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mechanism|ˈmɛkənɪz(ə)m|
[ad. mod.L. mēchanismus, f. Gr. µηχανή machine: see -ism. Cf. F. mécanisme, Sp. mecanismo, Pg. mechanismo, It. meccanismo; also G. mechanismus (pl. mechanismen). Late Latin had mēchanisma contrivance.
The mod. L. word was chiefly used to denote the mechanical structure and action of nature according to the Cartesian philosophy.]
1. a. The structure, or mutual adaptation of parts, in a machine or anything comparable to a machine, whether material or immaterial. (In early use chiefly with reference to natural objects.)
1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. §15. 401 To impute that rare mechanism of the works of nature to the blind and fortuitous motion of some particles of matter? 1685Boyle Enq. Notion Nat. 73, I shall express, what I call'd General Nature, by Cosmical Mechanism, that is, a Comprisal of all the Mechanical Affections (Figure, Size, Motion, &c.) that belong to the matter of the great System of the Universe. 1722Wollaston Relig. Nat. v. 100 He..knows the make of their bodies, and all the mechanism and propensions of them. 1776G. Campbell Philos. Rhet. (1801) I. 241 The wonderful mechanism of our mental frame. 1833H. Martineau Briery Creek iv. 85 The mechanism of society thus resembles the mechanism of man's art. 1854Brewster More Worlds xvii. 256 The wonderful mechanisms of animal and vegetable life. 1855Bain Senses & Int. ii. i. §1 The mechanism or anatomy of movement in the animal frame. 1862Darwin Fertil. Orchids iii. 100 The mechanism of the flower. 1867M. E. Herbert Cradle L. iii. 96 The door was a marvel of mechanism.
†b. In somewhat wider sense (see quot. 1755).
1712Spectator No. 518 ⁋8 The Contour of his Person, the Mechanism of his Dress, [etc.]. 1715Desaguliers Fires Impr. 154 The whole Mechanism of it [viz. a chimney] will be easily understood by a sight of the Figures. 1755Johnson, Mechanism,..2. Construction of parts depending on each other in any complicated fabrick.
2. concr.
a. A system of mutually adapted parts working together mechanically or in a manner analogous to mechanical action; a piece of machinery; the machinery (lit. or fig.) by means of which some particular effect is produced. Also, machinery or mechanical appliances in general. Also used, esp. Psychol., of the means or agency by which mental processes and bodily actions are caused to take place (cf. quot. 1885).
a1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. ii. 48 That Opinion that depresseth the natures of sensible Creatures below their just value..rendring them no more but barely Mechanisms or Artificial Engins. 1758Reid tr. Macquer's Chym. I. 129 This is brought about by a mechanism to which we are strangers. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. xxiii. (ed. 2) 447 Mechanism is not itself power. Mechanism, without power, can do nothing. 1814D. Stewart Hum. Mind II. ii. §2. 143 The wonderful mechanism of speech. 1822J. Imison Sci. & Art I. 94 The part of the mechanism of a watch which shows the hour of the day. 1876A. B. W. Kennedy Reuleaux' Kinem. Machinery 47 A closed kinematic chain, of which one link is thus made stationary, is called a mechanism. 1879St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 809 The vascular dilatation must be considered as the result of the morbid condition of the mechanism of the circulation. 1885tr. Lotze's Micro-cosmos I. ii. iv. 232 The mind is not content to have connections of ideas imposed on it by the mechanism of perception and memory. 1903Heywood Music in Churches 7 Average choir boys cannot recite on a low note without being liable to use the..chest voice..and the use of their lower mechanism is usually accompanied with flatness. 1910G. N. Calkins Protozool. i. 29 Bodies closely associated with the mechanism of nuclear division and of locomotion. 1913J. S. Haldane Mechanism, Life & Personality i. 9 Descartes, in his writings about the nervous system,..suggested nervous mechanisms. Ibid. ii. 58 The real difficulty for the mechanistic theory is that we are forced..to postulate that the germ-plasm is a mechanism of enormous complexity and definiteness, and..that this mechanism..can divide and combine with other similar mechanisms. 1921H. C. Miller New Psychol. & Teacher 161 This mental mechanism [sc. the complex] lies at the root of all bias, all injustice, and all inability to think clearly. 1924Brit. Weekly 28 Aug. 471/3 He will see strange recesses in human personality and unsuspected mechanisms fashioning religious beliefs. 1929K. S. Lashley (title) Brain mechanisms and intelligence. 1941Psychosomatic Med. July 227/1 The adaptive mechanisms by means of which the organism strives to achieve this goal. Ibid. 233/1 By ‘cognitive field’ or ‘practical insight’ we mean a mechanism capable of registering and integrating stimuli. 1958Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry Sept. 204/2 The brain, unlike a machine into which any mechanism can be set, appears to have mechanisms of its own. 1964Cofer & Appley Motivation xi. 573 Conceptions of learned drive basically assert that responses which produce strong stimuli are the mechanisms of such drives. 1968M. Bunge in Lakatos & Musgrave Probl. Philos. Sci. 128 Something mediating between inputs and outputs, i.e. a mechanism triggered by the inputs and which has the required outputs. 1972Physics Bull. Mar. 141/1 Furthermore some mechanism must be found for judging the quality of the work done by the chief scientist and the controller.
