retroactiveadj.

Brit.

/ˌrɛtrəʊˈaktɪv/, U.S.

/ˌrɛtroʊˈæktɪv/

Forms: 1600s retroactiue, 1600s– retroactive.

Origin: Formed within English, by derivation; modelled on a French lexical item. Etymons: retro- prefix, active adj.

Etymology: < retro- prefix + active adj., after French rétroactif (1510 in Middle French; 1887 in sense 4, G. Gilles de la Tourette L’Hypnotisme et les états analogues i. iv. 145). Compare also post-classical Latin retroactivus far back into the past (1425), and Spanish retroactivo (early 19th cent.), Portuguese retroactivo (early 19th cent.), Italian retroattivo (1798). Compare retroaction n. and later retroact v. N.E.D. (1908) also gives the pronunciation (rītro-) /riːtrəʊ-/ for the first element.

1. Having an effect or impact in a backward direction; moving or driving back.

ΘΚΠ

the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > backward movement > [adjective] > causing backwards movement

retractivec1484

retroactive1611

retropulsive1790

society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > types of machine generally > [adjective] > operating backwards

retroactive1706

retrograde1797

back-action1845

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Retroactif, retroactiue, casting, driuing, relating, backward.

1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Retroactive (Lat. in Philos.), driving back; as A retroactive Motion.

1780 P. Degravers Compl. Treat. Human Eye 166 At the time of a quick pressure..this fluid is dispersed and unable to produce a retro-active effect, for want of being inclosed in the cellulary spaces.

1867 London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 4th Ser. 34 138 In opening a bottle of soda-water there is generally a waste of liquid at the moment the cork flies out, in consequence of the retroactive motion of the bottle.

1918 C. F. Horne & A. R. Keller Hist. German People (ed. 2) XV. viii. 275 There were at the beginning of the twentieth century about 50,000 persons born in Germany; their number probably was less at the outbreak of the great war, as it showed a retroactive movement even in the decade preceding.

1973 B. N. Malzberg in New Dimensions No. 3. 121 Gravitational forces would bring it at drift..to within a five-mile radius at which point retroactive devices would fire, enabling a soft landing.

1992 J. B. Sellers Death of Gods Anc. Egypt vii. xxxiv. 314 If the retroactive movement of the sky was indeed noticed, it would be Seth who was most apt to be held responsible.

a. Retrospective; spec. (of a regulation, enactment, etc.) extending in scope or effect to matters or actions which have occurred in the past. In predicative use frequently with to and a date.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > the past > [adjective] > operating retrospectively

retroactive1611

retrospect1709

ex post facto1789

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Retroactif, retroactiue, casting, driuing, relating, backward.

1668 Persec. Ref. Ch. in France 11 They have given it a Retroactive Power (as they call it) by putting it in Execution against persons who returned to us a long time before the Declaration was in being.

a1751 Visct. Bolingbroke Wks. (1754) V. 296 As the death of Christ had a retroactive effect on those that lived and died before they were redeemed.

1794 Earl of Malmesbury Diaries & Corr. III. 60 I objected to the date to be fixed to the Treaty, particularly if in addition to the giving it this retro-active force, an advance..was to be required.

1811 W. R. Spencer Poems 131 Must I, for follies past assess'd By retro-active laws be fin'd?

1847 R. W. Hamilton Rewards & Punishm. (1853) v. 215 The resurrection of Christ..is represented as possessing a retroactive influence.

1919 Railway Carmen's Jrnl. Jan. 1001/1 The view was adopted at that time [that]..these provisions ought not to be made retroactive to January 1, 1918.

1972 Changing Times July 4/2 The excise tax repeal was retroactive to August 16, so better check..to see whether you are due a refund.

2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 23 Jan. iv. 5/2 The goal of ending tyranny is available as a retroactive rationale for the war in Iraq.

b. Directed backwards in time.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > the past > [adjective] > going backward in time

upward1604

retroactive1822

1822 Blackwood's Mag. 11 165 We may say century, without stretching our retroactive foresight to any extraordinary degree.

1913 Commerc. Telegraphers Jrnl. Dec. 389/1 A retroactive glance over the year's work shows that we are making real and steady progress.

2008 J. Roy in G. D. Garson & M. Khosrow-Pour Publ. Information Technol. II. v. lxi. 683/1 An external review commission..could be cast as a retroactive look at the previous government's failures.

†3. Reactive; reciprocal. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > [adjective] > operating or acting in return

responsive1657

reacting1666

responding1670

reactive1717

respondent1726

retroactive1799

reactional1839

1799 J. West Tale of Times II. 264 The odium with which you bespatter a neighbour's reputation has a retroactive effect in furbishing your own.

