1. A framework; structure. 2. Any cloth made from yarn or fibres by weaving, knitting, felting, etc. Also fig.
1. Of or pertaining to the structure of waxy, hexagonal cells formed by bees for the production and storage of honey. 2.* Fig.* Anything containing sweetness likened to honey.
3. "The generalized conclusion is that therefore the parts of experience hold together from next to next by relations that are themselves parts of experience. The directly apprehended universe needs, in short, no extraneous trans-empirical connective support, but possesses in its own right a concatenated or continuous structure."
A block, pile, table, stand, mound, platform, or other elevated structure on which to place or sacrifice offerings to a deity. 2. With reference to the uses, customs, dedication, or peculiar sanctity of the altar. 3. A place consecrated to devotional observances. altar’s, altars, altar-burnings, mountain-altars.
a structure for supporting or enclosing something else, especially a skeletal support used as the basis for something being constructed. Also fig.
adeno- ::: --> Combining forms of the Greek word for gland; -- used in words relating to the structure, diseases, etc., of the glands.
alcoves ::: recessed spaces, as bowers in a garden; arched recesses or niches in the wall of any structure.
altar ::: 1. A block, pile, table, stand, mound, platform, or other elevated structure on which to place or sacrifice offerings to a deity. 2. With reference to the uses, customs, dedication, or peculiar sanctity of the altar. 3. A place consecrated to devotional observances. altar"s, altars, altar-burnings, mountain-altars.
altar ::: n. --> A raised structure (as a square or oblong erection of stone or wood) on which sacrifices are offered or incense burned to a deity.
In the Christian church, a construction of stone, wood, or other material for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist; the communion table.
Amal: “This is the scientific building of knowledge by a logical process—a massing together of little observations into a coherent whole. It implies the loss of the original knowledge which was direct and grasped at once from all sides and not structured piece by piece from small bits of logical deduction.”
amoebous ::: a. --> Like an amoeba in structure.
amphibole ::: n. --> A common mineral embracing many varieties varying in color and in composition. It occurs in monoclinic crystals; also massive, generally with fibrous or columnar structure. The color varies from white to gray, green, brown, and black. It is a silicate of magnesium and calcium, with usually aluminium and iron. Some common varieties are tremolite, actinolite, asbestus, edenite, hornblende (the last name being also used as a general term for the whole species). Amphibole is a constituent of many crystalline rocks, as syenite,
amphigamous ::: a. --> Having a structure entirely cellular, and no distinct sexual organs; -- a term applied by De Candolle to the lowest order of plants.
Analysis, intentional: (Ger. intentionale Analyse) In Husserl: Explication and clarification of the essential structure of actual and potential (horizonal) synthesis by virtue of which objects are Intentionally constituted. As noematic, intentional analysis discovers, explicates, and clarifies, the focally and horizontally intended objective sense (and the latter's quasi-objective substrates) in its manners of givenness, posltedness, etc., and yields clues to the corresponding noetic synthesis. As noetic or constitutional, intentional analysis discovers, isolates, and clarifies these synthetically constituted structures of consciousness. See Phenomenology. -- D.C.
anatomism ::: n. --> The application of the principles of anatomy, as in art.
The doctrine that the anatomical structure explains all the phenomena of the organism or of animal life.
anatomize ::: v. t. --> To dissect; to cut in pieces, as an animal vegetable body, for the purpose of displaying or examining the structure and use of the several parts.
To discriminate minutely or carefully; to analyze.
anatomy ::: n. --> The art of dissecting, or artificially separating the different parts of any organized body, to discover their situation, structure, and economy; dissection.
The science which treats of the structure of organic bodies; anatomical structure or organization.
A treatise or book on anatomy.
The act of dividing anything, corporeal or intellectual, for the purpose of examining its parts; analysis; as, the anatomy of a
anhistous ::: a. --> Without definite structure; as, an anhistous membrane.
ankylosis ::: n. --> Stiffness or fixation of a joint; formation of a stiff joint.
The union of two or more separate bones to from a single bone; the close union of bones or other structures in various animals.
Same as Anchylosis.
annulus ::: n. --> A ring; a ringlike part or space.
A space contained between the circumferences of two circles, one within the other.
The solid formed by a circle revolving around a line which is the plane of the circle but does not cut it.
Ring-shaped structures or markings, found in, or upon, various animals.
anthropology ::: n. --> The science of the structure and functions of the human body.
The science of man; -- sometimes used in a limited sense to mean the study of man as an object of natural history, or as an animal.
That manner of expression by which the inspired writers attribute human parts and passions to God.
aphanitic ::: a. --> Resembling aphanite; having a very fine-grained structure.
archetype ::: n. --> The original pattern or model of a work; or the model from which a thing is made or formed.
The standard weight or coin by which others are adjusted.
The plan or fundamental structure on which a natural group of animals or plants or their systems of organs are assumed to have been constructed; as, the vertebrate archetype.
arching ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Arch ::: n. --> The arched part of a structure.
Hogging; -- opposed to sagging.
architecture ::: 1. The profession of designing buildings and other artificial constructions and environments, usually with some regard to aesthetic effect. 2. The character or style of building. 3. Construction or structure generally. architectures.
architecture ::: n. --> The art or science of building; especially, the art of building houses, churches, bridges, and other structures, for the purposes of civil life; -- often called civil architecture.
Construction, in a more general sense; frame or structure; workmanship.
areolation ::: n. --> Division into areolae.
Any small space, bounded by some part different in color or structure, as the spaces bounded by the nervures of the wings of insects, or those by the veins of leaves; an areola.
asbestiform ::: a. --> Having the form or structure of asbestus.
ascidiarium ::: n. --> The structure which unites together the ascidiozooids in a compound ascidian.
ascidioidea ::: n. pl. --> A group of Tunicata, often shaped like a two-necked bottle. The group includes, social, and compound species. The gill is a netlike structure within the oral aperture. The integument is usually leathery in texture. See Illustration in Appendix.
Associationism: A theory of the structure and organization of mind which asserts that: (a) every mental state is resolvable into simple, discrete components (See Mind-Stuff Theory, Psychological Atomism) and (b) the whole of the mental life is explicable by the combination and recombination of these elemental states in conformity with the laws of association of ideas. (See Association, Laws of). Hume (Treatise on Human Nature, 1739) and Hartley (Observations on Man, 1749) may be considered the founders of associationism of which James Mill, J. S. Mill and A. Bain are later exponents. -- L.W.
Attribute: Commonly, what is proper to a thing (Latm, ad-tribuere, to assign, to ascribe, to bestow). Loosely assimilated to a quality, a property, a characteristic, a peculiarity, a circumstance, a state, a category, a mode or an accident, though there are differences among all these terms. For example, a quality is an inherent property (the qualities of matter), while an attribute refers to the actual properties of a thing only indirectly known (the attributes of God). Another difference between attribute and quality is that the former refers to the characteristics of an infinite being, while the latter is used for the characteristics of a finite being. In metaphysics, an attribute is what is indispensable to a spiritual or material substance; or that which expresses the nature of a thing; or that without which a thing is unthinkable. As such, it implies necessarily a relation to some substance of which it is an aspect or conception. But it cannot be a substance, as it does not exist by itself. The transcendental attributes are those which belong to a being because it is a being: there are three of them, the one, the true and the good, each adding something positive to the idea of being. The word attribute has been and still is used more readily, with various implications, by substantialist systems. In the 17th century, for example, it denoted the actual manifestations of substance. [Thus, Descartes regarded extension and thought as the two ultimate, simple and original attributes of reality, all else being modifications of them. With Spinoza, extension and thought became the only known attributes of Deity, each expressing in a definite manner, though not exclusively, the infinite essence of God as the only substance. The change in the meaning of substance after Hume and Kant is best illustrated by this quotation from Whitehead: "We diverge from Descartes by holding that what he has described as primary attributes of physical bodies, are really the forms of internal relationships between actual occasions and within actual occasions" (Process and Reality, p. 471).] The use of the notion of attribute, however, is still favoured by contemporary thinkers. Thus, John Boodin speaks of the five attributes of reality, namely: Energy (source of activity), Space (extension), Time (change), Consciousness (active awareness), and Form (organization, structure). In theodicy, the term attribute is used for the essential characteristics of God. The divine attributes are the various aspects under which God is viewed, each being treated as a separate perfection. As God is free from composition, we know him only in a mediate and synthetic way thrgugh his attributes. In logic, an attribute is that which is predicated or anything, that which Is affirmed or denied of the subject of a proposition. More specifically, an attribute may be either a category or a predicable; but it cannot be an individual materially. Attributes may be essential or accidental, necessary or contingent. In grammar, an attribute is an adjective, or an adjectival clause, or an equivalent adjunct expressing a characteristic referred to a subject through a verb. Because of this reference, an attribute may also be a substantive, as a class-name, but not a proper name as a rule. An attribute is never a verb, thus differing from a predicate which may consist of a verb often having some object or qualifying words. In natural history, what is permanent and essential in a species, an individual or in its parts. In psychology, it denotes the way (such as intensity, duration or quality) in which sensations, feelings or images can differ from one another. In art, an attribute is a material or a conventional symbol, distinction or decoration.
Aufklärung: In general, this German word and its English equivalent Enlightenment denote the self-emancipation of man from mere authority, prejudice, convention and tradition, with an insistence on freer thinking about problems uncritically referred to these other agencies. According to Kant's famous definition "Enlightenment is the liberation of man from his self-caused state of minority, which is the incapacity of using one's understanding without the direction of another. This state of minority is caused when its source lies not in the lack of understanding, but in the lack of determination and courage to use it without the assistance of another" (Was ist Aufklärung? 1784). In its historical perspective, the Aufklärung refers to the cultural atmosphere and contrlbutions of the 18th century, especially in Germany, France and England [which affected also American thought with B. Franklin, T. Paine and the leaders of the Revolution]. It crystallized tendencies emphasized by the Renaissance, and quickened by modern scepticism and empiricism, and by the great scientific discoveries of the 17th century. This movement, which was represented by men of varying tendencies, gave an impetus to general learning, a more popular philosophy, empirical science, scriptural criticism, social and political thought. More especially, the word Aufklärung is applied to the German contributions to 18th century culture. In philosophy, its principal representatives are G. E. Lessing (1729-81) who believed in free speech and in a methodical criticism of religion, without being a free-thinker; H. S. Reimarus (1694-1768) who expounded a naturalistic philosophy and denied the supernatural origin of Christianity; Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) who endeavoured to mitigate prejudices and developed a popular common-sense philosophy; Chr. Wolff (1679-1754), J. A. Eberhard (1739-1809) who followed the Leibnizian rationalism and criticized unsuccessfully Kant and Fichte; and J. G. Herder (1744-1803) who was best as an interpreter of others, but whose intuitional suggestions have borne fruit in the organic correlation of the sciences, and in questions of language in relation to human nature and to national character. The works of Kant and Goethe mark the culmination of the German Enlightenment. Cf. J. G. Hibben, Philosophy of the Enlightenment, 1910. --T.G. Augustinianism: The thought of St. Augustine of Hippo, and of his followers. Born in 354 at Tagaste in N. Africa, A. studied rhetoric in Carthage, taught that subject there and in Rome and Milan. Attracted successively to Manicheanism, Scepticism, and Neo-Platontsm, A. eventually found intellectual and moral peace with his conversion to Christianity in his thirty-fourth year. Returning to Africa, he established numerous monasteries, became a priest in 391, Bishop of Hippo in 395. Augustine wrote much: On Free Choice, Confessions, Literal Commentary on Genesis, On the Trinity, and City of God, are his most noted works. He died in 430. St. Augustine's characteristic method, an inward empiricism which has little in common with later variants, starts from things without, proceeds within to the self, and moves upwards to God. These three poles of the Augustinian dialectic are polarized by his doctrine of moderate illuminism. An ontological illumination is required to explain the metaphysical structure of things. The truth of judgment demands a noetic illumination. A moral illumination is necessary in the order of willing; and so, too, an lllumination of art in the aesthetic order. Other illuminations which transcend the natural order do not come within the scope of philosophy; they provide the wisdoms of theology and mysticism. Every being is illuminated ontologically by number, form, unity and its derivatives, and order. A thing is what it is, in so far as it is more or less flooded by the light of these ontological constituents. Sensation is necessary in order to know material substances. There is certainly an action of the external object on the body and a corresponding passion of the body, but, as the soul is superior to the body and can suffer nothing from its inferior, sensation must be an action, not a passion, of the soul. Sensation takes place only when the observing soul, dynamically on guard throughout the body, is vitally attentive to the changes suffered by the body. However, an adequate basis for the knowledge of intellectual truth is not found in sensation alone. In order to know, for example, that a body is multiple, the idea of unity must be present already, otherwise its multiplicity could not be recognized. If numbers are not drawn in by the bodily senses which perceive only the contingent and passing, is the mind the source of the unchanging and necessary truth of numbers? The mind of man is also contingent and mutable, and cannot give what it does not possess. As ideas are not innate, nor remembered from a previous existence of the soul, they can be accounted for only by an immutable source higher than the soul. In so far as man is endowed with an intellect, he is a being naturally illuminated by God, Who may be compared to an intelligible sun. The human intellect does not create the laws of thought; it finds them and submits to them. The immediate intuition of these normative rules does not carry any content, thus any trace of ontologism is avoided. Things have forms because they have numbers, and they have being in so far as they possess form. The sufficient explanation of all formable, and hence changeable, things is an immutable and eternal form which is unrestricted in time and space. The forms or ideas of all things actually existing in the world are in the things themselves (as rationes seminales) and in the Divine Mind (as rationes aeternae). Nothing could exist without unity, for to be is no other than to be one. There is a unity proper to each level of being, a unity of the material individual and species, of the soul, and of that union of souls in the love of the same good, which union constitutes the city. Order, also, is ontologically imbibed by all beings. To tend to being is to tend to order; order secures being, disorder leads to non-being. Order is the distribution which allots things equal and unequal each to its own place and integrates an ensemble of parts in accordance with an end. Hence, peace is defined as the tranquillity of order. Just as things have their being from their forms, the order of parts, and their numerical relations, so too their beauty is not something superadded, but the shining out of all their intelligible co-ingredients. S. Aurelii Augustini, Opera Omnia, Migne, PL 32-47; (a critical edition of some works will be found in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vienna). Gilson, E., Introd. a l'etude de s. Augustin, (Paris, 1931) contains very good bibliography up to 1927, pp. 309-331. Pope, H., St. Augustine of Hippo, (London, 1937). Chapman, E., St. Augustine's Philos. of Beauty, (N. Y., 1939). Figgis, J. N., The Political Aspects of St. Augustine's "City of God", (London, 1921). --E.C. Authenticity: In a general sense, genuineness, truth according to its title. It involves sometimes a direct and personal characteristic (Whitehead speaks of "authentic feelings"). This word also refers to problems of fundamental criticism involving title, tradition, authorship and evidence. These problems are vital in theology, and basic in scholarship with regard to the interpretation of texts and doctrines. --T.G. Authoritarianism: That theory of knowledge which maintains that the truth of any proposition is determined by the fact of its having been asserted by a certain esteemed individual or group of individuals. Cf. H. Newman, Grammar of Assent; C. S. Peirce, "Fixation of Belief," in Chance, Love and Logic, ed. M. R. Cohen. --A.C.B. Autistic thinking: Absorption in fanciful or wishful thinking without proper control by objective or factual material; day dreaming; undisciplined imagination. --A.C.B. Automaton Theory: Theory that a living organism may be considered a mere machine. See Automatism. Automatism: (Gr. automatos, self-moving) (a) In metaphysics: Theory that animal and human organisms are automata, that is to say, are machines governed by the laws of physics and mechanics. Automatism, as propounded by Descartes, considered the lower animals to be pure automata (Letter to Henry More, 1649) and man a machine controlled by a rational soul (Treatise on Man). Pure automatism for man as well as animals is advocated by La Mettrie (Man, a Machine, 1748). During the Nineteenth century, automatism, combined with epiphenomenalism, was advanced by Hodgson, Huxley and Clifford. (Cf. W. James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, ch. V.) Behaviorism, of the extreme sort, is the most recent version of automatism (See Behaviorism). (b) In psychology: Psychological automatism is the performance of apparently purposeful actions, like automatic writing without the superintendence of the conscious mind. L. C. Rosenfield, From Beast Machine to Man Machine, N. Y., 1941. --L.W. Automatism, Conscious: The automatism of Hodgson, Huxley, and Clifford which considers man a machine to which mind or consciousness is superadded; the mind of man is, however, causally ineffectual. See Automatism; Epiphenomenalism. --L.W. Autonomy: (Gr. autonomia, independence) Freedom consisting in self-determination and independence of all external constraint. See Freedom. Kant defines autonomy of the will as subjection of the will to its own law, the categorical imperative, in contrast to heteronomy, its subjection to a law or end outside the rational will. (Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, § 2.) --L.W. Autonomy of ethics: A doctrine, usually propounded by intuitionists, that ethics is not a part of, and cannot be derived from, either metaphysics or any of the natural or social sciences. See Intuitionism, Metaphysical ethics, Naturalistic ethics. --W.K.F. Autonomy of the will: (in Kant's ethics) The freedom of the rational will to legislate to itself, which constitutes the basis for the autonomy of the moral law. --P.A.S. Autonymy: In the terminology introduced by Carnap, a word (phrase, symbol, expression) is autonymous if it is used as a name for