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classical, a.|ˈklæsɪkəl|
[f. L. classic-us (see prec.) + -al1.]
1. Of the first rank or authority; constituting a standard or model; especially in literature.
1599Sandys Europae Spec. (1632) 91 This man..is now..alleaged as classicall and Canonicall. 1608–11Bp. Hall Epist. vi. i, Those later Doctors, which want nothing but age to make them classicall. 1656Blount Glossogr. s.v., Authors..of good credit and authority in the Schools, termed Classici Scriptores, Classical Authors. 1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. I. 427 Classical authority consists of speakers and writers, who are deservedly in high estimation. 1838–9Hallam Hist. Lit. II. ii. iv. §14. 128 Montaigne is the earliest classical writer in the French language. 1868Rogers Pol. Econ. xxi. (ed. 3) 273 Those rules of taxation which have been laid down by Adam Smith and have become classical.
2. Of the standard Greek and Latin writers; belonging to the literature or art of Greek and Roman antiquity.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 566 Avicenna attributeth certain things to Weasels flesh only, which the classicall Authors rather ascribe to the powder of Weasels. 1838–9Hallam Hist. Lit. I. i. i. §2. 2 That learning which had been accumulated in the Latin and Greek languages, and which we call ancient or classical. 1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 148 Some isolated sections of classical art.
b. Designating the form of a language (esp. Greek and Latin) used by its ancient authors.
1850W. Mure Lang. & Lit. Antient Greece I. v. 99 In a large proportion of the works of the later Byzantine poets, composed in the classical Greek, accent and quantity are as completely identical as in the verse of Shakspeare or Corneille. 1863Chambers's Encycl. V. 82/2 The Hellenic, or classical Greek. 1889Cent. Dict. III. 2615/1 Ancient or classical Greek to about the year a.d. 200. 1958Oxf. Dict. Chr. Church 614/2 [Hebrew] was the classical language of Israel, in which the OT..was written. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia VIII. 392/1 In Classical Greek it [sc. β] is transliterated as b in every instance.
c. Designating the language, art, or culture of a period deemed to represent the most perfect flowering of the civilization that produced it.
1871H. J. Roby Gram. Latin Lang. p. xx, This is a Grammar of Latin from Plautus to Suetonius{ddd}Any typical form not shewn to have been used in the period here taken, ought to be excluded from a Grammar of Classical Latin, or mentioned only with the authority affixed. 1895Oracle Encycl. I. 154/1 Arabian literature spans the chasm between the extinction of classical learning and the revival of letters in the 15th c. 1937Oxf. Compan. Classical Lit. 454 The following periods are distinguished: Early Latin up to about 100 b.c.; Classical Latin from 100 b.c. to the death of Augustus a.d. 14..; ‘Silver’ Latin is applied to the post-Classical period up to about a.d. 150. 1949Oxf. Classical Dict. 272/2 In the first century the archaist revival we know as Atticism strove to approximate the language of prose literature to that of classical Attic. 1957Quirk & Wrenn Old Eng. Gram. i. 5 The Elizabethans..who revived the study of ‘Saxon’ in the sixteenth century, took classical OE of the later period as their basis. 1978K. J. Dover Greek Homosexuality i. 3 Classical Greek literature is predominantly Attic.., and in the classical period Attica is also represented by more documentary inscriptions than the whole of the rest of the Greek world.
3. Of persons: Learned in the classics, i.e. in ancient Greek and Latin literature.
1711Steele Spect. No. 147 ⁋2 These are often pretty Classical Scholars. 1802Dibdin Introd. Classics 20 note, The Classical World is no doubt aware, etc. 1845S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. II. iv. i. 315 He belonged to the classical school of Italy of that time. 1857Buckle Civiliz. I. xiii. 743 The authority wielded by the great classical scholars.
4. Of or pertaining to Greek and Latin literature and antiquities; relating to the classics.
1789Loiterer 21 Mar. 4 In the nine succeeding years, I compleated my classical education. 1832Chambers's Edin. Jrnl. I. 226/1 There are very few..who have not enjoyed the advantages of a classical education. 1839Ld. Brougham Statesm. Geo. III, Ser. i. Sheridan 210 He [Sheridan] brought away from school a very slender provision of classical learning. 1860Bright Sp. Church-rates (1868) 546/2 It is one of the faults of a high classical education. 1876Grant Burgh Sch. Scotl. ii. xiii. 346 The thorough character of the classical instruction imparted at our higher grammar Schools.
5. = classic a. 5.
1820Scott Monast. v, The many fine bridges which have since been built across that classical stream [the Tweed].
6. a. Of literature: Conforming in style or composition to the rules or models of Greek and Latin antiquity; hence transf. to art having similar qualities of style (see quot. 1885); opposed to romantic.