1800 J. Duthy Observ. Present High Price Provisions 15 The increased demand for animal food has also a retro-active operation, and contributes to..enhance the price of barley, oats, and hay, and every other sort of food for cattle.

1802 T. Beddoes Hygëia I. ii. 68 The total abstraction of the mind from all regard to the retroactive tendency of conduct.

4. Psychology. Affecting or relating to memory of what has been learned or experienced; (also) designating material previously learned. See retroactive inhibition n., retroactive interference n. at Compounds. Cf. proactive adj. 1.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > acquisition of knowledge > capacity for retaining experience > [adjective] > affecting previous learning

retroactive1888

1888 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. May 512 Retroactive suggestion may be made in such a way that the subject believes himself to remember acts or crimes committed, or robberies or outrages suffered, which have not occurred.

1909 C. S. Myers Text-bk. Exper. Psychol. xiii. 166 Similar experiments have been conducted with the object of proving retro-active, i.e. backward association.

1965 J. M. Stephens Psychol. of Classroom Learning viii. 203 Your experience with the second task would work back to strengthen the rather tentative earlier association. This backward-working process is called retroactive facilitation.

1973 D. Zeaman in D. K. Routh Exper. Psychol. of Mental Retardation iv. 112 Filling the 13- to 15-second interval with retroactive material dropped performance to 52 percent.

1987 C. R. Bartol & A. M. Bartol in I. B. Weiner & A. K. Hess Handbk. Forensic Psychol. i. 5 Schrenck-Notzing..opined that this pretrial publicity, through a process of suggestion, probably led numerous witnesses to ‘retroactive memory-falsification’ [Ger. rückwirkenden Erinnerungsfälschung].

Compounds

retroactive amnesia n. [after French amnésie rétroactive (1886 or earlier)] retrograde amnesia (see retrograde adj. 6); now largely disused.

ΚΠ

1889 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 2 664 The similarity to retroactive amnesia in fevers and alcoholic delirium is recalled.

1933 B. Gadelius Human Mentality x. 243 In rare cases the retroactive amnesia may have a wider extent, memories from large parts of the patient's life before the accident being wiped out.

1964 Science 20 Nov. 1073/1 (title) Electroconvulsive shock, retroactive amnesia, and the single-shock method.

retroactive continuity n. narrative continuity imposed on a fictional work or series by the introduction of new information which alters the interpretation of previously described events, (now) typically in order to facilitate a dramatic plot shift or account for an inconsistency; cf. retcon n.

ΚΠ

1973 E. F. Tupper Theol. of Wolfhart Pannenberg iii. 100 Pannenberg’s conception of retroactive continuity ultimately means that history flows fundamentally from the future into the past.

1983 R. Thomas in All-Star Squadron 18 (Lett. section) As for what Roy himself (myself) is trying to do, we like to think that an enthusiastic All-Star booster at one of Adam Malin's Creation Conventions in San Diego came up with the best name for it, a few months back: ‘Retroactive Continuity’. Has kind of a ring, don't you think?

1990 The Future (or Retconned Past) of A in rec.arts.comics (Usenet newsgroup) 13 Feb. Retroactive Continuity (in other words, it wasn't the established continuity, but through some hand-waving and semi-reasonable explanations.).

2003 N.Y. Times 27 July 19/2 For those who aren't Internet nerds, a retcon (short for ‘retroactive continuity’) is a backward plot twist: a narrative revelation that forces the viewer to reconsider everything that came before.

2007 Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City) (Nexis) 21 Oct. The movie could create some sort of ‘retroactive continuity’ that would allow Abrams and others to ‘Trek’ in a supposed ‘fresh’ direction.

retroactive infinitive n. (Grammar) (esp. in O. Jespersen's terminology) an active infinitive that has a preceding noun as its object.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > a part of speech > verb > [noun] > infinitive > with preceding noun as object

retroactive infinitive1946

1946 O. Jespersen Mod. Eng. Gram. V. xv. 233 Retroactive infinitives are found in connexion with the adverbs yet and still:..Rome and Naples—even Florence are yet to see (= we have not yet seen; are yet to be seen would mean ‘can still be seen’).

1990 F. Stuurman Two Grammatical Models of Mod. Eng. iii. 129 Jespersen even has a notation to indicate the passival nature of retroactive infinitives.