itself --for the geometric shape, sound, etc. which it exemplifies, or for the word as a historical and grammatical unit. Autonymy is thus the same as the Scholastic suppositio matertalis (q. v.), although the viewpoint is different. --A.C. Autotelic: (from Gr. autos, self, and telos, end) Said of any absorbing activity engaged in for its own sake (cf. German Selbstzweck), such as higher mathematics, chess, etc. In aesthetics, applied to creative art and play which lack any conscious reference to the accomplishment of something useful. In the view of some, it may constitute something beneficent in itself of which the person following his art impulse (q.v.) or playing is unaware, thus approaching a heterotelic (q.v.) conception. --K.F.L. Avenarius, Richard: (1843-1896) German philosopher who expressed his thought in an elaborate and novel terminology in the hope of constructing a symbolic language for philosophy, like that of mathematics --the consequence of his Spinoza studies. As the most influential apostle of pure experience, the posltivistic motive reaches in him an extreme position. Insisting on the biologic and economic function of thought, he thought the true method of science is to cure speculative excesses by a return to pure experience devoid of all assumptions. Philosophy is the scientific effort to exclude from knowledge all ideas not included in the given. Its task is to expel all extraneous elements in the given. His uncritical use of the category of the given and the nominalistic view that logical relations are created rather than discovered by thought, leads him to banish not only animism but also all of the categories, substance, causality, etc., as inventions of the mind. Explaining the evolution and devolution of the problematization and deproblematization of numerous ideas, and aiming to give the natural history of problems, Avenarius sought to show physiologically, psychologically and historically under what conditions they emerge, are challenged and are solved. He hypothesized a System C, a bodily and central nervous system upon which consciousness depends. R-values are the stimuli received from the world of objects. E-values are the statements of experience. The brain changes that continually oscillate about an ideal point of balance are termed Vitalerhaltungsmaximum. The E-values are differentiated into elements, to which the sense-perceptions or the content of experience belong, and characters, to which belongs everything which psychology describes as feelings and attitudes. Avenarius describes in symbolic form a series of states from balance to balance, termed vital series, all describing a series of changes in System C. Inequalities in the vital balance give rise to vital differences. According to his theory there are two vital series. It assumes a series of brain changes because parallel series of conscious states can be observed. The independent vital series are physical, and the dependent vital series are psychological. The two together are practically covariants. In the case of a process as a dependent vital series three stages can be noted: first, the appearance of the problem, expressed as strain, restlessness, desire, fear, doubt, pain, repentance, delusion; the second, the continued effort and struggle to solve the problem; and finally, the appearance of the solution, characterized by abating anxiety, a feeling of triumph and enjoyment. Corresponding to these three stages of the dependent series are three stages of the independent series: the appearance of the vital difference and a departure from balance in the System C, the continuance with an approximate vital difference, and lastly, the reduction of the vital difference to zero, the return to stability. By making room for dependent and independent experiences, he showed that physics regards experience as independent of the experiencing indlvidual, and psychology views experience as dependent upon the individual. He greatly influenced Mach and James (q.v.). See Avenarius, Empirio-criticism, Experience, pure. Main works: Kritik der reinen Erfahrung; Der menschliche Weltbegriff. --H.H. Averroes: (Mohammed ibn Roshd) Known to the Scholastics as The Commentator, and mentioned as the author of il gran commento by Dante (Inf. IV. 68) he was born 1126 at Cordova (Spain), studied theology, law, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy, became after having been judge in Sevilla and Cordova, physician to the khalifah Jaqub Jusuf, and charged with writing a commentary on the works of Aristotle. Al-mansur, Jusuf's successor, deprived him of his place because of accusations of unorthodoxy. He died 1198 in Morocco. Averroes is not so much an original philosopher as the author of a minute commentary on the whole works of Aristotle. His procedure was imitated later by Aquinas. In his interpretation of Aristotelian metaphysics Averroes teaches the coeternity of a universe created ex nihilo. This doctrine formed together with the notion of a numerical unity of the active intellect became one of the controversial points in the discussions between the followers of Albert-Thomas and the Latin Averroists. Averroes assumed that man possesses only a disposition for receiving the intellect coming from without; he identifies this disposition with the possible intellect which thus is not truly intellectual by nature. The notion of one intellect common to all men does away with the doctrine of personal immortality. Another doctrine which probably was emphasized more by the Latin Averroists (and by the adversaries among Averroes' contemporaries) is the famous statement about "two-fold truth", viz. that a proposition may be theologically true and philosophically false and vice versa. Averroes taught that religion expresses the (higher) philosophical truth by means of religious imagery; the "two-truth notion" came apparently into the Latin text through a misinterpretation on the part of the translators. The works of Averroes were one of the main sources of medieval Aristotelianlsm, before and even after the original texts had been translated. The interpretation the Latin Averroists found in their texts of the "Commentator" spread in spite of opposition and condemnation. See Averroism, Latin. Averroes, Opera, Venetiis, 1553. M. Horten, Die Metaphysik des Averroes, 1912. P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin, 2d ed., Louvain, 1911. --R.A. Averroism, Latin: The commentaries on Aristotle written by Averroes (Ibn Roshd) in the 12th century became known to the Western scholars in translations by Michael Scottus, Hermannus Alemannus, and others at the beginning of the 13th century. Many works of Aristotle were also known first by such translations from Arabian texts, though there existed translations from the Greek originals at the same time (Grabmann). The Averroistic interpretation of Aristotle was held to be the true one by many; but already Albert the Great pointed out several notions which he felt to be incompatible with the principles of Christian philosophy, although he relied for the rest on the "Commentator" and apparently hardly used any other text. Aquinas, basing his studies mostly on a translation from the Greek texts, procured for him by William of Moerbecke, criticized the Averroistic interpretation in many points. But the teachings of the Commentator became the foundation for a whole school of philosophers, represented first by the Faculty of Arts at Paris. The most prominent of these scholars was Siger of Brabant. The philosophy of these men was condemned on March 7th, 1277 by Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, after a first condemnation of Aristotelianism in 1210 had gradually come to be neglected. The 219 theses condemned in 1277, however, contain also some of Aquinas which later were generally recognized an orthodox. The Averroistic propositions which aroused the criticism of the ecclesiastic authorities and which had been opposed with great energy by Albert and Thomas refer mostly to the following points: The co-eternity of the created word; the numerical identity of the intellect in all men, the so-called two-fold-truth theory stating that a proposition may be philosophically true although theologically false. Regarding the first point Thomas argued that there is no philosophical proof, either for the co-eternity or against it; creation is an article of faith. The unity of intellect was rejected as incompatible with the true notion of person and with personal immortality. It is doubtful whether Averroes himself held the two-truths theory; it was, however, taught by the Latin Averroists who, notwithstanding the opposition of the Church and the Thomistic philosophers, gained a great influence and soon dominated many universities, especially in Italy. Thomas and his followers were convinced that they interpreted Aristotle correctly and that the Averroists were wrong; one has, however, to admit that certain passages in Aristotle allow for the Averroistic interpretation, especially in regard to the theory of intellect. Lit.: P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin au XIIIe Siecle, 2d. ed. Louvain, 1911; M. Grabmann, Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristotelesübersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts, Münster 1916 (Beitr. z. Gesch. Phil. d. MA. Vol. 17, H. 5-6). --R.A. Avesta: See Zendavesta. Avicehron: (or Avencebrol, Salomon ibn Gabirol) The first Jewish philosopher in Spain, born in Malaga 1020, died about 1070, poet, philosopher, and moralist. His main work, Fons vitae, became influential and was much quoted by the Scholastics. It has been preserved only in the Latin translation by Gundissalinus. His doctrine of a spiritual substance individualizing also the pure spirits or separate forms was opposed by Aquinas already in his first treatise De ente, but found favor with the medieval Augustinians also later in the 13th century. He also teaches the necessity of a mediator between God and the created world; such a mediator he finds in the Divine Will proceeding from God and creating, conserving, and moving the world. His cosmogony shows a definitely Neo-Platonic shade and assumes a series of emanations. Cl. Baeumker, Avencebrolis Fons vitae. Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Philos. d. MA. 1892-1895, Vol. I. Joh. Wittman, Die Stellung des hl. Thomas von Aquino zu Avencebrol, ibid. 1900. Vol. III. --R.A. Avicenna: (Abu Ali al Hosain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina) Born 980 in the country of Bocchara, began to write in young years, left more than 100 works, taught in Ispahan, was physician to several Persian princes, and died at Hamadan in 1037. His fame as physician survived his influence as philosopher in the Occident. His medical works were printed still in the 17th century. His philosophy is contained in 18 vols. of a comprehensive encyclopedia, following the tradition of Al Kindi and Al Farabi. Logic, Physics, Mathematics and Metaphysics form the parts of this work. His philosophy is Aristotelian with noticeable Neo-Platonic influences. His doctrine of the universal existing ante res in God, in rebus as the universal nature of the particulars, and post res in the human mind by way of abstraction became a fundamental thesis of medieval Aristotelianism. He sharply distinguished between the logical and the ontological universal, denying to the latter the true nature of form in the composite. The principle of individuation is matter, eternally existent. Latin translations attributed to Avicenna the notion that existence is an accident to essence (see e.g. Guilelmus Parisiensis, De Universo). The process adopted by Avicenna was one of paraphrasis of the Aristotelian texts with many original thoughts interspersed. His works were translated into Latin by Dominicus Gundissalinus (Gondisalvi) with the assistance of Avendeath ibn Daud. This translation started, when it became more generally known, the "revival of Aristotle" at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. Albert the Great and Aquinas professed, notwithstanding their critical attitude, a great admiration for Avicenna whom the Arabs used to call the "third Aristotle". But in the Orient, Avicenna's influence declined soon, overcome by the opposition of the orthodox theologians. Avicenna, Opera, Venetiis, 1495; l508; 1546. M. Horten, Das Buch der Genesung der Seele, eine philosophische Enzyklopaedie Avicenna's; XIII. Teil: Die Metaphysik. Halle a. S. 1907-1909. R. de Vaux, Notes et textes sur l'Avicennisme Latin, Bibl. Thomiste XX, Paris, 1934. --R.A. Avidya: (Skr.) Nescience; ignorance; the state of mind unaware of true reality; an equivalent of maya (q.v.); also a condition of pure awareness prior to the universal process of evolution through gradual differentiation into the elements and factors of knowledge. --K.F.L. Avyakta: (Skr.) "Unmanifest", descriptive of or standing for brahman (q.v.) in one of its or "his" aspects, symbolizing the superabundance of the creative principle, or designating the condition of the universe not yet become phenomenal (aja, unborn). --K.F.L. Awareness: Consciousness considered in its aspect of act; an act of attentive awareness such as the sensing of a color patch or the feeling of pain is distinguished from the content attended to, the sensed color patch, the felt pain. The psychologlcal theory of intentional act was advanced by F. Brentano (Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte) and received its epistemological development by Meinong, Husserl, Moore, Laird and Broad. See Intentionalism. --L.W. Axiological: (Ger. axiologisch) In Husserl: Of or pertaining to value or theory of value (the latter term understood as including disvalue and value-indifference). --D.C. Axiological ethics: Any ethics which makes the theory of obligation entirely dependent on the theory of value, by making the determination of the rightness of an action wholly dependent on a consideration of the value or goodness of something, e.g. the action itself, its motive, or its consequences, actual or probable. Opposed to deontological ethics. See also teleological ethics. --W.K.F. Axiologic Realism: In metaphysics, theory that value as well as logic, qualities as well as relations, have their being and exist external to the mind and independently of it. Applicable to the philosophy of many though not all realists in the history of philosophy, from Plato to G. E. Moore, A. N. Whitehead, and N, Hartmann. --J.K.F. Axiology: (Gr. axios, of like value, worthy, and logos, account, reason, theory). Modern term for theory of value (the desired, preferred, good), investigation of its nature, criteria, and metaphysical status. Had its rise in Plato's theory of Forms or Ideas (Idea of the Good); was developed in Aristotle's Organon, Ethics, Poetics, and Metaphysics (Book Lambda). Stoics and Epicureans investigated the summum bonum. Christian philosophy (St. Thomas) built on Aristotle's identification of highest value with final cause in God as "a living being, eternal, most good." In modern thought, apart from scholasticism and the system of Spinoza (Ethica, 1677), in which values are metaphysically grounded, the various values were investigated in separate sciences, until Kant's Critiques, in which the relations of knowledge to moral, aesthetic, and religious values were examined. In Hegel's idealism, morality, art, religion, and philosophy were made the capstone of his dialectic. R. H. Lotze "sought in that which should be the ground of that which is" (Metaphysik, 1879). Nineteenth century evolutionary theory, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics subjected value experience to empirical analysis, and stress was again laid on the diversity and relativity of value phenomena rather than on their unity and metaphysical nature. F. Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra (1883-1885) and Zur Genealogie der Moral (1887) aroused new interest in the nature of value. F. Brentano, Vom Ursprung sittlicher Erkenntnis (1889), identified value with love. In the twentieth century the term axiology was apparently first applied by Paul Lapie (Logique de la volonte, 1902) and E. von Hartmann (Grundriss der Axiologie, 1908). Stimulated by Ehrenfels (System der Werttheorie, 1897), Meinong (Psychologisch-ethische Untersuchungen zur Werttheorie, 1894-1899), and Simmel (Philosophie des Geldes, 1900). W. M. Urban wrote the first systematic treatment of axiology in English (Valuation, 1909), phenomenological in method under J. M. Baldwin's influence. Meanwhile H. Münsterberg wrote a neo-Fichtean system of values (The Eternal Values, 1909). Among important recent contributions are: B. Bosanquet, The Principle of Individuality and Value (1912), a free reinterpretation of Hegelianism; W. R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God (1918, 1921), defending a metaphysical theism; S. Alexander, Space, Time, and Deity (1920), realistic and naturalistic; N. Hartmann, Ethik (1926), detailed analysis of types and laws of value; R. B. Perry's magnum opus, General Theory of Value (1926), "its meaning and basic principles construed in terms of interest"; and J. Laird, The Idea of Value (1929), noteworthy for historical exposition. A naturalistic theory has been developed by J. Dewey (Theory of Valuation, 1939), for which "not only is science itself a value . . . but it is the supreme means of the valid determination of all valuations." A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (1936) expounds the view of logical positivism that value is "nonsense." J. Hessen, Wertphilosophie (1937), provides an account of recent German axiology from a neo-scholastic standpoint. The problems of axiology fall into four main groups, namely, those concerning (1) the nature of value, (2) the types of value, (3) the criterion of value, and (4) the metaphysical status of value. (1) The nature of value experience. Is valuation fulfillment of desire (voluntarism: Spinoza, Ehrenfels), pleasure (hedonism: Epicurus, Bentham, Meinong), interest (Perry), preference (Martineau), pure rational will (formalism: Stoics, Kant, Royce), apprehension of tertiary qualities (Santayana), synoptic experience of the unity of personality (personalism: T. H. Green, Bowne), any experience that contributes to enhanced life (evolutionism: Nietzsche), or "the relation of things as means to the end or consequence actually reached" (pragmatism, instrumentalism: Dewey). (2) The types of value. Most axiologists distinguish between intrinsic (consummatory) values (ends), prized for their own sake, and instrumental (contributory) values (means), which are causes (whether as economic goods or as natural events) of intrinsic values. Most intrinsic values are also instrumental to further value experience; some instrumental values are neutral or even disvaluable intrinsically. Commonly recognized as intrinsic values are the (morally) good, the true, the beautiful, and the holy. Values of play, of work, of association, and of bodily well-being are also acknowledged. Some (with Montague) question whether the true is properly to be regarded as a value, since some truth is disvaluable, some neutral; but love of truth, regardless of consequences, seems to establish the value of truth. There is disagreement about whether the holy (religious value) is a unique type (Schleiermacher, Otto), or an attitude toward other values (Kant, Höffding), or a combination of the two (Hocking). There is also disagreement about whether the variety of values is irreducible (pluralism) or whether all values are rationally related in a hierarchy or system (Plato, Hegel, Sorley), in which values interpenetrate or coalesce into a total experience. (3) The criterion of value. The standard for testing values is influenced by both psychological and logical theory. Hedonists find the standard in the quantity of pleasure derived by the individual (Aristippus) or society (Bentham). Intuitionists appeal to an ultimate insight into preference (Martineau, Brentano). Some idealists recognize an objective system of rational norms or ideals as criterion (Plato, Windelband), while others lay more stress on rational wholeness and coherence (Hegel, Bosanquet, Paton) or inclusiveness (T. H. Green). Naturalists find biological survival or adjustment (Dewey) to be the standard. Despite differences, there is much in common in the results of the application of these criteria. (4) The metaphysical status of value. What is the relation of values to the facts investigated by natural science (Koehler), of Sein to Sollen (Lotze, Rickert), of human experience of value to reality independent of man (Hegel, Pringle-Pattlson, Spaulding)? There are three main answers: subjectivism (value is entirely dependent on and relative to human experience of it: so most hedonists, naturalists, positivists); logical objectivism (values are logical essences or subsistences, independent of their being known, yet with no existential status or action in reality); metaphysical objectivism (values --or norms or ideals --are integral, objective, and active constituents of the metaphysically real: so theists, absolutists, and certain realists and naturalists like S. Alexander and Wieman). --E.S.B. Axiom: See Mathematics. Axiomatic method: That method of constructing a deductive system consisting of deducing by specified rules all statements of the system save a given few from those given few, which are regarded as axioms or postulates of the system. See Mathematics. --C.A.B. Ayam atma brahma: (Skr.) "This self is brahman", famous quotation from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 2.5.19, one of many alluding to the central theme of the Upanishads, i.e., the identity of the human and divine or cosmic. --K.F.L.
