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immaterial, a. (n.)|ɪməˈtɪərɪəl|
Also 5 -iell, 6–7 -iall, (6 in-).
[ad. med.L. immateriālis, f. im- (im-2) + materiālis material a. In 1398, prob. a. F. immatériel (14th c.).]
1. Not material; not consisting of matter; incorporeal; spiritual.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. i. (1495) 3 The contemplacyon of the heuenly Ierarchyes immaterielles. 1527Andrew Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters A j, That the corruptyble shall be made incorruptible, and to make the materyall inmateryall. 1570Billingsley Euclid i. def. i. 1 Number is more simple and pure then is magnitude, and also immateriall. 1641Wilkins Mercury xix. (1707) 78 That strange immaterial Power of the Loadstone. 1748Hartley Observ. Man ii. i. 31 If God be not an immaterial Being, then Matter may be the Cause of all the Motions in the Material World. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 76 Demons, ghosts, witches, and other immaterial and supernatural agents.
b. pl. as n.: Things that are non-material.
1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. vii. §2. 67 Thus more perfect apprehenders misconceive Immaterials: Our imaginations paint Souls and Angels in as dissimilar a resemblance. 1682Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. iii. §14 Lodge immaterials in thy head: ascend unto invisibles. 1730W. Harte Ess. Satire 32 As well might Nothing bind Immensity, Or passive Matter Immaterials see.
2. Having little substance; flimsy, slight. rare.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. i. 35 Thou idle, immateriall skiene of Sleyd silke!
†3. Not pertinent to the matter in hand. Obs.
1598J. Dickenson Greene in Conc. (1878) 162 Had I intituled this discourse, A Looking Glasse, the Metaphor had not been wholly immateriall. 1632Lithgow Trav. x. 488 Your absurd pretence: Your immateriall proofes.
4. Of no essential consequence; unimportant.
Johnson says ‘This sense has crept into the conversation and writings of barbarians; but ought to be utterly rejected’: it is, however, the opposite of material in the sense of ‘important’ found from 1528 onwards.
1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 77 After some immaterial Discourse they returned to their Tents. 1748Hartley Observ. Man ii ii. 155 Small immaterial Variations excepted. 1804W. Tennant Ind. Recreat. (ed. 2) II. 213 Only employed..for coarse purposes, where colour and appearances are totally immaterial. 1893Chitty in Law Times Rep. LXVIII. 431/2 The question of notice becomes immaterial after my finding that there was no agreement.
Hence immaˈterially adv.; immaˈterialness.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. vii. 119 For the visible species of things strike not our senses immater[i]ally. 1727Bailey vol. II, Immaterialness, immateriality. |