imaginaryadj.n.

Brit.

/ᵻˈmadʒᵻn(ə)ri/,

/ᵻˈmadʒn̩(ə)ri/, U.S.

/ᵻˈmædʒəˌnɛri/

Forms: late Middle English ymagynarie, late Middle English–1500s ymaginarie, late Middle English–1500s ymaginary, late Middle English–1500s ymagynary, 1500s imaginarye, 1500s–1600s imaginarie, 1500s– imaginary, 1600s immaginarie.

Origin: A borrowing from Latin. Etymon: Latin imāginārius.

Etymology: < classical Latin imāginārius consisting of a mere semblance, unreal, (in legal use) fictitious, pretended, in post-classical Latin also concerning images or pictures (early 4th cent.), of the imagination, imaginative (from 12th cent. in British sources), (as noun) standard-bearer (4th cent.) < imāgin- , imāgo image n. + -ārius -ary suffix¹. Compare Anglo-Norman ymaginere, Anglo-Norman and Middle French imaginaire, and Middle French ymaginaire (French imaginaire) imaginable, thinkable (13th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman), existing only in imagination or fancy, not real or actual (1451), designating a quantity or number that can be expressed in terms of the square root of a negative quantity (1637). Compare also Spanish imaginario (late 15th cent.), Portuguese imaginário (1537), Italian immaginario (1354), all in sense ‘existing only in imagination or fancy, not real or actual’.With use as noun in sense B. 1 compare Anglo-Norman and Middle French imaginaire standard-bearer (1272 in Anglo-Norman; also in Middle French in sense ‘seer’ (1372)). With use as noun compare also post-classical Latin imaginarium (neuter) faculty of imagination (12th cent. in a British source).

A. adj.

a. Existing only in imagination or fancy; having no real existence; not real or actual. Formerly also: existing only as spirit, not corporeal (obsolete). Also as n. (with the). imaginary museum spec. = musée imaginaire n.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > [adjective] > only in imagination or unreal

imaginary?1510

imaginative1517

rational1530

fantastical1531

fantasied1561

airy1565

fancied1568

legendary1570

dreamed1597

fabled1606

ideal1611

fictive1612

affectual1614

insubstantiala1616

imaginatorya1618

supposititious1620

fictitious1621

utopian1624

utopic1624

notional1629

affective1633

fictiousa1644

notionary1646

figmental1655

suppositious1655

fict1677

visionary1725

metaphysical1728

unrealized1767

fancy1801

nice-spun1801

subjective1815

aerial1829

transcendental1835

cardboardy1863

mythical1870

cardboard1879

fictionary1882

figmentary1887

alternative1939

alternate1944

fantasized1964

ideate1966

fanciful-

fantastic-

the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > realm of imagination > [noun] > imaginary place > museum

imaginary museum1821

a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) Apoc. Prol. 639 Sum visioun is bodili..sum is spiritual, or ymaginarie, as whanne we seen slepinge, or ellis wakinge we biholden the ymagis of thingis, bi whiche sum other thing is signefied.

?1510 T. More tr. G. Pico della Mirandola in tr. G. F. Pico della Mirandola Lyfe I. Picus sig. e.i How short how vncertain how shadow like fals ymaginary hit is.

1534 W. Marshall tr. Erasmus Playne & Godly Expos. Commune Crede f. 71^v Those men, that geue vnto Christe an imaginarye and phantasticall body.

1593 W. Shakespeare Venus & Adonis sig. E^v Now is she in the verie lists of loue, Her champion mounted for the hot incounter, All is imaginarie she doth proue.

1605 H. Wotton Let. in L. P. Smith Life & Lett. Sir H. Wotton (1907) I. 329 Whether I shall..let them vanish like other imaginary bodies of the Devil.

1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan iii. xxxiv. 210 The word Ghosts, which signifieth..the Imaginary inhabitants of mans brain.

1676 R. Williams George Fox Digg'd out of his Burrowes 182 This true Lord Jesus Christ the Quakers turn into a meer Fiction, Dream, or Imaginary Christ in the mind of a man, or Woman.