Background: (Ger. Hintergrund) In Husserl: The nexus of objects and objective sense explicitly posited along with any object; the objective horizon. The perceptual background is part of the entire background in this broad sense. See Horizon. -- D.C . Bacon, Francis: (1561-1626) Inspired by the Renaissance, and in revolt against Aristotelianism and Scholastic Logic, proposed an inductive method of discovering truth, founded upon empirical observation, analysis of observed data, inference resulting in hypotheses, and verification of hypotheses through continued observation and experiment. The impediments to the use of this method are preconceptions and prejudices, grouped by Bacon under four headings, or Idols: The Idols of the Tribe, or racially "wishful," anthropocentric ways of thinking, e.g. explanation by final causes The Idols of the Cave or personal prejudices The Idols of the Market Place, or failure to define terms The Idol of the Theatre, or blind acceptance of tradition and authority. The use of the inductive method prescribes the extraction of the essential from the non-essential and the discovery of the underlying structure or form of the phenomena under investigation, through (a) comparison of instances, (b) study of concomitant variations, and (c) exclusion of negative instances.
baldachin ::: n. --> A rich brocade; baudekin.
A structure in form of a canopy, sometimes supported by columns, and sometimes suspended from the roof or projecting from the wall; generally placed over an altar; as, the baldachin in St. Peter&
barrack ::: n. --> A building for soldiers, especially when in garrison. Commonly in the pl., originally meaning temporary huts, but now usually applied to a permanent structure or set of buildings.
A movable roof sliding on four posts, to cover hay, straw, etc. ::: v. t.
barricade ::: a structure hastily set up across a route of access to obstruct the passage of an enemy.
bartizan ::: n. --> A small, overhanging structure for lookout or defense, usually projecting at an angle of a building or near an entrance gateway.
basement ::: a. --> The outer wall of the ground story of a building, or of a part of that story, when treated as a distinct substructure. ( See Base, n., 3 (a).) Hence: The rooms of a ground floor, collectively.
basement ::: the substructure or foundation of a building usually below ground level.
basic structures of consciousness ::: 1. “Empty” levels of consciousness used as a general measure of vertical development. A measure of the degree or “altitude” of awareness in any particular stream. These altitudes are often described using the colors of the natural rainbow: Infrared, Magenta, Red, Amber, Orange, Green, Teal, Turquoise, Indigo, Violet, Ultraviolet, and Clear Light. 2. Enduring structures that are actually laid down along these markers of altitude and thus are roughly synonymous with basic levels of consciousness. These are the rungs in any developmental ladder. Cognitive development, for instance, is often used since it is necessary but not sufficient for development in other lines.
Being: In early Greek philosophy is opposed either to change, or Becoming, or to Non-Being. According to Parmenides and his disciples of the Eleatic School, everything real belongs to the category of Being, as the only possible object of thought. Essentially the same reasoning applies also to material reality in which there is nothing but Being, one and continuous, all-inclusive and eternal. Consequently, he concluded, the coming into being and passing away constituting change are illusory, for that which is-not cannot be, and that which is cannot cease to be. In rejecting Eleitic monism, the materialists (Leukippus, Democritus) asserted that the very existence of things, their corporeal nature, insofar as it is subject to change and motion, necessarily presupposes the other than Being, that is, Non-Being, or Void. Thus, instead of regarding space as a continuum, they saw in it the very source of discontinuity and the foundation of the atomic structure of substance. Plato accepted the first part of Parmenides' argument. namely, that referring to thought as distinct from matter, and maintained that, though Becoming is indeed an apparent characteristic of everything sensory, the true and ultimate reality, that of Ideas, is changeless and of the nature of Being. Aristotle achieved a compromise among all these notions and contended that, though Being, as the essence of things, is eternal in itself, nevertheless it manifests itself only in change, insofar as "ideas" or "forms" have no existence independent of, or transcendent to, the reality of things and minds. The medieval thinkers never revived the controversy as a whole, though at times they emphasized Being, as in Neo-Platonism, at times Becoming, as in Aristotelianism. With the rise of new interest in nature, beginning with F. Bacon, Hobbes and Locke, the problem grew once more in importance, especially to the rationalists, opponents of empiricism. Spinoza regarded change as a characteristic of modal existence and assumed in this connection a position distantly similar to that of Pinto. Hegel formed a new answer to the problem in declaring that nature, striving to exclude contradictions, has to "negate" them: Being and Non-Being are "moments" of the same cosmic process which, at its foundation, arises out of Being containing Non-Being within itself and leading, factually and logically, to their synthetic union in Becoming. -- R.B.W.
biology ::: n. --> The science of life; that branch of knowledge which treats of living matter as distinct from matter which is not living; the study of living tissue. It has to do with the origin, structure, development, function, and distribution of animals and plants.
blastema ::: n. --> The structureless, protoplasmic tissue of the embryo; the primitive basis of an organ yet unformed, from which it grows.
blockhouse ::: n. --> An edifice or structure of heavy timbers or logs for military defense, having its sides loopholed for musketry, and often an upper story projecting over the lower, or so placed upon it as to have its sides make an angle wit the sides of the lower story, thus enabling the defenders to fire downward, and in all directions; -- formerly much used in America and Germany.
A house of squared logs.
body ::: 1. The entire material or physical structure of an organism, especially of a human or animal as differentiated from the soul. 2. The entire physical structure of a human being. 3. A mass of matter that is distinct from other masses. 4. Substance. 5. An agent or entity. 6. The mass of a thing. 7. A mass of matter that is distinct from other masses. 8. The largest or main part of anything; the foundation; central part. body"s, bodies.
boiler ::: n. --> One who boils.
A vessel in which any thing is boiled.
A strong metallic vessel, usually of wrought iron plates riveted together, or a composite structure variously formed, in which steam is generated for driving engines, or for heating, cooking, or other purposes.
bombproof ::: a. --> Secure against the explosive force of bombs. ::: n. --> A structure which heavy shot and shell will not penetrate.
Boodin, John Elof: American philosopher born in Sweden in 1869 who emigrated in 1886 to the United States. Studied at the Universities of Colorado, Minnesota, Brown and especially Harvard under Royce with whom he kept a life-long friendship though he was opposed to his idealism. His works (Time and Reality, 1904 -- Truth and Reality, 1912 -- A Realistic Universe, 1916 -- Cosmic Evolution, 1925 -- Three Interpretations of the Universe, 1934 -- God, 1935 -- The Social Mind, 1940) form practically a complete system. His philosophy takes the form of a cosmic idealism, though he was interested for a time in certain aspects of pragmatism. It grew gradually from his early studies when he developed a new concept of a real and non-serial time. The structure of the cosmos is that of a hierarchy of fields, as exemplified in physics, in organisms, in consciousness and in society. The interpenetration of the mental fields makes possible human knowledge and social intercourse. Reality as such possesses five attributes: being (the dynamic stuff of all complexes, the active energy), time (the ground of change and transformation), space (which accounts for extension), consciousness (active awareness which lights up reality in spots; it becomes the self when conative tendencies cooperate as one active group), and form (the ground of organization and structure which conditions selective direction). God is the spirit of the whole. -- T.G.J Boole, George: (1815-1864) English mathematician. Professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork, 1849-1864. While he made contributions to other branches of mathematics, he is now remembered primarily as the founder of the Nineteenth Century algebra of logic and through it of modern symbolic logic. His Mathematical Analysis of Logic appeared in 1847 and the fuller Laws of Thought in 1854. -- A.C.
booth ::: n. --> A house or shed built of boards, boughs, or other slight materials, for temporary occupation.
A covered stall or temporary structure in a fair or market, or at a polling place.
botany ::: a. & n. --> The science which treats of the structure of plants, the functions of their parts, their places of growth, their classification, and the terms which are employed in their description and denomination. See Plant.
A book which treats of the science of botany.
botryolite ::: n. --> A variety of datolite, usually having a botryoidal structure.
brace ::: n. --> That which holds anything tightly or supports it firmly; a bandage or a prop.
A cord, ligament, or rod, for producing or maintaining tension, as a cord on the side of a drum.
The state of being braced or tight; tension.
A piece of material used to transmit, or change the direction of, weight or pressure; any one of the pieces, in a frame or truss, which divide the structure into triangular parts. It may act as
brachiolaria ::: n. pl. --> A peculiar early larval stage of certain starfishes, having a bilateral structure, and swimming by means of bands of vibrating cilia.
breakwater ::: n. --> Any structure or contrivance, as a mole, or a wall at the mouth of a harbor, to break the force of waves, and afford protection from their violence.
bridge ::: n. 1. A structure spanning and providing passage over a gap or barrier, such as a river or roadway. bridges, bridge-like. v. 2. To build or provide a bridge over something; span. Also fig. 3. To join by or as if by a bridge; link, connect. bridged, bridging.
bridge ::: n. --> A structure, usually of wood, stone, brick, or iron, erected over a river or other water course, or over a chasm, railroad, etc., to make a passageway from one bank to the other.
Anything supported at the ends, which serves to keep some other thing from resting upon the object spanned, as in engraving, watchmaking, etc., or which forms a platform or staging over which something passes or is conveyed.
The small arch or bar at right angles to the strings of a
structured ::: a. --> Having a definite organic structure; showing differentiation of parts.
structured ::: having and manifesting a clearly defined structure or organization.
structureless ::: a. --> Without a definite structure, or arrangement of parts; without organization; devoid of cells; homogeneous; as, a structureless membrane.
structure ::: n. **1. Mode of building, construction, or organization; arrangement of parts, elements, or constituents. 2. Something built or constructed, as a building, bridge, etc. Also fig. 3. Anything composed of parts arranged together in some way; an organization. structures. v. 4. To give an organization, form or arrangement to; construct a systematic framework for. structured.**
structure ::: n. --> The act of building; the practice of erecting buildings; construction.
Manner of building; form; make; construction.
Arrangement of parts, of organs, or of constituent particles, in a substance or body; as, the structure of a rock or a mineral; the structure of a sentence.
Manner of organization; the arrangement of the different tissues or parts of animal and vegetable organisms; as, organic
structure-stages ::: A term used to denote the sequential or stage-like unfolding of zone-
structure ::: The stable pattern of any occasion. In Integral Theory, structure most often refers to the unique, enduring pattern and actual structure of a level of development. See levels.
Buddhi (.Discrimination) ::: Buddhi is a construction of conscious being which quite exceeds its beginnings in the basic chitta; it is the intelligence with its power of knowledge and will. Buddhi takes up and deals with all the rest of the action of the mind and life and body. It is in its nature thought-power and will-power of the Spirit turned into the lower form of a mental activity. We may distinguish three successive gradations of the action of this intelligence. There is first an inferior perceptive understanding which simply takes up, records, understands and responds to the communications of the sense-mind, memory, heart and sensational mentality. It creates by their means an elementary thinking mind which does not go beyond their data, but subjects itself to their mould and rings out their repetitions, runs round and round in the habitual circle of thought and will suggested by them or follows, with an obedient subservience of the reason to the suggestions of life, any fresh determinations which may be offered to its perception and conception. Beyond this elementary understanding, which we all use to an enormous extent, there is a power of arranging or selecting reason and will-force of the intelligence which has for its action and aim an attempt to arrive at a plausible, sufficient, settled ordering of knowledge and will for the use of an intellectual conception of life. In spite of its more purely intellectual character this secondary or intermediate reason is really pragmatic in its intention. It creates a certain kind of intellectual structure, frame, rule into which it tries to cast the inner and outer life so as to use it with a certain mastery and government for the purposes of some kind of rational will. It is this reason which gives to our normal intellectual being our set aesthetic and ethical standards, our structures of opinion and our established norms of idea and purpose. It is highly developed and takes the primacy in all men of an at all developed understanding. But beyond it there is a reason, a highest action of the buddhi which concerns itself disinterestedly with a pursuit of pure truth and right knowledge; it seeks to discover the real Truth behind life and things and our apparent selves and to subject its will to the law of Truth. Few, if any of us, can use this highest reason with any purity, but the attempt to do it is the topmost capacity of the inner instrument, the antahkarana.
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Buddhi is a construction of conscious being which quite exceeds its beginnings in the basic chitta; it is the intelligence with its power of knowledge and will. Buddhi takes up and deals with all the rest of the action of the mind and life and body. It is in its nature thought-power and will-power of the Spirit turned into the lower form of a mental activity. We may distinguish three successive gradations of the action of this intelligence. There is first an inferior perceptive understanding which simply takes up, records, understands and responds to the communications of the sense-mind, memory, heart and sensational mentality. It creates by their means an elementary thinking mind which does not go beyond their data, but subjects itself to their mould and rings out their repetitions, runs round and round in the habitual circle of thought and will suggested by them or follows, with an obedient subservience of the reason to the suggestions of life, any fresh determinations which may be offered to its perception and conception. Beyond this elementary understanding, which we all use to an enormous extent, there is a power of arranging or selecting reason and will-force of the intelligence which has for its action and aim an attempt to arrive at a plausible, sufficient, settled ordering of knowledge and will for the use of an intellectual conception of life. In spite of its more purely intellectual character this secondary or intermediate reason is really pragmatic in its intention It creates a certain kind of intellectual structure, frame, rule into which it tries to cast the inner and outer life so as to use it with a certain mastery and government for the purposes of some kind of rational will. It is this reason which gives to our normal intellectual being our set aesthetic and ethical standards, our structures of opinion and our established norms of idea and purpose. It is highly developed and takes the primacy in all men of an at all developed understanding. But beyond it there is a reason, a highest action of the buddhi which concerns itself disinterestedly with a pursuit of pure truth and right knowledge; it seeks to discover the real Truth behind life and things and our apparent selves and to subject its will to the law of Truth. Few, if any of us, can use this highest reason with any purity, but the attempt to do it is the topmost capacity of the inner instrument, the antahkarana.
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building ::: 1. The act or action of constructing; erecting. Also fig. **2. **Something that is built, as for human habitation; a structure.
build ::: v. t. --> To erect or construct, as an edifice or fabric of any kind; to form by uniting materials into a regular structure; to fabricate; to make; to raise.
To raise or place on a foundation; to form, establish, or produce by using appropriate means.
To increase and strengthen; to increase the power and stability of; to settle, or establish, and preserve; -- frequently with up; as, to build up one&
built ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Build ::: n. --> Shape; build; form of structure; as, the built of a ship. ::: a.
bulbous ::: n. --> Having or containing bulbs, or a bulb; growing from bulbs; bulblike in shape or structure.
bulkhead ::: n. --> A partition in a vessel, to separate apartments on the same deck.
A structure of wood or stone, to resist the pressure of earth or water; a partition wall or structure, as in a mine; the limiting wall along a water front.
buttressed ::: supported; reinforced; sustained as by a buttress; (an external structure built against a wall for support or reinforcement.)
calamistrum ::: n. --> A comblike structure on the metatarsus of the hind legs of certain spiders (Ciniflonidae), used to curl certain fibers in the construction of their webs.
calicle ::: n. --> One of the small cuplike cavities, often with elevated borders, covering the surface of most corals. Each is formed by a polyp. (b) One of the cuplike structures inclosing the zooids of certain hydroids. See Campanularian.
Cambridge School: A term loosely applied to English philosophers who have been influenced by the teachings of Professor G. E. Moore (mainly in unpublished lectures delivered at the Cambridge University, 1911-1939). In earlier years Moore stressed the need to accept the judgments of "common sense" on such matters as the existence of other persons, of an "external world", etc. The business of the analytical philosopher was not to criticise such judgments but to display the structure of the facts to which they referred. (Cf. "A defense of common-sense in philosophy," Contemporary British Philosophy, 2 (1925) -- Moore's only discussion of the method.) Such analysis would be directional, terminating in basic or atomic facts, all of whose constituents might be known by acquaintance. The examples discussed were taken largely from the field of epistemology, turning often about the problem of the relation of material objects to sense-data, and of indirect to direct knowledge. In this earlier period problems were often suggested by Russell's discussion of descriptions and logical constructions. The inconclusiveness of such specific discussions and an increasingly critical awareness of the functions of language in philosophical analysis has in later years tended to favor more flexible interpretations of the nature of analysis. (Cf. M. Black, "Relations Between Logical Positivism and the Cambridge School of Analysis", Journal of Unified Science (Erkenntnis), 8, 24-35 for a bibliography and list of philosophers who have been most influenced by emphasis on directional analysis.) -- M.B.
camel ::: n. --> A large ruminant used in Asia and Africa for carrying burdens and for riding. The camel is remarkable for its ability to go a long time without drinking. Its hoofs are small, and situated at the extremities of the toes, and the weight of the animal rests on the callous. The dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) has one bunch on the back, while the Bactrian camel (C. Bactrianus) has two. The llama, alpaca, and vicua, of South America, belong to a related genus (Auchenia).
