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equivalent, a. and n.|ɪˈkwɪvələnt|
Forms: 6–7 eque-, equivolent(e, 6 equyvalent, 7–8 æquivalent, 5– equivalent.
[ad. late L. æquivalent-em, pr. pple. of æquivalēre, f. æquus equal + valēre to be powerful, to be worth. Cf. Fr. équivalent.]
A. adj. Equal in value, power, efficacy, or import. Const. to, † with, † for or simply.
†1. Of persons or things: Equal in power, rank, authority, efficacy, or excellence. Obs.
c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714) 67 The Kyng of Scotts..put out of the..Lond, the Erles Dowglas, whose Lyvelood and Myght was nerehand equivalent to his owne. 1513Bardshaw St. Werburge i. 803 Equyualent to Ruth she was in humylyte. 1531Elyot Gov. i xiv, At the laste we shulde haue..publike weale equiualent to the grekes or Romanes. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 437 The Duke of Burgoyn..thinking no man eyther in aucthoritie or blood equyvalent to himselfe.. tooke upon him the whole rule and governaunce of the realme. 1597Bacon Coulers Good & Evill v. (Arb.) 146 Fraunce..was equiualent with them all, and beside more compacted and vnited. 1601Holland Pliny II. 161 The oile of the Lentiske..were æquiualent euery way to oile-rosat, but that it is found to be more astringent. 1608Shakes. Per. v. i. 92 Ancestors Who stood equivalent with mighty kings. 1655Let. in Hartlib Ref. Commonw. Bees 25 As to Medicinal virtue æquivalent, if not exceeding the other. 1657Burton's Diary (1828) II. 88 Certainly their authority was equivalent with yours. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 609 No Fair to thine Equivalent or second. a1687Petty Pol. Arith. i. (1691) 1 A small Country and few People may be equivalent in Wealth and Strength to a far greater People and Territory.
†2. Occasional uses.
a. Of songs: ? Concordant.
b. Correspondent, proportioned to. Obs.
1513Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 3107 Syngynge full swetely theyr songes equyualent. 1560Rolland Crt. Venus i. 703 It is Equiualent To all ressoun..That thy mater..I tak on hand.
3. a. Equal in value. Now only in more restricted uses: (a) of things regarded as mutually compensating each other, or as exchangeable; (b) of things of which one serves as a measure of value for the other.
1591Horsey Trav. (Hakluyt Soc.) App. 301 The gayne..wold be at the leaste equevolente with the comodytyes the marchantes should reape therby. 1639Fuller Holy War iv. xviii. (1647) 198 Tarqueminus reserving his person [King Louis] as an equivalent ransome. c1720Prior 1st Hymn Callimachus 70 Things of moment well nigh equivalent, and neighbouring value, By lot are parted. 1769Goldsm. Rom. Hist. (1786) I. 210 The lives of those men were not equivalent for those of an army. 1818Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. ii. 372 To pay an equivalent penalty, in case she failed in the proof of her charges. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 251 Thirty thousand pounds may be considered as equivalent to a hundred and fifty thousand pounds in the nineteenth century. 1858Bright Sp. India 24 June, Taxation equivalent to 300,000,000l.
b. Of weights, measures, numerical expressions: Equal in quantitative ‘value’.
1806Hutton Math. I. 56 Reduce 56/7 to its equivalent number. To reduce a whole number to an equivalent fraction. 1825Nicholson Operat. Mech. Gloss. 780 Quintal, a French or Spanish weight equivalent to 100 lbs. of those respective nations.
4. Having equal or corresponding import, meaning, or significance: chiefly of words and expressions.
1529More Heresyes iv. Wks. 280/1 It is now all one to cal him a Lutherane or to call him an heretike, those two wordes being in maner equiualent. 1530Lyndesay Test Papyngo 786 Doctryne and deid war boith equeuolent. 1614Selden Titles Hon. 169 With them Princeps alone was equiualent with the name of Emperor. 1668Wilkins Real Char. 369 That double Letter in the Hebrew ({hebtsade})..is by some accounted equivolent to this. 1749Power Pros. Numbers 61 Furnish yourself with a Copia of Equivalent Words. 1832Lewis Use & Ab. Pol. Terms vii. 63 Here he makes a republic equivalent to a democracy. 1846Mill Logic i. v. §7 Let us substitute for the word virtue an equivalent but more definite expression. 1886F. W. Maitland in Law Q. Rev. Oct. 481 The further back we trace our legal history the more perfectly equivalent do the words seisin and possession become.