1709 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 21 Aug. (1965) I. 10 After giving me imaginary wit and beauty, you give me imaginary passions, and you tell me I'm in love.

1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iv. vi. 88 Besides real Diseases, we are subject to many that are only imaginary, for which the Physicians have invented imaginary Cures.

1792 W. Cowper Let. 29 July (1984) IV. 160 You may think that there is much of the Imaginary in it.

1809 W. Irving Hist. N.Y. I. iv. v. 245 We are naturally..avaricious after imaginary causes of lamentation.

1821 Classical Jrnl. 58 332 The shepherd, the ploughman, the little children..would soon abundantly furnish the galleries and cabinets of our imaginary Museum.

1883 J. A. Froude Short Stud. IV. iii. 265 Rich men could not easily abandon substantial enjoyments in pursuit of so imaginary an object.

1894 Pedagogical Seminary Oct. 184 Katharine has a second imaginary friend, ‘Maggie’.., whom she talks about wholly in a humorous fashion and whose existence she regards as a transparent joke.

1963 Times Lit. Suppl. 23 Aug. 642/5 Mr. Skelton's readers are given hardly any notion of the imaginary museums in which poets roam and of which they too must be habitués if they are to appreciate poems more than superficially.

1985 D. Crimp in H. Foster Postmod. Culture 51 So long as photography was merely a vehicle by which art objects entered the imaginary museum, a certain coherence obtained.

2007 Wall St. Jrnl. 14 Aug. a4/3 Forty of the 425 civilian officials in fact were ghosts: dead or imaginary bureaucrats whose salaries were being funneled to someone else.

b. Of a line, circle, etc.: that is assumed or inferred as passing through or between certain points, but which otherwise has no real existence.

ΚΠ

1541 T. Elyot Image of Gouernance xxii. f. 41 And in that portion that belonged to Geometry and Astronomy, were about the walles great cartes and tables, contayning sundry..reuolutions of planettes, spheres and imaginary cerkles.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 397 If a woman make three imaginary circles round about them [etc.].

1726 N. B. Farrier's & Horseman's Dict. 52/2 The Banquet Line is an imaginary Line, which Bit-makers in forging a Bit draw along the Banquet.

1806 Aberdeen Jrnl. 10 Dec. 2/3 A tract of country which has been the Theatre of War, bounded on one side by an imaginary line, reaching from Frankfort to Denmark.

1875 T. H. Huxley in Encycl. Brit. III. 754/2 This imaginary line..would be found to divide the breeding-range of a few [species of birds].

1954 L. Fermi Atoms in Family vi. 68 ‘It's the line that divides the North from the South,’ Enrico explained. ‘What sort of line? An imaginary line? A physical line?’ I asked.

2004 J. G. Bennett Design Fund. New Media iv. 78 A leaning object, the direction of a shadow, or even the use of positive and negative space can all be used to create an imaginary line.

c. Mathematics. Designating a quantity that can be expressed in terms of the square root of a negative quantity, usually √−1 (represented by i or j); of or relating to such quantities or numbers. Cf. complex adj. 2d. imaginary number n. a complex number; spec. one which is purely imaginary, having a real component equal to zero. N.E.D (1899) notes: ‘Imaginary numbers are sometimes called impossible numbers.’ Cf. impossible adj. 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > [adjective] > prime > imaginary

imaginary1670

impossible1673

ideal1861

1670 I. Newton Let. 11 July in Corr. (1959) I. 30 Ye extraction of cubick roots out of imaginary binomiums.

1706 W. Jones Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos 127 The Original Components or Roots of all Equations, may be either Affirmative, Negative, Mix'd, or Imaginary.

1730 Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 59 Some Observations on Equations which I take to be new, and which will, perhaps, be more acceptable to you than what relates to the imaginary Roots.

1798 Crit. Rev. June 147 Consequently the square root of the imaginary number 2√−1 would be 2.

1841 J. R. Young Math Diss. i. 30 Expressions which in their common algebraic character denote imaginary or impossible quantities.

