latentadj.n.

c1475 ( in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1911) 26 514 (MED) And how be hit that such an opinyoun is diffused amonge you, peraventure the latent trowth is other wyse.

1593 J. Napier Plaine Discouery Reuelation St. Iohn i. xxvi. 41 No secretes, although they were seuenfoldlie sealed, could be latent or hid from him.

1651 R. Baxter Plain Script. Proof Infants Church-membership & Baptism 241 Though the Historicall part have some latent corruption in it.

1671 J. Webster Metallographia iii. 55 A metalline plastick principle latent in it.

1689 T. Plunket Char. Good Commander Prol. sig. B^v/1 New Necessities, &c. Will things produce, now latent from the wise.

1736 Bp. J. Butler Analogy of Relig. i. i. 23 We know not what latent Powers and Capacities they [sc. brutes] may be endued with.

a1797 E. Burke Ess. Abridgm. Eng. Hist. (rev. ed.) in Wks. (1812) V. 524 An exertion of a latent genius.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. i. 100 Under this apparent concord a great schism was latent.

1873 W. Black Princess of Thule xv. 241 The latent force of character that underlay all her submissive gentleness.

1934 R. Lynd Both Sides of Road xxviii. 184 I must leave it to younger and better men, however, to develop these latent capacities.

1966 D. Du Maurier Don't look Now (1971) 82 Even the long stretch of shore that had seemed drear the night before had now a latent charm.

1992 Victorian Poetry 30 40 But that meaning is latent rather than active.

1593 J. Napier Plaine Discouery Reuelation St. Iohn i. xxvi. 41 Then must he needs be a latent and not a patent enemie.

1642 S. Rutherford Peaceable Plea x. 145 Certainely no beleever is obliged to know the latent hypocrite.

a1680 J. Bargrave Pope Alexander VII (1867) i. viii. 19 This latent nuntio gave over his fruitless design.

1725 A. Pope tr. Homer Odyssey I. iii. 54 Then first approaching to the elder guest, The latent Goddess in these words addrest.

1803 W. Mavor Universal Hist. XIX. viii. 282 This made them consider queen Margaret as a French-woman, and a latent enemy to the kingdom.

1892 R. L. Stevenson Across Plains i. 26 I had been but a latent emigrant; now I was to be branded once more, and put apart with my fellows.

1965 C. Bukowski Let. 14 July in Screams from Balcony (1998) 176 I could no more give a damn whether you were a latent or an unlatent homo.

1997 A. Roy God of Small Things (1998) i. 5 An old lady..who often surfaced next to bodies at funerals (a funeral junkie? a latent necrophiliac?).

1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. f. 41^v The more subtile of them [sc. passages and pores] appeare not in anatomyes, because they are shut and latent in dead bodies, though they be open and manifest in liue. View more context for this quotation

a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Staff. 46 His admirable writings of Mathematicks are latent with some private possessors.

1694 J. Scottow Narr. Planting Massachusetts Colony 15 A Snake..which Lay Latent in the Tender Grass.

1700 J. Dryden tr. Ovid Speeches Ajax & Ulysses in Fables 459 The glitt'ring Helm by Moonlight will proclaim The latent Robber.

1769 T. Gray Ode at Installation Duke of Grafton 7 Thy liberal heart..Shall raise from earth the latent gem To glitter on the diadem.

1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. IV. 348 Latent (Latens) when it [sc. the post dorsolum] is covered by the mesothorax.

1926 Princeton Alumni Weekly 1 Oct. 47/3 The Chinese..whose land is blessed with extraordinary latent material resources.

2008 Z. Y. Blech Kosher Food Production (ed. 2) 296/2 Enzymes have been developed that break down the cellulose and pectin that serve to entrap the latent oil.

1665 M. Nedham Medela Medicinæ iii. 63 That after the committing of that Folly with an unwholsom Person, though there appear no Sign nor Symptom of a Disease for the present, yet it may be latent and lurkking within the Body.

