privativeadj.adv.n.
/ˈprʌɪvᵻtɪv/, /prʌɪˈveɪtɪv/, U.S. /ˈpraɪvədɪv/, /praɪˈveɪdɪv/ A. adj.
1.
a. Consisting in or marked by the absence or loss of some quality or attribute that is normally present; (more generally) designating a negative quality or condition.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > loss > taking away > [adjective]
privativea1398
deprivative1727
the world > existence and causation > existence > non-existence > [adjective] > negative
wickeda1300
privativea1398
negative1565
sorrow1568
privant1629
minus1776
impositivec1856
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xix. lii. 1316 The nynþe sauour hatte werischnesse or vnsauerynesse. And þat may be yseyde in tweye wise, pryuatif or posityf. Priuatif is ycleped vnsauery if þe sauour þerof may nought be knowe by þe taste.
1596 T. Morton Treat. Threefolde State of Man ii. 229 It is not sufficient for man..to haue a priuatiue knowledge that God cannot be comprehended of any creature, or resembled to any thing, for this knowledge, is nothing but a confession of ignorance.
1598 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) f. 27 They..bring in against God: a principle negatiue and priuatiue, that is a cause of not being and subsisting.
1644 J. Vicars Jehovah-jireh 185 Remarkable mercies both by Sea and by Land, both privative and positive.
a1659 Z. Bogan in C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David (1870) I. Ps. xxiii. 1 Only privative defects discommend a thing, and not those that are negative.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Quantity Negative, or Privative Quantities are those less than nothing.
1789 J. Bentham Introd. Princ. Morals & Legisl. v. 37 If what is apprehended at the hands of God is barely the not receiving pleasure, the pain is of the privative class.
1805 Monthly Mag. 20 137 As we deprive a body of part or all of its natural share of fluid to produce what is called negative electricity, whether the words privative electricity would not be more proper?
1838 R. W. Emerson Addr. Divinity Coll. 7 Evil is merely privative, not absolute. It is like cold, which is the privation of heat.
1866 T. N. Harper Peace through Truth 309 (note) We mean by it [sc. aversion]..something which is not positive, but privative,—not an act, but a state.
1934 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. Nonpositive, negative or privative.
1990 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 1 Mar. 36/1 Evil here is not to be understood..as a privative notion—that is, as the striking absence of various kinds of good.
b. Philosophy. Of a term: denoting the deprivation or absence of a quality or attribute.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > statement > negation > [adjective] > of terms: denoting privation or absence of
privative1646
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica 152 Although they had neither eyes nor sight, yet could they not be termed blinde; for blindenesse being a privative terme unto sight, this appellation is not admittible in propriety of speech. View more context for this quotation
1656 tr. T. Hobbes Elements Philos. i. ii. 13 The first distinction of Names, is that some are Positive, or Affirmative; others Negative, which are also called Privative and Indefinite.
1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding iii. i. 185 All which negative or privative Words, cannot be said..to..signifie no Ideas..but..relate to positive Ideas, and signifie their absence.
1723 J. Ozell tr. P. Nicole Logic xviii. 306 The privative Terms include the Negation of a Form in a Subject capable of it.
1869 J. S. Mill in J. Mill Anal. Human Mind (new ed.) II. xiv. 99 (note) [It is usual to reserve the term Privative for names which signify not simple absence, but the absence of something usually present, or of which the presence might have been expected.]
1882 W. Ogle tr. Aristotle Parts Anim. 13 Privative terms..which are not available to the dichotomist.
1963 G. H. von Wright Varieties of Goodness iii. 45 ‘Harmful’, unlike ‘useless’, is not a privative term.
1997 G. E. R. Lloyd in M. C. Nussbaum & A. O. Rorty Ess. on Aristotle's De Anima ix. 163 His particular concern is to undermine the use of privative terms as differentiae, and quite how he can rescue his own use of such terms (e.g. bloodless) is itself controversial.
2. Grammar. Expressing negation.Frequently as postmodifier in alpha privative n. (also α privative, A. privative) (in Greek) the prefix α used to express negation.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > other grammatical categories or concepts > [adjective] > expressing negation
negativec1475
privative1568
sublative1751
neg1777
1568 T. Hacket tr. A. Thevet New Found Worlde f. 101v Ther is diuers opinions why they were called Amazones... Others take the Etymologie of this vowell A. priuatiue, and of Maza, that signifieth bread, for they liue not with bread.
1590 W. Hutchinson in H. Barrow & J. Greenwood Coll. Sclaunderous Articles D iv b Know you what α is here, it is α priuatiue.
1633 C. Butler Eng. Gram. iii. §2. 37 Respectives decreasing have like wise two degrees: Diminutive..& Privative [which] decreases it [sc. the signification] altogeðer.
1668 Bp. J. Wilkins Ess. Real Char. iii. vii. 340 The words to which they are affixed are compounded with any Adverb of a Negative or Privative sense.
1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) (at cited word) A Privative Particle in Grammar.
1790 A. Bicknell Grammatical Wreath i. 20 In has generally a negative or privative sense.
1837 G. Phillips Elem. Syriac Gram. 116 The particle..placed before adjectives assigns a privative signification to them.
1846 Proc. Philol. Soc. 2 184 Bopp's theory of the Greek past tenses..being formed by the addition of the particle called α privative.