1936 R. S. Glasgow Princ. Radio Engin. i. 11 In this position the vector now extends to the left of the origin in a negative direction..so that j = √−1..which is mathematically an imaginary number. For this reason the vertical component of a vector is frequently termed the ‘imaginary component.’.

2004 M. Potter Set Theory & its Philos. viii. 145 Despite the terminology, modern mathematicians do not regard imaginary numbers as any less real than real numbers.

2. Relating to the imagination; imaginative. Now chiefly in translations.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > [adjective]

imaginativea1398

fantastic1483

imaginarya1500

fantastical1526

imaginal1638

imaginant1840

imaginational1856

a1500 (?a1425) tr. Secreta Secret. (Lamb.) 97 Vche voys yn his ordre ys al hool whenne it ys stiryd yn þe Eyre..& þat self noble spiritalte stirrys þerwith, so þat part mellys noght with part, to at þe laste it come to wyt and herynge; þanne er þey brought to-geder to a vertu ymagynary.

c1545 R. Copland tr. P. Tommai Art of Memory sig. A.iiii Yf the notable thyng be nat there, or lacke I feyn that in my ymagynation or at myne arbytre ymagynary.

1581 W. Allen Apol. Two Eng. Colleges v. f. 64^v They..flee from al Councels and Fathers to their owne imaginarie sense of Scriptures, pretending to be tried onely by them, and by conferring the sense which liketh them, to the like sence of other places, conceiued alike in their owne imagination.

1609 W. Shakespeare Sonnets xxvii. sig. C2^v My soules imaginary sight Presents their shadoe to my sightles view.

a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iv. ii. 266 My rage was blinde, And foule immaginarie eyes of blood Presented thee more hideous then thou art.

1677 R. Gilpin Dæmonol. Sacra ii. ii. 185 Satan had a Power..to fix upon their Imaginary Faculty, the Species, Images, or Characters of what was to be suggested.

1988 M. Idel tr. A. Abulafia in Stud. in Ecstatic Kabbalah i. 6 And from him (the inner intellectual faculty) there will be an emanation on the imaginary faculty.

2003 S. Moran & V. John-Steiner in R. K. Sawyer et al. Creativity & Devel. 74 Creative thought..starts as an imaginary sense of how things might be.

†3. Of the nature of an image or representation. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > representation > [adjective] > of nature of or resembling a representation

imaginary1594

simulacral1874

the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > [adjective]

imaginary1594

imaginal1638

visual1817

imagic1937

imagy1937

1594 W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. K3 Much imaginarie worke was there..A hand, a foote, a face, a leg, a head Stood for the whole to be imagined.

1624 Bp. F. White Replie to Iesuit Fishers Answere 231 Imaginarie representation onely, without speciall Institution, and other grounds, in the thing representing, may bee onely a motiue, and not a terminatiue obiect of Worship.

1671 A. Woodhead tr. Life St. Teresa i. xxviii. 192 This Vision, though it be Imaginary (or representing itself by way of Image to me), was never seen by me with the eyes of my Body.

†4. Imaginable; that can be imagined. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > [adjective] > capable of being imagined

imaginable?c1400

imaginative1532

imaginary1624

imaginal1647

imageable1654

visualizable1956

1624 G. Digby Rel. Exped. Ld. Monroe 14 I humbly thank your Grace, for your noble confidence of my desires to serve you, which shall never be wanting to any command of yours with all imaginary industry.

1653 G. Ashwell Fides Apostolica 12 Clearing my way as I go, of al Imaginary rubs and obstacles.

1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant iii. 20 All imaginary enquiry was made after them, but..there was no news to be had.

1755 E. F. Haywood Invisible Spy II. v. x. 167 He kept his promise, acknowledg'd her for his wife, had her intomb'd..in his own family vault, and paid all imaginary honours to her memory.

1798 H. M. Williams Tour Switzerland I. xiii. 194 A succession of sweeping cascades, that rush in every imaginary form down a channel.