1684 tr. T. Bonet Guide Pract. Physician vi. 226 In a Phlegmatick Ague, which the Arabians call Latick, or Latent.

1714 D. Turner De Morbis Cutaneis ii. vi. 206 But if the Illness arise from some latent Chancre, you are to purge off the pocky Virus with some brisk Cathartick.

1805 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 14 127 Unless we suppose the pain he has in his joints to arise from latent venereal virus.

1834 J. Forbes tr. R. T. H. Laennec Treat. Dis. Chest (ed. 4) 97 The constant presence of a catarrhal affection of the lungs, either latent or manifest.

1886 N.Y. Med. Jrnl. 4 Dec. 626/2 Heterophoria may, like hypermetropia, be partly or entirely latent.

1925 Amer. Mercury Dec. 461/1 They perhaps constitute the site of latent infection in cases that have not yet developed clinical signs.

1998 A. Fadiman Ex Libris 34 He was informed there that he had acute retinal necrosis, improbably caused by a chicken-pox virus that had been latent for more than eighty years.

2012 Medicine 40 341/2 In 90% of the otherwise healthy population, it will never become active. This situation, which is usually associated with a positive skin test to tuberculo-protein, is termed ‘latent tuberculosis’.

1787 E. Darwin et al. tr. C. Linnaeus et al. Families of Plants I. 263 The rudiments of eight anthers latent in the bottom of the flower.

1856 J. S. Henslow Dict. Bot. Latent, lying dormant till excited by some particular stimulus; as the adventitious buds occasionally developed in trees.

1909 P. T. Maw Pract. Forestry 149 With some trees, especially Oak and Chestnut, an unduly thick canopy will often cause..the flushing of latent buds along the stem.

1972 Winnipeg Free Press 14 Apr. 9/1 If a branch is cut back, the latent buds nearest the cut break dormancy and start to grow.

2003 K. D. Cutler Pruning Trees, Shrubs & Vines 14 Woody plants also have latent buds, less visible dormant buds that lie under the bark.

1789 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 79 283 Whenever a jar is charged, the greatest part of the electricity becomes latent on account of the compensation.

1885 H. W. Watson & S. H. Burbury Math. Theory Electr. & Magn. I. 83 The fluid of either kind in any electrified body in excess of that of the opposite kind is called the Free Electricity of the body, and the remaining fluids of the body, consisting of equal amounts of fluids of opposite kinds, together constitute what is called the Latent, Combined or Fixed Electricity of the body.

1921 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 99 5 Such release of latent electricity should not appear on surfaces constituted by equal numbers of the two ions.

1984 A. Desai In Custody ii. 24 This made his pale green nylon shirt crackle with latent electricity.

2008 D. Veith DeLancey's Stapler iii. 144 The pajamas crackled with latent electricity as Drucker yanked them free.

1937 Jrnl. Psychol. 3 350 The results on the manifest and on the latent variables will be given separately.

1950 P. F. Lazarsfeld in S. A. Stouffer Measurem. & Prediction x. 362 (heading) The logical and mathematical foundation of latent structure analysis.

1952 W. J. Goode & P. K. Hatt Methods in Social Res. xvii. 286 One alternative..was to abandon the factorial approach and in doing so abandon the concept of a latent-attitude continuum.

1961 J. Rothenberg Measurem. Social Welfare iv. xi. 290 The spatial arrangement of alternatives is a uni-dimensional scale of some single ‘latent attribute’ calibrated by the particular alternatives.

1974 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 79 1192 Y denotes latent self-perceived membership in the leading crowd and Z denotes latent attitude toward the leading crowd.

2003 R. G. Netermeyer et al. Scaling Procedures i. 4 Latent constructs are not directly observable or quantifiable.

1920 Jrnl. Amer. Inst. Criminal Law & Criminol. 10 488 It was clearly proved that the latent was of the right ring finger of one F. C.