A water-tight structure (as a large box or boxes) used to
Campanella, Tommaso: (1568-1639) A Dominican monk in revolt against Aristotelianism, and influenced by the naturalism of Telesio, he arrived at philosophic conclusions in some ways prophetic of Descartes. Distrusting both the reports of the senses and the results of reasoning as indications of the nature of Reality, he found nothing trustworthy except the fact of his own existence, and the inferences drawn from that fact. As certain as his awareness of his own existence was the awareness of an external world to which experience referred and by which it was caused. Again, since the nature of the part is representative of the nature of the whole to which it belongs, the Universe of which the self is part must, like the part, be possessed of knowledge, will, and power. Hence I may infer from my own existence the existence of a God. Again, I must infer other of the divine nature more or less perfect manifestations than myself descending from the hierarchy of angels above man to the form or structure of the world, the ultimate corporeal elements, and the sensible phenomena produced by these elements of the physical universe, below him in the scale of perfection.
cancellous ::: a. --> Having a spongy or porous structure; made up of cancelli; cancellated; as, the cancellous texture of parts of many bones.
carnivora ::: n. pl. --> An order of Mammallia including the lion, tiger, wolf bear, seal, etc. They are adapted by their structure to feed upon flesh, though some of them, as the bears, also eat vegetable food. The teeth are large and sharp, suitable for cutting flesh, and the jaws powerful.
carpology ::: n. --> That branch of botany which relates to the structure of seeds and fruit.
cassiterite ::: n. --> Native tin dioxide; tin stone; a mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals of reddish brown color, and brilliant adamantine luster; also massive, sometimes in compact forms with concentric fibrous structure resembling wood (wood tin), also in rolled fragments or pebbly (Stream tin). It is the chief source of metallic tin. See Black tin, under Black.
catafalque ::: n. --> A temporary structure sometimes used in the funeral solemnities of eminent persons, for the public exhibition of the remains, or their conveyance to the place of burial.
Causa sui: Cause of itself; necessary existence. Causa sui conveys both a negative and a positive meaning. Negatively, it signifies that which is from itself (a se), that which does not owe its being to something else; i.e., absolute independence of being, causelessness (God as uncaused). Positively, causa sui means that whose very nature or essence involves existence; i.e., God is the ground of his own being, and regarded as "cause" of his own being, he is, as it were, efficient cause of his own existence (Descartes). Since existence necessarily follows from the very essence of that which is cause of itself, causa sui is defined as that whose nature cannot be conceived as not existing (Spinoza). -- A.G.A.B. Causality: (Lat. causa) The relationship between a cause and its effect. This relationship has been defined as a relation between events, processes, or entities in the same time series, such that when one occurs, the other necessarily follows (sufficient condition), when the latter occurs, the former must have preceded (necessary condition), both conditions a and b prevail (necessary and sufficient condition), when one occurs under certain conditions, the other necessarily follows (contributory, but not sufficient, condition) ("multiple causality" would be a case involving several causes which are severally contributory and jointly sufficient); the necessity in these cases is neither that of logical implication nor that of coercion; a relation between events, processes, or entities in the same time series such that when one occurs the other invariably follows (invariable antecedence), a relation between events, processes, or entities such that one has the efficacy to produce or alter the other; a relation between events, processes, or entities such that without one the other could not occur, as in the relation between the material out of which a product is made and the finished product (material cause), structure or form and the individual embodying it (formal cause), a goal or purpose (whether supposed to exist in the future as a special kind of entity, outside a time series, or merely as an idea of the pur-poser) and the work fulfilling it (final cause), a moving force and the process or result of its action (efficient cause); a relation between experienced events, processes, or entities and extra-experiential but either temporal or non-temporal events, processes, or entities upon whose existence the former depend; a relation between a thing and itself when it is dependent upon nothing else for its existence (self-causality); a relation between an event, process, or entity and the reason or explanation for its being; a relation between an idea and an experience whose expectation the idea arouses because of customary association of the two in this sequence; a principle or category introducing into experience one of the aforesaid types of order; this principle may be inherent in the mind, invented by the mind, or derived from experience; it may be an explanatory hypothesis, a postulate, a convenient fiction, or a necessary form of thought. Causality has been conceived to prevail between processes, parts of a continuous process, changing parts of an unchanging whole, objects, events, ideas, or something of one of these types and something of another. When an entity, event, or process is said to follow from another, it may be meant that it must succeed but can be neither contemporaneous with nor prior to the other, that it must either succeed or be contemporaneous with and dependent upon but cannot precede the other, or that one is dependent upon the other but they either are not in the same time series or one is in no time series at all.
celotomy ::: n. --> The act or operation of cutting, to relieve the structure in strangulated hernia.
cephalization ::: n. --> Domination of the head in animal life as expressed in the physical structure; localization of important organs or parts in or near the head, in animal development.
Ch'in: Personal experience, or knowledge obtained through the contact of one's knowing faculty and the object to be known. (Neo-Mohists.) Parents. Kinship, as distinguished from the more remote relatives and strangers, such distinction being upheld by Confucians as essential to the social structure but severely attacked by the Mohists and Legalists as untenable in the face of the equality of men. Affection, love, which it is important for a ruler to have toward his people and for children toward parents. (Confucianism.)
chlorite ::: n. --> The name of a group of minerals, usually of a green color and micaceous to granular in structure. They are hydrous silicates of alumina, iron, and magnesia.
Any salt of chlorous acid; as, chlorite of sodium.
chondritic ::: a. --> Granular; pertaining to, or having the granular structure characteristic of, the class of meteorites called chondrites.
Class struggle: Fundamental in Marxian social thought, this term signifies the conflict between classes (q.v.) which, according to the theory of historical materialism (see the entry, Dialectical materialism) may and usually does take place in all aspects of social life, and which has existed ever since the passing of primitive communism (q.v.). The class struggle is considered basic to the dynamics of history in the sense that a widespread change in technics, or a fuller utilization of them, which necessitates changes in economic relations and, in turn, in the social superstructure, is championed and carried through by classes which stand to gain from the change. The economic aspects of the class struggle under capitalism manifest themselves most directly, Marx held, in disputes over amount of wages, rate of profits, rate of interest, amount of rent, length of working day, conditions of work and like matters. The Marxist position is that the class struggle enters into philosophy, politics, law, morals, art, religion and other cultural institutions and fields in various ways, either directly or indirectly, and, in respect to the people involved, consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly. In any case the specific content of any such field or institution at a given time it held to have a certain effect upon a given class in its conflicts with other classes, weakening or aiding it. Marxists believe that certain kinds of literature or art may inspire people with a lively sense of the need and possibility of a radical change in social relations, or, on the contrary, with a sense of lethargy or complacency, and that various moral, religious or philosophical doctrines may operate to persuade a given class that it should accept its lot without complaint or its privileges without qualms, or may operate to persuade it of the contrary. The Marxist view is that every field or institution has a history, an evolution, and that this evolution is the result of the play of conflicting forces entering into the field, which forces are connected, in one way or another, with class conflicts. While it is thus held that the class struggle involves all cultural fields, it is not held that any cultural production or phenomenon, selected or delimited at random, can be correlated in a one-to-one fashion with an equally delimited class interest. -- J.M.S.
cleavelandite ::: n. --> A variety of albite, white and lamellar in structure.
clinkstone ::: n. --> An igneous rock of feldspathic composition, lamellar in structure, and clinking under the hammer. See Phonolite.
coarse ::: 1. Composed of relatively large parts or particles. 2. Lacking in fineness or delicacy of texture, structure, etc. Not refined or delicate, rough.
Co-conscious, The: (Lat. co- + conscire, to know) Consciousness which is dissociated from the central core of a personality and of which that personality is unaware. The co-conscious and the unconscious consisting of neural structures and processes are, in the terminology of Morton Prince, the two species of the subconscious. (The Unconscious, pp. 247 ff.) -- L.W.
columniation ::: n. --> The employment or arrangement of columns in a structure.
combs ::: a structure of hexagonal, thin-walled cells constructed from beeswax by honeybees to hold honey and larvae.
compages ::: v. t. --> A system or structure of many parts united.
compagination ::: n. --> Union of parts; structure.
complex ::: involved or intricate, as in structure; complicated.
constructure ::: n. --> That which is constructed or formed; an edifice; a fabric.
conduit ::: n. --> A pipe, canal, channel, or passage for conveying water or fluid.
A structure forming a reservoir for water.
A narrow passage for private communication.
cone-in-cone ::: a. --> Consisting of a series of parallel cones, each made up of many concentric cones closely packed together; -- said of a kind of structure sometimes observed in sedimentary rocks.
confessional ::: n. --> The recess, seat, or inclosed place, where a priest sits to hear confessions; often a small structure furnished with a seat for the priest and with a window or aperture so that the penitent who is outside may whisper into the priest&
configurate ::: v. i. --> To take form or position, as the parts of a complex structure; to agree with a pattern.
conformation ::: n. --> The act of conforming; the act of producing conformity.
The state of being conformed; agreement; hence; structure, as depending on the arrangement of parts; form; arrangement.
constitutional ::: a. --> Belonging to, or inherent in, the constitution, or in the structure of body or mind; as, a constitutional infirmity; constitutional ardor or dullness.
In accordance with, or authorized by, the constitution of a state or a society; as, constitutional reforms.
Regulated by, dependent on, or secured by, a constitution; as, constitutional government; constitutional rights.
Relating to a constitution, or establishment form
Constitution: (Ger. Konstitution) In Husserl: 1. Broader sense: Intentionality in its character as producing, on the one hand, intentionally identical and different objects of consciousness with more or less determinate objective senses and, on the other hand, more or less abiding ego-habitudes (see Habit) is said to be "constitutive"; its products, "constituted" (q.v.). The synthetic structure of the constitutive process, regarded either as a static or as a temporally genetic affair, is called the constitution of the intentional object. 2. Narrower sense: The structure of intentionality in its character as rational, i.e., as productive of valid objects and correct, justified, habits (convictions, etc). See Evidence and Reason. -- D.C.
constitution ::: n. --> The act or process of constituting; the action of enacting, establishing, or appointing; enactment; establishment; formation.
The state of being; that form of being, or structure and connection of parts, which constitutes and characterizes a system or body; natural condition; structure; texture; conformation.
The aggregate of all one&
construction ::: n. --> The process or art of constructing; the act of building; erection; the act of devising and forming; fabrication; composition.
The form or manner of building or putting together the parts of anything; structure; arrangement.
The arrangement and connection of words in a sentence; syntactical arrangement.
The method of construing, interpreting, or explaining
construe ::: v. t. --> To apply the rules of syntax to (a sentence or clause) so as to exhibit the structure, arrangement, or connection of, or to discover the sense; to explain the construction of; to interpret; to translate.
To put a construction upon; to explain the sense or intention of; to interpret; to understand.
coral ::: n. --> The hard parts or skeleton of various Anthozoa, and of a few Hydrozoa. Similar structures are also formed by some Bryozoa.
The ovaries of a cooked lobster; -- so called from their color.
A piece of coral, usually fitted with small bells and other appurtenances, used by children as a plaything.
Cosmology: A branch of philosophy which treats of the origin and structure of the universe. It is to be contrasted with ontology or metaphysics, the study of the most general features of reality, natural and supernatural, and with the philosophy of nature, which investigates the basic laws, processes and divisions of the objects in nature. It is perhaps impossible to draw or maintain a sharp distinction between these different subjects, and treatises which profess to deal with one of them usually contain considerable material on the others. Encyclopedia, section 35), are the contingency, necessity, eternity, limitations and formal laws of the world, the freedom of man and the origin of evil. Most philosophers would add to the foregoing the question of the nature and interrelationship of space and time, and would perhaps exclude the question of the nature of freedom and the origin of evil as outside the province of cosmology. The method of investigation has usually been to accept the principles of science or the results of metaphysics and develop the consequences. The test of a cosmology most often used is perhaps that of exhibiting the degree of accordance it has with respect to both empirical fact and metaphysical truth. The value of a cosmology seems to consist primarily in its capacity to provide an ultimate frame for occurrences in nature, and to offer a demonstration of where the limits of the spatio-temporal world are, and how they might be transcended.
cosmology ::: n. --> The science of the world or universe; or a treatise relating to the structure and parts of the system of creation, the elements of bodies, the modifications of material things, the laws of motion, and the order and course of nature.
cotter ::: n. --> Alt. of Cottar
A piece of wood or metal, commonly wedge-shaped, used for fastening together parts of a machine or structure. It is driven into an opening through one or all of the parts. [See Illust.] In the United States a cotter is commonly called a key.
A toggle. ::: v. t.
counter brace ::: --> The brace of the fore-topsail on the leeward side of a vessel.
A brace, in a framed structure, which resists a strain of a character opposite to that which a main brace is designed to receive.
creviced ::: a. --> Having a crevice or crevices; as, a creviced structure for storing ears of corn.
crib ::: n. --> A manger or rack; a feeding place for animals.
A stall for oxen or other cattle.
A small inclosed bedstead or cot for a child.
A box or bin, or similar wooden structure, for storing grain, salt, etc.; as, a crib for corn or oats.
A hovel; a hut; a cottage.
A structure or frame of timber for a foundation, or for supporting a roof, or for lining a shaft.
cristallology ::: n. --> The science of the crystalline structure of inorganic bodies.
crocein ::: n. --> A name given to any one of several yellow or scarlet dyestuffs of artificial production and complex structure. In general they are diazo and sulphonic acid derivatives of benzene and naphthol.
cross ::: 1. A structure consisting essentially of an upright and a transverse piece, upon which persons were formerly put to a cruel and ignominious death by being nailed or otherwise fastened to it by their extremities. 2. A representation or delineation of a cross on any surface, varying in elaborateness from two lines crossing each other to an ornamental design painted, embroidered, carved, etc.; used as a sacred mark, symbol, badge, or the like. 3. A trouble, vexation, annoyance; misfortune, adversity; sometimes anything that thwarts or crosses. v. 4. To go or extend across; pass from one side of to the other: pass over. 5. To extend or pass through or over; intersect. 6. To encounter in passing. crosses, crossed, crossing.
crosspiece ::: n. --> A piece of any structure which is fitted or framed crosswise.
A bar or timber connecting two knightheads or two bitts.
crystal ::: 1. A mineral, especially a transparent form of quartz, having a crystalline structure, often characterized by external planar faces. 2. Resembling crystal; transparent as water or a liquid. 3. Fig. Sometimes used to describe the eyes.
crystallization ::: n. --> The act or process by which a substance in solidifying assumes the form and structure of a crystal, or becomes crystallized.
The body formed by crystallizing; as, silver on precipitation forms arborescent crystallizations.
crystallography ::: n. --> The doctrine or science of crystallization, teaching the system of forms among crystals, their structure, and their methods of formation.
A discourse or treatise on crystallization.
cupola ::: n. --> A roof having a rounded form, hemispherical or nearly so; also, a ceiling having the same form. When on a large scale it is usually called dome.
A small structure standing on the top of a dome; a lantern.
A furnace for melting iron or other metals in large quantity, -- used chiefly in foundries and steel works.
A revolving shot-proof turret for heavy ordnance.
The top of the spire of the cochlea of the ear.
dagoba ::: n. --> A dome-shaped structure built over relics of Buddha or some Buddhist saint.
deep structures ::: Typically a Chomskyan notion. Integral Theory, however, uses it to refer to structures or holistic patterns that are shared by a group, whether that group be a family, a tribe, a community, a nation, all humans, all species, or all beings. Thus, “deep” does not necessarily mean “universal”; it means “shared with others.” And research then determines how wide that group is—from a few people to genuine universals. Lastly, all deep structures have surface structures that are relevant and specific to the group.
degeneration ::: n. --> The act or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration.
That condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure; as, fatty degeneration of the liver.
A gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any
demolition ::: n. --> The act of overthrowing, pulling down, or destroying a pile or structure; destruction by violence; utter overthrow; -- opposed to construction; as, the demolition of a house, of military works, of a town, or of hopes.
dendriform ::: a. --> Resembling in structure a tree or shrub.
dentigerous ::: a. --> Bearing teeth or toothlike structures.
dermatology ::: n. --> The science which treats of the skin, its structure, functions, and diseases.
dermohaemal ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or in relation with, both dermal and haemal structures; as, the dermohaemal spines or ventral fin rays of fishes.
dermoneural ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or in relation with, both dermal and neural structures; as, the dermoneural spines or dorsal fin rays of fishes.
design ::: n. 1. Purpose, aim, intention, especially with reference to a Divine Creator. 2. Plan or scheme. 3. A combination of details or features; pattern or motif. design"s, designs. *v. 4. To work out the structure or form of (something). 5. To plan and make (something) artistically or skilfully. *designed, designing.
destroy ::: v. t. --> To unbuild; to pull or tear down; to separate virulently into its constituent parts; to break up the structure and organic existence of; to demolish.
