronoun; -- used as a subject usually with he; as, he himself will bear the blame; used alone in the predicate, either in the nominative or objective case; as, it is himself who saved himself.
One&
his ::: pron. --> Belonging or pertaining to him; -- used as a pronominal adjective or adjective pronoun; as, tell John his papers are ready; formerly used also for its, but this use is now obsolete.
The possessive of he; as, the book is his.
history ::: “History teaches us nothing; it is a confused torrent of events and personalities or a kaleidoscope of changing institutions. We do not seize the real sense of all this change and this continual streaming forward of human life in the channels of Time. What we do seize are current or recurrent phenomena, facile generalisations, partial ideas. We talk of democracy, aristocracy and autocracy, collectivism and individualism, imperialism and nationalism, the State and the commune, capitalism and labour; we advance hasty generalisations and make absolute systems which are positively announced today only to be abandoned perforce tomorrow; we espouse causes and ardent enthusiasms whose triumph turns to an early disillusionment and then forsake them for others, perhaps for those that we have taken so much trouble to destroy. For a whole century mankind thirsts and battles after liberty and earns it with a bitter expense of toil, tears and blood; the century that enjoys without having fought for it turns away as from a puerile illusion and is ready to renounce the depreciated gain as the price of some new good. And all this happens because our whole thought and action with regard to our collective life is shallow and empirical; it does not seek for, it does not base itself on a firm, profound and complete knowledge. The moral is not the vanity of human life, of its ardours and enthusiasms and of the ideals it pursues, but the necessity of a wiser, larger, more patient search after its true law and aim.” The Human Cycle etc.
Home Phoneline Networking Alliance "communications, networking, protocol, standard" (HomePNA) A non-profit association of more than 100 technology companies working together to ensure adoption of a phone line {networking} standard which should provide high-speed, affordable home networking. The Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA) was founded in June 1998 by {3Com}, {AMD}, {AT&T Wireless Services}, {Compaq}, Conexant, Epigram, {Hewlett-Packard}, {IBM}, {Intel}, {Lucent Technologies}, Rockwell Semiconductor Systems, and Tut Systems. The membership now spans the networking, telecommunications, {hardware}, {software}, and consumer electronics industries. The alliance was originally formed because of the increasing demand for home networking caused by the growing number of homes with multiple PCs (and other devices) to connect together to provide facilities such as shared {Internet} access, {networked gaming}, and sharing of {peripherals}, {files} and {applications}. The member companies aimed to develop {open standards} to ensure compatibility between different manufacturers' products. They also decided that this should be done using the phone wiring that already existed in people's homes. The concept of "no new wires" networking meant installation was simpler. HomePNA's original specifications could be used to create a 1 {Mbps} (megabits per second) {Ethernet}-compatible {LAN} with no {hubs}, {routers}, {splitters} or {terminations}. Adapters would allow any computer (or other device) with an Ethernet port to be linked to the home network. Up to 25 PCs, peripherals and network devices can be connected to such a network. On 1999-12-01, the HomePNA announced a new release of its networking technology specification, called Home PNA 2.0. Like the first specification, it uses existing phone lines, but it can operate at speeds up to 10 Mbps. The new version is {backwardly compatible} with the original 1 Mbps HomePNA technology, and is designed to provide faster networks suitable for future voice, video and data applications. {HomePNA.org (http://homepna.org/)}. {HomePNA.Com (http://HomePNA.com/)}. (2000-03-24)
homily ::: n. --> A discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience; a serious discourse.
A serious or tedious exhortation in private on some moral point, or on the conduct of life.
homonym ::: n. --> A word having the same sound as another, but differing from it in meaning; as the noun bear and the verb bear.
hosed "jargon" A somewhat humorous variant of "{down}", used primarily by {Unix} {hackers}. "Hosed" implies a condition thought to be relatively easy to reverse. It is also widely used of people in the mainstream sense of "in an extremely unfortunate situation". The term was popularised by fighter pilots refering to being hosed by machine gun fire (date?). Usage in hackerdom dates back to {CMU} in the 1970s or earlier. {"Acronyms and Abbreviations" from UCC, Ireland (http://ucc.ie/cgi-bin/acronym)} expands it as "Hardware Or Software Error Detected", though this is probably a back-formation. The {Jargon File} version 4.1.4 1999-06-17 says that it was probably derived from the Canadian slang "hoser" (meaning "a man, esp. one who works at a job that uses physical rather than mental skills and whose habits are slightly offensive but amusing"). One correspondant speculates about an allusion to a hose-like body part. Once upon a time, a {Cray} that had been experiencing periodic difficulties crashed, and it was announced to have been hosed. It was discovered that the crash was due to the disconnection of some coolant hoses. The problem was corrected, and users were then assured that everything was OK because the system had been rehosed. See also {dehose}. See also: {hose}. (1999-10-28)
Huizinga, Johan: (1872) Professor of Philosophy at the University of Leyden, Holland. He has been a pronounced exponent of the philosophy of culture which he describes as a condition of society in which there is a harmonious balance of material and spiritual values and a harmonious ideal spurring the community's activities to a convergence of all efforts toward the attainment of that ideal. His best known work is Homo Ludens. -- L.E.D.
Hu ::: third-person pronoun (without gender) used in reference to Allah and in invocation to Allah during zikr
Ideatum: Noun denoting the object of an idea or that which is represented in the mind by the idea. Also applied to really existing things outside the mind corresponding to the concepts in consciousness. -- J.J.R.
i ::: --> In our old authors, I was often used for ay (or aye), yes, which is pronounced nearly like it.
As a numeral, I stands for 1, II for 2, etc. ::: object. --> The nominative case of the pronoun of the first person; the word with which a speaker or writer denotes himself.
Imitation: In aesthetics, the general theory that artistic creation is primarily an imitative or revelatory process, and the work of art an imitation or representation. Such theories hold that the artist discovers, and in his work imitates, real Forms, and not physical objects, art is conceived as a revelation of a spiritual realm, and so as the exhibition of the essential character of the particular object represented. The work of art reveals adequately the essence which the physical thing manifests inadequately. In modern expressionistic theory, imitation is conceived as servile reproduction of obvious external qualities, a mere copying of a particular, and so is denounced. -- I.J.
imparisyllabic ::: a. --> Not consisting of an equal number of syllables; as, an imparisyllabic noun, one which has not the same number of syllables in all the cases; as, lapis, lapidis; mens, mentis.
Imposition: In Scholastic logic, grammatical terms such as noun, pronoun, verb, tense, conjugation were classed as terms of second imposition, other terms as of first imposition. The latter were subdivided into terms of first and second intention (q. v.). -- A.C.
inaugural ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or performed or pronounced at, an inauguration; as, an inaugural address; the inaugural exercises. ::: n. --> An inaugural address.
In connection with the algebra of relations (see logic, formal, § 8), Peirce and Schröder use relative as a noun, in place of relation. For Schröder, a relative (Relativ) is a relation in extension. Peirce makes a distinction between relative and relation, not altogether clear, many passages suggest that relative is a syntactical term, but others approximate the usage adopted by Schröder. -- A.C.
indecinable ::: a. --> Not declinable; not varied by inflective terminations; as, nihil (nothing), in Latin, is an indeclinable noun. ::: n. --> An indeclinable word.
India. Intimations of advanced theism, both in a deistic and immanentistic form, are to be found in the Rig Veda. The early Upanishads in general teach variously realistic deism, immanent theism, and, more characteristically, mystical, impersonal idealism, according to which the World Ground (brahman) is identified with the universal soul (atman) which is the inner or essential self within each individual person. The Bhagavad Gita, while mixing pantheism, immanent theism, and deism, inclines towards a personahstic idealism and a corresponding ethics of bhakti (selfless devotion). Jainism is atheistic dualism, with a personalistic recognition of the reality of souls. Many of the schools of Buddhism (see Buddhism) teach idealistic doctrines. Thus a monistic immaterialism and subjectivism (the Absolute is pure consciousness) was expounded by Maitreya, Asanga, and Vasubandhu. The Lankavatarasutra combined monistic, immaterialistic idealism with non-absolutistic nihilism. Subjectivistic, phenomenalistic idealism (the view that there is neither absolute Pure Consciousness nor substantial souls) was taught by the Buddhists Santaraksita and Kamalasila. Examples of modern Vedantic idealism are the Yogavasistha (subjective monistic idealism) and the monistic spiritualism of Gaudapada (duality and plurality are illusion). The most influential Vedantic system is the monistic spiritualism of Sankara. The Absolute is pure indeterminate Being, which can only be described as pure consciousness or bliss. For the different Vedantic doctrines see Vedanta and the references there. Vedantic idealism, whether in its monistic and impersonalistic form, or in that of a more personalistic theism, is the dominant type of metaphysics in modern India. Idealism is also pronounced in the reviving doctrines of Shivaism (which see).
indict ::: v. t. --> To write; to compose; to dictate; to indite.
To appoint publicly or by authority; to proclaim or announce.
To charge with a crime, in due form of law, by the finding or presentment of a grand jury; to find an indictment against; as, to indict a man for arson. It is the peculiar province of a grand jury to indict, as it is of a house of representatives to impeach.
In English and other natural languages there occur also common names (common nouns), such a common name being thought of as if it could serve as a name of anything belonging to a specified class or having specified characteristics. Under usual translations into symbolic notation, common names are replaced by proper names of classes or of class concepts; and this would seem to provide the best logical analysis. In actual English usage, however, a common noun is often more nearly like a variable (q. v.) having a specified range. -- A.C.
inflect ::: v. t. --> To turn from a direct line or course; to bend; to incline, to deflect; to curve; to bow.
To vary, as a noun or a verb in its terminations; to decline, as a noun or adjective, or to conjugate, as a verb.
To modulate, as the voice.
