principialadj.

1625 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) 215 The Princes..which had the Principiall Letters, of that Word Hempe (which were Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip, Elizabeth).

1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §251 There are Letters, that an Eccho will hardly expresse; as S, for one; Especially being Principiall in a Word.

1699 J. Child Method Relief & Employm. Poor 22 A work that as well becomes a Christian as any: Christianity commending Charity as one of the Principial Vertues.

1885 E. A. Abbott Francis Bacon 391 He shows a true intuition in rejecting the notion of an inherent ‘caloric’ or ‘principial nature’ (naturalem principialem) because he finds Heat generated by friction.

1914 Jrnl. Philos., Psychol. & Sci. Methods 11 55 This matter involves a principial question in philosophy, one which seems never to remain long in abeyance, namely, of philosophical method.

1946 A. Huxley Perennial Philos. viii. 178 The introvert uses ‘discrimination’ (in the Indian phrase), and so learns to distinguish the mental activities of the ego from the principial consciousness of the Self.

1961 S. B. Karmsrisch Indian Sculpture in Philadelphia Museum Art i. 16 Fear and loneliness prompt the Monad, the all encompassing principial Person, to desire a second.

2003 R. A. Muller After Calvin iv. 63 This approach..is consistently grounded in a series of neorthodox theological assumptions concerning revelation, Scripture.., and the principial function of Christ in theology.