1862 Hansard Commons 30 June 1241 It was desirable that it should be a statesman impelled by all imaginary motives to desire economy.

†5. Supposed; putative. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > evaluation, estimation, appraisal > [adjective] > reckoned to be

trowedc1410

repute1442

putative?a1475

reputed1559

imaginarya1631

reputative1653

putatitious1654

a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1958) IX. 206 His imaginary Father Ioseph.

1803 G. S. Faber Diss. Myst. Cabiri I. v. 256 Sanchoniatho makes him the son of Demaroön; but..both he, and his imaginary father, are equally the scriptural Noah.

B. n.

†1. In a Roman legion: an officer who carried the image of the emperor. Obsolete. rare.

ΚΠ

a1460 Knyghthode & Bataile (Pembr. Cambr. 243) l. 769 (MED) An Egiller bar thegil, and thymage Of themperour bar an Ymaginary.

2. An imagination; a fancy; something imagined. Frequently in plural.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > [noun]

huea1000

imagination1340

imagea1393

portraiturea1393

trowc1460

fume1531

imaginary1594

phantasm1594

trajection1594

representationa1602

idolum1619

object1651

tablature1661

fancy1663

representamen1677

phantom1686

presentment1817

fantasy1823

projection1836

visuality1841

thought-picture1844

imago1863

vestige1885

1594 S. Daniel Delia (new ed.) xlix. sig. E1 Cease dreames, th' imaginary [1592 th'ymagery] of our day desires, To modell forth the passions of the morrow.

1612 G. Chapman in tr. Petrarch Seven Penitentiall Psalms 83 (title) To yong imaginaries in knowledge.

1710 D. Manley Mem. Europe I. iii. 272 False glittering Imaginaries.

1747 S. Richardson Clarissa I. xxxi. 201 And Cowley thus addresses Beauty as a mere imaginary.

1747 S. Richardson Clarissa II. xiii. 73 The lovers imaginaries (Her own word! Notable enough! i'n't it?) are by that time gone off.

1961 C. Bukowski Let. c15 Jan. in C. Bukowski & S. Martinelli Beerspit Night & Cursing (2001) 167 You dedicate Ern[ie] with imaginaries (some anyhow) when he is near, but distance breaks the spell.

1999 Earth Matters Summer 36/3 Such ‘imaginaries’ are crucial because they shape urban development patterns.

3. Mathematics. An imaginary quantity or expression. Cf. sense A. 1c.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > [noun] > particular qualities > imaginary

impossibility1673

imaginary1768

1768 W. Crakelt tr. A.-R. Mauduit New & Compl. Treat. Spherical Trigonom. Contents p. xiii The Theory of Imaginaries.

1816 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 106 341 Hence we know..which last form will sometimes introduce imaginaries, that may be avoided by particular artifices.

1881 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 4 228 There may be no vector, and in that case we have the ordinary algebra of reals; or there may be only one vector, and in that case we have the ordinary algebra of imaginaries.

1935 A. H. G. Palmer & K. S. Snell Mechanics ix. 189 If k<n , the roots are conjugate imaginaries.

2007 D. J. Cohen Equations from God v. 163 Continental mathematicians had based their calculus on a number system lacking the imaginaries, and on a fundamentally unsound algebra.

Derivatives

iˈmaginariness n.

ΚΠ

1647 tr. J. Böhme Way to Christ iv. 20 The Imaginarinesse that is in their own will hath set it selfe in the place thereof; and so the Imaginarinesse of selfe-lust would have the love in it.

1852 H. Melville Pierre vii. viii. 193 Pierre began to..see the mere imaginariness of the so supposed solidest principle of human association.

1955 J. Kerouac Let. 18 Jan. in Sel. Lett. 1940–56 (1995) 462 It's the sound of the imaginariness of the scene—the mind-sound of mind-stuff everywhere.

