progressionn.
/prəˈɡrɛʃn/, U.S. /prəˈɡrɛʃ(ə)n/, /proʊˈɡrɛʃ(ə)n/ 1. Continuous action conceived or presented as onward movement through time; progress or advancement through a period, process, sequence of events, etc.; movement towards an outcome or goal; (also) such a process; a course (of action, time, life, etc.); a proceeding or process.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > birth > [noun]
birdeOE
birtha1200
i-borenessc1225
bearingc1275
nativityc1375
progressionc1385
gettingc1480
natality1483
naissance1490
falling1533–4
nascence1570
natitial1612
progermination1648
happy event1737
engendure1821
arrival1830
birthhood1867
interesting event1899
the world > action or operation > continuing > progress, advance, or further continuance > [noun]
progressionc1385
proceeding?c1425
progressc1443
proceedc1450
procession1585
gate1604
procedure1640
foreholda1642
process1642
promotion1649
sailing1827
sledding1839
on-go1870
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going or coming out > [noun] > from a source
progressionc1385
progressc1530
process1537
emanation1570
the world > time > [noun] > course or passage of time
process1357
concoursec1400
coursec1460
successionc1485
passing-by1523
by-passing1526
slacka1533
continuancea1552
race1565
prolapse1585
current1587
decurse1593
passage1596
drifting1610
flux1612
effluxion1621
transcursion1622
decursion1629
devolution1629
progression1646
efflux1647
preterition1647
processus1648
decurrence1659
progress1664
fluxation1710
elapsing1720
currency1726
lapse1758
elapse1793
time-lapse1864
wearing1876
c1385 G. Chaucer Knight's Tale 3013 Speces of thynges and progressiouns [v.rr. progressiones, progressiounnys] Shullen enduren by successiouns.
?a1425 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. iv. pr. vi. 166 The ordre of moevable destyne..neweth ayein alle thinges growynge and fallynge adoun, by semblable progressions [gloss, issu; L. progressus] of sedes and of sexes.
c1450 ( J. Walton tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Linc. Cathedral 103) 175 Of þinges skars... Nature ne took noght hire produccioun Bot of a hoole, complet..And so fro þennes made progressioun [L. procedens] Vnto þise lowere þinges.
1586 A. Day Eng. Secretorie i. sig. F1v The originall, progression, continuation and determination of his moste wicked and shamelesse life.
1599 J. Davies Nosce Teipsum 64 That launching and progression of the mind, Which all men haue.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica 226 All Starres that have their distance from the Ecliptick Northward not more then 23 degrees and an half..may in progression of time have declination Southward. View more context for this quotation
c1698 J. Locke Thoughts on Conduct of Understanding §20 The long Progression of the Thoughts to remote and first Principles.
1775 S. Johnson Taxation no Tyranny 5 Having..obtained by the slow progression of manual industry the accommodations of life.
1789 T. Jefferson Let. 15 Mar. in Papers (1958) XIV. 660 They are in constant progression from bad to worse.
1817 S. T. Coleridge Biogr. Lit. 220 An eddying instead of progression of thought.
1882 R. L. Stevenson Thoreau in Familiar Stud. Men & Bks. iii There is a progression—I cannot call it a progress—in his work toward a more and more strictly prosaic level.
1927 W. S. Churchill in Observer 23 Jan. 11/3 A continued progression to the Left, a sort of inevitable landslide into the abyss, is the characteristic of all revolutions.
1994 Singapore Med. Jrnl. 35 367 Hard contact lenses..have been studied both to arrest the progression of myopia in the young and reduce existing myopia.