In Reconstruction in Philosophy (New York, 1920, p. 156), Dewey states "When the claim or pretension or plan is acted upon it guides us truly or falsely; it leads us to our end or away from it. Its active, dynamic function is the all-important thing about it, and in the quality of activity induced by it lies all its truth and falsity. The hypothesis that works is the true one, and truth is an abstract noun applied to the collection of cases, actual, foreseen and desired, that receive confirmation in their work and consequences". The needs and desires which truth must satisfy, however, are not conceived as personal and emotional (as with James) but rather as "public" in some not altogether explicit sense. Although Dewey emphasizes the functional role of propositions and laws (and even of sensations, facts and objects), and describes these materials of knowledge as means, tools, instruments or operations for the transformation of an indeterminate situation into a determinate one in the process of inquiry (Logic, The Theory of Inquiry, N. Y., 1938), he does not clearly deny that they have a strictly cognitive role as well, and he once states that "the essence of pragmatic instrumentalism is to conceive of both knowledge and practice as means of making goods -- excellencies of all kinds -- secure in experienced existence". (The Quest for Certainty, N. Y., 1929, p. 37.) Indeed, in his Logic (p. 345), he quotes with approval Peirce's definition "truth is that concordance of an abstract statement with the ideal limit towards which endless inquiry would tend to bring scientific belief, . . ." Here truth seems to be represented as progressive approximation to reality, but usually it is interpreted as efficacy, verification or practical expediency.
In scholasticism: The English term translates three Latin terms which, in Scholasticism, have different significations. Ens as a noun is the most general and most simple predicate; as a participle it is an essential predicate only in regard to God in Whom existence and essence are one, or Whose essence implies existence. Esse, though used sometimes in a wider sense, usually means existence which is defined as the actus essendi, or the reality of some essence. Esse quid or essentia designates the specific nature of some being or thing, the "being thus" or the quiddity. Ens is divided into real and mental being (ens rationis). Though the latter also has properties, it is said to have essence only in an improper way. Another division is into actual and potential being. Ens is called the first of all concepts, in respect to ontology and to psychology; the latter statement of Aristotle appears to be confirmed by developmental psychology. Thing (res) and ens are synonymous, a res may be a res extra mentem or only rationis. Every ens is: something, i.e. has quiddity, one, true, i.e. corresponds to its proper nature, and good. These terms, naming aspects which are only virtually distinct from ens, are said to be convertible with ens and with each other. Ens is an analogical term, i.e. it is not predicated in the same manner of every kind of being, according to Aquinas. In Scotism ens, however, is considered as univocal and as applying to God in the same sense as to created beings, though they be distinguished as entia ab alto from God, the ens a se. See Act, Analogy, Potency, Transcendentals. -- R.A.
Intent to Package "Debian" (ITP) A notice, posted to the {Debian} developer {mailing list}, announcing a developer's intent to make a new Debian package, including a brief description of the package and its license. (2000-05-31)
INTERCAL "language, humour" /in't*r-kal/ (Said by the authors to stand for "Compiler Language With No Pronounceable Acronym"). Possibly the most elaborate and long-lived joke in the history of programming languages. It was designed on 1972-05-26 by Don Woods and Jim Lyons at Princeton University. INTERCAL is purposely different from all other computer languages in all ways but one; it is purely a written language, being totally unspeakable. The INTERCAL Reference Manual, describing features of horrifying uniqueness, became an underground classic. An excerpt will make the style of the language clear: It is a well-known and oft-demonstrated fact that a person whose work is incomprehensible is held in high esteem. For example, if one were to state that the simplest way to store a value of 65536 in a 32-bit INTERCAL variable is: DO :1 "-
interrogative ::: a. --> Denoting a question; expressed in the form of a question; as, an interrogative sentence; an interrogative pronoun. ::: n. --> A word used in asking questions; as, who? which? why?
intimate ::: a. --> Innermost; inward; internal; deep-seated; hearty.
Near; close; direct; thorough; complete.
Close in friendship or acquaintance; familiar; confidential; as, an intimate friend.
To announce; to declare; to publish; to communicate; to make known.
To suggest obscurely or indirectly; to refer to remotely; to give slight notice of; to hint; as, he intimated his intention of
intimation ::: n. --> The act of intimating; also, the thing intimated.
Announcement; declaration.
A hint; an obscure or indirect suggestion or notice; a remote or ambiguous reference; as, he had given only intimations of his design.
introduce ::: v. t. --> To lead or bring in; to conduct or usher in; as, to introduce a person into a drawing-room.
To put (something into a place); to insert; as, to introduce the finger, or a probe.
To lead to and make known by formal announcement or recommendation; hence, to cause to be acquainted; as, to introduce strangers; to introduce one person to another.
To bring into notice, practice, cultivation, or use;
Inverse Address Resolution Protocol "networking, protocol" (InARP) Additions to {ARP} typically used for {Frame Relay}. [Any other examples of its use?] {Frame Relay} stations {route} {frames} of a higher level protocol between {LANs}, across a {Permanent Virtual Circuit}. These stations are identified by their {Data Link Control Identifier} (DLCI), equivalent to an {Ethernet address} in a {LAN} itself. InARP allows a station to determine a protocol address (e.g. {IP address}) from a DLCI. This is useful if a new {virtual circuit} becomes available. Signalling messages announce its DLCI, but without the corresponding protocol address it is unusable: no {frames} can be {routed} to it. {Reverse ARP} (RARP) performs a similar task on an {Ethernet} {LAN}, however RARP answers the question "What is my IP Address?" whereas InARP answers the question "What is your protocol address?". See {RFC 2390}. (2000-01-15)
In yoga one uses the lance wiU and compels the vital to sub- mit itself to lapasi-a so that It may become calm, strong, obe- dient— or else calls down the calm from above obliging the vital to renounce desire and become quiet and receptive. The vital is a good instrument but a bad master- If you allow it to follow its likes and dislikes, its fancies, its desires, its bad habits, it becomes your master and peace and happiness are no longer possible. It becomes not your instrument or the instrument of the Divine Shakti, but of any force of the Ignorance or even any hostile force that is able to seize and use it.
iPad "computer" A {tablet computer} announced by {Apple Computer, Inc.} on 2010-01-27 to be released in March 2010. The iPad runs {iPhone OS} 3.2, providing {multi-touch} interaction and {multimedia} processing. Like {Apple}'s {iPhone} and {iPod}, it uses a {virtual keyboard} for text input and runs most {iPhone apps}. It adds the {iBooks} application for reading text in {ePub} format. It has a 1GHz {Apple A4} {SoC} processor, up to 64GB of flash memory, a 250mm LED-backlit colour LCD display ({resolution} 1024x768 pixels) and a 25 {Wh} lithium-polymer battery. {Internet} access will be {Wi-Fi} in early models with {HSDPA} {3G} available soon after using a {micro-SIM}. It weighs 730g. Features it lacks include a camera, the ability to {multitask} and an open developement environment. The iPad is the culmination of a series of attempts by Apple to produce a tablet device, starting with the {Newton MessagePad 100} in 1993 and including collaboration with {Acorn Computers} in developing the {ARM6} processor. {Apple iPad (http://www.apple.com/ipad)}. (2010-01-31)
itacism ::: n. --> Pronunciation of / (eta) as the modern Greeks pronounce it, that is, like e in the English word be. This was the pronunciation advocated by Reu/hlin and his followers, in opposition to the etacism of Erasmus. See Etacism.
it ::: pron. --> The neuter pronoun of the third person, corresponding to the masculine pronoun he and the feminine she, and having the same plural (they, their or theirs, them).
As a substance for any noun of the neuter gender; as, here is the book, take it home.
As a demonstrative, especially at the beginning of a sentence, pointing to that which is about to be stated, named, or mentioned, or referring to that which apparent or well known; as, I saw
itself ::: pron. --> The neuter reciprocal pronoun of It; as, the thing is good in itself; it stands by itself.
its ::: --> Possessive form of the pronoun it. See It.
jaggies "graphics" /jag'eez/ (Or "staircase") The "staircase" effect observable when an edge (especially a linear edge of very shallow or steep slope) is rendered on a {bitmap display} (as opposed to a {vector display}). The effect is even more pronounced when a bitmap image or text in a bitmap font is enlarged. {Outline fonts} and {anti-aliasing} are two techniques used to solve this problem with text. [{Jargon File}] (1997-12-01)
Jehovah: (Hebrew Yahveh, of doubtful origin and meaning) Personal name of God or the supreme being in Hebrew theological and philosophical writings, common only since the 14th century; the national god of Israel since Mosaic times. Neither name was originally pronounced as written on account of its holiness, but was replaced by Elohim and Adonai. -- K.F.L.
jehovah ::: n. --> A Scripture name of the Supreme Being, by which he was revealed to the Jews as their covenant God or Sovereign of the theocracy; the "ineffable name" of the Supreme Being, which was not pronounced by the Jews.
Jesuitism: Noun applied rather loosely to the teachings and practices of the Jesuits, a religious order of men of the Roman Catholic Church engaged in missionary and educational work. Originally it was called the Company, but in the Bull of Pope Paul III approving it in 1540, the Society of Jesus. Besides the three usual vows the members take a fourth of special obedience to the Pope, who may send them on missions anywhere in the world. They depend on alms and gifts for support. The word is frequently used in the depreciative and opprobrious sense of craftiness, deceit, duplicity, and equivocation. -- J.J.R.
jesus ::: n. --> The Savior; the name of the Son of God as announced by the angel to his parents; the personal name of Our Lord, in distinction from Christ, his official appellation.
jock 1. A programmer who is characterised by large and somewhat {brute-force} programs. 2. When modified by another noun, describes a specialist in some particular computing area. The compounds "compiler jock" and "systems jock" seem to be the best-established examples. [{Jargon File}] (1995-01-19)
J. Random "jargon" /J rand'm/ (Generalised from {J. Random Hacker}) Arbitrary; ordinary; any one; any old. "J. Random" is often prefixed to a noun to make a name out of it. It means roughly "some particular" or "any specific one". "Would you let J. Random Loser marry your daughter?" The most common uses are "J. Random Hacker", "J. Random Loser", and "J. Random Nerd" ("Should J. Random Loser be allowed to {gun} down other people?"), but it can be used simply as an elaborate version of {random} in any sense. [{Jargon File}]
justify ::: a. --> To prove or show to be just; to vindicate; to maintain or defend as conformable to law, right, justice, propriety, or duty.
