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polytechnic, a. and n.|pɒlɪˈtɛknɪk| [ad. F. polytechnique (école polytechnique, 1795), f. Gr. πολύτεχνος skilled in many arts + -ique, -ic: see poly- and technic.] A. adj. Pertaining to, dealing with, or devoted to, various arts; esp. in polytechnic school, an educational institution for giving instruction in various technical subjects. Orig. applied to that established in Paris in 1794 by the National Convention, under the name of École des Travaux publics, changed in 1795 to École Polytechnique, and more particularly devoted to the instruction of recruits for the corps of civil and military engineers. Polytechnic Institution: name of an institution in London, opened in 1838, for the exhibition of objects connected with the industrial arts, and providing a laboratory and theatre or lecture-room; closed in 1881, and subsequently re-opened as a technical and recreative school.
1805W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. III. 258 The polytechnic school has long been distributing among select pupils, all the military sciences, through the best teachers. 1807Ibid. V. 579 The Tractate of Education is a singular plan for a polytechnic school. 1837Penny Mechanic II. 92/2 A Sample School, to be called the Polytechnic University, No. 1 for 2000 students. 1838[Royal Polytechnic Institution, 309 Regent St., London, opened, Aug. 6]. 1845R. W. Hamilton Pop. Educ. ii. (ed. 2) 29 Polytechnic science may invent the instruments which shall dive as his substitute into the bowels of the earth. 1881Roscoe in Nature XXIII. 217 The scientific training they had received at their universities and polytechnic schools. 1888Resolution at Meeting Mansion H. London 8 June, That this meeting being convinced of the urgent need in this country of technical and commercial education approves of the scheme for the establishment in South London of Polytechnic institutes to be endowed by public subscription with the aid of the Charity Commissioners. 1921Beerbohm Lett. to R. Turner (1964) 258 The incredible job [sc. H. G. Wells's History of the World], done so neatly..in a very awful cheap sciolistic polytechnic way. 1965Economist 11 Sept. 1000/1 In the eyes of authority, naval history has remained a soft option in a polytechnic world. B. n. †1. (app.) Collective industrial action. Obs. nonce-use.
1835Ure Philos. Manuf. 278 It has, however, been the fate of this polytechnic, as of the best philanthropic dispensation ever made to man, to be misrepresented and reviled. 2. Short for Polytechnic Institution (rarely for polytechnic school): see A. Hence used as the name for several similar technical schools in different parts of London, etc. In mod. use, a kind of institution of higher education offering courses mainly in technical and vocational subjects (see quot. 1973).
1836C. Fox Jrnl. 31 Aug. (1972) 31 Dr. Buckland..came on to the Polytechnic and stayed with us. 1841M. Edgeworth Let. 25 May (1971) 593 Lestock..took Honora and Captain Beaufort and me to the Polytechnic and we all had our likenesses taken. 1850W. Howitt Yr.-Bk. Country iv. 111 Such places as Saint Paul's and Westminster Abbey should stand wide open; the Colosseum and the Polytechnic be accessible at the smallest price. 1857C. Kingsley Two Yrs. Ago I. vii. 171 He would thrust his head into lectures at the Polytechnic and the British Institution. 1881in Daily News 12 Sept. 2/4 Mr. Buckland..concluded his entertainment with the following address, which was cheered to the echo:—This very night the Polytechnic dies, Dies as a good Knight should, in martial guise. 1888Pall Mall G. 27 Sept. 2/2 An excursion made by some sixty boys from the Young Men's Christian Institute at the Polytechnic to Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. 1903Whitaker's Alm. 267/2 The passing of the City of London Parochial Charities Act in 1883..provided for the establishment of polytechnics in various parts of London on the model of Mr. Quintin Hogg's original institution at Regent Street. 1934G. B. Shaw On Rocks ii. 237 Jafna's grandsons will go to Eton. Mine will go to a Polytechnic. 1967Listener 6 July 5/1 Mr. Crosland and his advisers envisage rather an eternal separation between the universities and an entirely new race of animals they have created called the polytechnics. 1973Times 4 Oct. 4/4 Polytechnics differ from universities in that they are not centrally financed, teach courses for degrees of the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA), have a substantial proportion of students on courses below degree level, do much less research, and have, in theory, a greater commitment to the vocational aspect of higher education. 1975Physics Bull. Jan. 6/2 It is natural to think of the polytechnics as being primarily concerned with science and technology but this is not so. Only one third of the work of the average polytechnic lies in these fields. 1975Guardian 27 Jan. 5/1 The higher education building programme..will contain a bias in favour of the polytechnics. 3. pl. ‘The science of the mechanical arts’ (Ogilvie, 1882). rare—0. 4. attrib.
1839C. Fox Jrnl. 8 Oct. (1972) 58 The Bucklands dined with us, after a Polytechnic morning. 1911O. Onions Widdershins 184 It was of Polytechnic classes that he spoke. Ibid. 189 The young Polytechnic student. 1972R. K. Kelsall et al. Graduates i. 53 Parents of..university students..find university education more acceptable than do parents of..Polytechnic students. 1972Accountant 19 Oct. 483/2 Polytechnic lecturers on a secondment period of six weeks for updating in auditing techniques. 1973Times Higher Educ. Suppl. 20 July 12/1 With the formal inauguration of the Association of Polytechnic Teachers..yet another teachers' organization has emerged. 1979V. S. Naipaul Bend in River x. 170 The polytechnic term was over. Hence polyˈtechnical a. = A. (in quot. 1880, practising many arts); polyˈtechnican (nonce-wd.), a member of the or a Polytechnic; polytechnician |-tɛkˈnɪʃən|, [F. -nicien] a student of a (French) polytechnic school; ˌpolytechniˈzation, the action or process of making (some activity) polytechnic; spec. in Communist countries, the process of educating children in technical and industrial subjects considered essential for the proper running of the State.
1846Worcester, *Polytechnical, same as polytechnic. Clarke. 1880G. C. M. Birdwood Indian Arts I. 138 The trade guilds of the great polytechnical cities of India. 1892K. Gould tr. von Kobell's Convers. Dr. Döllinger iv. 75 Professor of Mathematics at the Gymnasium and Polytechnical School.
1894Daily News 12 Mar. 5/4 M. Carnot, who, with his brother, graduated at the Polytechnique, and was so permeated with its spirit as only to be able to enjoy the company of ‘Pipos’, or old-boy *Polytechnicans.
1904Dundee Advertiser 10 June 10 A number of *Polytechnicians were so dealt with quite recently by General André.
1932Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Mar. 204/2 It would have been of advantage to provide a fuller and more detailed account..of the system of ‘*polytechnization’ in the primary schools [of the U.S.S.R.]. 1933Times Educ. Suppl. 25 Feb. 57/4 Polytechnization ‘aims at producing a nation of socialistically thinking technical specialists’. 1949K. Davis Human Society viii. 229 Economically, through ‘polytechnization’, the school is geared with productive life. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia VI. 375/2 From the 1950s onward, much attention has been paid [in Communist education] to the ideal of ‘polytechnization’. |