determinantadj.n.
/dɪˈtəːmɪnənt/ A. adj.
Determining; that determines; determinative.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > decision > [adjective] > determining, deciding, fixing, or settling
determinant1610
1610 W. Folkingham Feudigraphia iv. v. 84 Determinant Valuation concludes and determines the Right and Interest of the Possident by Alienation of the Fee or Possession.
1686 J. Goad Astro-meteorologica ii. i. 152 The Sun and Moon alone..cannot be the Causes preparatory or determinant of a Showre.
1825 S. T. Coleridge Aids Refl. 280 Some other Principle which has been made determinant of the Will.
1860 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters V. 189 His usual drawings from nature..being both commemorative and determinant..determinant, in that they record an impression received from the place there and then, together with the principal arrangement of the composition in which it was afterwards to be recorded.
1888 J. Martineau Study Relig. I. ii. i. 211 He rightly appropriates the word Cause to the determinant act.
1892 Q. Reg. Current Hist. 2 73 A new determinant factor of unknown power.
B. n. One who or that which determines.
1. In University History (representing medieval Latin dētermināns). A determining Bachelor: see determine v. 13, determination n. 4.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > educational administration > university administration > taking degree or graduation > [noun] > graduand
son?c1550
determiner1574
proceeder1581
determining bachelor1649
commencer1655
determinant1864
graduand1882
doctorand1898
1449 in Registr. Univ. Oxf. (O.H.S.) I. 2 Magistri determinantium.
15.. in Registr. Univ. Oxf. (O.H.S.) II. i. 52 (Title of Official List) Nomina determinantium.]
1864 F. Hall Lauder's Compend. Tractate Dewtie of Kyngis Pref. p. vi Two years later, in due course of his academical studies, this Guillelmus Lauder appears among the Determinants in that College; which shows that he had qualified himself for taking his Master's degree.
1887 A. Clark Reg. Univ. Oxf. II. i. 53 12 Mar. 1586 this Committee decided that..Whereas in times past collectors had exacted unfairly large sums from the determinants, they should in future exact only 12d. from each determinant.
2.
a. A determining factor or agent; a ruling antecedent, a conditioning element; a defining word or element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > [noun] > determining factor or agent
determinator1556
determinant1686
determiner1754
determinativea1859
co-determinant1865
1686 J. Goad Astro-meteorologica ii. i. 150 Not because they have no determinant, but because 'tis unknown.
1809–10 S. T. Coleridge Friend (1865) 173 We should..make Malta the direct object and final determinant of the war.
1825 S. T. Coleridge Aids Refl. 67 His own Will is the only and sufficient determinant of all he is, and all he does.
a1856 W. Hamilton Lect. Metaphysics (1859) II. xxxiii. 266 Considering the Representative Faculty in subordination to its two determinants, the faculty of Reproduction and the faculty of Comparison or Elaboration.
1882 F. T. Palgrave in E. Spenser Wks. (1890) IV. p. cvii Points..taken as determinants of date.
1887 F. Hall in Nation (N.Y.) 44 97/3 Good usage—the sole determinant, in general, of what is acceptable in language.
1894 Pop. Sci. Monthly June 180 Amphimixis alone could never produce a multiplication of the determinants.
b. Logic. = conjunct n. 5.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > logical proposition > [noun] > conjunctive or non-conjunctive proposition
conjunctivea1856
determinant1887
conjunction1903
conjunct1921
non-conjunction1926
adjunction1932
1887 J. N. Keynes Stud. & Exerc. Formal Logic (ed. 2) iv. i. 335 We may speak of the elements combined in a conjunctive term as the determinants of that term.
1892 W. E. Johnson in Mind 1 237 The separate constituents a, b, are called the determinants of the determinative synthesis a.b.
1949 Mind 58 3 We find..a marked difference between the use of the word ‘determinant’ by symbolic logicians of the late 19th century, and the medieval use of its Latin equivalent. For such writers as Schroeder and J. N. Keynes a ‘determinant’ is any one of the elements combined in a logical conjunction.
c. Philology. A limiting or qualifying expression; esp., in a compound word, the element that limits or qualifies the meaning of the other element.
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1870 F. W. Farrar Families of Speech iii. 120 In Aryan the determinant precedes the thing determined.
1934 R. C. Priebsch & W. E. Collinson German Lang. ii. v. 258 Composite words consisting of a determinant word (Bestimmungswort) and a nucleus (Grundwort). The determinant may be an adjective..or a substantive.
1960 S. Potter Lang. in Mod. World v. 67 In English the determinant (air) always precedes the determinatum (man).
1962 A. Martinet Functional View Lang. ii. 51 Some determinants are lexical (an adjective like great), and others grammatical (an adjective like my, the article the, or the ‘plural’ moneme).
3. Mathematics. The sum of the products of a square block or ‘matrix’ of quantities, each product containing one factor from each row and column, and having the plus or minus sign according to the arrangement of its factors in the block.A determinant is commonly denoted by writing the matrix with a vertical line on each side, thus—|a1a2a3||b1b2b3||c1c2c3|Originally applied (in Latin form), in 1801, by Gauss ( Disquis. Arithmet. 180 §v. §154) to a special class of these functions on the nature of which the properties of certain quadratic forms depend; thence adopted in French by Cauchy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > numerical arrangement > [noun] > array > matrix > operation or result of > determinant
determinant1843
hyperdeterminant1845
Jacobian1852
circulant1881
1843 Cayley (title) On the Theory of Determinants.
1853 Sylvester in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 143 i. 543–4 Determinant.—This word is used throughout in the single sense, after which it denotes the alternate or hemihedral function the vanishing of which is the condition of the possibility of the coexistence of a certain number of homogeneous linear equations of as many variables.
1885 G. Salmon Lessons Mod. Higher Algebra 338 Cauchy introduced the name ‘determinants’, already applied by Gauss to the functions considered by him, and called by him ‘determinants of quadratic forms’.
4. Biology. In Weismann's theory of heredity, each of the hypothetical units in the germ-plasm supposed to determine the character and development of a cell or group of cells (hence called a determinate) in the organism; also, a gene or other hereditary ‘factor’.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > genetic activity > genetic components > [noun] > factor
determinant1893
factor1901
determiner1909
sex factor1909
rate factor1927
plasmon1932
plasmagene1939
resistance transfer factor1960
rho1969
1893 W. N. Parker & H. Rönnfeldt tr. A. Weismann Germ-plasm i. i. 57 I shall designate the cells or groups of cells which are independently variable from the germ onwards as the ‘hereditary parts’ or ‘determinates’, and the particles of the germ-plasm corresponding to and determining them, as the ‘determining parts’ or ‘determinants’.
1893 W. N. Parker & H. Rönnfeldt tr. A. Weismann Germ-plasm i. i. 59 A determinant is always a group of biophors.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 30 Mar. 2/1 Selection acts on the determinants and produces the variations once so plausibly attributed to the Lamarckian principle of acquired characters.
1920 Cambr. Bulletin Feb. 16 Germ-cell Determinants.
1944 C. D. Darlington in Nature 5 Aug. 165/1 How far are we justified in assuming the same kind of determinant in the cytoplasm where determinants are not fastened to the immediate products of their activity?
1971 Nature 19 Mar. 185/1 Factors in the cytoplasm of many eggs can influence the development of the cells, part of which they eventually constitute. This is most clearly seen in the case of the germ cell determinants.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.n.1610