To ruin; to bring to naught; to put an end to; to annihilate; to consume.
To put an end to the existence, prosperity, or beauty of; to kill.
dharma-sangha ::: a communal body [sangha] which exists as the expression of and is based in the rules, features, structure of its life on the maintenance of the dharma.
Dialectic: (Gr. dia + legein, discourse) The beginning of dialectic Aristotle is said to have attributed to Zeno of Elea. But as the art of debate by question and answer, its beginning is usually associated with the Socrates of the Platonic dialogues. As conceived by Plato himself, dialectic is the science of first principles which differs from other sciences by dispensing with hypotheses and is, consequently, "the copingstone of the sciences" -- the highest, because the clearest and hence the ultimate, sort of knowledge. Aristotle distinguishes between dialectical reasoning, which proceeds syllogistically from opinions generally accepted, and demonstrative reasoning, which begins with primary and true premises; but he holds that dialectical reasoning, in contrast with eristic, is "a process of criticism wherein lies the path to the principles of all inquiries." In modern philosophy, dialectic has two special meanings. Kant uses it as the name of that part of his Kritik der reinen Vernunft which deals critically with the special difficulties (antinomies, paralogisms and Ideas) arising out of the futile attempt (transcendental illusion) to apply the categories of the Understanding beyond the only realm to which they can apply, namely, the realm of objects in space and time (Phenomena). For Hegel, dialectic is primarily the distinguishing characteristic of speculative thought -- thought, that is, which exhibits the structure of its subject-matter (the universal, system) through the construction of synthetic categories (synthesis) which resolve (sublate) the opposition between other conflicting categories (theses and antitheses) of the same subject-matter. -- G.W.C.
dicyemata ::: n. pl. --> An order of worms parasitic in cephalopods. They are remarkable for the extreme simplicity of their structure. The embryo exists in two forms.
diorite ::: n. --> An igneous, crystalline in structure, consisting essentially of a triclinic feldspar and hornblende. It includes part of what was called greenstone.
disc ::: n. --> A flat round plate
A circular structure either in plants or animals; as, a blood disc, a germinal disc, etc. Same as Disk.
disk ::: n. --> A discus; a quoit.
A flat, circular plate; as, a disk of metal or paper.
The circular figure of a celestial body, as seen projected of the heavens.
A circular structure either in plants or animals; as, a blood disk; germinal disk, etc.
The whole surface of a leaf.
The central part of a radiate compound flower, as in
disorganize ::: v. t. --> To destroy the organic structure or regular system of (a government, a society, a party, etc.); to break up (what is organized); to throw into utter disorder; to disarrange.
dissection ::: n. --> The act of dissecting an animal or plant; as, dissection of the human body was held sacrilege till the time of Francis I.
Fig.: The act of separating or dividing for the purpose of critical examination.
Anything dissected; especially, some part, or the whole, of an animal or plant dissected so as to exhibit the structure; an anatomical so prepared.
dissect ::: v. t. --> To divide into separate parts; to cut in pieces; to separate and expose the parts of, as an animal or a plant, for examination and to show their structure and relations; to anatomize.
To analyze, for the purposes of science or criticism; to divide and examine minutely.
dormer window ::: n. --> A window pierced in a roof, and so set as to be vertical while the roof slopes away from it. Also, the gablet, or houselike structure, in which it is contained.
dragon ::: “the black dragon of the Inconscience sustains with its vast wings and its back of darkness the whole structure of the material universe; its energies unroll the flux of things, its obscure intimations seem to be the starting-point of consciousness itself and the source of all life-impulse.” The Life Divine
draughtsman ::: n. --> One who draws pleadings or other writings.
One who draws plans and sketches of machinery, structures, and places; also, more generally, one who makes drawings of any kind.
A "man" or piece used in the game of draughts.
One who drinks drams; a tippler.
DREAMS. ::: Sometimes they are the formations of your own mind or vital ; sometimes they are the formations of other minds wth an exact or modified transcription in yours ; sometimes for- mations come that are made by the non-human forces or beings of these other planes. These things are not true and need not become true in the physical world, but they may still have effects on the physical if they are framed wlh that purpose or that tendency and, if they are allowed, they may realise their events or their meaning — for they are most often symbolic or sche- ‘ matic — in the inner or the outer life.
There are other dreams that have not the same character but are a representation or transcription of things that actually hap- pen on other planes, in other worlds under other conditions than ours. There are, again, some dreams that are purely symbolic and some that indicate existing movements and propensities in us.
Symbolic dreams may symbolize anything, forces at play, the underlying structure and tissue of things done or experienced, actual or potential happenings, real or suggested movements or changes in the inner or outer nature. The exact meaning varies with the mind and the condition of the one who sees them.
dromaeognathous ::: a. --> Having the structure of the palate like that of the ostrich and emu.
edifice ::: n. --> A building; a structure; an architectural fabric; -- chiefly applied to elegant houses, and other large buildings; as, a palace, a church, a statehouse.
eelpot ::: n. --> A boxlike structure with funnel-shaped traps for catching eels; an eelbuck.
elbow ::: n. --> The joint or bend of the arm; the outer curve in the middle of the arm when bent.
Any turn or bend like that of the elbow, in a wall, building, and the like; a sudden turn in a line of coast or course of a river; also, an angular or jointed part of any structure, as the raised arm of a chair or sofa, or a short pipe fitting, turning at an angle or bent.
A sharp angle in any surface of wainscoting or other
elegant ::: a. --> Very choice, and hence, pleasing to good taste; characterized by grace, propriety, and refinement, and the absence of every thing offensive; exciting admiration and approbation by symmetry, completeness, freedom from blemish, and the like; graceful; tasteful and highly attractive; as, elegant manners; elegant style of composition; an elegant speaker; an elegant structure.
Exercising a nice choice; discriminating beauty or sensitive to beauty; as, elegant taste.
elytriform ::: a. --> Having the form, or structure, of an elytron.
embankment ::: n. --> The act of surrounding or defending with a bank.
A structure of earth, gravel, etc., raised to prevent water from overflowing a level tract of country, to retain water in a reservoir, or to carry a roadway, etc.
encephalology ::: n. --> The science which treats of the brain, its structure and functions.
endoderm ::: n. --> The inner layer of the skin or integument of an animal.
The innermost layer of the blastoderm and the structures derived from it; the hypoblast; the entoblast. See Illust. of Ectoderm.
endophragma ::: n. --> A chitinous structure above the nervous cord in the thorax of certain Crustacea.
enduring structure ::: A structure that remains in existence, fully functioning, yet is subsumed in higher structures (e.g., cognitive structures). See transitional structure.
engineering ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Engineer ::: n. --> Originally, the art of managing engines; in its modern and extended sense, the art and science by which the mechanical properties of matter are made useful to man in structures and machines; the occupation and work of an engineer.
enginery ::: n. --> The act or art of managing engines, or artillery.
Engines, in general; instruments of war.
Any device or contrivance; machinery; structure or arrangement.
entablature ::: n. --> The superstructure which lies horizontally upon the columns. See Illust. of Column, Cornice.
eozoon ::: n. --> A peculiar structure found in the Archaean limestones of Canada and other regions. By some geologists it is believed to be a species of gigantic Foraminifera, but others consider it a concretion, without organic structure.
epipharynx ::: n. --> A structure which overlaps the mouth of certain insects.
Epistemology: (Gr. episteme, knowledge + logos, theory) The branch of philosophy which investigates the origin, structure, methods and validity of knowledge. The term "epistemology" appears to have been used for the first time by J. F. Ferrier, Institutes of Metaphysics (1854) who distinguished two branches of philosophy -- epistemology and ontology. The German equivalent of epistemology, Erkenntnistheorie, was used by the Kantian, K. L. Reinhold, Versuch einer Neuen Theorie des menschlichen Vorstellungsvermögens (1789); Das Fundament des philosophischen Wissens (1791), but the term did not gain currency until after its adoption by E. Zeller, Ueber Aufgabe und Bedeutung der Erkenntnisstheorie (1862). The term theory of knowledge is a common English equivalent of epistemology and translation of Erkenntnistheorie; the term Gnosiology has also been suggested but has gained few adherents.
epitheca ::: n. --> A continuous and, usually, structureless layer which covers more or less of the exterior of many corals.
escurial ::: n. --> A palace and mausoleum of the kinds of Spain, being a vast and wonderful structure about twenty-five miles northwest of Madrid.
"Everybody now knows that Science is not a statement of the truth of things, but only a language expressing a certain experience of objects, their structure, their mathematics, a coordinated and utilisable impression of their processes — it is nothing more.” Letters on Yoga
“Everybody now knows that Science is not a statement of the truth of things, but only a language expressing a certain experience of objects, their structure, their mathematics, a coordinated and utilisable impression of their processes—it is nothing more.” Letters on Yoga
evolutility ::: n. --> The faculty possessed by all substances capable of self-nourishment of manifesting the nutritive acts by changes of form, of volume, or of structure.
Evolution: The development of organization. The working out of a definite end; action by final causation. For Comte, the successive stages of historical development are necessary. In biology, the series of phylogenetic changes in the structure or behavior of organisms, best exemplified by Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. In cosmology, cosmogony is the theory of the generation of the existing universe in space and time. Opposite of: epigenesis. See Emergent evolution, Evolutionism. Cf. T. Osborn, From the Greeks to Darwin. -- J.K.F.
fabric ::: n. --> The structure of anything; the manner in which the parts of a thing are united; workmanship; texture; make; as cloth of a beautiful fabric.
That which is fabricated
Framework; structure; edifice; building.
Cloth of any kind that is woven or knit from fibers, either vegetable or animal; manufactured cloth; as, silks or other fabrics.
The act of constructing; construction.
fashion ::: n. --> The make or form of anything; the style, shape, appearance, or mode of structure; pattern, model; as, the fashion of the ark, of a coat, of a house, of an altar, etc.; workmanship; execution.
The prevailing mode or style, especially of dress; custom or conventional usage in respect of dress, behavior, etiquette, etc.; particularly, the mode or style usual among persons of good breeding; as, to dress, dance, sing, ride, etc., in the fashion.
feature ::: n. --> The make, form, or outward appearance of a person; the whole turn or style of the body; esp., good appearance.
The make, cast, or appearance of the human face, and especially of any single part of the face; a lineament. (pl.) The face, the countenance.
The cast or structure of anything, or of any part of a thing, as of a landscape, a picture, a treaty, or an essay; any marked peculiarity or characteristic; as, one of the features of the
fence ::: n. --> That which fends off attack or danger; a defense; a protection; a cover; security; shield.
An inclosure about a field or other space, or about any object; especially, an inclosing structure of wood, iron, or other material, intended to prevent intrusion from without or straying from within.
A projection on the bolt, which passes through the tumbler gates in locking and unlocking.
fenestrule ::: n. --> One of the openings in a fenestrated structure.
fibrocartilage ::: n. --> A kind of cartilage with a fibrous matrix and approaching fibrous connective tissue in structure.
fibrolite ::: n. --> A silicate of alumina, of fibrous or columnar structure. It is like andalusite in composition; -- called also sillimanite, and bucholizite.
filoplumaceous ::: a. --> Having the structure of a filoplume.
flimsy ::: superl. --> Weak; feeble; limp; slight; vain; without strength or solidity; of loose and unsubstantial structure; without reason or plausibility; as, a flimsy argument, excuse, objection. ::: n. --> Thin or transfer paper.
A bank note.
floor ::: n. --> The bottom or lower part of any room; the part upon which we stand and upon which the movables in the room are supported.
The structure formed of beams, girders, etc., with proper covering, which divides a building horizontally into stories. Floor in sense 1 is, then, the upper surface of floor in sense 2.
The surface, or the platform, of a structure on which we walk or travel; as, the floor of a bridge.
A story of a building. See Story.
fluoranthene ::: n. --> A white crystalline hydrocarbon C/H/, of a complex structure, found as one ingrdient of the higher boiling portion of coal tar.
formation ::: an organized structure or arrangement; creation. formations.
formation ::: n. --> The act of giving form or shape to anything; a forming; a shaping.
The manner in which a thing is formed; structure; construction; conformation; form; as, the peculiar formation of the heart.
A substance formed or deposited.
Mineral deposits and rock masses designated with reference to their origin; as, the siliceous formation about geysers;
formed ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Form ::: a. --> Arranged, as stars in a constellation; as, formed stars.
Having structure; capable of growth and development; organized; as, the formed or organized ferments. See Ferment, n.
form ::: n. --> A suffix used to denote in the form / shape of, resembling, etc.; as, valiform; oviform.
The shape and structure of anything, as distinguished from the material of which it is composed; particular disposition or arrangement of matter, giving it individuality or distinctive character; configuration; figure; external appearance.
Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system; as, a republican form of government.
foundation ::: 1. The natural or prepared ground or base on which some structure is erected or rests. 2. Fig. That on which something is founded; basis. **foundations.
foundation ::: n. --> The act of founding, fixing, establishing, or beginning to erect.
That upon which anything is founded; that on which anything stands, and by which it is supported; the lowest and supporting layer of a superstructure; groundwork; basis.
The lowest and supporting part or member of a wall, including the base course (see Base course (a), under Base, n.) and footing courses; in a frame house, the whole substructure of masonry.
fountain ::: 1. The source or origin of anything. 2. A jet or stream of water made by artificial means to spout or rise from an opening or structure, as to afford water for use, to cool the air, or to serve for ornament. fountain"s, fountains.
fountain ::: n. --> A spring of water issuing from the earth.
An artificially produced jet or stream of water; also, the structure or works in which such a jet or stream rises or flows; a basin built and constantly supplied with pure water for drinking and other useful purposes, or for ornament.
A reservoir or chamber to contain a liquid which can be conducted or drawn off as needed for use; as, the ink fountain in a printing press, etc.
frame ::: v. t. --> To construct by fitting and uniting the several parts of the skeleton of any structure; specifically, in woodwork, to put together by cutting parts of one member to fit parts of another. See Dovetail, Halve, v. t., Miter, Tenon, Tooth, Tusk, Scarf, and Splice.
To originate; to plan; to devise; to contrive; to compose; in a bad sense, to invent or fabricate, as something false.
To fit to something else, or for some specific end; to adjust; to regulate; to shape; to conform.
(full) Enlightenment ::: Being one with all major states (horizontal enlightenment) and all major structure-stages (vertical enlightenment) that exist at any given historical time.
gabionade ::: n. --> A traverse made with gabions between guns or on their flanks, protecting them from enfilading fire.
A structure of gabions sunk in lines, as a core for a sand bar in harbor improvements.
galliform ::: a. --> Like the Gallinae (or Galliformes) in structure.
gastrology ::: n. --> The science which treats of the structure and functions of the stomach; a treatise of the stomach.
gastrovascular ::: a. --> Having the structure, or performing the functions, both of digestive and circulatory organs; as, the gastrovascular cavity of c/lenterates.
gate ::: n. --> A large door or passageway in the wall of a city, of an inclosed field or place, or of a grand edifice, etc.; also, the movable structure of timber, metal, etc., by which the passage can be closed.
An opening for passage in any inclosing wall, fence, or barrier; or the suspended framework which closes or opens a passage. Also, figuratively, a means or way of entrance or of exit.
A door, valve, or other device, for stopping the passage of water through a dam, lock, pipe, etc.
gateway ::: n. --> A passage through a fence or wall; a gate; also, a frame, arch, etc., in which a gate in hung, or a structure at an entrance or gate designed for ornament or defense.
gauntry ::: n. --> A frame for supporting barrels in a cellar or elsewhere.
A scaffolding or frame carrying a crane or other structure.
genius ::: n. --> A good or evil spirit, or demon, supposed by the ancients to preside over a man&
genus ::: n. --> A class of objects divided into several subordinate species; a class more extensive than a species; a precisely defined and exactly divided class; one of the five predicable conceptions, or sorts of terms.
An assemblage of species, having so many fundamental points of structure in common, that in the judgment of competent scientists, they may receive a common substantive name. A genus is not necessarily the lowest definable group of species, for it may often be divided into
geognostical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to geognosy, or to a knowledge of the structure of the earth; geological.
geognosy ::: n. --> That part of geology which treats of the materials of the earth&
geography ::: n. --> The science which treats of the world and its inhabitants; a description of the earth, or a portion of the earth, including its structure, fetures, products, political divisions, and the people by whom it is inhabited.
A treatise on this science.
geology ::: n. --> The science which treats: (a) Of the structure and mineral constitution of the globe; structural geology. (b) Of its history as regards rocks, minerals, rivers, valleys, mountains, climates, life, etc.; historical geology. (c) Of the causes and methods by which its structure, features, changes, and conditions have been produced; dynamical geology. See Chart of The Geological Series.