2. † a. A journey (cf. progress n. 6). Obsolete.† c. A propelling or moving of something. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > [noun]
yongc950
gangOE
goinga1250
walka1300
journeyingc1330
travela1400
progressionc1450
wayfarec1450
travelling1489
wayfaring1536
gate-going?1555
thorough-faring?1575
faring1594
fidging1604
voyaging1611
voyage1626
winning1651
locomotion1759
itinerating1770
passing1821
trekking1850
trooping1888
society > travel > aspects of travel > a journey > [noun]
forec900
wayOE
farec1000
sitheOE
gangOE
journey?c1225
gatea1300
pilgrimagec1300
voyage1338
wending1340
raik?c1350
turna1400
repairc1425
went1430
reisea1450
progressionc1450
progressa1460
race1513
peregrination1548
travel1559
passance1580
dogtrot1856
trek1895
ulendo1921
c1450 J. Capgrave Life St. Katherine (Arun. 396) (1893) iii. 280 (MED) Vndyr your wenge and youre proteccyon, May be this viage and this progression.
1548 Hall's Vnion: Richard III f. liij There happened in this progression to the Earle of Richmond a straunge chaunce.
1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VII f. xlijv When they were with their long and tedyous iourney weried and tyred, and..fell to repentaunce of their mad commocion and frantike progression, then he woulde..circumuent & enuyron theim.
b. Onward motion in space; travelling, locomotion; movement forward, advance; an instance of this. Cf. progress n. 6b, 6c.In quot. a1460: a military advance; a sally.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > progressive motion > [noun]
goinga1250
passagec1300
passingc1350
progressiona1460
local motion1551
progress1564
pass1602
traverse1663
locomoving1704
roll1827
onwards1943
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > forward movement > [noun]
forthgangc900
racea1400
processa1450
remuea1450
profectiona1538
procession1585
advance1593
nod1597
progressa1599
riddance1598
run1626
advancement1637
incession1651
progression1651–3
march1683
progrediency1701
waygate1825
a1460 Knyghthode & Bataile (Pembr. Cambr. 243) 1127 (MED) Beseged if me be, progressioun That ther be noon..ful careful thin alarm is!
1474 W. Caxton tr. Game & Playe of Chesse (1883) iv. vi. 177 (heading) Of the yssue of the rooks and of her progression.
1538 D. Lindsay Complaynte & Test. Popiniay sig. Eij Than paciently she made progression Toward the nunnes with herte syghyng full sore.
1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iv. ii. 138 A letter..which accidentally, or by the way of progression, hath miscarried. View more context for this quotation
1651–3 Bp. J. Taylor Serm. for Year (1678) 54 Still the Flood [tide] crept by little steppings, and invaded more by his progressions than he lost by his retreat.
1686 J. Goad Astro-meteorologica iii. i. 366 I observ'd it [sc. mist] making a creeping Progression in the Valleys.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth VII. viii. 182 The manner of progression in the swiftest serpent we know..is by instantly coiling itself upon its tail, and darting from thence to its full extent.
1817 T. L. Peacock Melincourt I. v. 51 Sir Oran's mode of progression being very vacillating, indirect, and titubant.
1883 Cent. Mag. 26 925 This mode of progression requires some muscular exertion.
a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. xx. 541 The fusion of this [sc. a syn-sacrum] with the entire length of the iliac portion of the pelvic girdle, must be interpreted in adaptation to bipedal progression.
1999 Richmond (Va.) Times Dispatch (Nexis) 30 May j 1 Its [sc. the lighthouse's] slow progression along the rails to the new site will offer a once-in-a-lifetime view.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > forward movement > [noun] > causing to move forward
progression1678
move-on1908
1678 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises I. v. 95 The longer to continue his several Progressions of the Saw.
3. Mathematics. A sequence of quantities between successive terms of which there is some constant relationship; arrangement in such a series. Chiefly with distinguishing adjective.arithmetic, geometrical, harmonic progression: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > numerical arrangement > [noun] > set > sequence > progression
progressionc1450
arithmetical progression1553
geometrical progression1557
geometric progression1696
geometric ratio1736
arithmetical ratio1798
geometrical ratio1798
arithmetic progression1886
harmonic series1964
c1450 Art Nombryng in R. Steele Earliest Arithm. in Eng. (1922) 45 Of progressioun one is naturelle or contynuelle, þat oþer broken and discontynuelle.