To pronounce free from guilt or blame; to declare or prove to have done that which is just, right, proper, etc.; to absolve; to exonerate; to clear.
To treat as if righteous and just; to pardon; to exculpate; to absolve.
To prove; to ratify; to confirm.
labiodental ::: a. --> Formed or pronounced by the cooperation of the lips and teeth, as f and v. ::: n. --> A labiodental sound or letter.
Law, Chinese School of: See Fa chia and Chinese philosophy. Law of Population: In economics, the tendency of population to encroach upon the means of subsistence. First announced by Malthus (1766-1834), the Law asserts that the increase of unchecked population is in geometric ratio while the increase of the means of subsistence is in arithmetic ratio, so that population must always press upon the limits of the means of subsistence. -- J.K.F.
liable ::: v. t. --> Bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable; as, the surety is liable for the debt of his principal.
Exposed to a certain contingency or casualty, more or less probable; -- with to and an infinitive or noun; as, liable to slip; liable to accident.
(License is now the preferred spelling for the noun as well as the verb.) Given official approval or legal permission to do, act, or own a specified thing.
linguadental ::: a. --> Formed or uttered by the joint use of the tongue and teeth, or rather that part of the gum just above the front teeth; dentolingual, as the letters d and t. ::: n. --> An articulation pronounced by the aid or use of the tongue and teeth.
lisping ::: the sound produced by pronouncing s or z like, or nearly like, the th sounds of thin and this.
lisp ::: v. i. --> To pronounce the sibilant letter s imperfectly; to give s and z the sound of th; -- a defect common among children.
To speak with imperfect articulation; to mispronounce, as a child learning to talk.
To speak hesitatingly with a low voice, as if afraid. ::: v. t.
locative ::: a. --> Indicating place, or the place where, or wherein; as, a locative adjective; locative case of a noun. ::: n. --> The locative case.
macron ::: n. --> A short, straight, horizontal mark [-], placed over vowels to denote that they are to be pronounced with a long sound; as, a, in dame; /, in s/am, etc.
majesty ::: n. --> The dignity and authority of sovereign power; quality or state which inspires awe or reverence; grandeur; exalted dignity, whether proceeding from rank, character, or bearing; imposing loftiness; stateliness; -- usually applied to the rank and dignity of sovereigns.
Hence, used with the possessive pronoun, the title of an emperor, king or queen; -- in this sense taking a plural; as, their majesties attended the concert.
manifold ::: a. --> Various in kind or quality; many in number; numerous; multiplied; complicated.
Exhibited at divers times or in various ways; -- used to qualify nouns in the singular number. ::: n. --> A copy of a writing made by the manifold process.
mayi sarvani karmani samnyasyadhyatmacetasa ::: with a consciousness identified with the Self, renouncing all actions into Me. [Gita 3.30]
me ::: pron. --> One. See Men, pron. ::: pers. pron. --> The person speaking, regarded as an object; myself; a pronoun of the first person used as the objective and dative case of the pronoum I; as, he struck me; he gave me the money, or he gave the money to me; he got me a hat, or he got a hat for me.
mercurism ::: n. --> A communication of news; an announcement.
metacism ::: n. --> A defect in pronouncing the letter m, or a too frequent use of it.
mightiness ::: n. --> The quality of being mighty; possession of might; power; greatness; high dignity.
Highness; excellency; -- with a possessive pronoun, a title of dignity; as, their high mightinesses.
mine ::: n. --> See Mien. ::: pron. & a. --> Belonging to me; my. Used as a pronominal to me; my. Used as a pronominal adjective in the predicate; as, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." Rom. xii. 19. Also, in the old style, used attributively, instead of my, before a noun beginning with a vowel.
mino bird ::: --> An Asiatic bird (Gracula musica), allied to the starlings. It is black, with a white spot on the wings, and a pair of flat yellow wattles on the head. It is often tamed and taught to pronounce words.
misbehave ::: v. t. & i. --> To behave ill; to conduct one&
misdemean ::: v. t. --> To behave ill; -- with a reflexive pronoun; as, to misdemean one&
misgive ::: v. t. --> To give or grant amiss.
Specifically: To give doubt and apprehension to, instead of confidence and courage; to impart fear to; to make irresolute; -- usually said of the mind or heart, and followed by the objective personal pronoun.
To suspect; to dread. ::: v. i.
mispronounced ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Mispronounce
mispronounce ::: v. t. & i. --> To pronounce incorrectly.
mispronouncing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Mispronounce
missound ::: v. t. --> To sound wrongly; to utter or pronounce incorrectly.
mistressship ::: n. --> Female rule or dominion.
Ladyship, a style of address; -- with the personal pronoun.
monophthong ::: n. --> A single uncompounded vowel sound.
A combination of two written vowels pronounced as one; a digraph.
monoptote ::: n. --> A noun having only one case.
A noun having only one ending for the oblique cases.
neuter ::: a. --> Neither the one thing nor the other; on neither side; impartial; neutral.
Having a form belonging more especially to words which are not appellations of males or females; expressing or designating that which is of neither sex; as, a neuter noun; a neuter termination; the neuter gender.
Intransitive; as, a neuter verb.
Having no generative organs, or imperfectly developed ones;
neutral ::: a. --> Not engaged on either side; not taking part with or assisting either of two or more contending parties; neuter; indifferent.
Neither good nor bad; of medium quality; middling; not decided or pronounced.
Neuter. See Neuter, a., 3.
Having neither acid nor basic properties; unable to turn red litmus blue or blue litmus red; -- said of certain salts or other
newspaper ::: n. --> A sheet of paper printed and distributed, at stated intervals, for conveying intelligence of passing events, advocating opinions, etc.; a public print that circulates news, advertisements, proceedings of legislative bodies, public announcements, etc.
nominal ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to a name or names; having to do with the literal meaning of a word; verbal; as, a nominal definition.
Existing in name only; not real; as, a nominal difference. ::: n. --> A nominalist.
A verb formed from a noun.
Nominal: Hnving to do with names, nouns, words, or symbols rather than with that which would ordinarily be regarded as symbolized by these verbal forms. See Nominalism. -- C.A.B.
nominalize ::: v. t. --> To convert into a noun.
nominative ::: a. --> Giving a name; naming; designating; -- said of that case or form of a noun which stands as the subject of a finite verb. ::: n. --> The nominative case.
non compos mentis ::: --> Not of sound mind; not having the regular use of reason; hence, also, as a noun, an idiot; a lunatic; one devoid of reason, either by nature or from accident.
Note on the Indian Sign-Language. Certain general principles concerning gesture speech may be established, by considering the sign-language of the North American Indian which seems to be the most developed. A sign-language is established when equally powerful tribes of different tongues come into contact. Better gestures are composed and undesirable ones are weeded out, partly as a result of tribal federations and partly through the development of technical skills and crafts. Signs come into being, grow and die, according to the needs of the time and to the changes in practical processes. Stimulus of outside intercourse is necessary to keep alive the interest required for the maintenance and growth of a gesture speech; without it, the weaker tribe is absorbed in the stronger, and the vocal language most easily acquired prevails. Sign-languages involve a basic syntax destined to convey the fundamental meanings without refinement and in abbreviated form. Articles, prepositions and conjunctions are omitted; adjectives follow nouns; verbs are used in the present tense; nouns and verbs are used in the singular, while the idea of plurality is expressed in some other way. The use of signals with the smoke, the pony, the mirror, the blanket and the drum (as is also the case with the African tam-tams) may be considered as an extension of the sign-language, though they are related more directly to the general art of signalling. -- T.G.
notice ::: n. --> The act of noting, remarking, or observing; observation by the senses or intellect; cognizance; note.
Intelligence, by whatever means communicated; knowledge given or received; means of knowledge; express notification; announcement; warning.
An announcement, often accompanied by comments or remarks; as, book notices; theatrical notices.
A writing communicating information or warning.
nounal ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to a noun.
nounize ::: v. t. --> To change (an adjective, verb, etc.) into a noun.
noun ::: n. --> A word used as the designation or appellation of a creature or thing, existing in fact or in thought; a substantive.
nunciate ::: n. --> One who announces; a messenger; a nuncio.
o ::: 1. Used before a name or noun in direct address, esp. in solemn or poetic language, to lend earnestness. 2. Used to express surprise or strong emotion.
OM is the symbol of the triple Brahman, the outward-looking, the inward or subtle and the superconscient causal Purusha. Each letter A, U, M indicates one of these three in ascending order and the syllable as a whole brings out the fourth state, Turiya, which rises to the Absolute. OM is the initiating syllable pronounced at the outset as a benedictory prelude and sanction to all act of sacrifice, all act of giving and all act of askesis; it is a reminder that our work should be made an expression of the triple Divine in our inner being and turned towards him in the idea and motive.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 19, Page: 491
om ::: the mantra or expressive sound symbol of the brahman in its four domains from the turiya to the external or material plane (i.e. the outward looking, the inward or subtle, and the superconscient causal - each letter A, U, M indicating one of these three in ascending order and the whole bringing out the fourth state, turiya); used as an initiating syllable pronounced as a benedictory prelude and sanction.
oneself ::: pron. --> A reflexive form of the indefinite pronoun one. Commonly writen as two words, one&
orthotone ::: a. --> Retaining the accent; not enclitic; -- said of certain indefinite pronouns and adverbs when used interrogatively, which, when not so used, are ordinarilly enclitic.
ourselves ::: pl. --> of Myself ::: pron. --> ; sing. Ourself (/). An emphasized form of the pronoun of the first person plural; -- used as a subject, usually with we; also, alone in the predicate, in the nominative or the objective case.
own ::: v. t. --> To grant; to acknowledge; to admit to be true; to confess; to recognize in a particular character; as, we own that we have forfeited your love. ::: a. --> Belonging to; belonging exclusively or especially to; peculiar; -- most frequently following a possessive pronoun, as my,
oynoun ::: n. --> Onion.
pactise ::: Sri Aurobindo combines the word pact [an agreement or covenant] with ise, a noun suffix occurring in loanwords from French, indicating quality, condition, or function.
pain ::: n. --> Punishment suffered or denounced; suffering or evil inflicted as a punishment for crime, or connected with the commission of a crime; penalty.