5. a. That is virtually the same thing; identical in effect; tantamount.
1639Fuller Holy War iii. xx. (1647) 144 Who knoweth not, but such a witnesse is equivalent to a generall consent? 1698J. Keill Exam. Th. Earth (1734) 99 The centrifugal force..is equivalent..to two forces. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 153 ⁋4 The contrariety of equal attractions is equivalent to rest. 1772Junius Lett. lxviii. 346 Being taken with vert or venison was declared to be equivalent to indictment. 1842Lytton Zanoni 28 A whisper against his honour and repute will, in future, be equivalent to an affront to myself. 1865S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. III. 237 His presence..would be equivalent to an army of ten thousand men. 1885Watson & Burbury Math. Th. Electr. & Magn. I. 145 The system is therefore equivalent to a complete sphere charged to unit potential.
b. Optics. equivalent focal length (see quots.).
1867Sutton & Dawson Dict. Photogr. (ed. 2) 116 Suppose that a lens..when presented towards a distant object, renders the image of it a certain size upon the ground glass. Then the ‘equivalent focal length’ of that lens..is equal to the principal focal length of a single lens, having a small stop in close contact with its central portion, which gives the same sized image of that object, when taken from the same point of view. 1961A. L. M. Sowerby Dict. Photogr. (ed. 19) 335 The focal length, or equivalent focal length, of a lens is defined as the distance from the node of emission, to the position at which the lens forms a sharp image of a distant object.
c. Electr. equivalent circuit: an electric circuit consisting usually of resistance, inductance and capacitance and having characteristics equivalent to those of other electric circuits or apparatus.
1920in R. E. Neale Whittaker's Electr. Engin. Pocket-Bk. 242 When speaking of the constants of a transformer, it is permissible to consider an equivalent circuit, the impedance of which is such that the same current at the same power-factor would flow if the same pressure were applied to it as to the primary of the transformer. 1943Electronic Engin. XVI. 149 It is convenient to consider an equivalent circuit composed of pure reactances and resistances. 1962Simpson & Richards Junction Transistors v. 75 These usually take the form of equivalent circuits which can be used to represent the transistor under different circuit conditions.
6. Having the same relative position or function; corresponding.
1634Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) 8 Burgomaisters..are equivalent to our bailiffs of cities or towns corporate. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. II. 583 The Cadi, or some equivalent officer. 1807J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 7 Perhaps in the fossil kingdom heat may be equivalent to a vital principle. 18..Dana (W.), The equivalent strata of different countries. 1882Vines Sachs' Bot. 152 The underground hairs of Mosses and the true roots of vascular plants are physiologically equivalent.
7. Chem. Of a quantity of any substance: Equal in combining value to a (stated) quantity of another substance. Also, of elements: Having the same degree of quantivalence.
1850Daubeny Atom. Th. ix. (ed. 2) 280 note, Otto employs the term equivalent volume instead of atomic volume. 1869Roscoe Elem. Chem. 172 The elements belonging to one class are equivalent. 1873Williamson Chem. §85 One atom of oxygen takes the place of two atoms of chlorine, and it is spoken of as equivalent to two atoms of chlorine. 1880tr. Wurtz' Atom. Th. 33 The atoms of simple bodies are equivalent to each other.
B. n.
1. a. Something equal in value or worth; said esp. of things given by way of exchange or compensation; also, something tantamount or virtually identical.
1502Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) iv. vii. 185 By delyberacyon and fully consentynge or equyualent trespasseth ony of the x. commaundementes. a1616Rogers (J.), A regular obedience to one law will be a full equivalent for their breach of another. 1672Marvell Reh. Transp. I. 234 You may well think we expected no less an equivalent. 1722Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 678 I'll remit the money to you as you direct, or send you equivalents. 1760Goldsm. Cit. W. xxvii, For every dinner..they returned an equivalent in praise. 1771― Hist. Eng. IV. 270 This, however, was considered as no equivalent to the damages that had been sustained. 1792Anecd. W. Pitt II. xxiii. 52 Belleisle alone..was a sufficient equivalent for Minorca. 1828Ld. Grenville Sink. Fund 9 Those quantities of money and of bread are equivalents. 1841Lane Arab. Nts. I. 18 To be paid in kind, or in money, or other equivalent. 1855Bain Senses & Int. iii. iii. (1864) 567 The existence of a plurality of weak resemblances will be the equivalent of a single stronger one. 1872Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 159 Thus a white weasel's skin was an equivalent for eleven sheepskins.
b. the Equivalent in Eng. Hist.: a sum of money ordered, by the Act of Union of 1707, to be paid to Scotland as a set-off against additional excise duties, loss on coinage, etc.