1573 Record's Ground of Arts (rev. ed.) i. i. sig. O.ijv Arithmeticall progression is a rehearsing..of many numbers..in suche sorte, that betweene euery two next numbres..ye difference..be equall.
1692 J. Washington tr. J. Milton Def. People Eng. vii. 168 Do you not understand Progression in Arithmetick?
1763 W. Emerson Method of Increments 74 A series of quantities, whose construction and progression is known.
1884 B. Bosanquet et al. tr. H. Lotze Metaphysic 455 Where the intensity of a sensation increases by equal differences, that is, in arithmetical progression, it implies in the strength of the stimulus an increase in geometrical progression.
1922 T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. xxxi. 535 These atomic numbers have a definite experimental basis, depending on a regular progression which has been discovered in the frequency of the radiation.
1972 M. Kline Math. Thought xiii. 257 The logarithms increase in arithmetic progression while the numbers (sine values) decrease in geometric progression.
2001 Math. Mag. 74 397 (title) A special case of Dirichlet's theorem on primes in an arithmetic progression.
4. The action of passing successively from each item or term of a series to the next; succession; (also) an instance of this; a series, a sequence. in (also † by) progression: in succession, one after another, gradually.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > [noun]
successionc1405
progression1483
discourse1541
consequency1548
array1576
consequence1597
sequence1597
concatenation1614
catenation1641
pursuance1645
consecution1651
successivenessa1676
sequentialism1848
successivity1866
sequentiality1883
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > in order, sequence, or succession [phrase]
a-row?c1225
by rowc1230
on (also upon) a rowc1300
by and by1330
in a rowc1330
on rowc1330
in routc1390
in successionc1449
by succession(s)?a1475
in sequencea1575
in (also by) progression1660
member by member1726
in file1744
1483 W. Caxton tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende f. xxivv/1 They durste not auaunce them to fore the dyuyne progression.
c1536 J. Bellenden tr. H. Boece Hist. & Chron. Scotl. (1821) I. 6 Of this Hiber discendit, be lang progressioun, ane gret posterite.
c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) vi. 37 Be progressione and ordur euyrie spere inclosis the spere that is nerest tyl it.
1591 E. Spenser Prosopopoia in Complaints sig. O4 What else then did he by progression, But mocke high God himselfe, whom they professe?
1660 F. Brooke tr. V. Le Blanc World Surveyed 397 The Brasilians are said originally to have come..from Peru, advancing thither by progression from time to time.
1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding ii. xxviii. 167 Of the bulk of the Body, to be thus infinitely divided after certain Progressions,..we have no clear..Ideas.
1739 D. Hume Treat. Human Nature II. iii. 275 A gradual progression thro' the points of space and time.
1774 J. Beattie Minstrel: 2nd Bk. xlvi. 24 The laws..Whose long progression leads to Deity.
1844 R. Southey Life A. Bell I. 175 The experiment which..had been tried..with one class, was..extended to all the others in progression.
1899 E. J. Payne Hist. New World II. 201 This multiplication of elements denoting personality, in combination with more and more elements denoting Things, tends to the dissolution of the holophrase... The holophrase naturally follows the progression of the mind from point to point.
1909 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 20 4 A progression of stimulus intensities such that the differences of corresponding sensation between any consecutive pairs are equal to one another.
1958 W. E. Swinton Fossil Amphibians & Reptiles (ed. 2) ii. 6 Nearly all amphibians and most reptiles used all four limbs in progression, but many important reptiles were bipedal.
1992 European Travel & Life Apr. 91/1 A vista that unfolds in a progression of castles, ruins, and vineyards as seemingly endless as the Rhine itself.
