staticsn.
/ˈstatɪks/, U.S. /ˈstædɪks/ 1. Usually with singular agreement.
a. Originally: †the science dealing with weight and its mechanical effects, and with the conditions of equilibrium resulting from the distribution of weight (obsolete). In later use: the branch of physical science concerned with the action of forces in producing equilibrium or relative rest, and with the forces acting on systems and structures in equilibrium.Statics has been contrasted with dynamics, kinetics, and kinematics.
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the world > matter > physics > mechanics > dynamics > statics > [noun]
static1570
staticsa1643
a1643 W. Cartwright On Mr. Stokes in Comedies (1651) sig. O3v How would they vex their Mathematicks, Their Ponderations, and their Staticks, To shew the Art of these Volaticks?
1646 J. Gregory Notes & Observ. xxxi. 144 That experiment in the Staticks of two bodies moveing downewards, which how unequall soever in size and gravity, yet if they be of the same figure and matter..they will both meet together in the Center at one and the same time.
1656 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. viii. 19 As in the Staticks, there are three things which judge, the weigher, the ballance, and position of the ballance.
1692 R. Bentley Confut. Atheism from Struct. & Origin Humane Bodies: Pt. II 11 Now this is a Catholick Rule of Statics; That if any Body be bulk for bulk heavier than a Fluid, it will sink to the bottom of that Fluid.
1715 tr. D. Gregory Elements Astron. I. i. ix. 134 Gravity, the affections of which are considered in Statics, and in almost all Mechanics.
?1796 G. Atwood Constr. & Anal. Geom. Propositions 63 This latter branch of statics is a subject deserving of every attention..from the immediate relation it bears to the motion and equilibrium of ships at sea.
1806 O. Gregory (title) A treatise of mechanics..containing the theory of statics, dynamics, hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, and pneumatics.
1847 W. Whewell Hist. Inductive Sci. (rev. ed.) II. 451 Mechanics, (including Statics and Dynamics).
1864 W. Thomson in Philos. Trans. 1863 (Royal Soc.) 153 577 It has been proposed to introduce the term ‘kinetics’ to express this branch; so that dynamics may be defined simply as the ‘science of force’, and divided into the two branches, Statics and Kinetics.
1927 H. T. Lowe-Porter tr. T. Mann Magic Mountain (London ed.) I. v. 355 He had learned in his technical school about statics, about supports capable of flexion.
1956 W. Merchant & A. Bolton Introd. Theory Structures p. v The combination of Hooke's Law and statics gives rise to the theory of Elasticity.
2007 D. Morin Introd. Classical Mech. ii. 29 This concurrency is a neat little theorem for statics problems involving three forces.
b. With distinguishing word. chemical statics n. = statical chemistry n. at statical adj. Compounds; (also, in later use) the study of chemical equilibrium. graphic statics n. now rare = graphical statics at graphical adj. 5.† vegetable statics n. Obsolete the study of the circulation of liquids in plants.
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the world > plants > botany > [noun] > specific branches or aspects of botany
phytognomy1643
topology1659
vegetable statics1691
cryptogamy1783
fossil botany1822
nomology1825
structural botany1835
phytochemistry1837
phytochimy1847
phytogeography1847
astrobotany1851
phytonomy1851
phytophysiology1854
palaeophytology1857
phytobiology1860
phytopathology1864
plant physiology1870
palaeobotany1872
plant geography1878
phytopalaeontology1879
plant pathology1891
ethnobotany1896
floristic1898
phyteconomy1898
phytoteratology1898
phytoecology1899
geobotany1904
phytosociology1917
archaeobotany1954
palaeoethnobotany1959
1691 W. Petty Treat. Naval Philos. in T. Hale Acct. New Inventions 119 Nautical Staticks, and Mechanicks, relating to Pullies and Crows, Handspecks, Screws, Hances, Kildwedges, Nippets, Capsterns, Windlesses, Slings, &c.
1727 S. Hales (title) Statical essays: containing vegetable staticks; or, an account of some statical experiments on the sap in vegetables.
1780 M. Cutler Let. 20 June in W. P. Cutler & J. P. Cutler Life, Jrnls. & Corr. M. Cutler (1888) I. 80 The Doctor's discoveries in his vegetable statics..must be very useful in the culture and improvement of vegetables and fruit trees.
1804 B. Lambert tr. C. L. Berthollet (title) An essay on chemical statics.
1830 Foreign Q. Rev. 6 95 The mechanism by which nature operates in producing some of the most interesting and hitherto inexplicable phenomena in vegetable statics.
1900 Science 7 Dec. 881/2 Part first is on Chemical Dynamics, including chemical equilibrium and reaction velocity. Part second, on Chemical Statics, contains chapters on molecular weights, molecular structure and molecular grouping.