2007 W. Harbert Germanic Langs. iv. 268 Demske-Neumann..observes that both tough-movement constructions and modal passive constructions (or ‘retroactive infinitives’)..existed in earlier GMC.

retroactive inhibition n. Psychology the inhibiting effect on recall that can be produced by subsequent learning of a similar kind.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > acquisition of knowledge > capacity for retaining experience > [noun] > effect of later learning > with inhibiting effect

retroactive inhibition1909

retroactive interference1963

1909 C. S. Myers Text-bk. Exper. Psychol. xiii. 163 This ‘retro-active inhibition’ is yet another cause of the greater difficulty in learning longer than shorter series.

1966 J. M. Brown et al. Appl. Psychol. 36 A common explanation for this loss of retention is that newly learned material inhibits that previously learned. A technical term for this is retroactive inhibition.

2002 J. B. Nelson & M. E. Bouton in L. S. Barrett & P. Salovey Wisdom in Feeling i. iii. 76 Retroactive inhibition is created when we learn something at Time 2 that is incompatible with what we learned at Time 1. The second-learned association inhibits the first-learned one.

retroactive interference n. Psychology = retroactive inhibition n.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > acquisition of knowledge > capacity for retaining experience > [noun] > effect of later learning > with inhibiting effect

retroactive inhibition1909

retroactive interference1963

1963 C. N. Cofer & B. S. Musgrave Verbal Behav. & Learning 7 Many facts of acquisition are consistent with either formulation, but..others, especially the facts of proactive and retroactive interference, are not.

1980 M. Johnson Toward Adolescence ii. xii. 243 Tasks that are not meaningfully anchored..to relevant ideas in the learner's structure of knowledge (and their subsequent vulnerability to proactive and retroactive interference).

Derivatives

ˌretroˈactively adv.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > the past > [adverb] > backwards in time or into the past > in retroactive manner

retroactively1791

1791 tr. C. A. de Calonne Considerations Present & Future State France 265 This principle shall have the same effect retroactively.

1879 Daily News 5 Nov. 5/6 That the amnesty did not retroactively affect the material fact of six months' residence in Paris required by the law.

1950 E. H. Erikson Childhood & Society xi. 369 We can..make the origin of individual anxiety retroactively plausible by analysis.

2005 J. M. McGoldrick Limits on States iv. 68 The registration requirement with supervised release imposed retroactively..would be punishment in violation of the Ex Post Facto Clause.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

