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consistence|kənˈsɪstəns|
[app. a. F. consistence (16th c. Paré), now consistance = Pr. and Sp. consistencia, It. consistenza (in Florio); prob. going back to a med.L. *consistentia; f. consistent- pr. pple. of consistĕre: see consist and -ence.]
†1. Standing or remaining still, quiescence; state of rest. Obs.
1598Florio, Consistenza, a standing fast or a consistence, a setling. 1611Cotgr., Consistence, a consistence, or being; a residence, or setling. 1626Bacon Sylva §290 Water..being divided, maketh many circles, till it restore it self to the Natural consistence. 1644Bp. Hall Seasonable Serm. 2 (T.), I find a change of motion..whether by consistence or retrogradation; ‘Sun, stand thou still in Gibeon’..‘The shadow went back ten degrees’.
†b. spec. The ‘standing still’ of a living being, when it has attained its full growth, and before it begins to decay. Obs. Cf. consistent A. 2 b.
a1613Overbury Observ. Provinces Wks. (1856) 227 If they were at there consistence. 1751Chambers Cycl. s.v., We distinguish three states or stages of a tree; its growth, consistence, and return. [1882Syd. Soc. Lex., Consistentia, an old term..applied to the arrival of a living body at its fulness and perfection.]
†2. Continuance, endurance; continuing state.
1606G. W[oodcocke] tr. Hist. Ivstine 42 b, That [Mytralis] was Olimpias name, during the consistance of her infancy.
†3. A settled condition of affairs. Obs.
1661Evelyn Diary (1827) IV. 109, I hope I have brought my affaires almost to a Consistence. 1702C. Mather Magn. Chr. i. App. (1852) 96 Boston was no sooner come to some consistence, but the people found themselves plunged into a sad non-plus, etc.
4. Material coherence and permanence of form; solidity or firmness sufficient to retain its form.
1626Bacon Sylva §328 Putrefaction; which ever dissolveth the Consistence of the Body. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 50 Ice is only water congealed..whereby it acquireth..a consistence or determination of its diffluency. 1658― Hydriot. iii. 18 After what shape the muscles..might hang in their full consistences. 1764Reid Inquiry ii. iii, The nerve itself has a very small degree of consistence. 1807T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 542 It forms cubic crystals without consistence, and resembling a jelly.
fig.1647Ward Simp. Cobler 48 Boyled up to a full consistence of contumacy and impenitency. a1734North Lives (1826) II. 372 Often at night, when..till some kind refreshment brought him to consistence, he was scarce alive. 1884Manch. Exam. 11 Oct. 4/7 Reports..begin to acquire strength and consistence.
†b. concr. Matter dense enough to cohere. Obs. or poet.
1667Milton P.L. ii. 941 Neither Sea, Nor good dry Land: nigh founder'd on he fares Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, Half flying. 1747Gould Eng. Ants 45 A liquid tenacious Humour, in the midst of which is a small Purple or black Consistence, that contains or gives Life to the future Ant. 1774J. Bryant Mythol. I. p. xvii, Wearied with roaming over the crude consistence.
5. The degree of firmness with which the particles of a substance cohere; degree of density. (Usually of more or less viscous liquids.)
1626Bacon Sylva (1631) §839–40 The consistences of Bodies are very diuers. 1636Blunt Voy. Levant (ed. 2) 105 Other Flowers, Fruits and Plumbes..dried together, into a consistence reasonable hard. 1656Ridgley Pract. Physick 147 Boyl that to the consistence of an Electuary. 1668Wilkins Real Char. 120 Rosins, whose consistence is more Solid. 1732Arbuthnot Rules of Diet 261 A due Consistence of the Blood is very necessary for Health. 1842Grove Corr. Phys. Forces 83 When cold results, it is from a change of consistence, as from the solid to the liquid state. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 192 Red-hot streams which generally present a consistence something like that of treacle.
fig.1642Jer. Taylor Episc. (1647) 252 The reduction of episcopacy to a primitive consistence. 1741H. Walpole Lett. H. Mann (1834) I. i. 2 Besides you know the consistence of my Italian. 1805Foster Ess. i. iii. 36 Very few minds are of a consistence so firmly faithful as to retain, in living efficacy, impressions of [such] a kind.
†6. Coherence in one body, union, combination.
1649Selden Laws Eng. ii. xiii. (1739) 69 [They] declared themselves..to be the Three Estates..maintaining thereby their subsistency by the consistence of the Members together. 1702Eng. Theophrast. 176 To unite us in a consistence both of friendship and civil convenience.
†b. quasi-concr. A union or combination of cohering elements. Obs.
1641Milton Reform. i. (1851) 14 Take the Church of God as meaning the whole consistence of Orders and Members. 1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. iv. 110 A consistence of many Unities.
†7. Coexistence as compatible facts. Obs.
1659Vulg. Errors Censured 66 They cannot apprehend the consistence of a Trinity of Persons with an identity of Essence.
8. = consistency 4, 5.
1670G. H. Hist. Cardinals i. ii. 35 To take away this Confusion..and bring things to a consistence. 1694R. L'Estrange Fables ccccvii. (ed. 6) 439 To Temper and Accomodate Freedom to a Consistence with Good Manners. 1754Edwards Freed. Will ii. ix. 77 Whether this be in a just Consistence with themselves..I desire may be impartially considered. 1850Kingsley Alt. Locke xxx. (1879) 323 They..have contrived, with what logical consistence I know not, to reconcile orthodox Christianity with unflinching democratic opinions. 1879B. Taylor Germ. Lit. 249 His works..exhibit greater finish and consistence. |