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▪ I. circumstance, n.|ˈsɜːrkəmstəns|
Forms: 3–6 -staunce, 4 -stanse, -staunse, 4–6 cyrcumstaunce, (5 syrcumstaunce, scircumstance), 6 cyrcumstance, (cercumstans, surcomstance), 3– circumstance.
[a. OF. circum-, circonstance (13th c. in Littré), ad. L. circumstantia standing around, surrounding condition, f. circumstant-em pr. pple of circumstāre to stand around, f. circum around + stāre to stand. Like assistance, and ns. in -ance generally, this was originally a n. of action or condition, not taking a or pl.; but in most current senses it has become determinate and capable of plurality.]
I. That which surrounds materially, morally, or logically.
†1.
a. That which stands around or surrounds; the totality of surrounding things; surroundings; environment. Obs. (exc. nonce-use as in 1832).
a1340Hampole Psalter cxl[i]. 3 Set lord..dure of circumstaunce [ostium circumstantiæ] til my lippis [so 1382 Wyclif]. c1400Test. Love i. (1560) 277/2 Had I been blind, with myne handes all the circumstaunce I myght well have feeled. 1562Leigh Armorie (1597) A vj, The description of the Viniet with the circumstance thereof. 1832Tennyson Pal. Art lxiv, A star that with the choral starry dance Join'd not, but stood, and standing saw The hollow orb of moving Circumstance Roll'd round by one fix'd law.
†b. Circumference. Obs.
1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xii. 5 In his hand a ball of right great cyrcumstaunce.
†c. spec. The surrounding sense or context of a passage. Obs.
1549Latimer 6th Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 167 It is the circumstaunce, and collacion of places that make scripture playne. 1579Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 168/1 The circumstance of the place, sheweth that Iesus Christ is called Mediatour in respect hereof.
2. a. pl. The logical surroundings or ‘adjuncts’ of an action; the time, place, manner, cause, occasion, etc., amid which it takes place; in sing. any one of these conditioning adjuncts.
a1225Ancr. R. 316 Abuten sunne [= sin] liggeð six þinges þet hit helieð: o Latin circumstances: on Englisch, heo muwen beon ihoten totagges: persone, stude, time, manere, tale, cause. a1300Cursor M. 27158 Þe circumstances Þat mesurs oft-sithes vr penances..Qua, quate, qui, quare, quam wit, quen. 1530Palsgr. 141 The tyme, place, maner or some other cyrcumstaunce belongyng to the same. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. ii. 109 Neither in time, matter, or other circumstance. 1754Edwards Freed. Will ii. §8. 76 Unless the different Time be a Circumstance which has Influence.
b. in Grammar. An adverbial adjunct.
1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. I. App. 448 It is a rule..never to crowd many circumstances together, but rather to intersperse them in different parts of the sentence.
3. ‘The adjuncts of a fact which make it more or less criminal; or make an accusation more or less probable.’ (J.) Cf. circumstantial evidence.
1580Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 436, I knowe not by experience, and yet I beleeue by circumstance. 1581Lambarde Eiren. iv. v. (1588) 502 The circumstances of an acte doe either aggrauate or diminish the offence therein. 1593Drayton Idea 291 In ev'ry thing I hold this Maxim still, The Circumstance doth make it good, or ill. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, i. ii. 77 Vouchsafe..Of these supposed crimes, to giue me leaue By circumstance, but to acquit my selfe. 1612Webster White Devil iii. ii, We have nought but circumstances To charge her with, about her husband's death. 1682Southerne Loyal Brother ii. i, Had I a circumstance, a shew of truth I would..drive the sorceress hence. 1747Col. Rec. Penn. V. 87 There are great Complaints against two of our Traders..the circumstances are very strong.
4. a. The ‘condition or state of affairs’ (J.) surrounding and affecting an agent; esp. the external conditions prevailing at the time. (Now usually pl.) Esp. in phr. (the) creature of circumstance(s).