b. spec. in musical instruments.
1825Crosse York Festival 154 The admirable mechanism by which it [sc. an organ] was made available on this occasion. 1871Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Music 163 The invention consists in so arranging the mechanism of a flute that the closing of the C sharp and the B natural holes may be simultaneous by the action of the second finger. 1876Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms, Mechanism, that part of an instrument which forms the connection between the player and the sound-producing portion.
c. Kinematics. ‘An ideal machine, a combination of movable bodies constituting a machine, but considered only with regard to relative movements’ (Webster 1897).
†3. Mechanical action; ‘action according to mechanick laws’ (J.). Obs.
1671S. Parker Def. Eccl. Pol. 342 The Philosophy of a Phanatick being as intelligible by the Laws of Mechanism, as the Motion of the Heart, and Circulation of the Bloud. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. iii. 32 He acknowledges nothing besides Matter and Motion; so that all that he can conceive to be transmitted hither from the Stars, must needs be perform'd either by Mechanism or Accident. 1704Norris Ideal World ii. ii. 90 The most that use them [movements] are utterly ignorant of the laws of mechanism and yet order their footing as artificially as the most skilful. 1731Arbuthnot Aliments (1735) 34 After the Chyle has pass'd through the Lungs, Nature continues her usual Mechanism, to convert it into Animal Substances. 1748Hartley Observ. Man i. iv. 500 The Mechanism or Necessity of human Actions, in Opposition to what is generally termed Free-will. 1794Sullivan View Nat. IV. 5 Mechanism has become a learned word. But, does it mean any more than that one particle of matter is impelled by another,..and that still by another, until we come to the particle first moved?
†4. A contrivance, artifice. Obs. rare.
1670W. Clarke Nat. Hist. Nitre 92 It is also a pretty Mechanism in Cookery..which is this, Nitre giveth a Red Colour to Neats-Tongues, [etc.] 1688Evelyn in Gutch Coll. Cur. I. 414 All their [the Jesuits'] other mechanismes and arts having fail'd them.
†5. Mechanical operations; mechanical art. Obs.
1710Steele Tatler No. 209 ⁋2 Painting is Eloquence and Poetry in Mechanism. 1736Ainsworth Lat. Dict., Talus..who first invented the saw..grew such an artist, that Dædalus fearing to be outdone in mechanism put him to death.
6. The opinion that everything in the universe is produced by mechanical forces.
1690Locke Hum. Und. i. iii. 22 Thereby making Men no other than bare Machins... And upon that ground they must necessarily reject all Principle of Vertue, who cannot put Morality and Mechanism together. 1777Priestley Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. Introd. 5 Mechanism is the undoubted consequence of materialism. 1902Baldwin Dict. Philos. & Psychol. II. 59/1 In biology: mechanism is opposed to vitalism, and in more recent controversy to neo⁓vitalism. 1909,1917[see finalism 2]. 1956O. L. Zangwill in A. Pryce-Jones New Outl. Mod. Knowl. 170 Mechanism has sought to account for all behaviour in terms of the quasi-automatic activities of the central nervous system.
7. Art.
a. The mechanical execution of a painting, sculpture, piece of music, etc.; technique. (Opposed to style or expression.)
1843Ruskin Mod. Paint. ii. §1. vii. 94 note, Canaletti's mechanism is wonderful. Prout's the rudest possible; but there is not a grain of feeling in the one, and there is much in the other. 1860Ibid. V. ix. viii. §1. 281 [Teniers and Wouvermans] seem never to have painted indolently, but gave the purchaser his thorough money's worth of mechanism. 1876Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms, Mechanism, the physical power of performance, as distinguished from the intellect or taste which directs it.
b. ‘Mechanical’ quality (of literature); the following of set methods for producing effect.
1903Ld. Rosebery in Daily News 27 Nov. 5/5 Lord Macaulay's works..are charged now with a certain amount of mannerism and a certain amount of mechanism. |