5. † b. month of progression n. Astronomy Obsolete the interval between successive conjunctions of the moon and the sun.
a. Astronomy. Direct or prograde motion, esp. of a planet (cf. progressive adj. 1a). Opposed to retrogradation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > planet > planetary movement > [noun] > direct motion
progression1556
profection1650
direction1658
consequence1771
1556 R. Record Castle of Knowl. 279 The progression, retrogradation, and station of the Planetes.
1768 Philos. Trans. 1767 (Royal Soc.) 57 182 The whole progression of the moon's apogee..is ascribed to the sun's disturbance of the moon's gravitation to the earth.
1812 R. Woodhouse Elem. Treat. Astron. xix. 207 Progression is here..used technically: a motion in consequentia, or, according to the order of the signs.
1999 D. Sobel Galileo's Daughter (2000) vi. 64 The Ptolemaic system granted the Sun two motions. One of these, a slow annual progression from west to east, belonged strictly to the Sun itself.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > period > a month or calendar month > [noun] > lunar month
monthOE
lunation1398
moon1487
month of consecution in Astr1561
lunar month1594
lunary month1602
periodical month1603
month of progression1615
synodic month1669
1615 H. Crooke Μικροκοσμογραϕια 336 The moneth of Progression he calleth that space which commeth betweene one coniunction of the Moone with the Sunne and another, and it conteyneth nine and twenty dayes and a halfe.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica iv. xii. 212 The month of Consecution, or as some will terme it, of Progression, is the space between one Conjunction of the Moon with the Sun unto another. View more context for this quotation
c. Astrology. The movement of a planet beginning on the day of a person's birth, used as a means of making predictions about the person, usually with one day of planetary movement taken as equivalent to one year of life; a depiction of this.
ΚΠ
1938 E. Lyndoe Compl. Pract. Astrol. xii. 227 The name for a chart..called a Progressed Chart, or just a ‘progression’.
1974 A. Lurie War between Tates (1977) v. 117 Those Mercury and Venus progressions never act much on me.
1982 C. Rose Astrol. Counselling viii. 104 Whereas a progression is the movement of a planet during the course of life.., a transit is the passage of a planet in the heavens at the current time over a planetary position at birth.
1987 N. Campion Pract. Astrologer (1993) xii. 104/2 There are about 20 different types of progression although only a few are in common use.
6. The process of advancing to a further or higher stage, or to further or higher stages successively; development, advancement; improvement; an instance of this (cf. progress n. 2).
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > prosperity > advancement or progress > [noun]
growingc1380
profitingc1384
increasec1385
bettering?c1425
progress1457
advancementc1475
service1533
progression1586
increment1609
upgrowinga1618
flowering1629
rise1676
development1756
evolution1796
march1818
headway1832
upgrowth1844
upbuilding1876
the world > action or operation > continuing > progress, advance, or further continuance > [noun] > to a further or higher stage
profitingc1384
progress1457
progression1586
movement1866
1586 A. Day Eng. Secretorie i. sig. E5v His..knowledge in the latine toong, was so perfect, his progression in the greek so excellent.
a1640 P. Massinger Beleeue as you List (1976) ii. ii. 95 I must..take..the boldnesse to reprehende your slowe progression in doeinge her greatnesse right.
1676 A. Sammes Britannia Antiqua Illustrata 10 Having premised thus much concerning the general increase of Man-kind, the slow progression of Nations, and the advantage those People had that lay upon the Midland-Sea.
a1713 T. Ellwood Hist. Life (1714) 133 Having inquired divers things of me, with respect to my former Progression in Learning.
1792 T. Paine Rights of Man: Pt. Second v. 150 When wages are fixed by what is called a law, the legal wages remain stationary, while everything else is in progression.
1829 I. Taylor Nat. Hist. Enthusiasm viii. 184 The progression of decay and perversion has been gradually and distinctly contemplated.
1877 A. B. Edwards Thousand Miles up Nile v. 105 To trace the progression and retrogression of the arts from the Pyramid-builders to the Cæsars.
1908 Man. Physical Training (H.M.S.O.) viii. 185 Progression should be obtained by gradually raising the height of the pommel horse till it is somewhat higher than the average troop horse.