Mere situation is expressed by ‘in the circumstances’, action affected is performed ‘under the circumstances’.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 392 Iche counseile of Crist is comaundement for sumtyme and summe circumstaunsis. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 164 All..thynges perteynynge therto as circumstaunces required. 1665South Serm. John i. 11 Every Hypocrite..under the same Circumstances would have infallibly treated Him with the same Barbarity. 1711Shaftesbury Charac. iv. §3 (1737) I. 147 The past Actions and Circumstances of Mankind. 1745W. Harris in Private Lett. 1st Ld. Malmesbury I. 19 A..march attended with the severest circumstances of weather and roads. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ. II. Versailles, I am governed by circumstances..I cannot govern them. 1769Junius, Lett. ix. 39 Your administration has driven us into circumstances of equal distress. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey vi. vii. 369 Man is not the creature of circumstances. Circumstances are the creatures of men. 1827J. C. & A. W. Hare Guesses at Truth 1 Man without religion is the creature of circumstances. [1836R. Owen New Moral World i. vii. 37 Man is the creature of the circumstances in which he is placed.] 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. ii. 140 Who found himself in circumstances to which he was unequal. 1862Ruskin Munera P. (1880) 17 The desire to obtain the money will, under certain circumstances, stimulate industry. 1862[see creature 5]. 1866R. Broughton Cometh up as Flower i. 1 As comfortable as circumstances will permit. 1872E. G. White Testimonies for Church No. 21. 65 If we are creatures of circumstance, we shall surely fail of perfecting Christian characters. 1875Jevons Money 13 By custom or the force of circumstances. 1929Sat. Rev. 20 July 78/2 Theresa is the creature of circumstance. 1947W. S. Maugham (title) Creatures of circumstance.
b. without a or pl.: now poet. or rhet.
1602Shakes. Ham. i. iii. 102 You speake like a greene Girle, Vnsifted in such perillous Circumstance. 1713Steele Englishm. No. 49. 314 Under this Circumstance, I..have lately been converted. 1742Young Nt. Th. ii. 91 Who does the best his circumstance allows, Does well. 1821Byron Sardan. iii. i, All are the sons of circumstance. 1887Rider Haggard She xviii, Nor can he count the airy threads that weave the web of circumstance.
5. esp. Condition or state as to material welfare, means. Now always pl. in easy circumstances, good circumstances, reduced circumstances, straitened circumstances, circumstances, etc.
a1704T. Brown Praise of Wealth Wks. 1730 I. 85 Despicable in circumstance. 1716Addison Freeholder No. 42 When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations. 1794Godwin Cal. Williams 292 His circumstances were narrow. 1844Ld. Brougham A. Lunel I. xxxviii, Born of noble family..reduced in its circumstances. 1872E. Peacock Mabel Heron I. i. 7, I am afraid he is in very bad circumstances still. 1879Froude Cæsar v. 41 A country gentleman in good circumstances.
II. Words or work made about anything.
6. Circumstantiality of detail; detailed and hence (formerly) circuitous narration; circumlocution, beating about the bush, indirectness. arch.
1509Hawes Past. Pleas. (1845) 59 Poetes..tell theyr tale with al due circumstance. 1580Baret Alv. C 543 To use great circumstance of woordes, to goe about the bushe, circuitione vti. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. i. i. 154 You..herein spend but time To winde about my loue with circumstance. 1611Tourneur Ath. Trag. i. iv, Time cuts off circumstance; I must be briefe. 1795Southey Joan of Arc iii. 362 Such tale Minutely told with accurate circumstance. 1851Helps Friends in C. i. 33 Has not each case its specialities, requiring to be argued with much circumstance.
with pl.1597Bacon Ess. Discourse (Arb.) 22 To vse too many circumstances ere one come to the matter.
7. a. The ‘ado’ made about anything; formality, ceremony, about any important event or action. without († out of), circumstance: without ado or ceremony, unceremonious(ly, abrupt(ly. arch.
