orientationn.
/ˌɔːrɪənˈteɪʃn/, /ˌɔːrɪɛnˈteɪʃn/, /ˌɒrɪənˈteɪʃn/, /ˌɒrɪɛnˈteɪʃn/, U.S. /ˌɔriənˈteɪʃ(ə)n/ I. General uses.
1.
a. The placing or position of a church, house, tomb, or other structure relative to the points of the compass, or other specified points.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > direction > [noun] > aspect or direction faced > fact of facing a direction > placing so as to
orientation1839
1839 Hints Study Eccles. Antiq. (1842) 17 Orientation. It is important to notice the deviation of a church from east, because it is supposed that the chancel points to that part of the horizon where the sun rises on the Feast of the Patron Saint.
1871 E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture II. 382 A series of practices concerning the posture of the dead in their graves and the living in their temples..which may be classed under the general heading of Orientation.
1871 E. H. Palmer Desert of Exodus 7 The Orientation of the chapel..had been altered at a later date.
1885 F. Adler Schliemann's Tiryns Pref. 18 The orientation, towards the South, of the rooms most used.
1968 P. H. Newby Something to answer For iv. 141 You can use the orientation of the Great Pyramid to check a modern compass.
1989 Times Lit. Suppl. 12 May 512/3 Orientation of the stage had far-reaching implications for styles of performance.
b. The relative position or direction of something; the bearing or lie of a thing.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > [noun]
standing?c1400
situationa1484
setting?1523
disposition?1541
position1556
collocation1605
posture1605
standa1684
lie1697
lay1819
presentation1833
sit1857
gisement1864
orientation1875
the world > space > direction > [noun] > direction in which a thing extends
journey?a1560
run1671
lie1697
line of bearing1717
trend1777
lay1819
orientation1875
1875 Wonders Physic. World I. ii. 75 This arrangement of the ridges is simply a result of the orientation.
1884 F. O. Bower & D. H. Scott tr. H. A. de Bary Compar. Anat. Phanerogams & Ferns 319 The orientation of collateral bundles is in the usual cases..such that the xylem is turned towards the middle, and the phloem towards the periphery of the whole organ.
1908 H. Driesch Sci. & Philos. Organism I. i. 158 ‘Autotropism’, that is, the fact that branches of plants always try to reassume their proper angle with regard to their orientation on the main axis, if this orientation has been disturbed.
1957 Endeavour Oct. 185/2 In each of these levels the nucleus precesses about the direction of H0, but maintains its correct orientation in the field.
1988 Desktop Publishing Today June 9/4 The pages of your artwork are laid out in the order and orientation in which they will be printed.
c. The action or process of ascertaining one's position relative to the points of the compass, or other specified points; the faculty of doing this; awareness of one's bearings or relative position. Also: the action of taking up a particular position or bearing; (Zoology) the faculty by which birds and other animals find their way back to a place after going or being taken to a place distant from it (as in homing pigeons and migratory birds).
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > direction > [noun] > finding direction
orientation1883
self-orientation1886
direction-finding1913
orienting1977
1883 Amer. Naturalist 17 222 My conclusion..is that Wallace's ingenious theory of accounting for orientation by what he calls ‘brain registration’, will not explain what has been described; but that the mysterious homing faculty is..analogous to the migratory instinct.
1888 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 1 510 Tympanic sensibility plays no role in auditive orientation.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VI. 342 Psychical disturbance, marked by apathy, dulness of comprehension, variable temper, delusions, imperfect orientation.
1910 Science 7 Oct. 470/1 During May and June..I continued my studies on distant orientation in the noddy and sooty terns at the Tortugas colony.
1941 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 232 The amnesia was already less marked, and autopsychic orientation largely restored.
1967 M. S. Gardiner & S. C. Flemister Princ. Gen. Biol. (ed. 2) xiv. 248 Insects respond to polarized light, and..this capacity is used in orientation and homing behavior.
1993 Flyer July 49/3 Some of the time you will be looking at the target through the viewfinder, and it is easy to lose spatial orientation, especially if you are using a zoom lens.
2. † b. The action of turning or facing eastward, esp. in an act of worship, as at the recitation of the Creed or the celebration of the Eucharist. Obsolete.
a. spec. The placing or arranging of something so as to face the east; the construction or arrangement of a church with the chancel or chief altar at the eastern end; (also) the burying of a body with the feet towards the east.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > direction > [noun] > aspect or direction faced > fact of facing a direction > placing so as to > so as to face east
orienting1728
orientation1849
1849 Ecclesiologist 9 153 The primitive tradition of orientation.
1855 J. Fergusson Illustr. Handbk. Archit. 516 (note) The orientation of Churches, by turning their altars towards the east, is wholly a peculiarity of the Northern or Gothic races; the Italians never knew or practised it.