2002 Yale Law Rev. 112 44 A lie is an exercise of imagination that denies or conceals its own imaginariness.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	imaginary
释义	imaginaryadj.n. Brit. /ᵻˈmadʒᵻn(ə)ri/, /ᵻˈmadʒn̩(ə)ri/, U.S. /ᵻˈmædʒəˌnɛri/ Forms: late Middle English ymagynarie, late Middle English–1500s ymaginarie, late Middle English–1500s ymaginary, late Middle English–1500s ymagynary, 1500s imaginarye, 1500s–1600s imaginarie, 1500s– imaginary, 1600s immaginarie. Origin: A borrowing from Latin. Etymon: Latin imāginārius. Etymology: < classical Latin imāginārius consisting of a mere semblance, unreal, (in legal use) fictitious, pretended, in post-classical Latin also concerning images or pictures (early 4th cent.), of the imagination, imaginative (from 12th cent. in British sources), (as noun) standard-bearer (4th cent.) < imāgin- , imāgo image n. + -ārius -ary suffix¹. Compare Anglo-Norman ymaginere, Anglo-Norman and Middle French imaginaire, and Middle French ymaginaire (French imaginaire) imaginable, thinkable (13th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman), existing only in imagination or fancy, not real or actual (1451), designating a quantity or number that can be expressed in terms of the square root of a negative quantity (1637). Compare also Spanish imaginario (late 15th cent.), Portuguese imaginário (1537), Italian immaginario (1354), all in sense ‘existing only in imagination or fancy, not real or actual’.With use as noun in sense B. 1 compare Anglo-Norman and Middle French imaginaire standard-bearer (1272 in Anglo-Norman; also in Middle French in sense ‘seer’ (1372)). With use as noun compare also post-classical Latin imaginarium (neuter) faculty of imagination (12th cent. in a British source). A. adj. 1. a. Existing only in imagination or fancy; having no real existence; not real or actual. Formerly also: existing only as spirit, not corporeal (obsolete). Also as n. (with the). imaginary museum spec. = musée imaginaire n. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > [adjective] > only in imagination or unreal imaginary?1510 imaginative1517 rational1530 fantastical1531 fantasied1561 airy1565 fancied1568 legendary1570 dreamed1597 fabled1606 ideal1611 fictive1612 affectual1614 insubstantiala1616 imaginatorya1618 supposititious1620 fictitious1621 utopian1624 utopic1624 notional1629 affective1633 fictiousa1644 notionary1646 figmental1655 suppositious1655 fict1677 visionary1725 metaphysical1728 unrealized1767 fancy1801 nice-spun1801 subjective1815 aerial1829 transcendental1835 cardboardy1863 mythical1870 cardboard1879 fictionary1882 figmentary1887 alternative1939 alternate1944 fantasized1964 ideate1966 fanciful- fantastic- the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > realm of imagination > [noun] > imaginary place > museum imaginary museum1821 a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) Apoc. Prol. 639 Sum visioun is bodili..sum is spiritual, or ymaginarie, as whanne we seen slepinge, or ellis wakinge we biholden the ymagis of thingis, bi whiche sum other thing is signefied. ?1510 T. More tr. G. Pico della Mirandola in tr. G. F. Pico della Mirandola Lyfe I. Picus sig. e.i How short how vncertain how shadow like fals ymaginary hit is. 1534 W. Marshall tr. Erasmus Playne & Godly Expos. Commune Crede f. 71^v Those men, that geue vnto Christe an imaginarye and phantasticall body. 1593 W. Shakespeare Venus & Adonis sig. E^v Now is she in the verie lists of loue, Her champion mounted for the hot incounter, All is imaginarie she doth proue. View more context for this quotation 1605 H. Wotton Let. in L. P. Smith Life & Lett. Sir H. Wotton (1907) I. 329 Whether I shall..let them vanish like other imaginary bodies of the Devil. 1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan iii. xxxiv. 210 The word Ghosts, which signifieth..the Imaginary inhabitants of mans brain. 1676 R. Williams George Fox Digg'd out of his Burrowes 182 This true Lord Jesus Christ the Quakers turn into a meer Fiction, Dream, or Imaginary Christ in the mind of a man, or Woman. 