A treatise on the science.
get-up ::: n. --> General composition or structure; manner in which the parts of a thing are combined; make-up; style of dress, etc.
gib ::: n. --> A male cat; a tomcat.
A piece or slip of metal or wood, notched or otherwise, in a machine or structure, to hold other parts in place or bind them together, or to afford a bearing surface; -- usually held or adjusted by means of a wedge, key, or screw. ::: v. i.
glandulation ::: n. --> The situation and structure of the secretory vessels in plants.
globule ::: n. --> A little globe; a small particle of matter, of a spherical form.
A minute spherical or rounded structure; as blood, lymph, and pus corpuscles, minute fungi, spores, etc.
A little pill or pellet used by homeopathists.
globuliferous ::: a. --> Bearing globules; in geology, used of rocks, and denoting a variety of concretionary structure, where the concretions are isolated globules and evenly distributed through the texture of the rock.
gneissose ::: a. --> Having the structure of gneiss.
goethite ::: n. --> A hydrous oxide of iron, occurring in prismatic crystals, also massive, with a fibrous, reniform, or stalactitic structure. The color varies from yellowish to blackish brown.
granite ::: n. --> A crystalline, granular rock, consisting of quartz, feldspar, and mica, and usually of a whitish, grayish, or flesh-red color. It differs from gneiss in not having the mica in planes, and therefore in being destitute of a schistose structure.
granitiform ::: a. --> Resembling granite in structure or shape.
granuliform ::: a. --> Having a granular structure; granular; as, granuliform limestone.
grate ::: a. --> Serving to gratify; agreeable. ::: n. --> A structure or frame containing parallel or crosed bars, with interstices; a kind of latticework, such as is used ia the windows of prisons and cloisters.
A frame or bed, or kind of basket, of iron bars, for holding
grit ::: n. --> Sand or gravel; rough, hard particles.
The coarse part of meal.
Grain, esp. oats or wheat, hulled and coarsely ground; in high milling, fragments of cracked wheat smaller than groats.
A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; as, millstone grit; -- called also gritrock and gritstone. The name is also applied to a finer sharp-grained sandstone; as, grindstone grit.
Structure, as adapted to grind or sharpen; as, a hone of good
group ::: n. --> A cluster, crowd, or throng; an assemblage, either of persons or things, collected without any regular form or arrangement; as, a group of men or of trees; a group of isles.
An assemblage of objects in a certain order or relation, or having some resemblance or common characteristic; as, groups of strata.
A variously limited assemblage of animals or plants, having some resemblance, or common characteristics in form or structure. The term has different uses, and may be made to include certain species of
(g) The problem of the structure of the knowledge-situation is to determine with respect to each of the major kinds of knowledge just enumerated -- but particularly with respect to perception -- the constituents of the knowledge-situation in their relation to one another. The structural problem stated in general but rather vague terms is: What is the relation between the subjective and objective components of the knowledge-situation? In contemporary epistemology, the structural problem has assumed a position of such preeminence as frequently to eclipse other issues of epistemology. The problem has even been incorporated by some into the definition of philosophy. (See A. Lalande, Vocabulaire de la Philosophie, art. Theorie de la Connaissance. I. and G.D. Hicks, Encycl. Brit. 5th ed. art. Theory of Knowledge.) The principal cleavage in epistemology, according to this formulation of its problem, is between a subjectivism which telescopes the object of knowledge into the knowing subject (see Subjectivism; Idealism, Epistemological) and pan-objectivism which ascribes to the object all qualities perceived or otherwise cognized. See Pan-obiectivism. A compromise between the extrernes of subjectivism and objectivism is achieved by the theory of representative perception, which, distinguishing between primary and secondary qualities, considers the former objective, the latter subjective. See Representative Perception, Theory of; Primary Qualities; Secondary Qualities.
gusset ::: n. --> A small piece of cloth inserted in a garment, for the purpose of strengthening some part or giving it a tapering enlargement.
Anything resembling a gusset in a garment
A small piece of chain mail at the openings of the joints beneath the arms.
A kind of bracket, or angular piece of iron, fastened in the angles of a structure to give strength or stiffness; esp., the part joining the barrel and the fire box of a locomotive boiler.
guy ::: n. --> A rope, chain, or rod attached to anything to steady it; as: a rope to steady or guide an object which is being hoisted or lowered; a rope which holds in place the end of a boom, spar, or yard in a ship; a chain or wire rope connecting a suspension bridge with the land on either side to prevent lateral swaying; a rod or rope attached to the top of a structure, as of a derrick, and extending obliquely to the ground, where it is fastened.
A grotesque effigy, like that of Guy Fawkes, dressed up in
gynecology ::: n. --> The science which treats of the structure and diseases of women.
halo ::: a geometric shape, usually in the form of a disk, circle, ring or rayed structure, traditionally representing a radiant light around or above the head of a divine or sacred personage. haloed.
hand-winged ::: a. --> Having wings that are like hands in the structure and arrangement of their bones; -- said of bats. See Cheiroptera.
hang ::: 1. To fasten or attach (pictures, etc.) to a wall. 2. To suspend (something) around or in front of anything. 3.* Fig. To remain unresolved or uncertain. 4. To make (an idea, form, etc.) dependent on the situation, structure, concept, or the like, usually derived from another source. 5. To fasten or be fastened from above, esp. by a cord, chain, etc.; suspend. 6. To be suspended or poised; hover. 7. To bend forward or downward; to lean over. *hangs, hung, hanging, flower-hung, shadow-hung. ::: hung on: Remained clinging, usually implying expectation or unwillingness to sever one"s connection.
harmony ::: 1. A pleasing combination of elements in a whole. 2. Agreement in feeling or opinion; accord. 3. Combination of sounds considered pleasing to the ear. 4. A simultaneous combination of tones, esp. when blended into chords pleasing to the ear; chordal structure, as distinguished from melody and rhythm. harmony"s, harmonies, harmonious, harmoniously.
hemitrope ::: a. --> Half turned round; half inverted; (Crystallog.) having a twinned structure. ::: n. --> That which is hemitropal in construction; (Crystallog.) a twin crystal having a hemitropal structure.
herpetology ::: n. --> The natural history of reptiles; that branch of zoology which relates to reptiles, including their structure, classification, and habits.
heterogenesis ::: n. --> Spontaneous generation, so called.
That method of reproduction in which the successive generations differ from each other, the parent organism producing offspring different in habit and structure from itself, the original form, however, reappearing after one or more generations; -- opposed to homogenesis, or gamogenesis.
heterogynous ::: a. --> Having females very unlike the males in form and structure; -- as certain insects, the males of which are winged, and the females wingless.
heterology ::: n. --> The absence of correspondence, or relation, in type of structure; lack of analogy between parts, owing to their being composed of different elements, or of like elements in different proportions; variation in structure from the normal form; -- opposed to homology.
The connection or relation of bodies which have partial identity of composition, but different characteristics and properties; the relation existing between derivatives of the same substance, or of the analogous members of different series; as, ethane, ethyl alcohol,
heterotaxy ::: n. --> Variation in arrangement from that existing in a normal form; heterogenous arrangement or structure, as, in botany, the deviation in position of the organs of a plant, from the ordinary or typical arrangement.
high-built ::: a. --> Of lofty structure; tall.
histological ::: a. --> Pertaining to histology, or to the microscopic structure of the tissues of living organisms.
histology ::: n. --> That branch of biological science, which treats of the minute (microscopic) structure of animal and vegetable tissues; -- called also histiology.
hive ::: n. --> A box, basket, or other structure, for the reception and habitation of a swarm of honeybees.
The bees of one hive; a swarm of bees.
A place swarming with busy occupants; a crowd. ::: v. t. --> To collect into a hive; to place in, or cause to enter, a
homogeneousness ::: n. --> Sameness 9kind or nature; uniformity of structure or material.
homogenetic ::: a. --> Homogenous; -- applied to that class of homologies which arise from similarity of structure, and which are taken as evidences of common ancestry.
homogenous ::: a. --> Having a resemblance in structure, due to descent from a common progenitor with subsequent modification; homogenetic; -- applied both to animals and plants. See Homoplastic.
homogeny ::: n. --> Joint nature.
The correspondence of common descent; -- a term used to supersede homology by Lankester, who also used homoplasy to denote any superinduced correspondence of position and structure in parts embryonically distinct (other writers using the term homoplasmy). Thus, there is homogeny between the fore limb of a mammal and the wing of a bird; but the right and left ventricles of the heart in both are only in homoplasy with each other, these having arisen independently since
homologous ::: a. --> Having the same relative position, proportion, value, or structure.
Corresponding in relative position and proportion.
Having the same relative proportion or value, as the two antecedents or the two consequents of a proportion.
Characterized by homology; belonging to the same type or series; corresponding in composition and properties. See Homology, 3.
homology ::: n. --> The quality of being homologous; correspondence; relation; as, the homologyof similar polygons.
Correspondence or relation in type of structure in contradistinction to similarity of function; as, the relation in structure between the leg and arm of a man; or that between the arm of a man, the fore leg of a horse, the wing of a bird, and the fin of a fish, all these organs being modifications of one type of structure.
The correspondence or resemblance of substances belonging
homomorphy ::: n. --> Similarity of form; resemblance in external characters, while widely different in fundamental structure; resemblance in geometric ground form. See Homophyly, Promorphology.
homotypal ::: a. --> Of the same type of structure; pertaining to a homotype; as, homotypal parts.
homotype ::: n. --> That which has the same fundamental type of structure with something else; thus, the right arm is the homotype of the right leg; one arm is the homotype of the other, etc.
house ::: n. --> A structure intended or used as a habitation or shelter for animals of any kind; but especially, a building or edifice for the habitation of man; a dwelling place, a mansion.
Household affairs; domestic concerns; particularly in the phrase to keep house. See below.
Those who dwell in the same house; a household.
A family of ancestors, descendants, and kindred; a race of persons from the same stock; a tribe; especially, a noble family or an
hovel ::: n. --> An open shed for sheltering cattle, or protecting produce, etc., from the weather.
A poor cottage; a small, mean house; a hut.
A large conical brick structure around which the firing kilns are grouped. ::: v. t.
hut ::: n. --> A small house, hivel, or cabin; a mean lodge or dwelling; a slightly built or temporary structure.
hydriform ::: a. --> Having the form or structure of a hydra.
hygrophanous ::: a. --> Having such a structure as to be diaphanous when moist, and opaque when dry.
hypermetamorphosis ::: n. --> A kind of metamorphosis, in certain insects, in which the larva itself undergoes remarkable changes of form and structure during its growth.
hyphae ::: n. pl. --> The long, branching filaments of which the mycelium (and the greater part of the plant) of a fungus is formed. They are also found enveloping the gonidia of lichens, making up a large part of their structure.
ichthyology ::: n. --> The natural history of fishes; that branch of zoology which relates to fishes, including their structure, classification, and habits.
idioblast ::: n. --> An individual cell, differing greatly from its neighbours in regard to size, structure, or contents.
imagination ::: “… our mind has the faculty of imagination; it can create and take as true and real its own mental structures: . . . . Our mental imagination is an instrument of Ignorance; it is the resort or device or refuge of a limited capacity of knowledge, a limited capacity of effective action. Mind supplements these deficiencies by its power of imagination: it uses it to extract from things obvious and visible the things that are not obvious and visible; it undertakes to create its own figures of the possible and the impossible; it erects illusory actuals or draws figures of a conjectured or constructed truth of things that are not true to outer experience. That is at least the appearance of its operation; but, in reality, it is the mind’s way or one of its ways of summoning out of Being its infinite possibilities, even of discovering or capturing the unknown possibilities of the Infinite.” The Life Divine
imbrication ::: n. --> An overlapping of the edges, like that of tiles or shingles; hence, intricacy of structure; also, a pattern or decoration representing such a structure.
ingenious ::: a. --> Possessed of genius, or the faculty of invention; skillful or promp to invent; having an aptitude to contrive, or to form new combinations; as, an ingenious author, mechanic.
Proseeding from, pertaining to, or characterized by, genius or ingenuity; of curious design, structure, or mechanism; as, an ingenious model, or machine; an ingenious scheme, contrivance, etc.
Witty; shrewd; adroit; keen; sagacious; as, an ingenious reply.
In Kant: Whatever enters into the structure of actual experience. Thus, the categories are constitutive of knowledge of nature because they are necessary conditions of any experience or knowledge whatever. In contrast, the transcendent Ideas (God, the total Cosmos, and the immortal Soul) are not constitutive of anything, since they do not serve to define or compose real objects, and must be restricted to a regulative and speculative use. See Crit. of Pure Reason, Transc. Dialectic, Bk. II, ch. II, Sec. 8. -- O.F.K.
inorganic ::: a. --> Not organic; without the organs necessary for life; devoid of an organized structure; unorganized; lifeness; inanimate; as, all chemical compounds are inorganic substances.
inorganized ::: a. --> Not having organic structure; devoid of organs; inorganic.
involve ::: v. t. --> To roll or fold up; to wind round; to entwine.
To envelop completely; to surround; to cover; to hide; to involve in darkness or obscurity.
To complicate or make intricate, as in grammatical structure.
To connect with something as a natural or logical consequence or effect; to include necessarily; to imply.
To take in; to gather in; to mingle confusedly; to
isopod ::: a. --> Having the legs similar in structure; belonging to the Isopoda. ::: n. --> One of the Isopoda.
isopoda ::: n. pl. --> An order of sessile-eyed Crustacea, usually having seven pairs of legs, which are all similar in structure.
is- ::: --> See Iso-.
A prefix or combining form, indicating identity, or equality; the same numerical value; as in isopod, isomorphous, isochromatic.
Applied to certain compounds having the same composition but different properties; as in isocyanic.
Applied to compounds of certain isomeric series in whose structure one carbon atom, at least, is connected with three other carbon atoms; -- contrasted with neo- and normal; as in isoparaffine;
It is held that society has not accomplished many basic transformations peacefully, that fundamental changes in the economic system or the social superstructure, such as that from medieval serf-lord to modern worker-capitalist economy, have usually involved violence wherein the class struggle passes into the acute stage of revolution because the existing law articulates and the state power protects the obsolete forms and minority-interest classes which must be superseded. The evolution of capitalism is considered to have reached the point where the accelerating abundance of which its technics are capable is frustrated by economic relationships such as those involved in individual ownership of productive means, hiring and firing of workers in the light of private profits and socially unplanned production for a money market. It is held that only technics collectively owned and production socially planned can provide employment and abundance of goods for everyone. The view taken is that peaceful attainment of them is possible, but will probably be violently resisted by priveleged minorities, provoking a contest of force in which the working class majority will eventually triumph the world over.
It is in his biology that the distinctive concepts of Aristotle show to best advantage. The conception of process as the actualization of determinate potentiality is well adapted to the comprehension of biological phenomena, where the immanent teleology of structure and function is almost a part of the observed facts. It is here also that the persistence of the form, or species, through a succession of individuals is most strikingly evident. His psychology is scarcely separable from his biology, since for Aristotle (as for Greek thought generally) the soul is the principle of life; it is "the primary actualization of a natural organic body." But souls differ from one another in the variety and complexity of the functions they exercise, and this difference in turn corresponds to differences in the organic structures involved. Fundamental to all other physical activities are the functions of nutrition, growth and reproduction, which are possessed by all living beings, plants as well as animals. Next come sensation, desire, and locomotion, exhibited in animals in varying degrees. Above all are deliberative choice and theoretical inquiry, the exercise of which makes the rational soul, peculiar to man among the animals. Aristotle devotes special attention to the various activities of the rational soul. Sense perception is the faculty of receiving the sensible form of outward objects without their matter. Besides the five senses Aristotle posits a "common sense," which enables the rational soul to unite the data of the separate senses into a single object, and which also accounts for the soul's awareness of these very activities of perception and of its other states. Reason is the faculty of apprehending the universals and first principles involved in all knowledge, and while helpless without sense perception it is not limited to the concrete and sensuous, but can grasp the universal and the ideal. The reason thus described as apprehending the intelligible world is in one difficult passage characterized as passive reason, requiring for its actualization a higher informing reason as the source of all intelligibility in things and of realized intelligence in man.
jetty ::: a. --> Made of jet, or like jet in color. ::: n. --> A part of a building that jets or projects beyond the rest, and overhangs the wall below.
A wharf or pier extending from the shore.
A structure of wood or stone extended into the sea to html{color:
jointed ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Joint ::: a. --> Having joints; articulated; full of nodes; knotty; as, a jointed doll; jointed structure.
karyostenosis ::: n. --> Direct cell division (in which there is first a simple division of the nucleus, without any changes in its structure, followed by division of the protoplasm of the karyostenotic mode of nuclear division.
keelson ::: n. --> A piece of timber in a ship laid on the middle of the floor timbers over the keel, and binding the floor timbers to the keel; in iron vessels, a structure of plates, situated like the keelson of a timber ship.
labyrinth ::: an intricate structure of interconnecting passages through which it is difficult to find one"s way; a maze. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adj.)
labyrinth ::: An intricate structure of interconnecting passages through which it is difficult to find one’s way; a maze. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adj.)
laminiferous ::: a. --> Having a structure consisting of laminae, or thin layers.
lantern ::: n. --> Something inclosing a light, and protecting it from wind, rain, etc. ; -- sometimes portable, as a closed vessel or case of horn, perforated tin, glass, oiled paper, or other material, having a lamp or candle within; sometimes fixed, as the glazed inclosure of a street light, or of a lighthouse light.