1939 E. S. Gardner D.A. draws Circle (1940) iv. 48 ‘Any latents, Bob?’ the sheriff asked.

1973 A. Hunter Gently French iii. 23 The recognisable latents were either Quarles' or off-record, probably innocent.

2008 J. Fisher Forensics under Fire x. 170 Michael Grubb compared the seven exemplars with the crime-scene ear latent.

2011 J. Mariotte Burning Season xxi. 219 It looks like he did a quick wipe job, but he left a latent on the bottom of the chair arm.

1783 J. Brown Rep. High Court Parl. 7 446 It was conceived to be an established rule of evidence, not to receive parol proof, or any other species of external evidence, to expound the words of an agreement reduced into writing, except where there is some latent ambiguity; as to explain which person was meant, where there are two of the same name, &c.

1893 Harvard Law Rev. 6 438 It became common to say that the first effort must be to disclose the existence of a latent ambiguity by extrinsic evidence.

2010 L. E. Espenschied Contract Drafting vi. 88 The latent ambiguity arose when the parties discovered that there were two ships called ‘Peerless’ in the same harbor.

1798 R. Harrington Some New Exper. Heat 60 Inflammable air in its aerial state, possessing its latent caloric, cannot unite with pure air.

1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 334 Latent caloric may become sensible in a variety of ways.

1912 Science 13 Sept. 333/1 The molecular latent caloric of vaporization is the same for all such compounds.

2006 Hist. Stud. Physical & Biol. Sci. 37 5 Espyʼs ideas on the steam power of the atmosphere and on the importance of latent caloric were widely accepted by such influential scientists.

1853 W. J. M. Rankine in London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 4th Ser. 5 106 All conceivable forms of energy may be distinguished into two kinds; actual or sensible, and potential or latent.]

1854 W. J. M. Rankine in Proc. Philos. Soc. Glasgow 3 276 Potential or latent energy..is measured by the product of a change of state into the resistance against which that change is made.

1874 Q. Jrnl. Sci. 4 188 Latent or potential energy of another kind may and probably does exist, viz., the latent energy of a bent spring.

1931 North Central Assoc. Q. Mar. 464/1 A stone..hoisted by a steam engine to the fifth floor of a building..holds the energy used to lift it up as energy of position, latent or potential energy. When it falls this latent energy becomes kinetic or active energy.

1919 Sci. Amer. Suppl. 13 Sept. 174/1 Kockel recommends as the most suitable powder for making latent fingerprints visible the argenton powder.

1956 ‘E. McBain’ Cop Hater (1963) xix. 145 The tech crew dusted the latent fingerprints.

1990 J. Nance Final Approach xxi. 321 The latent fingerprints of whoever wrote it and handled it are still there.

1949 R. K. Merton Social Theory i. 51 Latent functions..being those which are neither intended nor recognized.

1971 Pacific Sociol. Rev. 14 206 It seems possible that the professional staff's projection of importance of such social events to the museum membership..is a latent function of their frustrated professional aspirations.

2013 P. Marina Getting Holy Ghost ix. 252 Whatever else can be said about the manifest and latent functions for the black church, we have to remember that churches serve their followers.

1892 C. G. Chaddock tr. R. von Krafft-Ebing Psychopathia Sexualis iii. 187 Careful examination of the so-called acquired cases makes it probable that the predisposition also present here consists of a latent homo-sexuality, or, at least, bi-sexuality.

1968 F. Exley Fan's Notes iv. 173 Oh, I know the Freudian voodoo, the feelings of inadequacy that sometimes come to a man, the latent homosexuality, and so forth... But it's all hogwash.

2002 Hotdog June 112/3 The bachelors who assume care duties of Mary are all screw-ups... One sees the child purely as a means to disguise his latent homosexuality.

1929 H. C. Blodgett in Univ. Calif. Publ. Psychol. 4 133 During the non-reward period, the rats were developing a latent learning of the maze which they were able to utilize as soon as reward was introduced.

1930 Elem. School Jrnl. 31 233 These problems..come under the more general topic of latent learning in reading, a field in which little work has been done.

2007 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 274 1505/1 We used the classical model of house-hunting in Temnothorax albipennis ants to determine if ants are able to reconnoitre and exhibit latent learning.