Any uneasy sensation in animal bodies, from slight uneasiness to extreme distress or torture, proceeding from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; bodily distress; bodily suffering; an ache; a smart.
Specifically, the throes or travail of childbirth.
palatal ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the palate; palatine; as, the palatal bones.
Uttered by the aid of the palate; -- said of certain sounds, as the sound of k in kirk. ::: n. --> A sound uttered, or a letter pronounced, by the aid of the
papal ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the pope of Rome; proceeding from the pope; ordered or pronounced by the pope; as, papal jurisdiction; a papal edict; the papal benediction.
Of or pertaining to the Roman Catholic Church.
parabrahman ::: the supreme Reality (brahman), "absolute and ineffable . . . beyond all cosmic being", from which "originate both the mobile and the immobile, the mutable and the immutable, the action and the silence"; it "is not Being [sat] or Non-Being [asat], but something of which Being & Non-Being are primary symbols". As it is "indescribable by any name or definite conception", it is referred to by the neuter pronoun tat, That, in order "to speak of this Unknowable in the most comprehensive and general way . . . ; but this neuter does not exclude the aspect of universal and transcendent Personality". parabrahman-mah parabrahman-mahamaya
Paradigma: The Latin foim of the Greek noun, which denotes model. Plato called his ideas in the world of ideas, models on which were patterned the things of the phenomenal world. -- J.J.R.
parathesis ::: n. --> The placing of two or more nouns in the same case; apposition.
A parenthetical notice, usually of matter to be afterward expanded.
The matter contained within brackets.
A commendatory prayer.
parelcon ::: n. --> The addition of a syllable or particle to the end of a pronoun, verb, or adverb.
parivrajaka. ::: one who wanders; a roaming ascetic; one who has renounced the world; a sannyasin
participial ::: a. --> Having, or partaking of, the nature and use of a participle; formed from a participle; as, a participial noun. ::: n. --> A participial word.
participle ::: n. --> A part of speech partaking of the nature both verb and adjective; a form of a verb, or verbal adjective, modifying a noun, but taking the adjuncts of the verb from which it is derived. In the sentences: a letter is written; being asleep he did not hear; exhausted by toil he will sleep soundly, -- written, being, and exhaustedare participles. ::: a.
patrial ::: a. --> Derived from the name of a country, and designating an inhabitant of the country; gentile; -- said of a noun. ::: n. --> A patrial noun. Thus Romanus, a Roman, and Troas, a woman of Troy, are patrial nouns, or patrials.
pentaptote ::: n. --> A noun having five cases.
philippic ::: n. --> Any one of the series of famous orations of Demosthenes, the Grecian orator, denouncing Philip, king of Macedon.
Hence: Any discourse or declamation abounding in acrimonious invective.
Phoronomy: Noun derived from the Greek, phorein, used by Plato and Aristotle in the sense of motion, and nomos, law; signifies kinematics, or absolute mechanics, which deals with motion from the purely theoretical point of view. According to Kant it is that part of natural philosophy which regards motion as a pure quantum, without considering any of the qualities of the moving body. -- J.J.R.
Pistology: A noun derived from the Greek, pistis, faith, hence in general the science of faith or religious belief. A branch of theology specially concerned with faith and its restricted scope, as distinguished from reason. -- J.J.R.
pluralize ::: v. t. --> To make plural by using the plural termination; to attribute plurality to; to express in the plural form.
To multiply; to make manifold. ::: v. i. --> To take a plural; to assume a plural form; as, a noun pluralizes.
pointillage ::: A word coined by Sri Aurobindo. The suffix age, originally in words adopted from Fr., is typically used in abstract nouns to indicate”aggregate”. Hence, pointillage indicates something made up of minute details; particularized. The root word, pointillism, refers to a method, invented by French impressionist painters, of producing luminous effects by crowding a surface with small spots of various colours, which are blended by the eye.
pointillage ::: a word coined by Sri Aurobindo. The suffix age, originally in words adopted from Fr., is typically used in abstract nouns to indicate "aggregate”. Hence, pointillage indicates something made up of minute details; particularized. The root word, pointillism, refers to a method, invented by French impressionist painters, of producing luminous effects by crowding a surface with small spots of various colours, which are blended by the eye.
polyphone ::: n. --> A character or vocal sign representing more than one sound, as read, which is pronounced red.
possessive ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to possession; having or indicating possession. ::: n. --> The possessive case.
A possessive pronoun, or a word in the possessive case.
postpliocene ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the period immediately following the Pliocene; Pleistocene. Also used as a noun. See Quaternary.
Postpredicament: Noun generally applied since the time of Abelard to any particular one of the five conceptions, or relations, examined in detail in the tenth and following chapters of the treatise on the Categories, or Predicaments, ascribed to Aristotle, which, however, was very probably written by others after his death. -- J.J.R.
preadvertise ::: v. t. --> To advertise beforehand; to preannounce publicly.
preannounce ::: v. t. --> To announce beforehand.
predeclare ::: v. t. --> To declare or announce beforehand; to preannounce.
prefigure ::: v. t. --> To show, suggest, or announce, by antecedent types and similitudes; to foreshadow.
prenunciation ::: n. --> The act of announcing or proclaiming beforehand.
prenuncious ::: a. --> Announcing beforehand; presaging.
preposition ::: n. --> A word employed to connect a noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word; a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word; -- so called because usually placed before the word with which it is phrased; as, a bridge of iron; he comes from town; it is good for food; he escaped by running.
A proposition; an exposition; a discourse.
pro- ::: --> A prefix signifying before, in front, forth, for, in behalf of, in place of, according to; as, propose, to place before; proceed, to go before or forward; project, to throw forward; prologue, part spoken before (the main piece); propel, prognathous; provide, to look out for; pronoun, a word instead of a noun; proconsul, a person acting in place of a consul; proportion, arrangement according to parts.
proclaim ::: 1. To announce officially and publicly; declare. 2. To extol or praise publicly. proclaims, proclaimed, proclaiming.
proclaim ::: v. t. --> To make known by public announcement; to give wide publicity to; to publish abroad; to promulgate; to declare; as, to proclaim war or peace.
To outlaw by public proclamation.
proclamation ::: n. --> The act of proclaiming; official or general notice; publication.
That which is proclaimed, publicly announced, or officially declared; a published ordinance; as, the proclamation of a king; a Thanksgiving proclamation.
prolate ::: a. --> Stretched out; extended; especially, elongated in the direction of a line joining the poles; as, a prolate spheroid; -- opposed to oblate. ::: v. t. --> To utter; to pronounce.
prolation ::: n. --> The act of prolating or pronouncing; utterance; pronunciation.
The act of deferring; delay.
A mediaeval method of determining of the proportionate duration of semibreves and minims.
prolepsis ::: n. --> A figure by which objections are anticipated or prevented.
A necessary truth or assumption; a first or assumed principle.
An error in chronology, consisting in an event being dated before the actual time.
The application of an adjective to a noun in anticipation, or to denote the result, of the action of the verb; as,
pronominal ::: a. --> Belonging to, or partaking of the nature of, a pronoun.
pronominalize ::: v. t. --> To give the effect of a pronoun to; as, to pronominalize the substantives person, people, etc.
pronominally ::: adv. --> In a pronominal manner/ with the nature or office of a pronoun; as a pronoun.
pronounceable ::: a. --> Capable of being pronounced.
pronounced ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Pronounce ::: a. --> Strongly marked; unequivocal; decided. [A Gallicism]
pronouncement ::: n. --> The act of pronouncing; a declaration; a formal announcement.
pronouncer ::: n. --> One who pronounces, utters, or declares; also, a pronouncing book.
pronounce ::: v. t. --> To utter articulately; to speak out or distinctly; to utter, as words or syllables; to speak with the proper sound and accent as, adults rarely learn to pronounce a foreign language correctly.
To utter officially or solemnly; to deliver, as a decree or sentence; as, to pronounce sentence of death.
To speak or utter rhetorically; to deliver; to recite; as, to pronounce an oration.
To declare or affirm; as, he pronounced the book to
pronouncing ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or indicating, pronunciation; as, a pronouncing dictionary.
pronounging ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Pronounce
pronoun ::: n. --> A word used instead of a noun or name, to avoid the repetition of it. The personal pronouns in English are I, thou or you, he, she, it, we, ye, and they.
pronunciamento ::: n. --> A proclamation or manifesto; a formal announcement or declaration.
pronunciator ::: n. --> One who pronounces; a pronouncer.
pronunciatory ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to pronunciation; that pronounces.
prophet ::: n. --> One who prophesies, or foretells events; a predicter; a foreteller.
One inspired or instructed by God to speak in his name, or announce future events, as, Moses, Elijah, etc.
An interpreter; a spokesman.
A mantis.
proscriber ::: n. --> One who, or that which, proscribes, denounces, or prohibits.
proscribe ::: v. t. --> To doom to destruction; to put out of the protection of law; to outlaw; to exile; as, Sylla and Marius proscribed each other&
prowl ::: an act or the action of roaming or roving about stealthily, esp. in search of plunder or prey. prowls, prowled, prowling. [As verbs, in the same sense as the noun.]
pynoun ::: n. --> A pennant.
quasi ::: --> As if; as though; as it were; in a manner sense or degree; having some resemblance to; qualified; -- used as an adjective, or a prefix with a noun or an adjective; as, a quasi contract, an implied contract, an obligation which has arisen from some act, as if from a contract; a quasi corporation, a body that has some, but not all, of the peculiar attributes of a corporation; a quasi argument, that which resembles, or is used as, an argument; quasi historical, apparently historical, seeming to be historical.
rebel ::: v. i. --> Pertaining to rebels or rebellion; acting in revolt; rebellious; as, rebel troops.
To renounce, and resist by force, the authority of the ruler or government to which one owes obedience. See Rebellion.
To be disobedient to authority; to assume a hostile or insubordinate attitude; to revolt. ::: n.
reciprocal ::: a. --> Recurring in vicissitude; alternate.
Done by each to the other; interchanging or interchanged; given and received; due from each to each; mutual; as, reciprocal love; reciprocal duties.