1903 N.E.D. at Little a., adv., & sb. A. 10b Forming with its sb. a kind of privative combination, with the sense ‘absence or scarcity of’ (what the sb. denotes).
1988 Verbatim Winter 14/1 Since it was a major negator for the Greeks, the alpha privative..is highly productive of words in Greek.
3. Having the quality or power of depriving a person or thing; (Law, of a jurisdiction, clause, etc.) that deprives or excludes others; exclusive. (In quot. a1639: able to prevent something).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > loss > taking away > [adjective] > having quality of taking away
privativea1600
a1600 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie v. App. i. §26 We may add that negative or privative will also, whereby he withholdeth his graces from some, and so is said to cast them asleep whom he maketh not vigilant.
a1639 H. Wotton Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (1651) 186 No one of them had voices enough to exclude the other three from making a Duke: for to this Privative Power are required seventeen Bals at least.
1646 S. Bolton Arraignment of Errour 283 The power of a Synod as I told you, is not privative, but cumulative.
1650 Exercitation conc. Usurped Powers 45 If the thing sworn should become privative of, or opposite to, the publick good.
a1686 in J. Gordon Hist. Sc. Affairs (1841) I. 80 A Christian magistrate, whoise authoritye..they affirmed not to be privative but cumulative.
1699 in J. Lauder Decisions Lords of Council (1761) II. 62 Yet it is not so privative but the lords are also competent thereto.
1752 A. McDouall Inst. Law Scotland iv. ¶27 Jurisdiction is either cumulative, in which prevention takes place, or privative.
1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scotl. 783 A court is said to have privative jurisdiction in a particular class of causes, when it is the only court entitled to adjudicate in such causes.
1875 E. Poste tr. Gaius Institutionum Iuris Civilis (ed. 2) i. Introd. 3 Title..is any fact Collative or Privative of a Right and Impositive or Exonerative of an Obligation.
1927 W. M. Gloag & R. C. Henderson Introd. Law Scotl. 15 In cases which are competent in the Sheriff Court and where the value, exclusive of interest and expenses, does not exceed £50 the jurisdiction of the sheriff is privative.
1992 McGill Law Jrnl. 37 570 In the view of the majority of the Court, section 76 of the SIMA was equivalent to a privative clause.
1994 Ottawa Law Rev. 26 337 He vigorously opposes LaForest J.'s downgrading of the privative effect of the phrase ‘final and binding’.
Negatively. Obsolete. rare.
ΚΠ
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 311v Positif he may nouȝt be knowe, but..he be primatiue [read priuatiue; L. priuatiue], by many maner abnegacioun, descriued and I-nempned in scripturis and writinges.
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 311b/b Fumosite þat comeþ of stoone þat declareþ nouȝt þe complexioun of positif and by presence of odoure, but priuatyf and by absence of odour [L. non positiue, sed per priuationem et absentiam] it scheweþ þat stoon haþ þikke substaunce and colde.
C. n.
A privative attribute, quality, or proposition; a word or particle which denotes or expresses negation.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > logical proposition > [noun] > attribute > privation or privative attribute
privationa1398
privative1584
1584 D. Fenner Artes of Logike & Rethorike To Rdr. sig. A3v Priuatiues..are contraries, whereof one is naturally in the subiect as the habite, and the other driueth out or depriueth it of the habite.
1588 A. Fraunce Lawiers Logike i. xi. f. 49v Priuatiues they call those whereof one denieth onely in that subiect where~vnto the affirmatiue agreeth by nature.
a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1956) VIII. 144 Man hath more privatives, then positives in him.
1680 J. Oldham in Earl of Rochester et al. Poems 125 In them, Sin is but a meer privative of good, The frailty and defect, of Flesh, and Blood.
1697 tr. F. Burgersdijck Monitio Logica ii. xviii. 83 Of Privatives, The one must of Necessity be in the Capacious Subject, the other not. As, He is blind; and therefore does not see.
1733 J. Leake Scholar's Man. 231 By rating Positives by their Privatives, and other Arts of Reason,..we may collect the Excellency of the Understanding.
1776 G. Hadley Introd. Grammatical Remarks Persian Lang. 121 The privatives be, without; na, not [etc.].
1864 F. C. Bowen Treat. Logic vi. 152 One is merely the Contradictory or the privative of the other.
1895 N.E.D. at De- prefix In French the prefix des-, dé-, has received an ever increasing extension as a privative freely prefixed to verbs.
1923 C. B. Delisle Contact between Minds vi. 105 These privatives imply not merely that there is not community in this case but that there could be and is not.
1993 New Republic 8 Mar. 36/1 He is in love with negatives, privatives, the empty and erased.
Derivatives
ˈprivativeness n.
ΚΠ
1660 T. Pierce Impartial Inq. Nature Sin App. 186 For why should the privativeness of sin be fittest to reconcile Gods purity and omnipotence?
1682 H. More Annot. Disc. Truth 211 in Two Choice & Useful Treat. Indiscerpibility..of an Atom..from imperfection and privativeness.
1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II Privativeness, depriving Quality, or Faculty of taking away.
1963 Jrnl. Philos. 60 532 There is no difference in the logical status of univocity, synonymy, privativeness, or any other semantic relation between expressions.
1989 Language 65 279 The explanatory residue of Radical Underspecification is now subsumed under privativeness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.adv.n.a1398