1709 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 21 Aug. (1965) I. 10 After giving me imaginary wit and beauty, you give me imaginary passions, and you tell me I'm in love. 1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iv. vi. 88 Besides real Diseases, we are subject to many that are only imaginary, for which the Physicians have invented imaginary Cures. 1792 W. Cowper Let. 29 July (1984) IV. 160 You may think that there is much of the Imaginary in it. 1809 W. Irving Hist. N.Y. I. iv. v. 245 We are naturally..avaricious after imaginary causes of lamentation. 1821 Classical Jrnl. 58 332 The shepherd, the ploughman, the little children..would soon abundantly furnish the galleries and cabinets of our imaginary Museum. 1883 J. A. Froude Short Stud. IV. iii. 265 Rich men could not easily abandon substantial enjoyments in pursuit of so imaginary an object. 1894 Pedagogical Seminary Oct. 184 Katharine has a second imaginary friend, ‘Maggie’.., whom she talks about wholly in a humorous fashion and whose existence she regards as a transparent joke. 1963 Times Lit. Suppl. 23 Aug. 642/5 Mr. Skelton's readers are given hardly any notion of the imaginary museums in which poets roam and of which they too must be habitués if they are to appreciate poems more than superficially. 1985 D. Crimp in H. Foster Postmod. Culture 51 So long as photography was merely a vehicle by which art objects entered the imaginary museum, a certain coherence obtained. 2007 Wall St. Jrnl. 14 Aug. a4/3 Forty of the 425 civilian officials in fact were ghosts: dead or imaginary bureaucrats whose salaries were being funneled to someone else. b. Of a line, circle, etc.: that is assumed or inferred as passing through or between certain points, but which otherwise has no real existence. ΚΠ 1541 T. Elyot Image of Gouernance xxii. f. 41 And in that portion that belonged to Geometry and Astronomy, were about the walles great cartes and tables, contayning sundry..reuolutions of planettes, spheres and imaginary cerkles. 1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 397 If a woman make three imaginary circles round about them [etc.]. 1726 N. B. Farrier's & Horseman's Dict. 52/2 The Banquet Line is an imaginary Line, which Bit-makers in forging a Bit draw along the Banquet. 1806 Aberdeen Jrnl. 10 Dec. 2/3 A tract of country which has been the Theatre of War, bounded on one side by an imaginary line, reaching from Frankfort to Denmark. 1875 T. H. Huxley in Encycl. Brit. III. 754/2 This imaginary line..would be found to divide the breeding-range of a few [species of birds]. 1954 L. Fermi Atoms in Family vi. 68 ‘It's the line that divides the North from the South,’ Enrico explained. ‘What sort of line? An imaginary line? A physical line?’ I asked. 2004 J. G. Bennett Design Fund. New Media iv. 78 A leaning object, the direction of a shadow, or even the use of positive and negative space can all be used to create an imaginary line. c. Mathematics. Designating a quantity that can be expressed in terms of the square root of a negative quantity, usually √−1 (represented by i or j); of or relating to such quantities or numbers. Cf. complex adj. 2d. imaginary number n. a complex number; spec. one which is purely imaginary, having a real component equal to zero. N.E.D (1899) notes: ‘Imaginary numbers are sometimes called impossible numbers.’ Cf. impossible adj. 2. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > [adjective] > prime > imaginary imaginary1670 impossible1673 ideal1861 1670 I. Newton Let. 11 July in Corr. (1959) I. 30 Ye extraction of cubick roots out of imaginary binomiums. 1706 W. Jones Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos 127 The Original Components or Roots of all Equations, may be either Affirmative, Negative, Mix'd, or Imaginary. 1730 Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 59 Some Observations on Equations which I take to be new, and which will, perhaps, be more acceptable to you than what relates to the imaginary Roots. 1798 Crit. Rev. June 147 Consequently the square root of the imaginary number 2√−1 would be 2. 