Mutually interchangeable.
Reflexive; -- applied to pronouns and verbs, but sometimes limited to such pronouns as express mutual action.
Used to denote different kinds of mutual relation;
reflexive ::: a. --> Bending or turned backward; reflective; having respect to something past.
Implying censure.
Having for its direct object a pronoun which refers to the agent or subject as its antecedent; -- said of certain verbs; as, the witness perjured himself; I bethought myself. Applied also to pronouns of this class; reciprocal; reflective.
relative ::: a. --> Having relation or reference; referring; respecting; standing in connection; pertaining; as, arguments not relative to the subject.
Arising from relation; resulting from connection with, or reference to, something else; not absolute.
Indicating or expressing relation; refering to an antecedent; as, a relative pronoun.
Characterizing or pertaining to chords and keys, which,
relinquish ::: v. t. --> To withdraw from; to leave behind; to desist from; to abandon; to quit; as, to relinquish a pursuit.
To give up; to renounce a claim to; resign; as, to relinquish a debt.
reluctancy ::: n. --> The state or quality of being reluctant; repugnance; aversion of mind; unwillingness; -- often followed by an infinitive, or by to and a noun, formerly sometimes by against.
reneye ::: v. t. --> To deny; to reject; to renounce.
renounce ::: 1. To give up (a title, for example), esp. by formal announcement. 2. To reject; disown; disclaim; refuse to recognize. 3. To give up or put aside voluntarily; forsake, forego, forswear. renounces, renounced, renouncing.
renounced ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Renounce
renouncement ::: n. --> The act of disclaiming or rejecting; renunciation.
renouncer ::: n. --> One who renounces.
renounce ::: v. t. --> To declare against; to reject or decline formally; to refuse to own or acknowledge as belonging to one; to disclaim; as, to renounce a title to land or to a throne.
To cast off or reject deliberately; to disown; to dismiss; to forswear.
To disclaim having a card of (the suit led) by playing a card of another suit.
renouncing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Renounce
renunciation ::: n. --> The act of renouncing.
Formal declination to take out letters of administration, or to assume an office, privilege, or right.
report ::: v. t. --> To refer.
To bring back, as an answer; to announce in return; to relate, as what has been discovered by a person sent to examine, explore, or investigate; as, a messenger reports to his employer what he has seen or ascertained; the committee reported progress.
To give an account of; to relate; to tell; to circulate publicly, as a story; as, in the common phrase, it is reported.
To give an official account or statement of; as, a
repudiate ::: v. t. --> To cast off; to disavow; to have nothing to do with; to renounce; to reject.
To divorce, put away, or discard, as a wife, or a woman one has promised to marry.
To refuse to acknowledge or to pay; to disclaim; as, the State has repudiated its debts.
resolved ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Resolve ::: p. p. & a. --> Having a fixed purpose; determined; resolute; -- usually placed after its noun; as, a man resolved to be rich.
revenge ::: v. t. --> To inflict harm in return for, as an injury, insult, etc.; to exact satisfaction for, under a sense of injury; to avenge; -- followed either by the wrong received, or by the person or thing wronged, as the object, or by the reciprocal pronoun as direct object, and a preposition before the wrong done or the wrongdoer.
To inflict injury for, in a spiteful, wrong, or malignant spirit; to wreak vengeance for maliciously.
revolt ::: n. --> To turn away; to abandon or reject something; specifically, to turn away, or shrink, with abhorrence.
Hence, to be faithless; to desert one party or leader for another; especially, to renounce allegiance or subjection; to rise against a government; to rebel.
To be disgusted, shocked, or grossly offended; hence, to feel nausea; -- with at; as, the stomach revolts at such food; his nature revolts at cruelty.
sadhu. ::: a noble person, or one who has realised the Self; an ascetic or one who has renounced the world in quest of liberation; seeker of Truth; one who is practising spiritual disciplines; one who has dedicated his life to spiritual endeavour; engaged in the pursuit and enjoyment of the bliss of the Self
salutatorian ::: n. --> The student who pronounces the salutatory oration at the annual Commencement or like exercises of a college, -- an honor commonly assigned to that member of the graduating class who ranks second in scholarship.
sannyasa &
sannyasin &
self-renunciation ::: n. --> The act of renouncing, or setting aside, one&
“Self-will in thought and action has, we have already seen, to be quite renounced if we would be perfect in the way of divine works; it has equally to be renounced if we are to be perfect in divine knowledge. This self-will means an egoism in the mind which attaches itself to its preferences, its habits, its past or present formations of thought and view and will because it regards them as itself or its own, weaves around them the delicate threads of I-ness’’ andmy-ness’’ and lives in them like a spider in its web. It hates to be disturbed, as a spider hates attack on its web, and feels foreign and unhappy if transplanted to fresh view-points and formations as a spider feels foreign in another web than its own. This attachment must be entirely excised from the mind.” The Synthesis of Yoga
Semasiology: Noun derived from the Greek, semasia, signification of a term, the equivalent of semantics, the science of the meanings of words. -- J.J.R.
sentence ::: n. --> Sense; meaning; significance.
An opinion; a decision; a determination; a judgment, especially one of an unfavorable nature.
A philosophical or theological opinion; a dogma; as, Summary of the Sentences; Book of the Sentences.
In civil and admiralty law, the judgment of a court pronounced in a cause; in criminal and ecclesiastical courts, a judgment passed on a criminal by a court or judge; condemnation
sentencer ::: n. --> One who pronounced a sentence or condemnation.
setter ::: n. --> One who, or that which, sets; -- used mostly in composition with a noun, as typesetter; or in combination with an adverb, as a setter on (or inciter), a setter up, a setter forth.
A hunting dog of a special breed originally derived from a cross between the spaniel and the pointer. Modern setters are usually trained to indicate the position of game birds by standing in a fixed position, but originally they indicated it by sitting or crouching.
One who hunts victims for sharpers.
shibboleth ::: n. --> A word which was made the criterion by which to distinguish the Ephraimites from the Gileadites. The Ephraimites, not being able to pronounce sh, called the word sibboleth. See Judges xii.
Also in an extended sense.
Hence, the criterion, test, or watchword of a party; a party cry or pet phrase.
sibilate ::: v. t. & i. --> To pronounce with a hissing sound, like that of the letter s; to mark with a character indicating such pronunciation.
signify ::: n. --> To show by a sign; to communicate by any conventional token, as words, gestures, signals, or the like; to announce; to make known; to declare; to express; as, a signified his desire to be present.
To mean; to import; to denote; to betoken.
signore ::: n. --> Sir; Mr.; -- a title of address or respect among the Italians. Before a noun the form is Signor.
silent ::: a. --> Free from sound or noise; absolutely still; perfectly quiet.
Not speaking; indisposed to talk; speechless; mute; taciturn; not loquacious; not talkative.
Keeping at rest; inactive; calm; undisturbed; as, the wind is silent.
Not pronounced; having no sound; quiescent; as, e is silent in "fable."
singlestick ::: n. --> In England and Scotland, a cudgel used in fencing or fighting; a backsword.
The game played with singlesticks, in which he who first brings blood from his adversary&
slur ::: v. t. --> To soil; to sully; to contaminate; to disgrace.
To disparage; to traduce.
To cover over; to disguise; to conceal; to pass over lightly or with little notice.
To cheat, as by sliding a die; to trick.
To pronounce indistinctly; as, to slur syllables.
To sing or perform in a smooth, gliding style; to connect smoothly in performing, as several notes or tones.
soever ::: --> A word compounded of so and ever, used in composition with who, what, where, when, how, etc., and indicating any out of all possible or supposable persons, things, places, times, ways, etc. It is sometimes used separate from the pronoun or adverb.
softened ::: modified or toned down; rendered less pronounced or prominent.
speaker ::: n. --> One who speaks.
One who utters or pronounces a discourse; usually, one who utters a speech in public; as, the man is a good speaker, or a bad speaker.
One who is the mouthpiece of others; especially, one who presides over, or speaks for, a delibrative assembly, preserving order and regulating the debates; as, the Speaker of the House of Commons, originally, the mouthpiece of the House to address the king; the
splendid ::: 1. Glorious or illustrious; having great beauty and splendour. 2. Distinguished or glorious, as a name, reputation, victory, etc. 3. Imposing by reason of showiness or grandeur; magnificent. 4. Brilliant with light or colour; radiant. (Sometimes used, by way of contrast, to qualify nouns having an opposite or different connotation.) splendidly.
Sri Aurobindo: "History teaches us nothing; it is a confused torrent of events and personalities or a kaleidoscope of changing institutions. We do not seize the real sense of all this change and this continual streaming forward of human life in the channels of Time. What we do seize are current or recurrent phenomena, facile generalisations, partial ideas. We talk of democracy, aristocracy and autocracy, collectivism and individualism, imperialism and nationalism, the State and the commune, capitalism and labour; we advance hasty generalisations and make absolute systems which are positively announced today only to be abandoned perforce tomorrow; we espouse causes and ardent enthusiasms whose triumph turns to an early disillusionment and then forsake them for others, perhaps for those that we have taken so much trouble to destroy. For a whole century mankind thirsts and battles after liberty and earns it with a bitter expense of toil, tears and blood; the century that enjoys without having fought for it turns away as from a puerile illusion and is ready to renounce the depreciated gain as the price of some new good. And all this happens because our whole thought and action with regard to our collective life is shallow and empirical; it does not seek for, it does not base itself on a firm, profound and complete knowledge. The moral is not the vanity of human life, of its ardours and enthusiasms and of the ideals it pursues, but the necessity of a wiser, larger, more patient search after its true law and aim.” *The Human Cycle etc.
stammer ::: v. i. --> To make involuntary stops in uttering syllables or words; to hesitate or falter in speaking; to speak with stops and diffivulty; to stutter. ::: v. t. --> To utter or pronounce with hesitation or imperfectly; -- sometimes with out.
Subsumption: Noun signifying that the subject of a proposition is taken under the predicate. Also the inclusion of the species under the genus, and the individual under the species. The minor premiss which applies a general law stated by the major premiss of a syllogism is called a subsumption. -- J.J.R.
