physiologizev.
/ˌfɪzɪˈɒlədʒʌɪz/, U.S. /ˌfɪziˈɑləˌdʒaɪz/ 1.
a. intransitive. To inquire into or consider natural causes and phenomena. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > naturalism > inquire into or adopt methods indicated by nature [verb (transitive)]
naturalize1628
physiologize1678
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > ancient Greek philosophy > pre-Socratic schools of philosophy > pre-Socratic philosophy [verb (intransitive)]
physiologize1678
1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe Pref. sig. *2 Divers of the Italicks, and particularly Empedocles, before Democritus, Physiologized Atomically.
1736 N. Bailey et al. Dictionarium Britannicum (ed. 2) Pref. sig. a3v To physiologize, to Study, Discourse or Reason on the Nature of Things.
1963 Classical Q. New Ser. 13 154 A papyrus commentary on Alcman published in 1957 brings us news of a poem in which Alcman ‘physiologized’.
b. transitive. To explain in accordance with physical or natural science. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > [verb (transitive)] > explain in accordance with
physiologize1678
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > branch of knowledge > systematic knowledge, science > make scientific [verb (transitive)] > explain scientifically
expound1375
solve1621
salve1625
to solve a phenomenon1625
to save the appearances1667
physiologize1678
1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. iv. 450 Unless we would rather with Macrobius, Physiologize them all Three, and make Minerva to be the Higher Heaven, Jupiter the Middle Ether, and Juno the Lower Air and Earth, all Animated.
1823 G. S. Faber Treat. Christian Dispensations I. vi. 234 Much the same remark is made by Eusebius on the humour of physiologising the religious system of the Egyptians.
1932 PMLA 47 319 It seems apparent that here again the mysterious behavior of the sun at its setting..has been crudely physiologized.
2. intransitive. To form physiological conclusions or theories; to conduct physiological research. Also transitive: to interpret in physiological terms (in later use chiefly Psychology).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > study > person who studies > [verb (intransitive)] > physiology
physiologize1860
1860 J. R. Green Let. Mar. (1901) 39 [I] have been geologising, archæologising, physiologising, studying bone-caves, old ruins, and stomachs.
1868 R. Owen On Anat. Vertebr. III. 481 The somewhat capricious appearance of the gall-bladder in vegetarian Mammals discourages such attempts to physiologise.
1945 G. Bryson Man & Society i. 18 Monboddo..expressed unremittingly his contempt for the ‘manual philosophers’, as he called the empiricists, and for those who would ‘physiologize’ the mind.
1961 G. Devereux Mohave Ethnopsychiatry & Suicide vii. 290 The fact that death can be triggered off by psychic and/or psychosomatic processes does not justify a psychologizing of physiology any more than the influence of brain lesions or of drugs upon our psychic functioning authorizes us to physiologize psychology.
1983 T. B. Rogers in J. Yuille Imagery, Memory & Cognition xiii. 296 There is no need to physiologize, but there is a need to pay heed to the machine in which the behavior we are studying unfolds.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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