deviationn.
/diːvɪˈeɪʃən/ 1. † b. Astronomy. The deflection of a planet's orbit from the plane of the ecliptic: attributed in the Ptolemaic astronomy to an oscillatory motion of the deferent. Obsolete.
a. The action of deviating; turning aside from a path or track; swerving, deflection.
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society > travel > aspects of travel > travel in specific course or direction > [noun] > deviation from straight course
turna1400
circuit1483
circumferencea1549
wrying1592
extravagation1611
extravagancya1616
extravagance1644
deviation1646
outstepping1656
left1675
detour1738
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica vi. iv. 288 The dayes encrease or decrease according to the declination of the Sun; that is, its deviation Northward or Southward from the Æquator. View more context for this quotation
1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World x. 287 According as the Ship deviated from its direct course..such deviation is..exprest by N. or S.
1781 W. Cowper Friendship 113 They manifest their whole life through The needle's deviations too.
1831 D. Brewster Treat. Optics iv. 29 The angle..representing its angular change of direction, or the angle of deviation, as it is called.
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the world > the universe > planet > planetary movement > [noun] > orbit > deflection
deviation1728
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Deviation, in the old Astronomy, a Motion of the Deferent, or Excentric, whereby it advances to, or recedes from the Ecliptic... The greatest Deviation of Mercury is 16 Minutes: that of Venus only ten.
c. Commerce. Voluntary departure from the intended course of a vessel without sufficient reason.
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1809 R. Langford Introd. Trade 131 Deviation, a departure from the regular course of a voyage without cause, which renders the assurance irrecoverable if the ship is lost.
2.
a. Divergence from the straight line, from the mean, or standard position; variation, deflection; the amount of this; †the declination or variation of the magnetic needle (obsolete).
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the world > space > direction > [noun] > straight or constant direction > deviation from
exorbitancea1628
exorbitationa1628
deflection1665
deviation1675
divergence1837
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > change of direction of movement > [noun] > (a) deviation from straight course
blenching1398
turna1400
misdrawing?a1425
swerving1545
digression1552
sklenting1568
excursion1603
diverting1611
diversion1626
deflection1646
deflexure1656
prevarication1672
deviation1675
evagation1692
departurea1694
swerve1736
twist1798
out-throw1855
throw1858
turnaway1922
1675 J. Ogilby Britannia Pref. 3 Measuring even the smallest Deviations of the Way.
1690 W. Leybourn Cursus mathematicus f. 607 This Deviation of the Needle is called by the Mariners, the North-Easting or North-Westing of the Needle.
b. spec. The deflection of the needle of a ship's compass, owing to the magnetism of the iron in the ship or other local cause.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > navigational aids > [noun] > compass > effect of iron on compass
local attraction1774
deviation1819
1819 A. Fisher Jrnl. 6 May in Jrnl. Voy. Arctic Regions 1819–20 (1821) 3 An experiment..for..ascertaining the effect of local attraction on the compasses; or, to use the term that has been lately adopted, to determine the deviation of the compass, or magnetic needle, with the ship's head brought to the different points of the compass.
1834 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) III. Navigation iii. lxiii. 30 The deviation of the compass was first observed by Mr. Wales, the astronomer of Capt. Cook.
Categories »
c. Pathology. Divergence of one or both of the optic axes from the normal position. conjugate deviation: see conjugate adj. 5.
d. Statistics. The amount by which one of a set of measurements, numerical observations, etc. differs from the arithmetical mean of the whole set; standard deviation, a common measure of the scatter or dispersion of a set of measurements, equal to the square root of the mean of the squares of the deviations.
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1858 W. Greener Gunnery in 1858 375 The mean deviation on the target from the centre of the group of 10 hits being only ·85 of a foot at 500 yards' range.
1875 F. Galton in London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 4th Ser. 49 35 Medium values will occur very much more frequently than extreme ones, the rarity of the latter rapidly increasing as the deviation slowly increases.
1895 K. Pearson in Philos. Trans. 1894 (Royal Soc.) A. 185 80 Then σ will be termed its standard-deviation (error of mean square).
1895 K. Pearson in Philos. Trans. 1894 (Royal Soc.) A. 185 104 We have no less than three measurements deviating by more than four times the standard-deviation from the mean.