单词	retroactive
释义	retroactiveadj. Brit. /ˌrɛtrəʊˈaktɪv/, U.S. /ˌrɛtroʊˈæktɪv/ Forms: 1600s retroactiue, 1600s– retroactive. Origin: Formed within English, by derivation; modelled on a French lexical item. Etymons: retro- prefix, active adj. Etymology: < retro- prefix + active adj., after French rétroactif (1510 in Middle French; 1887 in sense 4, G. Gilles de la Tourette L’Hypnotisme et les états analogues i. iv. 145). Compare also post-classical Latin retroactivus far back into the past (1425), and Spanish retroactivo (early 19th cent.), Portuguese retroactivo (early 19th cent.), Italian retroattivo (1798). Compare retroaction n. and later retroact v. N.E.D. (1908) also gives the pronunciation (rītro-) /riːtrəʊ-/ for the first element. 1. Having an effect or impact in a backward direction; moving or driving back. ΘΚΠ the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > backward movement > [adjective] > causing backwards movement retractivec1484 retroactive1611 retropulsive1790 society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > types of machine generally > [adjective] > operating backwards retroactive1706 retrograde1797 back-action1845 1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Retroactif, retroactiue, casting, driuing, relating, backward. 1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Retroactive (Lat. in Philos.), driving back; as A retroactive Motion. 1780 P. Degravers Compl. Treat. Human Eye 166 At the time of a quick pressure..this fluid is dispersed and unable to produce a retro-active effect, for want of being inclosed in the cellulary spaces. 1867 London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 4th Ser. 34 138 In opening a bottle of soda-water there is generally a waste of liquid at the moment the cork flies out, in consequence of the retroactive motion of the bottle. 1918 C. F. Horne & A. R. Keller Hist. German People (ed. 2) XV. viii. 275 There were at the beginning of the twentieth century about 50,000 persons born in Germany; their number probably was less at the outbreak of the great war, as it showed a retroactive movement even in the decade preceding. 1973 B. N. Malzberg in New Dimensions No. 3. 121 Gravitational forces would bring it at drift..to within a five-mile radius at which point retroactive devices would fire, enabling a soft landing. 1992 J. B. Sellers Death of Gods Anc. Egypt vii. xxxiv. 314 If the retroactive movement of the sky was indeed noticed, it would be Seth who was most apt to be held responsible. 2. a. Retrospective; spec. (of a regulation, enactment, etc.) extending in scope or effect to matters or actions which have occurred in the past. In predicative use frequently with to and a date. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > the past > [adjective] > operating retrospectively retroactive1611 retrospect1709 ex post facto1789 1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Retroactif, retroactiue, casting, driuing, relating, backward. 1668 Persec. Ref. Ch. in France 11 They have given it a Retroactive Power (as they call it) by putting it in Execution against persons who returned to us a long time before the Declaration was in being. a1751 Visct. Bolingbroke Wks. (1754) V. 296 As the death of Christ had a retroactive effect on those that lived and died before they were redeemed. 1794 Earl of Malmesbury Diaries & Corr. III. 60 I objected to the date to be fixed to the Treaty, particularly if in addition to the giving it this retro-active force, an advance..was to be required. 1811 W. R. Spencer Poems 131 Must I, for follies past assess'd By retro-active laws be fin'd? 1847 R. W. Hamilton Rewards & Punishm. (1853) v. 215 The resurrection of Christ..is represented as possessing a retroactive influence. 1919 Railway Carmen's Jrnl. Jan. 1001/1 The view was adopted at that time [that]..these provisions ought not to be made retroactive to January 1, 1918. 1972 Changing Times July 4/2 The excise tax repeal was retroactive to August 16, so better check..to see whether you are due a refund. 2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 23 Jan. iv. 5/2 The goal of ending tyranny is available as a retroactive rationale for the war in Iraq. b. Directed backwards in time. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > the past > [adjective] > going backward in time upward1604 retroactive1822 1822 Blackwood's Mag. 11 165 We may say century, without stretching our retroactive foresight to any extraordinary degree. 1913 Commerc. Telegraphers Jrnl. Dec. 389/1 A retroactive glance over the year's work shows that we are making real and steady progress. 2008 J. Roy in G. D. Garson & M. Khosrow-Pour Publ. Information Technol. II. v. lxi. 683/1 An external review commission..could be cast as a retroactive look at the previous government's failures. †3. Reactive; reciprocal. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > [adjective] > operating or acting in return responsive1657 reacting1666 responding1670 reactive1717 respondent1726 retroactive1799 reactional1839 1799 J. West Tale of Times II. 264 The odium with which you bespatter a neighbour's reputation has a retroactive effect in furbishing your own. 1800 J. Duthy Observ. Present High Price Provisions 15 The increased demand for animal food has also a retro-active operation, and contributes to..enhance the price of barley, oats, and hay, and every other sort of food for cattle. 1802 T. Beddoes Hygëia I. ii. 68 The total abstraction of the mind from all regard to the retroactive tendency of conduct. 4. Psychology. Affecting or relating to memory of what has been learned or experienced; (also) designating material previously learned. See retroactive inhibition n., retroactive interference n. at Compounds. Cf. proactive adj. 1. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > acquisition of knowledge > capacity for retaining experience > [adjective] > affecting previous learning retroactive1888 1888 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. May 512 Retroactive suggestion may be made in such a way that the subject believes himself to remember acts or crimes committed, or robberies or outrages suffered, which have not occurred. 1909 C. S. Myers Text-bk. Exper. Psychol. xiii. 166 Similar experiments have been conducted with the object of proving retro-active, i.e. backward association. 1965 J. M. Stephens Psychol. of Classroom Learning viii. 203 Your experience with the second task would work back to strengthen the rather tentative earlier association. This backward-working process is called retroactive facilitation. 