quantitativeadj.n.
/ˈkwɒntᵻtətɪv/, /ˈkwɒntᵻteɪtɪv/, U.S. /ˈˌkwɑn(t)əˈˌteɪdɪv/ A. adj.
1.
a. Chiefly Philosophy and Theology. Possessing physical quantity or spatial extension.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > materiality > [adjective] > having physical dimensions
quantitativea1513
dimensioned1533
quantitied1606
quantative1644
a1513 J. Irland Meroure of Wyssdome (1990) III. 34 Þocht the body of ihesu in hevin occupy a place quantitatiue localiter & commensuratiue it occupyis nocht a place that maner in the sacrament.
1581 J. Marbeck Bk. Notes & Common Places 40 [Angels occupy] no bodilie place, no severall nor quantitative place.
1596 T. Bell Suruey Popery ii. vi. 170 To haue parts without parts and to occupie place, is of the formall and intrinsecall conceit of euery organicall and quantitatiue bodie.
1612 E. Coffin in R. Parsons Discuss. Answere William Barlow Pref. sig. g4 v A whole that is deuided into his quantitatiue parts, as a whole line, or a whole body.
1634 T. Jackson Knowledg of Christ Jesus vii. xxvi. §5 The world in the original doth not signify this visible or quantitative world.
1697 J. Sergeant Solid Philos. 22 The Body, only which (and not the Soul) is Quantitative.
1754 Observ. Essay. Spirit 7 That Man is formally a Body, is proved by his being quantitative and alterable by corporeal Qualities.
1867 G. H. Lewes Hist. Philos. (ed. 3) II. 481 The fact that we discover quantitative space and time.
1908 Jrnl. Philos., Psychol. & Sci. Methods 5 710 There is in him [sc. God] no composition of quantitative parts, because he is not a body.
1950 Bull. School Oriental & Afr. Stud. 13 561 Aquinas agrees fully with Shahrastānī that no quantitative body, no potential or contingent trait can be predicated of God.
2003 I. C. Levy John Wyclif vi. 289 The quantitative parts of Christ's body possess a spiritual existence in the host.
b. That is, or may be, measured or assessed with respect to or on the basis of quantity; that may be expressed in terms of quantity; quantifiable.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > [adjective] > having or considered with respect to quantity
quantified?1591
quantitative1610
quantitive1626
quantative1644
1610 J. Healey tr. J. L. Vives in tr. St. Augustine Citie of God xi. xxx. 434 The least quantitatiue part, nameth the number, as the twelfth of twelue: the twentith in twentie, and that is alwayes an vnite. This kinde of part we call an aliquote.
1656 Disc. Auxiliary Beauty 44 This Quantitative Adultery, which..makes far more grosse alterations, & substantiall changes of nature.
1661 J. Glanvill Vanity of Dogmatizing 221 The colour of mens eyes is various, nor is there less diversity in their quantitative proportions.
1850 W. R. Grove On Correlation Physical Forces (ed. 2) 80 An invariable quantitative relation to..each other.
1858 J. Martineau Stud. Christianity 160 Not as its quantitative equal..but as a moral equivalent.
1879 F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul I. i. iv. 65 The enormous error that man..can win by quantitative goodness his entrance into the kingdom of God.
1934 A. Toynbee Study of Hist. II. 43 The Chalcidians' response to the Euboean challenge was quantitative.
1964 N. G. Clark Mod. Org. Chem. xi. 204 On careful combustion there remains a quantitative residue of metallic silver.
2000 H. Schachter in M. Fukuda & O. Hindsgaul Molecular & Cellular Glycobiol. iv. 141 There are quantitative differences in tissue expression.
2. Relating to or concerned with quantity or its measurement; that assesses or expresses quantity. In later use frequently contrasted with qualitative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > [adjective]
quantitative1625
quant1879
1625 W. Guild Ignis Fatuus 56 One [sin] may be greater then another, according to the extent or quantitatiue measure: as to kill three, is a greater offence then to kill one.
1668 Bp. J. Wilkins Ess. Real Char. iii. vii. 325 Relative and Quantitative Pronouns.
1705 E. Scarburgh Eng. Euclide 178 It is to be understood relatively, in order to such a quantitative Valuation of Magnitude, as where the Quantity of one Magnitude is comparatively to be estimated by an other.
1830 J. F. W. Herschel Prelim. Disc. Study Nat. Philos. 123 It is a character of all the higher laws of nature to assume the form of precise quantitative statement.
1852 De Bow's Rev. May 539 I made some experiments upon the ash... The results of a qualitative and quantitative determination of this ash, were read by Prof. Norton.
1858 ‘G. Eliot’ Janet's Repentance xxii, in Scenes Clerical Life II. 303 Emotion, I fear, is obstinately irrational: it insists on caring for individuals; it absolutely refuses to adopt the quantitative view of human anguish.
1901 M. Foster Lect. Hist. Physiol. 250 He made a careful quantitative estimation of the quantity of oxygen.
1953 Times 31 Oct. 5/6 Further concrete steps can be taken to remove quantitative restrictions on trade.
1967 Jrnl. Pediatrics 70 391 The modern preference for ‘quantitative proof’ over ‘mere (qualitative) clinical experience’ is not easily satisfied when the number of patients is small.
2005 Austral. Financial Rev. (Sydney) 18 Jan. 18/1 The investment bank's head of quantitative research..says the numbers do not back up the sentiment that has buoyed stock prices.