1841 J. R. Young Math Diss. i. 30 Expressions which in their common algebraic character denote imaginary or impossible quantities. 1936 R. S. Glasgow Princ. Radio Engin. i. 11 In this position the vector now extends to the left of the origin in a negative direction..so that j = √−1..which is mathematically an imaginary number. For this reason the vertical component of a vector is frequently termed the ‘imaginary component.’. 2004 M. Potter Set Theory & its Philos. viii. 145 Despite the terminology, modern mathematicians do not regard imaginary numbers as any less real than real numbers. 2. Relating to the imagination; imaginative. Now chiefly in translations. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > [adjective] imaginativea1398 fantastic1483 imaginarya1500 fantastical1526 imaginal1638 imaginant1840 imaginational1856 a1500 (?a1425) tr. Secreta Secret. (Lamb.) 97 Vche voys yn his ordre ys al hool whenne it ys stiryd yn þe Eyre..& þat self noble spiritalte stirrys þerwith, so þat part mellys noght with part, to at þe laste it come to wyt and herynge; þanne er þey brought to-geder to a vertu ymagynary. c1545 R. Copland tr. P. Tommai Art of Memory sig. A.iiii Yf the notable thyng be nat there, or lacke I feyn that in my ymagynation or at myne arbytre ymagynary. 1581 W. Allen Apol. Two Eng. Colleges v. f. 64^v They..flee from al Councels and Fathers to their owne imaginarie sense of Scriptures, pretending to be tried onely by them, and by conferring the sense which liketh them, to the like sence of other places, conceiued alike in their owne imagination. 1609 W. Shakespeare Sonnets xxvii. sig. C2^v My soules imaginary sight Presents their shadoe to my sightles view. a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iv. ii. 266 My rage was blinde, And foule immaginarie eyes of blood Presented thee more hideous then thou art. View more context for this quotation 1677 R. Gilpin Dæmonol. Sacra ii. ii. 185 Satan had a Power..to fix upon their Imaginary Faculty, the Species, Images, or Characters of what was to be suggested. 1988 M. Idel tr. A. Abulafia in Stud. in Ecstatic Kabbalah i. 6 And from him (the inner intellectual faculty) there will be an emanation on the imaginary faculty. 2003 S. Moran & V. John-Steiner in R. K. Sawyer et al. Creativity & Devel. 74 Creative thought..starts as an imaginary sense of how things might be. †3. Of the nature of an image or representation. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > communication > representation > [adjective] > of nature of or resembling a representation imaginary1594 simulacral1874 the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > [adjective] imaginary1594 imaginal1638 visual1817 imagic1937 imagy1937 1594 W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. K3 Much imaginarie worke was there..A hand, a foote, a face, a leg, a head Stood for the whole to be imagined. View more context for this quotation 1624 Bp. F. White Replie to Iesuit Fishers Answere 231 Imaginarie representation onely, without speciall Institution, and other grounds, in the thing representing, may bee onely a motiue, and not a terminatiue obiect of Worship. 1671 A. Woodhead tr. Life St. Teresa i. xxviii. 192 This Vision, though it be Imaginary (or representing itself by way of Image to me), was never seen by me with the eyes of my Body. †4. Imaginable; that can be imagined. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > [adjective] > capable of being imagined imaginable?c1400 imaginative1532 imaginary1624 imaginal1647 imageable1654 visualizable1956 1624 G. Digby Rel. Exped. Ld. Monroe 14 I humbly thank your Grace, for your noble confidence of my desires to serve you, which shall never be wanting to any command of yours with all imaginary industry. 1653 G. Ashwell Fides Apostolica 12 Clearing my way as I go, of al Imaginary rubs and obstacles. 1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant iii. 20 All imaginary enquiry was made after them, but..there was no news to be had. 1755 E. F. Haywood Invisible Spy II. v. x. 167 He kept his promise, acknowledg'd her for his wife, had her intomb'd..in his own family vault, and paid all imaginary honours to her memory. 