An open structure of light material set upon a roof, to give light and air to the interior.
A cage or open chamber of rich architecture, open below
larva ::: n. --> Any young insect from the time that it hatches from the egg until it becomes a pupa, or chrysalis. During this time it usually molts several times, and may change its form or color each time. The larvae of many insects are much like the adults in form and habits, but have no trace of wings, the rudimentary wings appearing only in the pupa stage. In other groups of insects the larvae are totally unlike the parents in structure and habits, and are called caterpillars, grubs, maggots, etc.
larviform ::: a. --> Having the form or structure of a larva.
leaf ::: 1. A usually green, flattened, lateral structure attached to a stem and functioning as a principle organ of photosynthesis and transpiration in most plants. 2. A page of a book or manuscript. lotus-leaf. (See also gold-leaf.)
lean-to ::: a. --> Having only one slope or pitch; -- said of a roof. ::: n. --> A shed or slight building placed against the wall of a larger structure and having a single-pitched roof; -- called also penthouse, and to-fall.
levels ::: A level is a general measure of higher and lower. While the terms “structures,” “stages,” and “waves” are sometimes loosely used to refer to “levels,” each term has their own important nuances. Any specific level has an actual structure. Levels tend to unfold in a sequence and thus progress through stages. Finally, levels are not rigidly separated from each other but are rather fluid and overlapping waves. In short, levels are abstract measures that represent fluid yet qualitatively distinct classes of recurrent patterns within developmental lines. Some examples include egocentric, ethnocentric, worldcentric, planetcentric, and Kosmocentric.
lithoidal ::: a. --> Like a stone; having a stony structure.
lophiomys ::: n. --> A very singular rodent (Lophiomys Imhausi) of Northeastern Africa. It is the only known representative of a special family (Lophiomyidae), remarkable for the structure of the skull. It has handlike feet, and the hair is peculiar in structure and arrangement.
lopsided ::: a. --> Leaning to one side because of some defect of structure; as, a lopsided ship.
Unbalanced; poorly proportioned; full of idiosyncrasies.
lymphoma ::: n. --> A tumor having a structure resembling that of a lymphatic gland; -- called also lymphadenoma.
macled ::: a. --> Marked like macle (chiastolite).
Having a twin structure. See Twin, a.
See Mascled.
madreporiform ::: a. --> Resembling a madreporian coral in form or structure.
mahabhutas. ::: the great or gross elements; the five primordial elements &
make ::: n. --> A companion; a mate; often, a husband or a wife.
Structure, texture, constitution of parts; construction; shape; form. ::: v. t. --> To cause to exist; to bring into being; to form; to produce; to frame; to fashion; to create.
making ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Make ::: n. --> The act of one who makes; workmanship; fabrication; construction; as, this is cloth of your own making; the making of peace or war was in his power.
Composition, or structure.
malachite ::: n. --> Native hydrous carbonate of copper, usually occurring in green mammillary masses with concentric fibrous structure.
malacology ::: n. --> The science which relates to the structure and habits of mollusks.
malformation ::: n. --> Ill formation; irregular or anomalous formation; abnormal or wrong conformation or structure.
marginate ::: n. --> Having a margin distinct in appearance or structure. ::: v. t. --> To furnish with a distinct margin; to margin.
masonry ::: n. --> The art or occupation of a mason.
The work or performance of a mason; as, good or bad masonry; skillful masonry.
That which is built by a mason; anything constructed of the materials used by masons, such as stone, brick, tiles, or the like. Dry masonry is applied to structures made without mortar.
The craft, institution, or mysteries of Freemasons; freemasonry.
massive ::: a. --> Forming, or consisting of, a large mass; compacted; weighty; heavy; massy.
In mass; not necessarily without a crystalline structure, but having no regular form; as, a mineral occurs massive.
Matter is by no means fundamentally real; it is a structure of Energy.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 679
matter ::: “Matter is by no means fundamentally real; it is a structure of Energy.” The Life Divine
matter ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Matter is by no means fundamentally real; it is a structure of Energy.” *The Life Divine
maxilliform ::: a. --> Having the form, or structure, of a maxilla.
mechanic ::: a. --> The art of the application of the laws of motion or force to construction.
A mechanician; an artisan; an artificer; one who practices any mechanic art; one skilled or employed in shaping and uniting materials, as wood, metal, etc., into any kind of structure, machine, or other object, requiring the use of tools, or instruments.
Having to do with the application of the laws of motion in the art of constructing or making things; of or pertaining to
medusiform ::: a. --> Resembling a medusa in shape or structure.
medusoid ::: a. --> Like a medusa; having the fundamental structure of a medusa, but without a locomotive disk; -- said of the sessile gonophores of hydroids. ::: n. --> A sessile gonophore. See Illust. under Gonosome.
mesoderm ::: n. --> The layer of the blastoderm, between the ectoderm and endoderm; mesoblast. See Illust. of Blastoderm and Ectoderm.
The middle body layer in some invertebrates.
The middle layer of tissue in some vegetable structures.
metalliform ::: a. --> Having the form or structure of a metal.
metameric ::: a. --> Having the same elements united in the same proportion by weight, and with the same molecular weight, but possessing a different structure and different properties; as, methyl ether and ethyl alcohol are metameric compounds. See Isomeric.
Of or pertaining to a metamere or its formation; as, metameric segmentation.
metamerism ::: n. --> The symmetry of a metameric structure; serial symmetry; the state of being made up of metameres.
The state or quality of being metameric; also, the relation or condition of metameric compounds.
metamorphic ::: a. --> Subject to change; changeable; variable.
Causing a change of structure.
Pertaining to, produced by, or exhibiting, certain changes which minerals or rocks may have undergone since their original deposition; -- especially applied to the recrystallization which sedimentary rocks have undergone through the influence of heat and pressure, after which they are called metamorphic rocks.
metamorphosis ::: n. --> Change of form, or structure; transformation.
A change in the form or function of a living organism, by a natural process of growth or development; as, the metamorphosis of the yolk into the embryo, of a tadpole into a frog, or of a bud into a blossom. Especially, that form of sexual reproduction in which an embryo undergoes a series of marked changes of external form, as the chrysalis stage, pupa stage, etc., in insects. In these intermediate stages sexual reproduction is usually impossible, but they
micro-geology ::: n. --> The part of geology relating to structure and organisms which require to be studied with a microscope.
micropegmatite ::: n. --> A rock showing under the microscope the structure of a graphic granite (pegmatite).
monomorphous ::: a. --> Having but a single form; retaining the same form throughout the various stages of development; of the same or of an essentially similar type of structure; -- opposed to dimorphic, trimorphic, and polymorphic.
monument ::: 1. A structure, such as a building, pillar, statue or sculpture, erected as a memorial to a person or event, as a building, pillar or statue. 2. Any enduring evidence or notable example of something. 3. An exemplar, model, or personification of some abstract quality. monuments.
morphology ::: n. --> That branch of biology which deals with the structure of animals and plants, treating of the forms of organs and describing their varieties, homologies, and metamorphoses. See Tectology, and Promorphology.
moss ::: n. --> A cryptogamous plant of a cellular structure, with distinct stem and simple leaves. The fruit is a small capsule usually opening by an apical lid, and so discharging the spores. There are many species, collectively termed Musci, growing on the earth, on rocks, and trunks of trees, etc., and a few in running water.
A bog; a morass; a place containing peat; as, the mosses of the Scottish border.
mudsill ::: n. --> The lowest sill of a structure, usually embedded in the soil; the lowest timber of a house; also, that sill or timber of a bridge which is laid at the bottom of the water. See Sill.
musciform ::: a. --> Having the form or structure of flies of the genus Musca, or family Muscidae.
Having the appearance or form of a moss.
n. 1. A structure serving as a dwelling for one or more persons, especially for a family. 2.* Fig. An abode; dwelling-place. houses, marvel-house. v. 3. To be a receptacle for or repository of. 4. To shelter, keep, or store in or as if in a house; to give shelter to. *housed, housing. ::: See also dwelling-house.
n. 1. An arched structure, usually of masonry or concrete, serving to cover a space. Also fig. 2. An arched overhead covering, such as the sky, that resembles the architectural structure in form. Chiefly poet. v. **3. vaulted. **Having a hemispherical vault or dome.
n. **1. A rigid structure formed of relatively slender pieces, joined as to surround sizeable empty spaces. 2. Form, constitution, or structure in general; system; order. 3. Applied to the heaven, earth, etc. regarded as a structure. 4. A body, esp. the human body; physique. 5. A border or case for enclosing a picture, mirror, etc. ::: frames, world-frame. v. 6. To contrive, devise, or compose, as a plan, law, or poem. 7. To fashion or shape. 8. To shape or adapt to a particular purpose. framed, framing, self-framed.**
n. 1. The body or outward appearance of a person or an animal considered separately from the face or head; figure. 2. An object, person, or part of the human body or the appearance of any of these, esp. as seen in nature. 3. The mode in which a thing exists, acts, or manifests itself; kind. 4. The structure, pattern, organization or essential nature of anything. Form, form"s, forms, Forms, form-bound, form-discoveries, form-maker, form-smitten, thought-forms. v. 5. To give form to; shape. 6.* *To take or assume form; to be formed or produced. forms, formed, many-formed, sense-formed. ::: re-form.** To form a second time, form over again.
nagyagite ::: n. --> A mineral of blackish lead-gray color and metallic luster, generally of a foliated massive structure; foliated tellurium. It is a telluride of lead and gold.
natrolite ::: n. --> A zeolite occuring in groups of glassy acicular crystals, and in masses which often have a radiated structure. It is a hydrous silicate of alumina and soda.
nectocalyx ::: n. --> The swimming bell or umbrella of a jellyfish of medusa.
One of the zooids of certain Siphonophora, having somewhat the form, and the essential structure, of the bell of a jellyfish, and acting as a swimming organ.
neomorph ::: n. --> A structure, part, or organ developed independently, that is, not derived from a similar structure, part, or organ, in a pre existing form.
nephrology ::: n. --> A treatise on, or the science which treats of, the kidneys, and their structure and functions.
nest ::: 1. A place or structure in which birds, fishes, insects, reptiles, mice, etc., lay eggs or give birth to young and rear its young. 2. A snug retreat or refuge; resting place; home. Also fig. **nests.**
neurosis ::: n. --> A functional nervous affection or disease, that is, a disease of the nerves without any appreciable change of nerve structure.
nirukta ::: etymology; philology, part of sahitya: the study of the origins and development of language, especially with reference to Sanskrit, with the aim of creating "a science which can trace the origins, growth & structure of the Sanscrit language, discover its primary, secondary & tertiary forms & the laws by which they develop from each other, trace intelligently the descent of every meaning of a word in Sanscrit from its original root sense, account for all similarities & identities of sense, discover the reason of unexpected divergences, trace the deviations which separated Greek & Latin from the Indian dialect, discover & define the connection of all three with the Dravidian forms of speech".
noctiluca ::: n. --> That which shines at night; -- a fanciful name for phosphorus.
A genus of marine flagellate Infusoria, remarkable for their unusually large size and complex structure, as well as for their phosphorescence. The brilliant diffuse phosphorescence of the sea is often due to myriads of Noctilucae.
nodosarine ::: a. --> Resembling in form or structure a foraminiferous shell of the genus Nodosaria. ::: n. --> A foraminifer of the genus Nodosaria or of an allied genus.
nondual ::: The ever-present union of subject and object, Form and Emptiness, Heaven and Earth. Nondual can refer to both the suchness or “isness” of Reality right now and also the very highest basic level or structure-stage of awareness, where this suchness is a permanent realization. It is both the ever-present ground of evolution, as well as its ultimate goal.
nonuniformist ::: n. --> One who believes that past changes in the structure of the earth have proceeded from cataclysms or causes more violent than are now operating; -- called also nonuniformitarian.
nucamentaceous ::: a. --> Like a nut either in structure or in being indehiscent; bearing one-seeded nutlike fruits.
octagon ::: n. --> A plane figure of eight sides and eight angles.
Any structure (as a fortification) or place with eight sides or angles.
ode ::: 1. A lyric poem of some length, usually of a serious or meditative nature and having an elevated style and formal stanzaic structure. 2. A poem meant to be sung. odes.
odontology ::: n. --> The science which treats of the teeth, their structure and development.
odontophore ::: n. --> A special structure found in the mouth of most mollusks, except bivalves. It consists of several muscles and a cartilage which supports a chitinous radula, or lingual ribbon, armed with teeth. Also applied to the radula alone. See Radula.
ontology ::: Traditionally, the study of being, reality, existence, as well as the given structure of anything, often viewed as unchanging. In Integral Post-Metaphysics, ontology is not a separate discipline or activity but that aspect of the AQAL matrix of any occasion that is experienced as enduring structure; the study of that aspect is ontology. The term “ontology” is sometimes used in this sense given the lack of alternatives.
open ::: a. --> Free of access; not shut up; not closed; affording unobstructed ingress or egress; not impeding or preventing passage; not locked up or covered over; -- applied to passageways; as, an open door, window, road, etc.; also, to inclosed structures or objects; as, open houses, boxes, baskets, bottles, etc.; also, to means of communication or approach by water or land; as, an open harbor or roadstead.
Free to be used, enjoyed, visited, or the like; not private; public; unrestricted in use; as, an open library, museum, court, or
ophthalmology ::: n. --> The science which treats of the structure, functions, and diseases of the eye.
organic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to an organ or its functions, or to objects composed of organs; consisting of organs, or containing them; as, the organic structure of animals and plants; exhibiting characters peculiar to living organisms; as, organic bodies, organic life, organic remains. Cf. Inorganic.
Produced by the organs; as, organic pleasure.
Instrumental; acting as instruments of nature or of art to a certain destined function or end.
organific ::: a. --> Making an organic or organized structure; producing an organism; acting through, or resulting from, organs.
organise ::: form (parts or elements of something) into a structured whole; coordinate. organised, organising.
organism ::: n. --> Organic structure; organization.
An organized being; a living body, either vegetable or animal, compozed of different organs or parts with functions which are separate, but mutually dependent, and essential to the life of the individual.
organize ::: v. t. --> To furnish with organs; to give an organic structure to; to endow with capacity for the functions of life; as, an organized being; organized matter; -- in this sense used chiefly in the past participle.
To arrange or constitute in parts, each having a special function, act, office, or relation; to systematize; to get into working order; -- applied to products of the human intellect, or to human institutions and undertakings, as a science, a government, an
organ ::: n. --> An instrument or medium by which some important action is performed, or an important end accomplished; as, legislatures, courts, armies, taxgatherers, etc., are organs of government.
A natural part or structure in an animal or a plant, capable of performing some special action (termed its function), which is essential to the life or well-being of the whole; as, the heart, lungs, etc., are organs of animals; the root, stem, foliage, etc., are organs of plants.
organology ::: n. --> The science of organs or of anything considered as an organic structure.
That branch of biology which treats, in particular, of the organs of animals and plants. See Morphology.
ornithoscelida ::: n. pl. --> A group of extinct Reptilia, intermediate in structure (especially with regard to the pelvis) between reptiles and birds.
orthopoda ::: n. pl. --> An extinct order of reptiles which stood erect on the hind legs, and resembled birds in the structure of the feet, pelvis, and other parts.
osmose ::: n. --> The tendency in fluids to mix, or become equably diffused, when in contact. It was first observed between fluids of differing densities, and as taking place through a membrane or an intervening porous structure. The more rapid flow from the thinner to the thicker fluid was then called endosmose, and the opposite, slower current, exosmose. Both are, however, results of the same force. Osmose may be regarded as a form of molecular attraction, allied to that of adhesion.
The action produced by this tendency.
ossicle ::: n. --> A little bone; as, the auditory ossicles in the tympanum of the ear.
One of numerous small calcareous structures forming the skeleton of certain echinoderms, as the starfishes.
osteosarcoma ::: n. --> A tumor having the structure of a sacroma in which there is a deposit of bone; sarcoma connected with bone.
oven ::: n. --> A place arched over with brick or stonework, and used for baking, heating, or drying; hence, any structure, whether fixed or portable, which may be heated for baking, drying, etc.; esp., now, a chamber in a stove, used for baking or roasting.
palatial ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to a palace; suitable for a palace; resembling a palace; royal; magnificent; as, palatial structures.