1925 R. A. Fisher Statist. Methods iii. 46 A deviation exceeding the standard deviation occurs about once in three trials. Twice the standard deviation is exceeded only about once in 22 trials.
1946 F. J. Schonell Backwardness in Basic Subj. (ed. 3) v. 80 This is at a point 1·6 standard deviations from the mean of the normal population group.
1968 J. H. Burn Lect. Notes Pharmacol. (ed. 9) 135 The standard deviation usually makes the scatter look greater than the average deviation makes it look. Thus for the cocaine figures, using the standard deviation we have 57·5 ± 23·1 mg. per kg., instead of 57·5 ± 16·2 mg. per kg.
1970 Nature 12 Dec. 1081/1 In VLF data handling we usually assume a normal distribution of deviations.
3. figurative.† b. Formerly sometimes absol. = Deviation from rectitude, moral declension, or going astray.† c. A turning aside from the subject, a digression. Obsolete. rare.
a. Divergence from any course, method, rule, standard, etc.; with a and plural, an instance of this. (The earliest and most frequent sense.) spec. the behaviour or characteristics of a deviate.
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the world > action or operation > inaction > not doing > abstaining or refraining from action > [noun] > avoiding an action or condition > turning aside from a course of action
divagation1560
swaya1586
deviation1603
deflection1605
recess1605
recession1614
exit1615
non-residence1615
exorbitancy1623
exorbitancea1628
exorbitationa1628
aberrancy1646
aberrance1661
variationa1662
departurea1694
resilience1838
the world > relative properties > order > disorder > irregularity > unconformity > [noun] > deviation from rule or standard
aberration1588
abhorrency1592
deviation1603
digression1615
wryness1633
anomalism1668
anomalousness1698
aberrance1865
the world > action or operation > behaviour > a standard of conduct > [noun] > deviation from normal standards of behaviour
fantasticnessc1550
irregularship1577
fantasticalness1581
inconformity1594
irregularity1598
unconformitya1600
excess1709
eccentricity1794
quizziness1798
unconventionality1854
unconventionalism1868
deviation1912
deviance1944
deviancy1954
way-outness1961
quirkiness1971
1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 1307 The obscuration or ecclipse of the sunne, the defect of the moone..be as it were the excursions, deviations out of course.
1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan ii. xxvii. 151 All manner of deviation from the Law.
a1665 J. Goodwin Πλήρωμα τὸ Πνευματικόv (1670) ix. 259 To walk in waies of Righteousness..without any scandalous or self-allowed deviation.
1713 R. Steele Englishman No. 3. 18 His Ministers are responsible for all his Deviations from Justice.
1793 Trial of Fyshe Palmer 14 This trifling deviation in the spelling could not possibly be of any consequence.
1846 W. R. Grove On Correlation Physical Forces 16 A deviation from the plain accepted meaning of words.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xviii. 129 There was no deviation from the six-leaved type.
1872 J. G. Murphy Crit. Comm. Leviticus v. 1 Iniquity, that is deviation from equity.
1881 B. F. Westcott & F. J. A. Hort New Test. in Orig. Greek II. Introd. i. 5 Inherited deviations from the original.
1912 Pedagogical Seminary XIX. 186 To analyze and diagnose mental deviates whose deviation has caused social maladjustment.
1934 R. Benedict Patterns of Culture viii. 272 He [sc. the unsupported individual] may gradually achieve a..less tortured attitude toward his deviations.
1934 R. Benedict Patterns of Culture viii. 273 Much more deviation is allowed to the individual in some cultures than in others.
1960 L. E. Hinsie & R. J. Campbell Psychiatric Dict. (ed. 3) 683/1 Sexual deviation—such as homosexuality, transvestism, pedophilia, fetishism, sexual sadism.
1962 R. Cook Crust on its Uppers ii. 29 Every single person one knows seems to be mixed up in some kind of deviation or other.