Chiefly preserved by Shakespeare's ‘pomp and circumstance’.
c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1405 His sacrifice he dide..fful pitously with alle circumstance. 1541Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 12 §8 The solemne and dew circumstaunce of the execucion. 1604Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 354 Pride, Pompe and Circumstance of glorious warre. 1611― Wint. T. v. i. 90 His approach (So out of circumstance, and suddaine) tells vs, 'Tis not a Visitation fram'd, but forc'd. 1609–38Heywood Rape Lucr. Wks. 1874 V. 209 Shall we to horse without circumstance? 1805Southey Madoc in Azt. ii, Solemnity and circumstance And pomp of hellish piety. 1819S. Rogers Human Life 801 Busy and full of life and circumstance. 1855Prescott Philip II, ii. iii. 231 It was done with great circumstance. 1872Black Adv. Phaeton xx. 280 All the pomp and circumstance of a tournament.
with pl.1615Stow Chron., Q. Eliz. an. 1586 Skinke..without any circumstances condemned him to be thrown..into the Reine.
†b. Importance, moment (of any matter). Obs.
1586A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 102 Matter of more circumstance then by every one is considered. 1613Beaum. & Fl. Coxcombe v. i, It seems here your businesse is of deeper circumstance Then I conceived it for. 1676Owen Worsh. God 53 What is of circumstance in the manner of its performance?
c. In U.S. colloq. phrases: not a circumstance to, nothing in comparison with; a mere (or remote, poor) circumstance, a person or thing of little or no importance.
1836Crockett's Yaller Flower Almanac 19 Orson, the wild man of the woods, is nothing to him—not a circumstance. 1838Flagg Far West I. 145 The race of John Gilpin or of Alderman Purdy were, either or both of them, mere circumstances to ours. c1840in Thornton Amer. Gloss. (1912) II. 969 I'm a little specimen, as you see, a remote circumstance, a mere yearling. 1845S. Judd Margaret ii. v. 284, O, it an't a circumstance to what it used to be. 1899‘Mark Twain’ in Harper's Mag. (1914) Dec. 10/1 Next comes King John, and he was a poor circumstance. 1901Harben Westerfelt xvi. 219 ‘Mother told me he often drove you out home.’ ‘Oh, la, that ain't a circumstance, Harriet! He used to come out home mighty nigh every day or night.’ 1903Nation (N.Y.) 1 Oct. 258 Undigested securities are not a circumstance to undigested political principles.
III. That which is non-essential, accessary, or subordinate; a detail, a particular.
8. That which is not of the essence or substance: philosophically, the phenomenal part, the sum of the accidents or attributes; sometimes (with pl.) an attribute; popularly what is adventitious or casual. Obs. or arch.
1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, v. ii. 39 He that loues himselfe, Hath not essentially, but by circumstance The name of Valour. 1599Davies Nosce teipsum ii. lxiv, Sense outsides knowes, the Soule through all things sees, Sense Circumstance, she doth the substance view. 1685Gracian's Courtier's Orac. ii, The substance is not enough, unless it be cloathed with its circumstances. 1702Eng. Theophrast. 378 In all things the circumstance is as necessary as the substance, nay, and more. 1875Sears Serm. & Songs 308 When..this outward circumstance of clay [has] passed away from us for ever.
9. Subordinate matters or details: strictly matters ‘appendant or relative to a fact’ (J.), viewed as extraneous to its essence, but passing into the sense of ‘Subordinate parts of the fact, details’.
†a. without a or pl. Obs.
1393Gower Conf. I. 180 The mater of her tale tolde With all the hole circumstaunce. c1500Lancelot 416 His drem al hail he haith disclossit; The houre, the nyght, and al the cercumstans. 1602Shakes. Ham. v. ii. 2 You doe remember all the Circumstance. 1671Milton Samson 1557 Tell us the sum, the circumstance defer. 1722De Foe Plague (1756) 260 The Danger of Death not left out of the Circumstance of Sickness.
b. a circumstance (with pl.): An accessory matter, a matter appertaining, relative, or subordinate; a particular, a detail.