Palatal; palatine. ::: n. --> A palatal letter.
pandal [Hind.] ::: [a temporary structure for meetings, etc.]
panidiomorphic ::: a. --> Having a completely idiomorphic structure; -- said of certain rocks.
paragenic ::: a. --> Originating in the character of the germ, or at the first commencement of an individual; -- said of peculiarities of structure, character, etc.
pavilions ::: elaborate and decorative structures or other buildings connected to a larger building; annexes.
pearlstone ::: n. --> A glassy volcanic rock of a grayish color and pearly luster, often having a spherulitic concretionary structure due to the curved cracks produced by contraction in cooling. See Illust. under Perlitic.
pegmatitic ::: a. --> Of, pertaining to, or resembling, pegmatite; as, the pegmatic structure of certain rocks resembling graphic granite.
pentadactyloid ::: a. --> Having the form of, or a structure modified from, a pentadactyl limb.
peristaltic ::: a. --> Applied to the peculiar wormlike wave motion of the intestines and other similar structures, produced by the successive contraction of the muscular fibers of their walls, forcing their contents onwards; as, peristaltic movement.
perlitic ::: a. --> Relating to or resembling perlite, or pearlstone; as, the perlitic structure of certain rocks. See Pearlite.
pew ::: n. --> One of the compartments in a church which are separated by low partitions, and have long seats upon which several persons may sit; -- sometimes called slip. Pews were originally made square, but are now usually long and narrow.
Any structure shaped like a church pew, as a stall, formerly used by money lenders, etc.; a box in theater; a pen; a sheepfold. ::: v. t.
phonal ::: a. --> Of or relating to the voice; as, phonal structure.
phylactocarp ::: n. --> A branch of a plumularian hydroid specially modified in structure for the protection of the gonothecae.
physical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to nature (as including all created existences); in accordance with the laws of nature; also, of or relating to natural or material things, or to the bodily structure, as opposed to things mental, moral, spiritual, or imaginary; material; natural; as, armies and navies are the physical force of a nation; the body is the physical part of man.
Of or pertaining to physics, or natural philosophy; treating of, or relating to, the causes and connections of natural
physique ::: n. --> The natural constitution, or physical structure, of a person.
pile ::: n. --> A hair; hence, the fiber of wool, cotton, and the like; also, the nap when thick or heavy, as of carpeting and velvet.
A covering of hair or fur.
The head of an arrow or spear.
A large stake, or piece of timber, pointed and driven into the earth, as at the bottom of a river, or in a harbor where the ground is soft, for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.
pillar ::: n. --> The general and popular term for a firm, upright, insulated support for a superstructure; a pier, column, or post; also, a column or shaft not supporting a superstructure, as one erected for a monument or an ornament.
Figuratively, that which resembles such a pillar in appearance, character, or office; a supporter or mainstay; as, the Pillars of Hercules; a pillar of the state.
A portable ornamental column, formerly carried before a
plicidentine ::: n. --> A form of dentine which shows sinuous lines of structure in a transverse section of the tooth.
pneumoskeleton ::: n. --> A chitinous structure which supports the gill in some invertebrates.
podium ::: n. --> A low wall, serving as a foundation, a substructure, or a terrace wall.
The dwarf wall surrounding the arena of an amphitheater, from the top of which the seats began.
The masonry under the stylobate of a temple, sometimes a mere foundation, sometimes containing chambers.
The foot.
polygordius ::: n. --> A genus of marine annelids, believed to be an ancient or ancestral type. It is remarkable for its simplicity of structure and want of parapodia. It is the type of the order Archiannelida, or Gymnotoma. See Loeven&
polypidom ::: n. --> A coral, or corallum; also, one of the coral-like structure made by bryozoans and hydroids.
pontifice ::: n. --> Bridgework; structure or edifice of a bridge.
poop ::: an enclosed superstructure at the stern of a ship.
porphyrite ::: n. --> A rock with a porphyritic structure; as, augite porphyrite.
prehnite ::: n. --> A pale green mineral occurring in crystalline aggregates having a botryoidal or mammillary structure, and rarely in distinct crystals. It is a hydrous silicate of alumina and lime.
prop ::: n. 1. An object placed beneath or against a structure to keep it from falling or shaking; a support. 2. Fig. A person or thing giving support, as of a moral or spiritual nature. 3. Theat. Property, a usually moveable item, other than costumes or scenery, used on the set of a theatre production, motion picture, etc.; any object handled or used by an actor in a performance. v. 3. To sustain or support. props.
prospect ::: v. --> That which is embraced by eye in vision; the region which the eye overlooks at one time; view; scene; outlook.
Especially, a picturesque or widely extended view; a landscape; hence, a sketch of a landscape.
A position affording a fine view; a lookout.
Relative position of the front of a building or other structure; face; relative aspect.
The act of looking forward; foresight; anticipation; as,
pumice ::: n. --> A very light porous volcanic scoria, usually of a gray color, the pores of which are capillary and parallel, giving it a fibrous structure. It is supposed to be produced by the disengagement of watery vapor without liquid or plastic lava. It is much used, esp. in the form of powder, for smoothing and polishing. Called also pumice stone.
pumiciform ::: a. --> Resembling, or having the structure of, pumice.
pyramid ::: n. --> A solid body standing on a triangular, square, or polygonal base, and terminating in a point at the top; especially, a structure or edifice of this shape.
A solid figure contained by a plane rectilineal figure as base and several triangles which have a common vertex and whose bases are sides of the base.
The game of pool in which the balls are placed in the form of a triangle at spot.
raft ::: a flat structure, typically made of planks, logs, or barrels, that floats on water and is used for transport or as a platform for swimmers.
railway ::: n. --> A road or way consisting of one or more parallel series of iron or steel rails, patterned and adjusted to be tracks for the wheels of vehicles, and suitably supported on a bed or substructure.
The road, track, etc., with all the lands, buildings, rolling stock, franchises, etc., pertaining to them and constituting one property; as, a certain railroad has been put into the hands of a receiver.
rational ::: a. --> Relating to the reason; not physical; mental.
Having reason, or the faculty of reasoning; endowed with reason or understanding; reasoning.
Agreeable to reason; not absurd, preposterous, extravagant, foolish, fanciful, or the like; wise; judicious; as, rational conduct; a rational man.
Expressing the type, structure, relations, and reactions of a compound; graphic; -- said of formulae. See under Formula.
representative ::: a. --> Fitted to represent; exhibiting a similitude.
Bearing the character or power of another; acting for another or others; as, a council representative of the people.
Conducted by persons chosen to represent, or act as deputies for, the people; as, a representative government.
Serving or fitted to present the full characters of the type of a group; typical; as, a representative genus in a family.
Similar in general appearance, structure, and
reticulated ::: a. --> Resembling network; having the form or appearance of a net; netted; as, a reticulated structure.
Having veins, fibers, or lines crossing like the threads or fibers of a network; as, a reticulate leaf; a reticulated surface; a reticulated wing of an insect.
retrogression ::: n. --> The act of retrograding, or going backward; retrogradation.
Backward development; a passing from a higher to a lower state of organization or structure, as when an animal, approaching maturity, becomes less highly organized than would be expected from its earlier stages or known relationship. Called also retrograde development, and regressive metamorphism.
rhabdite ::: n. --> A minute smooth rodlike or fusiform structure found in the tissues of many Turbellaria.
One of the hard parts forming the ovipositor of insects.
rhabdolith ::: n. --> A minute calcareous rodlike structure found both at the surface and the bottom of the ocean; -- supposed by some to be a calcareous alga.
rhabdom ::: n. --> One of numerous minute rodlike structures formed of two or more cells situated behind the retinulae in the compound eyes of insects, etc. See Illust. under Ommatidium.
rhapsody ::: a composition free in structure and highly emotional in character.
rhyolite ::: n. --> A quartzose trachyte, an igneous rock often showing a fluidal structure.
ripidolite ::: n. --> A translucent mineral of a green color and micaceous structure, belonging to the chlorite group; a hydrous silicate of alumina, magnesia, and iron; -- called also clinochlore.
roadbed ::: n. --> In railroads, the bed or foundation on which the superstructure (ties, rails, etc.) rests; in common roads, the whole material laid in place and ready for travel.
rosette ::: n. --> An imitation of a rose by means of ribbon or other material, -- used as an ornament or a badge.
An ornament in the form of a rose or roundel, -much used in decoration.
A red color. See Roset.
A rose burner. See under Rose.
Any structure having a flowerlike form; especially, the group of five broad ambulacra on the upper side of the spatangoid and
sagittocyst ::: n. --> A defensive cell containing a minute rodlike structure which may be expelled. Such cells are found in certain Turbellaria.
sawfish ::: n. --> Any one of several species of elasmobranch fishes of the genus Pristis. They have a sharklike form, but are more nearly allied to the rays. The flattened and much elongated snout has a row of stout toothlike structures inserted along each edge, forming a sawlike organ with which it mutilates or kills its prey.
scaffold ::: n. --> A temporary structure of timber, boards, etc., for various purposes, as for supporting workmen and materials in building, for exhibiting a spectacle upon, for holding the spectators at a show, etc.
Specifically, a stage or elevated platform for the execution of a criminal; as, to die on the scaffold.
An accumulation of adherent, partly fused material forming a shelf, or dome-shaped obstruction, above the tuyeres in a
scaled ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Scale ::: a. --> Covered with scales, or scalelike structures; -- said of a fish, a reptile, a moth, etc.
Without scales, or with the scales removed; as, scaled herring.
scale-winged ::: a. --> Having the wings covered with small scalelike structures, as the Lepidoptera; scaly-winged.
scene ::: n. --> The structure on which a spectacle or play is exhibited; the part of a theater in which the acting is done, with its adjuncts and decorations; the stage.
The decorations and fittings of a stage, representing the place in which the action is supposed to go on; one of the slides, or other devices, used to give an appearance of reality to the action of a play; as, to paint scenes; to shift the scenes; to go behind the scenes.
Schema ::: The cognitive structure utilized to make sense of the world.
schist ::: n. --> Any crystalline rock having a foliated structure (see Foliation) and hence admitting of ready division into slabs or slates. The common kinds are mica schist, and hornblendic schist, consisting chiefly of quartz with mica or hornblende and often feldspar.
schistous ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to schist; having the structure of a schist.
scolithus ::: n. --> A tubular structure found in Potsdam sandstone, and believed to be the fossil burrow of a marine worm.
seam ::: n. --> Grease; tallow; lard.
The fold or line formed by sewing together two pieces of cloth or leather.
Hence, a line of junction; a joint; a suture, as on a ship, a floor, or other structure; the line of union, or joint, of two boards, planks, metal plates, etc.
A thin layer or stratum; a narrow vein between two thicker strata; as, a seam of coal.
sericite ::: n. --> A kind of muscovite occuring in silky scales having a fibrous structure. It is characteristic of sericite schist.
setiform ::: a. --> Having the form or structure of setae.
shale ::: n. --> A shell or husk; a cod or pod.
A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure. ::: v. t. --> To take off the shell or coat of; to shell.
shaly ::: a. --> Resembling shale in structure.
sheath ::: 1. A covering or case; an inclosing pocket, bag, or envelope, specifically one fitting closely. 2. Biol. A closely enveloping part or structure, as in an animal or plant. **sheaths.
shed ::: n. --> A slight or temporary structure built to shade or shelter something; a structure usually open in front; an outbuilding; a hut; as, a wagon shed; a wood shed.
A parting; a separation; a division.
The act of shedding or spilling; -- used only in composition, as in bloodshed.
That which parts, divides, or sheds; -- used in composition, as in watershed.
shiver-spar ::: n. --> A variety of calcite, so called from its slaty structure; -- called also slate spar.
shore ::: --> of Shear
imp. of Shear. ::: n. --> A sewer.
A prop, as a timber, placed as a brace or support against the side of a building or other structure; a prop placed beneath
shrine ::: n. 1. Any structure or place consecrated or devoted to some saint, holy person, or deity, as an alter, chapel, church, or temple. shrines. v. 2. To enshrine. shrines, shrined.
sign ::: n. 1. An act or gesture used to convey an idea, a desire, information, or a command. 2. Any object, action, event, pattern, etc., that conveys a meaning. 3. A mark used to mean something; a symbol that sets something apart from others of its kind. 4. Something that indicates or acts as a token of a fact, condition, etc., that is not immediately or outwardly observable. 5. A signal. 6. A conventional figure or device that stands for a word, phrase, or operation; a symbol, as in mathematics or in musical notation. 7. A displayed structure such as a banner bearing lettering or symbols. 8. An act or significant event that is experienced as indication of divine intervention. 9. A portent of things to come. Sign, sign"s, signs, signless, sign-burdened, flame-signs. v. 10. To affix one"s signature to. 11. To indicate by or as if by a sign; betoken. signs, signed, signing.
sill ::: n. --> The basis or foundation of a thing; especially, a horizontal piece, as a timber, which forms the lower member of a frame, or supports a structure; as, the sills of a house, of a bridge, of a loom, and the like.
The timber or stone at the foot of a door; the threshold.
The timber or stone on which a window frame stands; or, the lowest piece in a window frame.
The floor of a gallery or passage in a mine.
slate ::: v. t. --> An argillaceous rock which readily splits into thin plates; argillite; argillaceous schist.
Any rock or stone having a slaty structure.
A prepared piece of such stone.
A thin, flat piece, for roofing or covering houses, etc.
A tablet for writing upon.
An artificial material, resembling slate, and used for the above purposes.
society ::: 1. The body of human beings generally, associated or viewed as members of a community. 2. A highly structured system of human organization for large-scale community living that normally furnishes protection, continuity, security, and a national identity for its members. societies.
sounding-board ::: n. --> A thin board which propagates the sound in a piano, in a violin, and in some other musical instruments.
A board or structure placed behind or over a pulpit or rostrum to give distinctness to a speaker&
sparry ::: a. --> Resembling spar, or consisting of spar; abounding with spar; having a confused crystalline structure; spathose.
spermatophore ::: n. --> Same as Spermospore.
A capsule or pocket inclosing a number of spermatozoa. They are present in many annelids, brachiopods, mollusks, and crustaceans. In cephalopods the structure of the capsule is very complex.
spherulite ::: n. --> A minute spherical crystalline body having a radiated structure, observed in some vitreous volcanic rocks, as obsidian and pearlstone.
spiegel iron ::: --> A fusible white cast iron containing a large amount of carbon (from three and a half to six per cent) and some manganese. When the manganese reaches twenty-five per cent and upwards it has a granular structure, and constitutes the alloy ferro manganese, largely used in the manufacture of Bessemer steel. Called also specular pig iron, spiegel, and spiegeleisen.
spile ::: n. --> A small plug or wooden pin, used to stop a vent, as in a cask.
A small tube or spout inserted in a tree for conducting sap, as from a sugar maple.
A large stake driven into the ground as a support for some superstructure; a pile. ::: v. t.
spire ::: poet. A structure or formation, such as a steeple, that tapers to a point at the top.
sporosac ::: n. --> A hydrozoan reproductive zooid or gonophore which does not become medusoid in form or structure. See Illust. under Athecata.
An early or simple larval stage of trematode worms and some other invertebrates, which is capable or reproducing other germs by asexual generation; a nurse; a redia.
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . our mind has the faculty of imagination; it can create and take as true and real its own mental structures: . . . . Our mental imagination is an instrument of Ignorance; it is the resort or device or refuge of a limited capacity of knowledge, a limited capacity of effective action. Mind supplements these deficiencies by its power of imagination: it uses it to extract from things obvious and visible the things that are not obvious and visible; it undertakes to create its own figures of the possible and the impossible; it erects illusory actuals or draws figures of a conjectured or constructed truth of things that are not true to outer experience. That is at least the appearance of its operation; but, in reality, it is the mind"s way or one of its ways of summoning out of Being its infinite possibilities, even of discovering or capturing the unknown possibilities of the Infinite.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "the black dragon of the Inconscience sustains with its vast wings and its back of darkness the whole structure of the material universe; its energies unroll the flux of things, its obscure intimations seem to be the starting-point of consciousness itself and the source of all life-impulse.” The Life Divine ::: **Unused, guarded beneath Night"s dragon paws,**
stability ::: a. --> The state or quality of being stable, or firm; steadiness; firmness; strength to stand without being moved or overthrown; as, the stability of a structure; the stability of a throne or a constitution.
Steadiness or firmness of character, firmness of resolution or purpose; the quality opposite to fickleness, irresolution, or inconstancy; constancy; steadfastness; as, a man of little stability, or of unusual stability.
stack ::: a. --> A large pile of hay, grain, straw, or the like, usually of a nearly conical form, but sometimes rectangular or oblong, contracted at the top to a point or ridge, and sometimes covered with thatch.
A pile of poles or wood, indefinite in quantity.
A pile of wood containing 108 cubic feet.
A number of flues embodied in one structure, rising above the roof. Hence:
Any single insulated and prominent structure, or upright
staging ::: n. --> A structure of posts and boards for supporting workmen, etc., as in building.
The business of running stagecoaches; also, the act of journeying in stagecoaches.
stalagmitical ::: a. --> Having the form or structure of stalagmites.
starling ::: n. --> Any passerine bird belonging to Sturnus and allied genera. The European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is dark brown or greenish black, with a metallic gloss, and spotted with yellowish white. It is a sociable bird, and builds about houses, old towers, etc. Called also stare, and starred. The pied starling of India is Sternopastor contra.
A California fish; the rock trout.
A