1973 D. Zeaman in D. K. Routh Exper. Psychol. of Mental Retardation iv. 112 Filling the 13- to 15-second interval with retroactive material dropped performance to 52 percent. 1987 C. R. Bartol & A. M. Bartol in I. B. Weiner & A. K. Hess Handbk. Forensic Psychol. i. 5 Schrenck-Notzing..opined that this pretrial publicity, through a process of suggestion, probably led numerous witnesses to ‘retroactive memory-falsification’ [Ger. rückwirkenden Erinnerungsfälschung]. Compounds retroactive amnesia n. [after French amnésie rétroactive (1886 or earlier)] retrograde amnesia (see retrograde adj. 6); now largely disused. ΚΠ 1889 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 2 664 The similarity to retroactive amnesia in fevers and alcoholic delirium is recalled. 1933 B. Gadelius Human Mentality x. 243 In rare cases the retroactive amnesia may have a wider extent, memories from large parts of the patient's life before the accident being wiped out. 1964 Science 20 Nov. 1073/1 (title) Electroconvulsive shock, retroactive amnesia, and the single-shock method. retroactive continuity n. narrative continuity imposed on a fictional work or series by the introduction of new information which alters the interpretation of previously described events, (now) typically in order to facilitate a dramatic plot shift or account for an inconsistency; cf. retcon n. ΚΠ 1973 E. F. Tupper Theol. of Wolfhart Pannenberg iii. 100 Pannenberg’s conception of retroactive continuity ultimately means that history flows fundamentally from the future into the past. 1983 R. Thomas in All-Star Squadron 18 (Lett. section) As for what Roy himself (myself) is trying to do, we like to think that an enthusiastic All-Star booster at one of Adam Malin's Creation Conventions in San Diego came up with the best name for it, a few months back: ‘Retroactive Continuity’. Has kind of a ring, don't you think? 1990 The Future (or Retconned Past) of A in rec.arts.comics (Usenet newsgroup) 13 Feb. Retroactive Continuity (in other words, it wasn't the established continuity, but through some hand-waving and semi-reasonable explanations.). 2003 N.Y. Times 27 July 19/2 For those who aren't Internet nerds, a retcon (short for ‘retroactive continuity’) is a backward plot twist: a narrative revelation that forces the viewer to reconsider everything that came before. 2007 Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City) (Nexis) 21 Oct. The movie could create some sort of ‘retroactive continuity’ that would allow Abrams and others to ‘Trek’ in a supposed ‘fresh’ direction. retroactive infinitive n. (Grammar) (esp. in O. Jespersen's terminology) an active infinitive that has a preceding noun as its object. ΘΚΠ the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > a part of speech > verb > [noun] > infinitive > with preceding noun as object retroactive infinitive1946 1946 O. Jespersen Mod. Eng. Gram. V. xv. 233 Retroactive infinitives are found in connexion with the adverbs yet and still:..Rome and Naples—even Florence are yet to see (= we have not yet seen; are yet to be seen would mean ‘can still be seen’). 1990 F. Stuurman Two Grammatical Models of Mod. Eng. iii. 129 Jespersen even has a notation to indicate the passival nature of retroactive infinitives. 2007 W. Harbert Germanic Langs. iv. 268 Demske-Neumann..observes that both tough-movement constructions and modal passive constructions (or ‘retroactive infinitives’)..existed in earlier GMC. retroactive inhibition n. Psychology the inhibiting effect on recall that can be produced by subsequent learning of a similar kind. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > acquisition of knowledge > capacity for retaining experience > [noun] > effect of later learning > with inhibiting effect retroactive inhibition1909 retroactive interference1963 1909 C. S. Myers Text-bk. Exper. Psychol. xiii. 163 This ‘retro-active inhibition’ is yet another cause of the greater difficulty in learning longer than shorter series. 1966 J. M. Brown et al. Appl. Psychol. 36 A common explanation for this loss of retention is that newly learned material inhibits that previously learned. A technical term for this is retroactive inhibition. 2002 J. B. Nelson & M. E. Bouton in L. S. Barrett & P. Salovey Wisdom in Feeling i. iii. 76 Retroactive inhibition is created when we learn something at Time 2 that is incompatible with what we learned at Time 1. The second-learned association inhibits the first-learned one. retroactive interference n. Psychology = retroactive inhibition n. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > acquisition of knowledge > capacity for retaining experience > [noun] > effect of later learning > with inhibiting effect retroactive inhibition1909 retroactive interference1963 1963 C. N. Cofer & B. S. Musgrave Verbal Behav. & Learning 7 Many facts of acquisition are consistent with either formulation, but..others, especially the facts of proactive and retroactive interference, are not. 1980 M. Johnson Toward Adolescence ii. xii. 243 Tasks that are not meaningfully anchored..to relevant ideas in the learner's structure of knowledge (and their subsequent vulnerability to proactive and retroactive interference). Derivatives ˌretroˈactively adv. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > the past > [adverb] > backwards in time or into the past > in retroactive manner retroactively1791 1791 tr. C. A. de Calonne Considerations Present & Future State France 265 This principle shall have the same effect retroactively. 1879 Daily News 5 Nov. 5/6 That the amnesty did not retroactively affect the material fact of six months' residence in Paris required by the law. 1950 E. H. Erikson Childhood & Society xi. 369 We can..make the origin of individual anxiety retroactively plausible by analysis. 2005 J. M. McGoldrick Limits on States iv. 68 The registration requirement with supervised release imposed retroactively..would be punishment in violation of the Ex Post Facto Clause. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < adj.1611
随便看	to do pleasing to do pooly to do puja to do quodlibets to do reason to do refuge to do reverence to do reverence to to do right to do right by to do right with to do right with a person to do rine to do satisfaction to do scathe to do scorn to do service to do service as to do shame to do sharesies to do shipping to do shond to do shrift to do someone a bad turn to do someone a evil turn