Suppositio: In medieval logic, the kind of meaning in use which belongs to nouns or substantives; opposed to copulatio, belonging to adjectives and verbs A given noun having a fixed signification might nevertheless have different suppositiones (stand for different things). Various kinds of suppositio, i.e., various ways in which a noun may stand for something, were distinguished. -- A.C.
Suppositio materialis: The use of a word autonymously, or as a name for itself (see autonymy) -- "Homo est disyllabum"; opposed to suppositio formalis, the use of a noun in its proper or ordinary signification. -- A.C.
Suppositio naturalis: The use of a common noun to stand collectively for everything to which the name applies -- "Homo est mortalis." It would now usually be held that this involves an inadequate or misleading analysis -- see copula. -- A.C.
Suppositio personalis confusa (opposed to the preceding as suppositio personalis determinata) was further ascribed to a common noun used for the subject or predicate of a universal affirmative proposition. The relation of this to suppositio naturalis and suppositio simplex is not clear, and not uniform among different writers. -- A.C.
Suppositio personalis: The use of a common noun, or class name, to stand for a particular member of the class -- "Homo currit." Contemporary logical usage would supply, in such a case, either a description (corresponding in English to the definite article the) or an existential quantifier (corresponding to the indefinite article a).
Suppositio simplex: The use of a common noun to stand for the class concept to which it refers -- "Homo est species." Suppositio simplex was also ascribed to a common noun used for the predicate of an affirmative proposition. -- A.C.
Synkatathesis: Greek noun derived from syn, together, and katathesis, to put down; hence Synkatathesis, to deposit together. In the passive voice the verb means, to assent to, to agree with. Used by the Stoics in the sense of agreement, or conviction. In general it signifies, the acknowledgment of the truth of a proposition, or consent given to it with someone else. -- J.J.R.
telegraph ::: n. --> An apparatus, or a process, for communicating intelligence rapidly between distant points, especially by means of preconcerted visible or audible signals representing words or ideas, or by means of words and signs, transmitted by electrical action. ::: v. t. --> To convey or announce by telegraph.
Teleosis: Noun used in German by Ernst Haeckle (1834-1919) denoting organic improvement or perfection. -- J.J.R.
telephone ::: n. --> An instrument for reproducing sounds, especially articulate speech, at a distance. ::: v. t. --> To convey or announce by telephone.
tena tyaktena bhunjithah ::: by that renounced thou shouldst enjoy. [Isa 1]
tetraptote ::: n. --> A noun that has four cases only.
that ::: pron., a., conj., & --> As a demonstrative pronoun (pl. Those), that usually points out, or refers to, a person or thing previously mentioned, or supposed to be understood. That, as a demonstrative, may precede the noun to which it refers; as, that which he has said is true; those in the basket are good apples.
As an adjective, that has the same demonstrative force as the pronoun, but is followed by a noun.
As a relative pronoun, that is
their ::: pron. & a. --> The possessive case of the personal pronoun they; as, their houses; their country.
Theism: (Gr. theos, god) Is in general that type of religion or religious philosophy (see Religion, Philosophy of) which incorporates a conception of God as a unitary being; thus may be considered equivalent to monotheism. The speculation as to the relation of God to world gave rise to three great forms: God identified with world in pantheism (rare with emphasis on God); God, once having created the world, relatively disinterested in it, in deism (mainly an 18th cent, phenomenon); God working in and through the world, in theism proper. Accordingly, God either coincides with the world, is external to it (deus ex machina), or is immanent. The more personal, human-like God, the more theological the theism, the more appealing to a personal adjustment in prayer, worship, etc., which presuppose either that God, being like man, may be swayed in his decision, has no definite plan, or subsists in the very stuff man is made of (humanistic theism). Immanence of God entails agency in the world, presence, revelation, involvement in the historic process, it has been justified by Hindu and Semitic thinkers, Christian apologetics, ancient and modern metaphysical idealists, and by natural science philosophers. Transcendency of God removes him from human affairs, renders fellowship and communication in Church ways ineffectual, yet preserves God's majesty and absoluteness such as is postulated by philosophies which introduce the concept of God for want of a terser term for the ultimate, principal reality. Like Descartes and Spinoza, they allow the personal in God to fade and approach the age-old Indian pantheism evident in much of Vedic and post-Vedic philosophy in which the personal pronoun may be the only distinguishing mark between metaphysical logic and theology, similarly as in Hegel. The endowment postulated of God lends character to a theistic system of philosophy. Much of Hindu and Greek philosophy stresses the knowledge and ration aspect of the deity, thus producing an epistemological theism; Aristotle, in conceiving him as the prime mover, started a teleological one; mysticism is psychologically oriented in its theism, God being a feeling reality approachable in appropriate emotional states. The theism of religious faith is unquestioning and pragmatic in its attitude toward God; theology has often felt the need of offering proofs for the existence of God (see God) thus tending toward an ontological theism; metaphysics incorporates occasionally the concept of God as a thought necessity, advocating a logical theism. Kant's critique showed the respective fields of pure philosophic enquiry and theistic speculations with their past in historic creeds. Theism is left a possibility in agnosticism (q.v.). -- K.F.L.
Thelematism: Noun derived from the Greek, thelema, will. The equivalent of voluntarism, employed in German, scarcely, if at all, in English. -- J.J.R.
theme ::: n. --> A subject or topic on which a person writes or speaks; a proposition for discussion or argument; a text.
Discourse on a certain subject.
A composition or essay required of a pupil.
A noun or verb, not modified by inflections; also, that part of a noun or verb which remains unchanged (except by euphonic variations) in declension or conjugation; stem.
That by means of which a thing is done; means; instrument.
the ::: v. i. --> See Thee. ::: definite article. --> A word placed before nouns to limit or individualize their meaning. ::: adv.
they ::: obj. --> The plural of he, she, or it. They is never used adjectively, but always as a pronoun proper, and sometimes refers to persons without an antecedent expressed.
thine ::: pron. & a. --> A form of the possessive case of the pronoun thou, now superseded in common discourse by your, the possessive of you, but maintaining a place in solemn discourse, in poetry, and in the usual language of the Friends, or Quakers.
this ::: pron. & a. --> As a demonstrative pronoun, this denotes something that is present or near in place or time, or something just mentioned, or that is just about to be mentioned.
As an adjective, this has the same demonstrative force as the pronoun, but is followed by a noun; as, this book; this way to town.
thou ::: obj. --> The second personal pronoun, in the singular number, denoting the person addressed; thyself; the pronoun which is used in addressing persons in the solemn or poetical style. ::: v. t. --> To address as thou, esp. to do so in order to treat with insolent familiarity or contempt.
threaten ::: v. t. --> To utter threats against; to menace; to inspire with apprehension; to alarm, or attempt to alarm, as with the promise of something evil or disagreeable; to warn.
To exhibit the appearance of (something evil or unpleasant) as approaching; to indicate as impending; to announce the conditional infliction of; as, to threaten war; to threaten death. ::: v. i.
Three senses of "Ockhamism" may be distinguished: Logical, indicating usage of the terminology and technique of logical analysis developed by Ockham in his Summa totius logicae; in particular, use of the concept of supposition (suppositio) in the significative analysis of terms. Epistemological, indicating the thesis that universality is attributable only to terms and propositions, and not to things as existing apart from discourse. Theological, indicating the thesis that no tneological doctrines, such as those of God's existence or of the immortality of the soul, are evident or demonstrable philosophically, so that religious doctrine rests solely on faith, without metaphysical or scientific support. It is in this sense that Luther is often called an Ockhamist. Bibliography: B. Geyer, Ueberwegs Grundriss d. Gesch. d. Phil., Bd. II (11th ed., Berlin 1928), pp. 571-612 and 781-786; N. Abbagnano, Guglielmo di Ockham (Lanciano, Italy, 1931); E. A. Moody, The Logic of William of Ockham (N. Y. & London, 1935); F. Ehrle, Peter von Candia (Muenster, 1925); G. Ritter, Studien zur Spaetscholastik, I-II (Heidelberg, 1921-1922). --E.A.M. Om, aum: (Skr.) Mystic, holy syllable as a symbol for the indefinable Absolute. See Aksara, Vac, Sabda. --K.F.L. Omniscience: In philosophy and theology it means the complete and perfect knowledge of God, of Himself and of all other beings, past, present, and future, or merely possible, as well as all their activities, real or possible, including the future free actions of human beings. --J.J.R. One: Philosophically, not a number but equivalent to unit, unity, individuality, in contradistinction from multiplicity and the mani-foldness of sensory experience. In metaphysics, the Supreme Idea (Plato), the absolute first principle (Neo-platonism), the universe (Parmenides), Being as such and divine in nature (Plotinus), God (Nicolaus Cusanus), the soul (Lotze). Religious philosophy and mysticism, beginning with Indian philosophy (s.v.), has favored the designation of the One for the metaphysical world-ground, the ultimate icility, the world-soul, the principle of the world conceived as reason, nous, or more personally. The One may be conceived as an independent whole or as a sum, as analytic or synthetic, as principle or ontologically. Except by mysticism, it is rarely declared a fact of sensory experience, while its transcendent or transcendental, abstract nature is stressed, e.g., in epistemology where the "I" or self is considered the unitary background of personal experience, the identity of self-consciousness, or the unity of consciousness in the synthesis of the manifoldness of ideas (Kant). --K.F.L. One-one: A relation R is one-many if for every y in the converse domain there is a unique x such that xRy. A relation R is many-one if for every x in the domain there is a unique y such that xRy. (See the article relation.) A relation is one-one, or one-to-one, if it is at the same time one-many and many-one. A one-one relation is said to be, or to determine, a one-to-one correspondence between its domain and its converse domain. --A.C. On-handedness: (Ger. Vorhandenheit) Things exist in the mode of thereness, lying- passively in a neutral space. A "deficient" form of a more basic relationship, termed at-handedness (Zuhandenheit). (Heidegger.) --H.H. Ontological argument: Name by which later authors, especially Kant, designate the alleged proof for God's existence devised by Anselm of Canterbury. Under the name of God, so the argument runs, everyone understands that greater than which nothing can be thought. Since anything being the greatest and lacking existence is less then the greatest having also existence, the former is not really the greater. The greatest, therefore, has to exist. Anselm has