1706Articles of Union xv, The sum of 398,085l. 10s...being the equivalent to be answered to Scotland for such parts of the said customs and excises, etc. The said commissioners..shall keep books containing accounts of the amount of the equivalent. 1707Luttrell Brief Rel. VI. 181 Most of the Scotch commissioners for the equivalent are gone for that kingdom. 1708Lond. Gaz. No. 4419/6 A..quantity of arms..belonging to the Commissioners of the Equivalent.
†c. An equal part. Obs. rare.
c1590Marlowe Faust. vii. (1878) 12 The streets straight⁓forth..Quarter the town in four equivalents.
2. A word, expression, sign, etc., of equivalent meaning or import.
1651Hobbes Govt. & Soc. ii. 32 The words themselves..have in them the very essence of an Oath, to wit, so God help me, or other equivalent. 1862H. Spencer First Princ. ii. iii. (1875) 158 Appearance, which is its [Phenomenon's] verbal equivalent. 1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. v. 96 Wrote down the pictured equivalents for these words. 1876Freeman Norm. Conq. II. App. 683, I have not found any English equivalent for that title.
3. In various scientific uses:
a. Chem. = equivalent proportion (see quot and A. 7.).
1827Faraday Chem. Manip. xxii. 554 The term chemical equivalent may therefore be used to imply that proportion of a body which is necessary to act upon another body. 1881Williamson in Nature No. 618. 416 The term equivalent was subsequently introduced to indicate the proportional weights of analogous substances found to be of equal value in their chemical effects.
b. That which corresponds in relative position or function (see A. 6); in Biol. said of analogous and homologous structures; in Geol. of a stratum or formation in one country answering to one in another country.
1839Murchison Silur. Syst. i. iii. 33 The English equivalents of the Keuper. 1856Woodward Mollusca 48 The univalve shell is the equivalent of both valves of the bivalve.
c. Physics. mechanical equivalent: the amount of mechanical effect resulting from the operation of a force. mechanical equivalent of heat: conventionally, the amount of mechanical energy required to raise 1 lb. of water through 1° C.; cf. joule; mechanical equivalent of light: the amount of radiant flux that corresponds to unit luminous flux (or, in quot. 1908, that is emitted by a source of unit luminous intensity), usu. expressed in watts per lumen.
1842Grove Corr. Phys. Forces 19 Where both lose, then an equivalent of heat results. 1845Rep. Brit. Assoc. ii. 31 (heading) On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. xix. 329 This force is the mechanical equivalent of the heat generated. 1863― Heat ii. (1870) 39 He first calculated the mechanical equivalent of heat. 1862H. Spencer First Princ. ii. iii. (1875) 165 An equivalent of the pressure we consciously exert. 1876Tait Rec. Adv. Phys. Sc. vi. 137 For a quantity of heat represents its equivalent of work. 1908Proc. R. Soc. A. LXXX. 19 The labours of workers in Germany and in the United States [have not]..sufficed to permit of definite values being adopted for..the mechanical equivalent of light. Ibid. 22 The mechanical equivalent of light M = 4πρ / I = Wr / Kf ⎜ d / D ⎟2, giving the mechanical equivalent in watts per candle. 1959W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinemat. 110/2 The reciprocal of the luminous efficiency of radiant energy is often termed, the ‘mechanical equivalent of light’.
fig.1878Seeley Stein II. 17 Napoleon..had tried to find the Mechanical Equivalent of Catholicism.
4. Comb. equivalent-money (see 1 b); equivalent number (Chem.), atomic weight.
1707Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) VI. 189 The remainder of the equivalent money for Scotland is to be sent thither next Tuesday in specie and bank bills. 1715Lond. Gaz. No. 5307/2 Commissioners for disposing so much of the Equivalent Mony payable to Scotland as remains yet unapplied. 1826Henry Elem. Chem. I. 629 The equivalent number, or weight of the atom, of alumina, has been less satisfactorily determined than that of most of the earths.
Add:[A.] [5.] d. Math. Belonging to the same equivalence class.
1948,1952[see equivalence class s.v. *equivalence n. 4]. 1986C. W. Norman Undergraduate Algebra i. 25 Two elements of X are equivalent if and only if their squares are equal. The equivalence classes, in this case, are [etc.]. |