1791 London Chron. 26 July 91/3 The law was, that all latent partners were liable for the acts of the ostensible person in the firm in any business in which such persons had any concern.

1864 Glasgow Herald 25 Feb. 1/7 Mr. Wilson was merely a latent Partner, and took no active interest in the Concern.

1913 Act 3 & 4 George V c. 20 §90 Any latent partner of a company whose estates have been sequestrated.

1793 J. Haygarth Sketch Plan to Exterminate Casual Small-pox II. 539 To the small collection of facts, recorded in the inquiry, to determine the latent period of casual infection, five cases are added of unquestionable authority.

1837 M. Hall Princ. Theory & Pract. Med. 143 A latent period of from ten to fourteen days intervenes between exposure [to rubeola] and the development of the febrile symptoms.

1877 M. Foster Text Bk. Physiol. i. ii. 37 A phase antecedent to any visible alteration in the muscle..during which invisible preparatory changes are taking place in the nerve and muscle, is often called the ‘latent period’.

1926 L. Hogben Compar. Physiol. viii. 140 The rate of conduction can be determined directly by observing the difference in the latent period of muscular contraction, when a nerve-muscle preparation is stimulated at points along the nerve separated by a measured distance apart.

1947 Radiology 49 361/2 The incidence of bone tumors was approximately proportional to the dose administered, and the latent period—in no case less than about 200 days—increased gradually with decreasing dose.

1996 H. G. Cragon Memory Syst. & Pipelined Processors i. 1 Latency or latent period is the total time associated with the processing (from excitation to response) of a particular data unit at a phase in the computing process.

2007 K. T. Palmer et al. Fitness for Work (ed. 4) xviii. 421 Mesothelioma..arises after a long latent period—rarely less than 20 years from first exposure, and typically 35–40 years.

1910 Jrnl. Amer. Inst. Criminal Law & Criminol. 1 634 Time and time again the detectives in New Scotland Yard and in India have found latent prints.

1974 G. F. Newman Price viii. 242 Latent prints brought out on the non-absorbent surfaces with grey powder for photographing.

2000 P. Cornwell Last Precinct (2001) 276 Latent prints are actually transferred to an object because the friction ridge surfaces of fingers and palms have oily residues on them.

1883 J. J. Sylvester in London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 16 267 It will be convenient to introduce here a notion.., viz. that of the latent roots of a matrix.

1958 R. V. Andree Sel. Mod. Abstr. Algebra ix. 195 In quantum mechanics and elsewhere, the terms latent roots, proper value, eigenvalue, and eigenwerte are often used in place of characteristic root.

2006 D. Child Essent. Factor Anal. (ed. 3) iii. 60 Starting at the first latent root the curve falls steeply.

1750 S. Sharp Crit. Enq. Surg. iv. 195 There is also sometimes a latent Virus in the Obstructions, when a Salivation is also necessary.

1848 Lancet 14 Oct. 422/2 I do not suppose mere intercourse with one who has had syphilitic symptoms, either primary or secondary, but at the time free from either, could communicate a latent virus.

1931 Science 6 Feb. 155/2 The distribution of the latent virus in tubers of commercial potatoes was discussed.

1951 Nature 30 June 1061/1 The presence of latent or ‘silent’ viruses in plants and other organisms is not, of course, new.

1962 W. Carter Insects in Relation to Plant Dis. viii. 329 Latent viruses are often important components of virus complexes.

2007 J. Minarovits et al. Latency Strategies Herpesviruses iii. 57 Sporadic reactivation of the latent virus takes place throughout life.

1660 J. Durham Comm. Revelation xii. 531 Her latentnesse and inconspicuousnesse.

1852 H. Melville Pierre xv. iii. 308 In naturally strong-minded men..those great and sudden emergencies..serve to call forth all their generous latentness.

2007 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. A. 170 329 None of the clusters..could be associated with a skewed latent distribution. Admittedly, the layer of latentness grants some flexibility in this respect.