been reproached, already by his contemporary Gaunilo, for unduly passing from the field of logical to the field of ontological or existential reasoning. This criticism has been repeated by many authors, among them Aquinas. The argument has, however, been used, if in a somewhat modified form, by Duns Scotus, Descartes, and Leibniz. --R.A. Ontological Object: (Gr. onta, existing things + logos, science) The real or existing object of an act of knowledge as distinguished from the epistemological object. See Epistemological Object. --L.W. Ontologism: (Gr. on, being) In contrast to psychologism, is called any speculative system which starts philosophizing by positing absolute being, or deriving the existence of entities independently of experience merely on the basis of their being thought, or assuming that we have immediate and certain knowledge of the ground of being or God. Generally speaking any rationalistic, a priori metaphysical doctrine, specifically the philosophies of Rosmini-Serbati and Vincenzo Gioberti. As a philosophic method censored by skeptics and criticists alike, as a scholastic doctrine formerly strongly supported, revived in Italy and Belgium in the 19th century, but no longer countenanced. --K.F.L. Ontology: (Gr. on, being + logos, logic) The theory of being qua being. For Aristotle, the First Philosophy, the science of the essence of things. Introduced as a term into philosophy by Wolff. The science of fundamental principles, the doctrine of the categories. Ultimate philosophy; rational cosmology. Syn. with metaphysics. See Cosmology, First Principles, Metaphysics, Theology. --J.K.F. Operation: "(Lit. operari, to work) Any act, mental or physical, constituting a phase of the reflective process, and performed with a view to acquiring1 knowledge or information about a certain subject-nntter. --A.C.B. In logic, see Operationism. In philosophy of science, see Pragmatism, Scientific Empiricism. Operationism: The doctrine that the meaning of a concept is given by a set of operations. 1. The operational meaning of a term (word or symbol) is given by a semantical rule relating the term to some concrete process, object or event, or to a class of such processes, objectj or events. 2. Sentences formed by combining operationally defined terms into propositions are operationally meaningful when the assertions are testable by means of performable operations. Thus, under operational rules, terms have semantical significance, propositions have empirical significance. Operationism makes explicit the distinction between formal (q.v.) and empirical sentences. Formal propositions are signs arranged according to syntactical rules but lacking operational reference. Such propositions, common in mathematics, logic and syntax, derive their sanction from convention, whereas an empirical proposition is acceptable (1) when its structure obeys syntactical rules and (2) when there exists a concrete procedure (a set of operations) for determining its truth or falsity (cf. Verification). Propositions purporting to be empirical are sometimes amenable to no operational test because they contain terms obeying no definite semantical rules. These sentences are sometimes called pseudo-propositions and are said to be operationally meaningless. They may, however, be 'meaningful" in other ways, e.g. emotionally or aesthetically (cf. Meaning). Unlike a formal statement, the "truth" of an empirical sentence is never absolute and its operational confirmation serves only to increase the degree of its validity. Similarly, the semantical rule comprising the operational definition of a term has never absolute precision. Ordinarily a term denotes a class of operations and the precision of its definition depends upon how definite are the rules governing inclusion in the class. The difference between Operationism and Logical Positivism (q.v.) is one of emphasis. Operationism's stress of empirical matters derives from the fact that it was first employed to purge physics of such concepts as absolute space and absolute time, when the theory of relativity had forced upon physicists the view that space and time are most profitably defined in terms of the operations by which they are measured. Although different methods of measuring length at first give rise to different concepts of length, wherever the equivalence of certain of these measures can be established by other operations, the concepts may legitimately be combined. In psychology the operational criterion of meaningfulness is commonly associated with a behavioristic point of view. See Behaviorism. Since only those propositions which are testable by public and repeatable operations are admissible in science, the definition of such concepti as mind and sensation must rest upon observable aspects of the organism or its behavior. Operational psychology deals with experience only as it is indicated by the operation of differential behavior, including verbal report. Discriminations, or the concrete differential reactions of organisms to internal or external environmental states, are by some authors regarded as the most basic of all operations. For a discussion of the role of operational definition in phvsics. see P. W. Bridgman, The Logic of Modern Physics, (New York, 1928) and The Nature of Physical Theory (Princeton, 1936). "The extension of operationism to psychology is discussed by C. C. Pratt in The Logic of Modem Psychology (New York. 1939.) For a discussion and annotated bibliography relating to Operationism and Logical Positivism, see S. S. Stevens, Psychology and the Science of Science, Psychol. Bull., 36, 1939, 221-263. --S.S.S. Ophelimity: Noun derived from the Greek, ophelimos useful, employed by Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) in economics as the equivalent of utility, or the capacity to provide satisfaction. --J.J.R. Opinion: (Lat. opinio, from opinor, to think) An hypothesis or proposition entertained on rational grounds but concerning which doubt can reasonably exist. A belief. See Hypothesis, Certainty, Knowledge. --J.K.F- Opposition: (Lat. oppositus, pp. of oppono, to oppose) Positive actual contradiction. One of Aristotle's Post-predicaments. In logic any contrariety or contradiction, illustrated by the "Square of Opposition". Syn. with: conflict. See Logic, formal, § 4. --J.K.F. Optimism: (Lat. optimus, the best) The view inspired by wishful thinking, success, faith, or philosophic reflection, that the world as it exists is not so bad or even the best possible, life is good, and man's destiny is bright. Philosophically most persuasively propounded by Leibniz in his Theodicee, according to which God in his wisdom would have created a better world had he known or willed such a one to exist. Not even he could remove moral wrong and evil unless he destroyed the power of self-determination and hence the basis of morality. All systems of ethics that recognize a supreme good (Plato and many idealists), subscribe to the doctrines of progressivism (Turgot, Herder, Comte, and others), regard evil as a fragmentary view (Josiah Royce et al.) or illusory, or believe in indemnification (Henry David Thoreau) or melioration (Emerson), are inclined optimistically. Practically all theologies advocating a plan of creation and salvation, are optimistic though they make the good or the better dependent on moral effort, right thinking, or belief, promising it in a future existence. Metaphysical speculation is optimistic if it provides for perfection, evolution to something higher, more valuable, or makes room for harmonies or a teleology. See Pessimism. --K.F.L. Order: A class is said to be partially ordered by a dyadic relation R if it coincides with the field of R, and R is transitive and reflexive, and xRy and yRx never both hold when x and y are different. If in addition R is connected, the class is said to be ordered (or simply ordered) by R, and R is called an ordering relation. Whitehcid and Russell apply the term serial relation to relations which are transitive, irreflexive, and connected (and, in consequence, also asymmetric). However, the use of serial relations in this sense, instead ordering relations as just defined, is awkward in connection with the notion of order for unit classes. Examples: The relation not greater than among leal numbers is an ordering relation. The relation less than among real numbers is a serial relation. The real numbers are simply ordered by the former relation. In the algebra of classes (logic formal, § 7), the classes are partially ordered by the relation of class inclusion. For explanation of the terminology used in making the above definitions, see the articles connexity, reflexivity, relation, symmetry, transitivity. --A.C. Order type: See relation-number. Ordinal number: A class b is well-ordered by a dyadic relation R if it is ordered by R (see order) and, for every class a such that a ⊂ b, there is a member x of a, such that xRy holds for every member y of a; and R is then called a well-ordering relation. The ordinal number of a class b well-ordered by a relation R, or of a well-ordering relation R, is defined to be the relation-number (q. v.) of R. The ordinal numbers of finite classes (well-ordered by appropriate relations) are called finite ordinal numbers. These are 0, 1, 2, ... (to be distinguished, of course, from the finite cardinal numbers 0, 1, 2, . . .). The first non-finite (transfinite or infinite) ordinal number is the ordinal number of the class of finite ordinal numbers, well-ordered in their natural order, 0, 1, 2, . . .; it is usually denoted by the small Greek letter omega. --A.C. G. Cantor, Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers, translated and with an introduction by P. E. B. Jourdain, Chicago and London, 1915. (new ed. 1941); Whitehead and Russell, Princtpia Mathematica. vol. 3. Orexis: (Gr. orexis) Striving; desire; the conative aspect of mind, as distinguished from the cognitive and emotional (Aristotle). --G.R.M.. Organicism: A theory of biology that life consists in the organization or dynamic system of the organism. Opposed to mechanism and vitalism. --J.K.F. Organism: An individual animal or plant, biologically interpreted. A. N. Whitehead uses the term to include also physical bodies and to signify anything material spreading through space and enduring in time. --R.B.W. Organismic Psychology: (Lat. organum, from Gr. organon, an instrument) A system of theoretical psychology which construes the structure of the mind in organic rather than atomistic terms. See Gestalt Psychology; Psychological Atomism. --L.W. Organization: (Lat. organum, from Gr. organon, work) A structured whole. The systematic unity of parts in a purposive whole. A dynamic system. Order in something actual. --J.K.F. Organon: (Gr. organon) The title traditionally given to the body of Aristotle's logical treatises. The designation appears to have originated among the Peripatetics after Aristotle's time, and expresses their view that logic is not a part of philosophy (as the Stoics maintained) but rather the instrument (organon) of philosophical inquiry. See Aristotelianism. --G.R.M. In Kant. A system of principles by which pure knowledge may be acquired and established. Cf. Fr. Bacon's Novum Organum. --O.F.K. Oriental Philosophy: A general designation used loosely to cover philosophic tradition exclusive of that grown on Greek soil and including the beginnings of philosophical speculation in Egypt, Arabia, Iran, India, and China, the elaborate systems of India, Greater India, China, and Japan, and sometimes also the religion-bound thought of all these countries with that of the complex cultures of Asia Minor, extending far into antiquity. Oriental philosophy, though by no means presenting a homogeneous picture, nevertheless shares one characteristic, i.e., the practical outlook on life (ethics linked with metaphysics) and the absence of clear-cut distinctions between pure speculation and religious motivation, and on lower levels between folklore, folk-etymology, practical