1881 A. P. Stanley Christian Inst. xi. 209 The orientation of churches is from the rites of Etruscan augury.
1883 A. Beresford-Hope Worship & Order 126 Orientation, we should add, is exploded by the Oratorians.
1999 J. S. Curl Dict. Archit. 466/2 Orientation, in church architecture, where the altars were usually sited to the east.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > direction > [noun] > changing to face different direction or turning > turning to face east
orientation1879
1879 W. E. Gladstone in Contemp. Rev. July 195 The case in favour of what we may be allowed to call orientation.
1888 Church Times 339/1 Orientation at the Creed was observed.
c. The process of moving something eastwards; (also) the process of making eastern in character. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > transference > [noun] > transference in specific direction
orientation1884
the world > people > nations > native or inhabitant of specific region > [noun] > eastern people > making eastern
orientalizing1879
orientalization1886
orientation1914
1884 Pall Mall Gaz. 26 Aug. 1/1 That orientation of the entente cordiale from Paris to Berlin which was one of the cherished hopes of Lord Ampthill's life.
1914 G. K. Chesterton Flying Inn viii. 81 He also wants to drive a tunnel—between East and West—to make the British Empire more Indian; to effect what he calls the orientation of England and I call the ruin of Christendom.
3. figurative. A person's basic attitude, beliefs, or feelings; a person's emotional or intellectual position in respect of a particular topic, circumstance, etc.; (now) spec. sexual preference.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual orientation > [noun]
sexual preference1822
sexuality1897
sexual orientation1931
orientation1978
1870 S. Baring-Gould Origin Relig. Belief II. ii. 31 The double orientation, one towards God, the other towards the world.
1890 Church Q. Rev. 30 19 It may be well to make a few remarks by way of orientation.
1893 in J. H. Barrows World's Parl. Relig. I. 759 That is the best education which gives a man, so to speak, the best orientation; which most clearly defines his relations with society and with his Creator.
1920 R. Fry Vision & Design 4 The movement of art went on entirely unaffected by the new orientation of thought.
1978 Amer. Educator Winter 65 A child's sexual orientation is determined before s/he enters school.
1988 Music & Lett. 69 554 The word ‘portrait’ in Michael Kennedy's title defines the book's major orientation and its strengths.
1998 A. Pease & B. Pease Why Men don't Listen & Women can't read Maps (1999) viii. 201 Scientists and most human sexuality experts agree that homosexuality is an orientation that is unchangeable.
4. Chiefly North American (originally U.S.). The process of familiarizing a new or prospective student, recruit, etc., with the content of a course, the basics of a subject, the nature of college life, etc. Also: a course intended to provide such familiarization.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > undertaking > preparation > [noun] > for a situation, subject, etc.
orientation1916
1916 Mod. Lang. Notes 31 298 Unless a specific course in orientation is provided, the responsibility falls chiefly upon instructors in freshman English.
1923 Amer. Econ. Rev. 13 253 The course in the freshman year does not aim to do more than..present a definite orientation of each of the specialized fields and their problems.
1968 N.Y. Times 23 July 41/1 Mr. Mailer was giving an ‘orientation’ (or was it a sophisticated party game?) for nearly 100 participants in his third film venture.
1992 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 6 Aug. (Educ. Suppl.) 4/3 Although anxieties have long been synonymous with the move to university, this trend toward orientation is fairly recent.
1993 R. J. Pond Introd. Engin. Technol. (ed. 2) iii. 46 John attended an orientation that summer after high school, found out how practically oriented the engineering technology programs were, and decided to attempt the shorter, two-year curriculum.
II. Technical uses.
5. Mathematics. A direction assigned to a line, curve, the sides of a geometrical figure, or the edges of a graph; an ordering of the vertices of a simplex; an ordered set of independent directions assigned to a manifold (manifold n.1 5).
ΚΠ
1866 G. B. Airy Pop. Astron. (ed. 5) iii. 122 We have no term for expressing that peculiar act of determining the direction of a side of a triangle, or the direction of a chain of triangles, and therefore we have adopted a word from the French, ‘orientation’; it is, however, a bad word, used only for the want of a better.
1919 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 5 296 A small oriented circuit..is transformed..into one of opposite orientation.