1937 J. P. Marquand Late George Apley vii. 82 They show a normal progression from boyhood to manhood.
2004 Times Lit. Suppl. 30 Apr. 31/4 A winningly self-deprecating account of his life as an actor, tracing his progression from a teenager infatuated with Gilbert and Sullivan to a RADA-trained actor.
7. Music. Movement from one note to another in a melody, or from one chord or key to another; a succession of chords or harmonies; a melodic sequence of notes considered in relation to their underlying harmonies.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > melody or succession of sounds > [noun] > melodic progression
progression1609
movement1683
succession1737
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > harmony or sounds in combination > [noun] > movement of parts
progression1609
1609 J. Dowland tr. A. Ornithoparchus Micrologus 29 An authenticall progression [L. progressio], is the ascending beyond the Finall Key to an eight, and a tenth.
1694 W. Holder Treat. Harmony vi. 125 Degrees, are uncompounded Intervals,..by which an immediate Ascent or Descent is made from the Unison to the Octave..; and by the same progression to as many Octaves as there may be Occasion.
1721 A. Malcolm Treat. Musick xiii. 441 Under the Term of Modulation may be comprehended the regular Progression of the several Parts thro' the Sounds that are in the Harmony of any particular Key.
1752 C. Avison Ess. Musical Expression 67 By a Diversity of Harmonies, the Chain and Progression of Melodies is also finely supported.
1786 T. Busby Compl. Dict. Music at Moto contrario An expression applied to that progression of the different harmonic parts of a composition by which they move in opposite directions.
1807 T. Young Course Lect. Nat. Philos. I. xxxiii. 393 We may continue the modulation or progression, until every note of the scale becomes in succession a key note.
1877 J. Stainer Harmony v. §69 In harmonising such a progression as the following [etc.].
1889 E. Prout Harmony iv. §102 Such progressions are called ‘hidden’ octaves or fifths.
1927 Observer 2 Oct. 14/4 The work was well chosen to follow the Schubert Quintet, for in its trio there is the germ from which sprang what is now recognised as a truly Schubertian progression.
1995 City Paper (Baltimore) 31 May 41/3 At her last Meyerhoff gig Colvin launched into a medley of songs that share the same chord progression.
8. Linguistics. The process of sound change in a language; an instance of this. Now rare except as merged with general sense at 4.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > sound changes > [noun] > advance in sound development
progression1851
1851 Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. 2 251 We see here regular vowel-progression from the broad open a to th closer e.
1877 F. A. March Compar. Gram. Anglo-Saxon Lang. 27 The first lengthening of i and u by progression is called guna.
1916 N.E.D. at Turquoise Old French and Anglo-Norman turkeis..by vowel-progression became turkē·se.
1933 Language 9 24 One..finds..the phonetic progression: *pōclĭlŏm > pōcĭllum.
9. Physics. A series of regularly spaced lines or bands in a spectrum which arise from transitions to or from a series of energy levels with consecutive quantum numbers.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > atomic physics > decomposition of light, spectrum > [noun] > lines reflecting energy levels
progression1926
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > light > chromatism > [noun] > spectrum > band or line forming part of > specific line or lines
absorption line1861
triplet1879
furnace line1911
singlet1920
progression1926
1926 Physical Rev. 28 638 In other words we suppose that the absorption bands whose stimulation is associated with these series all belong to a single n′ progression.
1949 P. Pringsheim Fluorescence & Phosphorescence ii. 136 If all excited molecules of a vapor are in one definite vibrational level v′ of an electronic state T′, they can return from there to all existing levels v″ of the ground state and thus produce an emission spectrum in which the lines corresponding to v″ = 0, 1, 2..form a regular ‘progression’.
1976 Chem. Physics Lett. 41 289/2 The Raman spectrum is completely dominated by an intense band at 316 cm−1 and its associated overtone progression.
2006 Dyes & Pigments 70 228/2 The solution spectrum exhibits a typical progression of absorption bands starting from 525 nm with a spacing about 1400 cm−1.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2007; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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