wisdom, pre-scientiiic speculation, even magic, and flashes of philosophic insight. Bonds with Western, particularly Greek philosophy have no doubt existed even in ancient times. Mutual influences have often been conjectured on the basis of striking similarities, but their scientific establishment is often difficult or even impossible. Comparative philosophy (see especially the work of Masson-Oursel) provides a useful method. Yet a thorough treatment of Oriental Philosophy is possible only when the many languages in which it is deposited have been more thoroughly studied, the psychological and historical elements involved in the various cultures better investigated, and translations of the relevant documents prepared not merely from a philological point of view or out of missionary zeal, but by competent philosophers who also have some linguistic training. Much has been accomplished in this direction in Indian and Chinese Philosophy (q.v.). A great deal remains to be done however before a definitive history of Oriental Philosophy may be written. See also Arabian, and Persian Philosophy. --K.F.L. Origen: (185-254) The principal founder of Christian theology who tried to enrich the ecclesiastic thought of his day by reconciling it with the treasures of Greek philosophy. Cf. Migne PL. --R.B.W. Ormazd: (New Persian) Same as Ahura Mazdah (q.v.), the good principle in Zoroastrianism, and opposed to Ahriman (q.v.). --K.F.L. Orphic Literature: The mystic writings, extant only in fragments, of a Greek religious-philosophical movement of the 6th century B.C., allegedly started by the mythical Orpheus. In their mysteries, in which mythology and rational thinking mingled, the Orphics concerned themselves with cosmogony, theogony, man's original creation and his destiny after death which they sought to influence to the better by pure living and austerity. They taught a symbolism in which, e.g., the relationship of the One to the many was clearly enunciated, and believed in the soul as involved in reincarnation. Pythagoras, Empedocles, and Plato were influenced by them. --K.F.L. Ortega y Gasset, Jose: Born in Madrid, May 9, 1883. At present in Buenos Aires, Argentine. Son of Ortega y Munillo, the famous Spanish journalist. Studied at the College of Jesuits in Miraflores and at the Central University of Madrid. In the latter he presented his Doctor's dissertation, El Milenario, in 1904, thereby obtaining his Ph.D. degree. After studies in Leipzig, Berlin, Marburg, under the special influence of Hermann Cohen, the great exponent of Kant, who taught him the love for the scientific method and awoke in him the interest in educational philosophy, Ortega came to Spain where, after the death of Nicolas Salmeron, he occupied the professorship of metaphysics at the Central University of Madrid. The following may be considered the most important works of Ortega y Gasset: Meditaciones del Quijote, 1914; El Espectador, I-VIII, 1916-1935; El Tema de Nuestro Tiempo, 1921; España Invertebrada, 1922; Kant, 1924; La Deshumanizacion del Arte, 1925; Espiritu de la Letra, 1927; La Rebelion de las Masas, 1929; Goethe desde Adentio, 1934; Estudios sobre el Amor, 1939; Ensimismamiento y Alteracion, 1939; El Libro de las Misiones, 1940; Ideas y Creencias, 1940; and others. Although brought up in the Marburg school of thought, Ortega is not exactly a neo-Kantian. At the basis of his Weltanschauung one finds a denial of the fundamental presuppositions which characterized European Rationalism. It is life and not thought which is primary. Things have a sense and a value which must be affirmed independently. Things, however, are to be conceived as the totality of situations which constitute the circumstances of a man's life. Hence, Ortega's first philosophical principle: "I am myself plus my circumstances". Life as a problem, however, is but one of the poles of his formula. Reason is the other. The two together function, not by dialectical opposition, but by necessary coexistence. Life, according to Ortega, does not consist in being, but rather, in coming to be, and as such it is of the nature of direction, program building, purpose to be achieved, value to be realized. In this sense the future as a time dimension acquires new dignity, and even the present and the past become articulate and meaning-full only in relation to the future. Even History demands a new point of departure and becomes militant with new visions. --J.A.F. Orthodoxy: Beliefs which are declared by a group to be true and normative. Heresy is a departure from and relative to a given orthodoxy. --V.S. Orthos Logos: See Right Reason. Ostensible Object: (Lat. ostendere, to show) The object envisaged by cognitive act irrespective of its actual existence. See Epistemological Object. --L.W. Ostensive: (Lat. ostendere, to show) Property of a concept or predicate by virtue of which it refers to and is clarified by reference to its instances. --A.C.B. Ostwald, Wilhelm: (1853-1932) German chemist. Winner of the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1909. In Die Uberwindung des wissenschaftlichen Materialistmus and in Naturphilosophie, his two best known works in the field of philosophy, he advocates a dynamic theory in opposition to materialism and mechanism. All properties of matter, and the psychic as well, are special forms of energy. --L.E.D. Oupnekhat: Anquetil Duperron's Latin translation of the Persian translation of 50 Upanishads (q.v.), a work praised by Schopenhauer as giving him complete consolation. --K.F.L. Outness: A term employed by Berkeley to express the experience of externality, that is the ideas of space and things placed at a distance. Hume used it in the sense of distance Hamilton understood it as the state of being outside of consciousness in a really existing world of material things. --J.J.R. Overindividual: Term used by H. Münsterberg to translate the German überindividuell. The term is applied to any cognitive or value object which transcends the individual subject. --L.W. P
thyself ::: pron. --> An emphasized form of the personal pronoun of the second person; -- used as a subject commonly with thou; as, thou thyself shalt go; that is, thou shalt go, and no other. It is sometimes used, especially in the predicate, without thou, and in the nominative as well as in the objective case.
toastmaster ::: n. --> A person who presides at a public dinner or banquet, and announces the toasts.
to give audible expression to; speak or pronounce. uttered.
triphthongal ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to a triphthong; consisting of three vowel sounds pronounced together in a single syllable.
triptote ::: n. --> A noun having three cases only.
trumpeter ::: n. --> One who sounds a trumpet.
One who proclaims, publishes, or denounces.
Any one of several species of long-legged South American birds of the genus Psophia, especially P. crepitans, which is abundant, and often domesticated and kept with other poultry by the natives. They are allied to the cranes. So called from their loud cry. Called also agami, and yakamik.
A variety of the domestic pigeon.
tyagi. :::a renouncer; an ascetic
tyaktena bhunjithah ::: by (that) renounced thou shouldst enjoy. [Isa 1]
un- ::: --> An inseparable verbal prefix or particle. It is prefixed: (a) To verbs to express the contrary, and not the simple negative, of the action of the verb to which it is prefixed; as in uncoil, undo, unfold. (b) To nouns to form verbs expressing privation of the thing, quality, or state expressed by the noun, or separation from it; as in unchild, unsex. Sometimes particles and participial adjectives formed with this prefix coincide in form with compounds of the negative prefix un- (see 2d Un-); as in undone (from undo), meaning unfastened, ruined; and
valedictorian ::: n. --> One who pronounces a valedictory address; especially, in American colleges, the student who pronounces the valedictory of the graduating class at the annual commencement, usually the student who ranks first in scholarship.
Value: The contemporary use of the term "value" and the discipline now known as the theory of value or axiology are relatively recent developments in philosophy, being largely results of certain 19th and 20th century movements. See Ethics. "Value" is used both as a noun and as a verb. As a noun it is sometimes abstract, sometimes concrete. As an abstract noun it designates the property of value or of being valuable. In this sense "value" is often used as equivalent to "worth" or "goodness," in which case evil is usually referred to as "disvalue." But it is also used more broadly to cover evil or badness as well as goodness, just as "temperature" is used to cover both heat and cold. Then evil is referred to as negative value and goodness as positive value.
Vedic Religion: Or the Religion of the Vedas (q.v.). It is thoroughly cosmological, inspirational and ritualistic, priest and sacrifice playing an important role. It started with belief in different gods, such as Indra, Agni, Surya, Vishnu, Ushas, the Maruts, usually interpreted as symbolizing the forces of nature, but with the development of Hinduism it deteriorated into a worship of thousands of gods corresponding to the diversification of function and status in the complex social organism. Accompanying there was a pronounced tendency toward magic even in Vedic times, while the more elevated thoughts which have found expression in magnificent praises of the one or the other deity finally became crystallized in the philosophic thought of the Upanishads (q.v.). There is a distinct break, however, between Vedic culture with its free and autochthonous religious consciousness and the rigidly caste and custom controlled religion as we know it in India today, as also the religion of bhakti (q.v.). -- K.F.L.
verdict ::: n. --> The answer of a jury given to the court concerning any matter of fact in any cause, civil or criminal, committed to their examination and determination; the finding or decision of a jury on the matter legally submitted to them in the course of the trial of a cause.
Decision; judgment; opinion pronounced; as, to be condemned by the verdict of the public.
vocative ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to calling; used in calling; specifically (Gram.), used in address; appellative; -- said of that case or form of the noun, pronoun, or adjective, in which a person or thing is addressed; as, Domine, O Lord. ::: n. --> The vocative case.
vocule ::: n. --> A short or weak utterance; a faint or feeble sound, as that heard on separating the lips in pronouncing p or b.
voiced ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Voice ::: a. --> Furnished with a voice; expressed by the voice.
Uttered with voice; pronounced with vibrations of the vocal cords; sonant; -- said of a sound uttered with the glottis narrowed.
wegotism ::: n. --> Excessive use of the pronoun we; -- called also weism.
we ::: pl. --> of I ::: obj. --> The plural nominative case of the pronoun of the first person; the word with which a person in speaking or writing denotes a number or company of which he is one, as the subject of an action expressed by a verb.
what ::: pron., a., & adv. --> As an interrogative pronoun, used in asking questions regarding either persons or things; as, what is this? what did you say? what poem is this? what child is lost?
As an exclamatory word: -- (a) Used absolutely or independently; -- often with a question following.
Used adjectively, meaning how remarkable, or how great; as, what folly! what eloquence! what courage!
Sometimes prefixed to adjectives in an
which ::: a. --> Of what sort or kind; what; what a; who.
A interrogative pronoun, used both substantively and adjectively, and in direct and indirect questions, to ask for, or refer to, an individual person or thing among several of a class; as, which man is it? which woman was it? which is the house? he asked which route he should take; which is best, to live or to die? See the Note under What, pron., 1.