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the mind > goodness and badness > wrongdoing > erring > errant conduct > [noun]
prevaricationc1384
obliquity?c1425
prolapsion1581
obliqueness1611
deviation1625
aberrancy1646
society > morality > moral evil > wrong conduct > [noun] > going astray
misgangc1330
misfarea1387
misgoinga1387
wilsomenessa1400
misfootinga1456
swerving1545
by-walking1549
warping1608
degression1618
deviation1625
1625 S. D'Ewes Jrnl. Parl. (1783) 32 He [Jas. I] had his vices and deviations.
1747 S. Richardson Clarissa II. 156 To condemn a deviation, and to follow it by as great a one, what is This doing but propagating a general corruption?
a1831 A. Knox Remains (1844) I. 79 A feeling..which years of subsequent deviation did not wholly destroy.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > copiousness > [noun] > discursiveness or digression > a digression
sojournc1330
digressionc1374
adigression1483
start1534
interposition1553
vagary1572
excursion1574
excourse1579
parecbasis1584
parenthesis1594
transversal1612
evagation1618
passage1625
far-about1639
excurrency1650
deviation1665
parathesis1668
alieniloquy1727
side-slip1843
excursus1845
1665 T. Herbert Some Years Trav. (new ed.) 159 Fearing I have made too large a deviation.
a1713 Ld. Shaftesbury Misc. Refl. i, in Wks. (1749) III. 10 To vary..from my propos'd Subject, and make what Deviations or Excursions I shall think fit.
d. spec. (a) deviation of the complements, in Biochemistry, the prevention of the complements from acting upon the receptors. (b) Embryology. Divergence in the development of an animal from the ontogenetic stages of its ancestor.
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1906 Practitioner Dec. 748 Another and much more important and serious cause of failure comes about by means of the phenomenon described by Neisser and Wechsburg, and known as the ‘deviation of the complements’.
1930 G. R. de Beer Embryol. & Evol. xv. 102 The appearance of characters in the early stages of development is caenogenesis, and these characters which loom so largely in neoteny and deviation are flies in the Haeckelian ointment of recapitulation.
e. Politics. Departure or divergence from the principles, policies, or directives of a government or political party, used esp. of such actions in a Communist society. Also transferred, any deliberate divergence from prescribed rules or standards.
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1931 Economist 5 Sept. 425/1 That need may cause a further change in the plan as striking as the recent deviations from the pure doctrines of Communism.
1937 tr. V. Lenin Sel. Wks. IX. 92 A slight syndicalist or semi-anarchist deviation would not have been terrible.
1937 tr. V. Lenin Sel. Wks. IX. 126 A deviation is not yet a finished trend. A deviation is something that can be rectified. People have just wandered somewhat from the path, or are beginning to wander from the path, but they can still be put right. This, in my opinion, is what the Russian word uklon means.
1938 H. G. Wells Brothers iii. 47 We know of their groups and their—what is your word?—deviations.
1947 L. Hastings Dragons are Extra i. 23 No deviation from the Party line.
Derivatives
deviˈationism n.
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society > authority > rule or government > politics > party politics > [noun] > departure from party principles
deviationism1940
right deviationism1945
fractionalism1950
fractionism1952
splittism1962
1940 Economist 31 Aug. 271/1 Lenin tried to reconcile his conscience to the existing degree of governmental control by talking of ‘bureaucratic deviationism’.
1952 Sc. Jrnl. Theol. 5 186 The Church cannot submit to any other, cannot flirt with any other. Deviationism is nothing less than unfaithfulness, adultery, harlotry.
deviˈationist n. and adj.
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society > authority > rule or government > politics > party politics > [noun] > departure from party principles > one who
deviationist1930
fractionalist1953
splittist1968
1930 W. H. Chamberlin Soviet Russia iii. 78 The Right Deviationists..favored a larger production of goods for immediate consumption.
1937 ‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier xiii. 253 To them, the whole Socialist movement is no more than a kind of exciting heresy-hunt—a leaping to and fro of frenzied witch-doctors to the beat of tom-toms and the tune of ‘Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of a right-wing deviationist!’
1955 H. Hodgkinson Doubletalk 45 Deviationist is a Communist who, whether with good or evil intentions, strays from the path of the official party line.
1959 Times 7 Feb. 7/7 Such deviationist diversions as ‘rock 'n roll’.
a1963 L. MacNeice Astrol. (1964) v. 156 Here Kepler appears to be what orthodox astrologers might call a mystical deviationist.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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