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 12425 Clerkys kalle hem [smale synnes] ‘cyrcumstaunces’, To þe grete synne are þey puruyaunces. 1414Brampton Penit. Ps. lvi. 22 No prevy sore, Ne circumstaunce that longyth ther tylle. 1586Thynne in Animadv. Introd. 71 The etymon of the name, and other circumstances belonging thereto. 1594Plat Jewell Ho. iii. Chem. Conclus. 12 If there be any that [can] say more in the circumstances of butter, I hope their dairies be greater than mine. 1664Power Exp. Philos. iii. 170 Many ticklish Curiosities, and nice Circumstances there are to perform this Experiment exactly. 1680Allen Peace & Unity 7 Undetermined circumstances of Order or Worship. 1725Swift Drapier's Lett. iv, The sentence of death with all the circumstances of hanging, beheading, quartering, embowelling and the like.
†c. A material adjunct, appendage, appurtenance, matter, or thing belonging. Obs.
1587Holinshed Chron. iii. 1409/2 The powder and pellets in a box..the coverlet, with the rest of the circumstances therevnto apperteining. 1685Evelyn Diary 15 July, He [Monmouth on the scaffold] would not make use of a cap or other circumstance. 1765Cowper Lett. 24 June, The river Ouse is the most agreeable circumstance in this part of the world. 1792A. Young Trav. France 113 The most interesting circumstance of their farms is the chicory.
10. An event viewed as a detail of some narrative, or history, or of the general course of events; an incident, an occurrence; a matter or fact (properly of a secondary or subordinate kind).
In this use ‘circumstance’ tends to be entirely emptied of its etymological meaning, and to become merely a vaguer expression for ‘fact’, ‘event’. It is frequently so used in apposition to a substantive clause, as in quot. 1850.
1586A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 13 They being together..argueth the circumstance of his going to N. to be but a meere disguising. 1678Butler Hud. iii. i. 491 If but one word be true..Or but one single Circumstance In all th' Apocryphal Romance. 1704Addison Italy, Florence, The Conqueror's weeping for new worlds, or some other..circumstance of his history. 1802M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. xviii. 147 Every circumstance..likely to happen. 1807Hutton Course Math. II. 365 This circumstance therefore agrees nearly with the theory. 1848Dickens Dombey xlix, An appeal to arms..rendered necessary by any unforeseen circumstance. 1850McCosh Div. Govt. iii. ii. (1874) 365 The circumstance has often been..dwelt on by divines, that Ungodliness is the universal sin of humanity.
▪ II. circumstance, v.|ˈsɜːkəmstəns|
[f. prec.]
†1. trans. To condition, surround with conditions.
c1400Apol. Loll. 101 Þan if þe vowe of religioun is circumstaunsid, þan it is plesing to God. 1736Butler Anal. i. vii. 134 Interpositions so guarded and circumstanced, as would preclude all mischief arising from them.
2. To place in particular circumstances or relations to other things. Chiefly in pa. pple.
1644T. Case Quarrell of Covenant 48 It is this Prelacy, thus cloathed, thus circumstanc't, which we swear to extirpate. 1667Boyle in Phil. Trans. II. 608 One [Trial] may suffice, circumstanc'd like that which I shall now relate. 1738J. Keill Anim. Oecon. 251 So to circumstance the Warmth of a Fire, that it shall diffuse..an equal and natural Warmth. 1818B. O'Reilly Greenland 197 Many ships..are at the same time dangerously circumstanced amongst packed ice. 1836Marryat Midsh. Easy xxxviii, He knows how I am circumstanced.
†3. To furnish with details, set forth with attendant circumstances. Obs.
1654Whitlock Zootomia A iiij, Thy characters so circumstance each sin, As 't not Describ'd, but had Embowell'd bin. 1712Addison Spect. No. 351 ⁋4 The Poet took the matters of Fact as they came down to him, and circumstanced them after his own manner. 1713Guardian (1756) I. No. 78. 346 A chapter or two of the Theory of the Conflagration, well circumstanced, and done into verse. 1774J. Bryant Mythol. II. 354 If we consider these articles, as they are here circumstanced.
Hence circumstancing vbl. n.
1801Month. Mag. XII. 579 A contrived and providential circumstancing of the subjects of his attention. |