3. Relating to, concerned with, or based on vowel length. Also in Prosody: (of metre, etc.) based on syllable length rather than the placing of stress. Cf. quantity n. 8b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > vowel > [adjective] > duration of time needed for pronunciation of
quantitative1798
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > versification > rhythm > [adjective] > quantitative
temporal1678
quantitative1798
1798 J. Walker Key to Classical Pronunc. p. xxi Let the written accent be placed where it will, the quantitative accent, as it may be called, follows the analogy of the Latin.
1839 J. W. Donaldson New Cratylus iv. iv. 522 In the German [conjugation], the connecting vowel never admits any quantitative modification.
1871 Trans. Amer. Philol. Assoc. 1869–70 8 The old quantitative verses..continued to be written, as a kind of literary exercise, long after the pronunciation on which they were founded had ceased to be heard.
1874 A. J. Ellis (title) Practical hints on the quantitative pronunciation of Latin.
1923 Internat. Jrnl. Amer. Linguistics 2 155/2 The quantitative peculiarities of the Nadene languages are in striking contrast to those of the neighboring languages.
1978 Language 54 441 Thus the order of the rules required by this analysis is Pre-German Accentuation followed by Quantitative Ablaut followed by Germanic Accentuation.
1992 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 25 June 44/1 Spenser very soon gave up quantitative verse and got on with his ‘Gothic rhyming’.
4. Chemistry. Of a procedure or a reaction: acting on the whole quantity of a particular substance or species; having an efficiency or a yield of 100 per cent. Hence: designating the yield or product of such a process.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > [adjective] > of or relating to chemical reactions (general) > of or relating to quantitative reactions
quantitative1831
1831 J. Griffin tr. H. Rose Man. Analytic Chem. ii. 3 Processes are introduced, which have for object the quantitative separation of soda and potash [Ger. Methoden.., nach welchen dasselbe vom Kali quantitativ getrennt wird].
1879 Proc. Royal Soc. 29 182 We had next to select a method for the quantitative separation of nickel from cobalt.
1907 Chem. Abstr. 1 1539 The yield is almost quantitative and the product very pure.
1930 W. T. Hall Textbk. Quantitative Analysis xi. 140 For practical purposes, a reaction is complete or quantitative, as we often say, when less than 0·1 mg. remains in solution.
1962 F. A. Cotton & G. Wilkinson Adv. Inorg. Chem. x. 194 Diborane..is obtained in essentially quantitative yields by reaction of metal hydrides with boron trifluoride.
1988 Nature 6 Oct. 561 (caption) The total lanes contain RNA from a full aliquot of the reaction; therefore the reconstitution is quantitative.
B. n.
1. A thing which has (measurable) quantity or extent; a quantifiable thing. rare.
ΚΠ
1656 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. II. viii. 38 They [sc. the Stoics] reduce quantitatives and quantity, and their species, place, time, and some species (according to Aristotle) of quality, figure and form.
a1728 T. Weston tr. Galileo Math. Disc. (1730) 60 We may very reasonably conclude, that the most minute Particles of Water of which it seems to be resolved..are vastly different from the most minute Quantitatives and Divisibles.
1966 Charleston (W. Va.) Gaz. 10 Jan. 9/2 Until a year or two ago, all indices were quantitatives. How many tons of steel could be produced, how many tractors?
2. A word, expression, etc., which indicates quantity. Cf. quantifier n. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > [noun] > sign that indicates quantity
quantitative1668
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > a part of speech > determiner > [noun] > quantifier
quantifier1924
quantitative1924
1668 Bp. J. Wilkins Ess. Real Char. iii. ii. 305 Of all which [sc. pronouns] it is to be observed, that they are in some kind or other, Quantitatives.
1857 W. C. Fowler Eng. Gram. (rev. ed.) iv. iii. 273 The indefinite numerals and quantitatives form antitheses; as, Many opposed to few; [etc.].
1924 H. E. Palmer Gram. Spoken Eng. 45 Quantitatives and Numericals (mʌtʃ), (meni), (faiv).., etc.
1994 S. Chalker & E. Weiner Oxf. Dict. Eng. Gram. 329 Quantitative, (a word) belonging to a class consisting of (indefinite) quantifiers (e.g. few, several, etc.), definite cardinal numbers,..and measurement terms such as a couple of, half, etc.
3. With the. That which can be described in terms of, or involves, quantity.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > [noun] > that which possesses quantity
quantitative1846
1846 E. J. Sabine tr. A. von Humboldt Cosmos I. 179 An effort..to investigate the quantitative in the laws of one of the great phænomena of nature.
1934 Discovery Feb. 31/2 This conversion of the quantitative into the qualitative..is stressed by dialectical materialists today.
1977 Early Amer. Lit. 12 17 An Oxford-trained mathematician's sense of the quantitative combined with the intellectual's zest for arguing and mastery of forensic rhetoric.
1989 W. Weaver tr. U. Eco Foucault's Pendulum ii. 15 The counting machines..proclaimed the triumph of the quantitative but in truth pointed to the occult qualities of numbers.
Derivatives
ˈquantitativeness n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > measurement > [noun] > ability to be measured
mensurability1678
measurability1696
measurableness1697
quantitativeness1858
1858 H. Spencer Ess. 1st Ser. 225 The more specific characteristic of scientific previsions..their quantitativeness.
1914 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 77 875 Mr. Lennard..deals very thoroughly with the proposal... There is inevitably a lack of quantitativeness in the treatment.
2000 J. Klein Corporate Failure by Design 274 Due to their quantitativeness and clear referents, financial ratios appear to represent the very soul of objectivity.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2007; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.n.a1513