developmentaladj.
/dᵻˌvɛləpˈmɛntl/, U.S. /dəˌvɛləpˈmɛn(t)l/ 1.
a. Of or relating to biological development, esp. ontogenetic development.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [adjective] > growth > maturation or mature
perfecta1387
full-growna1393
mature1801
fully-grown1810
developmental1830
prematuration1914
1830 Lancet 17 July 624/1 That he, in fact, makes no reference whatever to regional, functional, developmental, or comparative anatomy.
1866 C. Darwin Origin of Species (ed. 4) xiii. 523 Sometimes it is only the earlier developmental stages which fail.
1938 Times 24 Aug. 12/5 When earlier developmental stages are examined recapitulation is also found.
1973 New Scientist 30 Aug. 484/1 A previously ignored factor—time—is an important influence in shaping the developmental progress of a growing embryo.
2008 Science 25 July 463 Brassinosteroids, a type of steroid hormone in plants, regulate a variety of developmental processes.
2015 J. E. Strick Wilhelm Reich, Biologist iv. 157 Rudolph Virchow himself had warned against pathology relying excessively upon dead specimens rather than focusing on the developmental process.
b. Of a disease or disorder: resulting from abnormal or delayed development; (also) characterized by developmental delay (see Compounds). In early use also: †occurring at a particular stage of life (obsolete).
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1834 J. Ashburner On Dentition ii. 163 I have had several cases in which warts about the forehead and fingers accompanied anormal dentition and developmental disorder.
1850 Lancet 8 June 683/1 (heading) Hereditary developmental diseases.
1864 Daily Tel. 27 July Deaths..by developmental diseases of children [rose] from 24 to 42.
1883 Birmingham Weekly Post 11 Aug. 3/6 One of the diseases, so called, of the developmental class—viz., senile decay.
1923 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 3 Mar. 397/2 The question of endocrine activity in foetal life is of such importance in connexion with the etiology of developmental disorders.
1981 Child Devel. 52 555/1 This theory postulates that developmental disorders may represent a maturational lag, not a deficit.
1992 C. A. Smith & E. J. Wood Biosynthesis viii. 172 Respiratory distress syndrome is a developmental disorder when the lungs do not produce sufficient pulmonary surfactant to allow normal respiration following birth.
2008 Observer 21 Sept. (Food Monthly Suppl.) 53/1 Butaphosphan is a veterinary medicine to treat metabolic and developmental disorders.
2. Subject to or in the process of development; of or relating to the development of someone or something.
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1862 A. H. Rhind Thebes vii. 196 With whatever rigidity it [sc. Egyptian religion] may have retained many outlines, its history, ideologically, was developmental.
1921 Sci. Monthly Dec. 503 Its study would give us one of our safest criteria in determining what one might call the activity or developmental age of the child as opposed to its chronological age.
1939 Electronics July 11/1 A new developmental television pick-up tube which..is one of the most significant advances in television electronics.
1944 in Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 39 (1945) 190 Denationalisation or multi-nationalisation of developmental investment can be accomplished through the medium of a supra-national agency.
1956 M. Covarrubias et al. Mezcala 17 A developmental stage of the Teotihuacán stone masks and figurines in which ‘Olmecoid’ traits were still prevalent.
1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 19 Aug. 392/2 Psychoanalytic theory has stressed the importance, in the genesis of emotional illness, of psychologic conflicts in the developmental years.
1990 Health Educ. Jrnl. 49 191/1 The evaluation approach adopted was developmental and pluralistic rather than quasi-experimental.
2007 Information World Rev. June 28 (advt.) A developmental leader in Knowledge Services required to work at Board level to create a world class KM function for a global services business.
Compounds
developmental delay n. Medicine and Psychology delay (in children) in reaching the level of physical or mental development expected at a given age; an instance of this.
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1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 19 Nov. 1381/1 The developmental delay appeared to begin spontaneously when he was 18 months old, so that it has taken him 28 years to accomplish the development which ordinarily takes place in 8 ½ years.
1986 G. F. M. Russell & L. A. Hersov Handbk. Psychiatry IV. ii. 141 Boys show more developmental and maturational problems with higher rates of problems of sphincter control, restlessness, and language or general developmental delay.
2008 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 5 Oct. (Week in Review section) 6/2 (advt.) Special Educators and Psychologists needed to evaluate and provide ongoing services for children with developmental delays.
developmental disability n. Medicine and Psychology Any of various chronic conditions arising in early life and characterized by severely impaired physical or mental development.
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1967 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 4 Nov. 259/1 The performance of these 54 children..was so poor as to suggest a specific developmental disability.
1976 Wisconsin Session Laws 1425 Any of the institutions operated..for the purpose of providing diagnosis, care or treatment for mental or emotional disturbance, developmental disability, alcoholism or drug dependency.
2009 Financial Times 21 Feb. 39/2 Autism is not the only developmental disability that a child can be born with.
developmental genetics n. the branch of genetics that deals with the role of genes in controlling the growth and development of an organism throughout its life cycle.
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1934 Q. Rev. Biol. 9 472/1 His survey of experimental embryology and developmental genetics.
1973 Irish Times 4 July 12 Some of the protagonists in these arguments will be in Dublin in July to speak at a symposium on Developmental Genetics.
2013 G. Boxshall in Arthropod Bio. & Evol. xi. 242 The availability of sequence data on a massive scale..has also facilitated the application of some of the powerful new tools of developmental genetics.
developmental psychologist n. [after developmental psychology n.; compare German Entwicklungspsychologe (1907 or earlier)] an expert in or student of developmental psychology.
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1951 Philos. & Phenomenol. Res. 12 151 A. N. Leontiev, a developmental psychologist.
2012 C. Fernyhough Pieces of Light (2013) vi. 117 The developmental psychologist Paul Bloom has argued that young children are ‘dualists’, wired up to treat mind and body as separate entities.
developmental psychology n. [compare German Entwicklungspsychologie (1892 or earlier)] a branch of psychology concerned with the changes involved in human development from infancy to old age.
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the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > [noun]
child development1879
child psychology1887
developmental psychology1898
paedology1947
1898 Science 21 Oct. 555/2 One of the most profitable lines of investigation, alike for a science of developmental psychology and for education, runs out in the direction of psychobiology.
1943 Lebanon (Pa.) Semi-weekly News 22 Aug. 4/6 Dr. A. G. Breidenstine will offer a course in developmental psychology during the first semester on Tuesday evening.
2000 K. R. Allen & D. H. Demo in M. S. Kimmel & A. Aronson Gendered Society Reader 200 Yet it is clear that issues of social location are still marginalized or sidestepped in developmental psychology.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1830