1949 S. Lefschetz Introd. Topol. ii. 76 Orientability implies that the triangles of K may be ‘oriented’ (in an intuitive sense) so that adjacent triangles always have their orientations disposed as in Fig. 37.
1959 E. M. Patterson Topology v. 93 A geometric m-simplex together with one or other of these orientations is called an oriented geometric m-simplex.
1972 M. Kline Math. Thought l. 1171 For the purposes of combinatorial topology each simplex or cell of every dimension is given an orientation.
1990 T. Petrie & J. Randall Connections, Definite Forms, & Four-manifolds 120 We added the trivial factor since c does not preserve orientation.
6. Chemistry.
a. The relative position of substituent atoms or groups in a ring.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > isomerism > [noun] > structural isomerism > position isomerism > orientation
orientation1877
orientation1890
1877 H. Watts Fownes's Man. Elem. Chem. (ed. 12) II. 420 The higher [benzene] derivatives formed by replacement of two or more hydrogen-atoms in the molecule exhibit isomeric modifications, which are supposed to depend upon the relative position or orientation of the substituted radicals.
1903 A. J. Walker tr. A. F. Holleman Text-bk. Org. Chem. II. 473 The orientation of these groups in this acid should indicate their relative position in the naphthalene derivative.
1973 C. H. Snyder Introd. Mod. Org. Chem. xvii. 304 With polysubstituted rings the orientation of substituents in the product is governed by both the direction of elimination and the orientation of addition.
b. The orienting effect of a substituent in a ring on other atoms or groups (see orient v. 3a).In quot. 1890 the word could be interpreted in sense 6a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > isomerism > [noun] > structural isomerism > position isomerism > orientation
orientation1877
orientation1890
1890 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 58 484 The study of substitution phenomena, especially in the aromatic series, shows that the so-called orientation rules are dependent on the atomic or molecular weight of the atom or radicle which dominates or directs the position taken up by the substituting-group.
1946 A. A. Morton Chem. Heterocyclic Compounds ii. 33 Replacement reactions are unique in that the position of the entering group is largely determined by the nature of the reactant, not by any orientation by groups.
1971 J. D. Roberts et al. Org. Chem. xx. 574 When the two substituents have opposed orientation effects, it is not always easy to predict what products will be obtained.
c. The process of ascertaining the relative positions of the substituents in a ring.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > isomerism > [noun] > structural isomerism > position isomerism > orientation > ascertaining relative position
orientation1891
1891 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 60 1199 The method employed by Claus and Runschke..for the orientation of 4:6-dichlorometaxylene.
1903 A. J. Walker & O. E. Mott tr. A. F. Holleman Text-bk. Org. Chem. II. 473 Oxidation is another important aid in their orientation, and is employed to determine whether the substituents are attached to the same or to different rings.
1953 M. J. Astle & J. R. Shelton Org. Chem. xxii. 420 (heading) Korner's absolute method of orientation.
Compounds
C1. Chiefly North American (originally U.S.). General attributive (in sense 4), as orientation course, orientation programme, etc.
ΚΠ
1925 Jrnl. Social Forces 3 553/2 The effort to establish a broad type of orientation course useful to all students planning further work in economics, politics or sociology has succeeded.
1944 Fortune Mar. 151/1 The Army and Navy now have ‘orientation’ programs designed to tell their men why they are at war.
1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. B6 (advt.) Selected applicants will be offered a comprehensive orientation program in branch banking.
1976 J. Crosby Nightfall xxxviii. 231 Hawkins had read Wittgenstein only because Theresa had. Her books were his orientation course.
1996 Univ. Vermont Rec. 13 Sept. 1/1 Orientation week had been just too overwhelming to absorb all that information.
C2.
orientation triad n. Physiology the three sensory components responsible for spatial orientation of the body, the vestibular apparatus, sight, and mechanoreceptors.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > sense organ > [noun] > orientation system
orientation triad1953
1953 H. Haber Man in Space 155 If all three components of the orientation triad are intact, the human body is fully equipped to reckon with the force of gravity, to keep its balance and to remain properly aligned relative to the vertical.
1962 F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics xii. 475 The center of the body's orientation system is located in the inner ear; the system, however, consists of three elements, often called the orientation triad. The first component is sight, and the second is the system of mechanoreceptors or nerve endings..that are sensitive to pressure. But the vestibular apparatus of the inner ear is the heart of the system since it contains the mechanism that senses acceleration.
1969 M. R. Sharpe Living in Space ii. 51 The labyrinthine apparatus, eyes, and proprioceptor system are often collectively called the orientation triad.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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