1820Byron Let. Goethe 14 Oct., I perceive that in Germany as well as in Italy, there is a great struggle about what they call Classical and Romantic. 1864M. Arnold in Cornh. Mag. Aug. 165 The problem is to express new and profound ideas in a perfectly sound and classical style. 1864Spectator 20 Aug. 964/1 Matthew Arnold..that most classical of English critics..‘classical’..we mean..to express also the contraction and self-satisfied equanimity of his own school of criticism. 1885J. C. Fillmore Pianof. Music (ed. Prentice) 47 The classical ideal is predominantly an intellectual one. Its products are characterised by clearness of thought, by completeness and symmetry, by harmonious proportion, by simplicity and repose. Classical works, whether musical or literary, are positive, clear, finished.
b. Of painting, landscape, etc.
1860Ruskin Mod. Paint. V. ix. v. 246 A school of art properly called ‘classical’...The school is, therefore, generally to be characterized as that of taste and restraint. Ibid. 247 The classical landscape, properly so called, is therefore the representative of perfectly trained and civilised human life, associated with perfect natural scenery and with decorative spiritual powers.
c. Of music: (see quot. 1885); spec. opp. jazz.
1836Musical Libr. Supp. III. 64 (title) What is the meaning of the word ‘classical’ in a musical sense? 1885J. C. Fillmore Pianof. Music 79–80 ‘Classic’ is used in two senses. In the one it means, having permanent interest and value...In the second sense...music written in a particular style, aiming at the embodiment of a certain ideal, the chief element of which is beauty of form...In classical music, in this sense, form is first and emotional content subordinate; in romantic music content is first and form subordinate. 1916Variety 27 Oct. 12/4 It would not be surprising to note the disappearance of the classical orchestras for the syncopated groups. 1947Penguin Music Mag. Dec. 52 The lowbrow, of course, divides all music into ‘classical’ and ‘jazz’. 1955L. Feather Encycl. Jazz vii. 107 He has devoted much time lately to classical writing, including a trombone sonata for American Composers' League.
d. Of a style of ballet: (see quots.).
1928A. L. Haskell Stud. Ballet 16 The classical ballet was pure dancing and nothing else, the romantic ballet a close alliance between pure dancing, music, décor, and literature, while the modern ballet is literature, music, décor and..a corrupt form of dancing. 1957G. B. L. Wilson Dict. Ballet 75 Classical ballet, ballet in which the movement is based on the traditional technique evolved from the French Court ballet of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the Italian schools of the nineteenth century, and the Imperial Academy of Dancing, St. Petersburg and Moscow..and in which dramatic or emotional content is subordinate to form or line.
e. Of physics, mechanics, etc., used esp. of conclusions based on concepts and theories established before the discovery of quantum theory, the theory of relativity, etc.
1914L. Silberstein Theory of Relativity i. 1 Before entering upon..the modern doctrine of Relativity.., it seems desirable to dwell a little on the more familiar ground of what might be called the classical relativity. 1928A. S. Eddington Nature Physical World ix. 193 For the last fifteen years we have used classical laws and quantum laws alongside one another notwithstanding the irreconcilability of their conceptions. 1933Discovery May 152/1 The strange limitation of classical mechanics, symbolized by the quantum of action. 1938R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) viii. 90 Classical physics is thus revealed as a limiting case of quantum physics. 1958P. A. M. Dirac Princ. Quantum Mech. (ed. 4) p. vii, The classical tradition has been to consider the world to be an association of observable objects (particles, fluids, fields, etc.) moving about according to definite laws of force, so that one could form a mental picture in space and time of the whole scheme.
7. Hist. Of or pertaining to a classis in a Presbyterian Church (see classis 3); belonging to this system of church-government.
1586T. Rogers 39 Art. (1621) 334 To take new callings from classical ministers, renouncing their calling from bishops. 1646Westm. Assemb. Form Ch. Govt., By several sorts of assemblies, which are congregational, classical, and synodical. 1699Bp. Nicolson Let. Yates (T.), Mr. Baxter takes great pains to unite the classical and congregational brethren, but claws off the episcopal party. 1736Neal Hist. Purit. III. 385 The City and Suburbs of London had been formed into a Province, and divided into twelve classical Presbyteries. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 158 The Independents had no disposition to enforce the ordinances touching classical, provincial, and national synods.
†8. Of or belonging to a class; class-. Obs.
1810Bentham Packing (1821) 223 A contention between opposite classical partialities. 1819Rees Cycl. s.v. Classification (L.), To seek for classical characters from other parts of a plant.
†9. [= L. classicus belonging to a fleet.] ‘Pertaining to a ship’ (Blount Glossogr. 1656).
10. Short for classical style, art, etc.
1885J. C. Fillmore Pianof. Music 47 They [Mozart's piano compositions] were not remarkable for strong contrasts, but contrast is not of the essential nature of the classical...Repose, the very essence of the strictly classical.
11. Comb., as classical-minded adj.
1845Graves Rom. Law in Encycl. Metr. 748/1 The classical-minded Italians of the 16th century. |