1906 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) A. 206 335 A study..of the chemical statics and dynamics in constant reversible cells created by light.
1910 Encycl. Brit. VIII. 147/2 The most useful of these applications, collectively termed Graphic Statics, relates to the equilibrium of plane framed structures.
1971 E. A. Moelwyn-Hughes (title) The chemical statics and kinetics of solutions.
2008 G. Hauke Introd. Fluid Mech. iv. 47 Fluid statics is the part of fluid mechanics that deals with fluids when there is no relative motion between the fluid particles.
c. In extended use: the study of or theory relating to a subject or thing in a stable state or condition; those aspects of something which are stable or in balance; that which does not change or progress. Chiefly contrasted with dynamics.social statics: see the first element.
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a1832 J. T. Graves Rom. & Canon Law in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) II. 768/1 Gaius..treats rather of the dynamics than of the statics of law—rather of those events or forces by which classes of rights begin, are modified or terminate, than of those rights and duties which accompany a given stationary legal relation.
1851 H. Spencer Social Statics xxx. §1 Social philosophy may be aptly divided..into statics and dynamics; the first treating of the equilibrium of a perfect society, the second of the forces by which society is advanced towards perfection.
1874 Contemp. Rev. 23 101 The greatest conceivable obstacle was brought to bear against any change in the historical belief of Christendom, and thus the statics of the Church were maintained.
1913 Western Archit. Jan. 1/1 The Statics and Dynamics of an individual Life are the quiescent changeless mind and the..ever-changing action of the will..upon that mind.
1970 A. Róna-Tas in L. Deszö & P. Hadjú Theoret. Probl. Typol. & Northern Eurasian Langs. i. 146 The dynamics of language in synchrony is more important than its statics.
2007 A. Sofroniou Moral Philos. vi. 178/2 There was..a considerable body of writing on processes—on the dynamics as well as the statics of public governance.
d. Economics. That part of economic theory which is concerned with the forces and conditions existing at a state of equilibrium in an economic system, without consideration of changes through time. Opposed to dynamics.comparative statics: see the first element.
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society > trade and finance > management of money > management of national resources > [noun] > political economy > branches or models of
statics1848
classical economics1885
bioeconomics1913
welfare economics1920
econometry1926
econometrics1931
microeconomics1943
macroeconomics1945
development economics1959
microsimulation1966
public choice1968
1848 J. S. Mill Princ. Polit. Econ. III. iv. i. 248 We have to consider what these changes are, what are their laws, and what are their tendencies; thereby adding a theory of motion to our theory of equilibrium—the Dynamics of political economy to the Statics.
1891 J. N. Keynes Scope & Method Polit. Econ. iv. 141 In so-called economic statics we are frequently engaged in examining the effects of particular changes.
1920 A. Marshall Princ. Econ. (ed. 8) v. v. 366 The problem of normal value belongs to economic Dynamics: partly because Statics is really but a branch of Dynamics.
1954 W. Jaffé tr. L. Walras Elem. Pure Econ. viii. 117 Had I supposed utility to be a variable functionally related to time, then time would have had to figure explicitly in the problem. And we should then have passed from economic statics to economic dynamics.
2001 S. Keen Debunking Econ. (2004) xiv. 309 If statics were to die, then inevitably so too would neoclassical economics, since its way of thinking is unsustainable in dynamics.
2. With plural agreement.
a. = static n. 4a. Now rare.
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society > communication > telecommunication > radio communications > [noun] > signal > interference
cross-talk1887
static1905
X1906
statics1912
click1914
jam1914
grinder1922
hash1923
mush1924
echo1928
image1928
radio echo1928
harmonic interference1929
second channel1932
1912 Techn. World Mag. Aug. 713/2 These waves, variously known as ‘atmospherics’, ‘strays’, ‘statics’, and ‘X's’, area source of great trouble to the wireless operator.
1921 Sci. Abstr. B. 24 156 On the North Atlantic coast the statics come in large proportion from the S.W.
1926 Glasgow Herald 15 May 4 A wall of ‘statics’ may be responsible for the fact that no wireless messages have been received from the airship for some time.
2010 V. McKay-Riddell River Goddess & Other Stories 46 Squawks and statics interspersed with truckers' cheery insults shattered the morning silence.
b. Cinematography. Static electricity as a disruptive phenomenon. rare.
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1923 F. A. Talbot Moving Pictures (rev. ed.) 84 Many exasperating troubles, one of the worst of which is generically known as ‘statics’. It is common knowledge that if a celluloid comb be vigorously rubbed for a few seconds, it will become charged with static electricity and will attract small pieces of brown paper.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1643