1798 H. M. Williams Tour Switzerland I. xiii. 194 A succession of sweeping cascades, that rush in every imaginary form down a channel. 1862 Hansard Commons 30 June 1241 It was desirable that it should be a statesman impelled by all imaginary motives to desire economy. †5. Supposed; putative. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > evaluation, estimation, appraisal > [adjective] > reckoned to be trowedc1410 repute1442 putative?a1475 reputed1559 imaginarya1631 reputative1653 putatitious1654 a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1958) IX. 206 His imaginary Father Ioseph. 1803 G. S. Faber Diss. Myst. Cabiri I. v. 256 Sanchoniatho makes him the son of Demaroön; but..both he, and his imaginary father, are equally the scriptural Noah. B. n. †1. In a Roman legion: an officer who carried the image of the emperor. Obsolete. rare. ΚΠ a1460 Knyghthode & Bataile (Pembr. Cambr. 243) l. 769 (MED) An Egiller bar thegil, and thymage Of themperour bar an Ymaginary. 2. An imagination; a fancy; something imagined. Frequently in plural. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > [noun] huea1000 imagination1340 imagea1393 portraiturea1393 trowc1460 fume1531 imaginary1594 phantasm1594 trajection1594 representationa1602 idolum1619 object1651 tablature1661 fancy1663 representamen1677 phantom1686 presentment1817 fantasy1823 projection1836 visuality1841 thought-picture1844 imago1863 vestige1885 1594 S. Daniel Delia (new ed.) xlix. sig. E1 Cease dreames, th' imaginary [1592 th'ymagery] of our day desires, To modell forth the passions of the morrow. 1612 G. Chapman in tr. Petrarch Seven Penitentiall Psalms 83 (title) To yong imaginaries in knowledge. 1710 D. Manley Mem. Europe I. iii. 272 False glittering Imaginaries. 1747 S. Richardson Clarissa I. xxxi. 201 And Cowley thus addresses Beauty as a mere imaginary. 1747 S. Richardson Clarissa II. xiii. 73 The lovers imaginaries (Her own word! Notable enough! i'n't it?) are by that time gone off. 1961 C. Bukowski Let. c15 Jan. in C. Bukowski & S. Martinelli Beerspit Night & Cursing (2001) 167 You dedicate Ern[ie] with imaginaries (some anyhow) when he is near, but distance breaks the spell. 1999 Earth Matters Summer 36/3 Such ‘imaginaries’ are crucial because they shape urban development patterns. 3. Mathematics. An imaginary quantity or expression. Cf. sense A. 1c. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > [noun] > particular qualities > imaginary impossibility1673 imaginary1768 1768 W. Crakelt tr. A.-R. Mauduit New & Compl. Treat. Spherical Trigonom. Contents p. xiii The Theory of Imaginaries. 1816 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 106 341 Hence we know..which last form will sometimes introduce imaginaries, that may be avoided by particular artifices. 1881 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 4 228 There may be no vector, and in that case we have the ordinary algebra of reals; or there may be only one vector, and in that case we have the ordinary algebra of imaginaries. 1935 A. H. G. Palmer & K. S. Snell Mechanics ix. 189 If k<n , the roots are conjugate imaginaries. 2007 D. J. Cohen Equations from God v. 163 Continental mathematicians had based their calculus on a number system lacking the imaginaries, and on a fundamentally unsound algebra. Derivatives iˈmaginariness n. ΚΠ 1647 tr. J. Böhme Way to Christ iv. 20 The Imaginarinesse that is in their own will hath set it selfe in the place thereof; and so the Imaginarinesse of selfe-lust would have the love in it. 1852 H. Melville Pierre vii. viii. 193 Pierre began to..see the mere imaginariness of the so supposed solidest principle of human association. 1955 J. Kerouac Let. 18 Jan. in Sel. Lett. 1940–56 (1995) 462 It's the sound of the imaginariness of the scene—the mind-sound of mind-stuff everywhere. 2002 Yale Law Rev. 112 44 A lie is an exercise of imagination that denies or conceals its own imaginariness. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < adj.n.a1425
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