Search the Dictionary

The first existence of anything; act or fact of commencing; rise; origin; beginnig; start. The time of Henry VII . . . nearly coincides with the commencement of what is termed "modern history."

An idea or expression wanting originality or interest; a trite or customary remark; a platitude.

Common possession or enjoyment; participation; as, a community of goods. The original community of all things. Locke. An unreserved community of thought and feeling. W. Irwing.

To form in the mind; to plan; to devise; to generate; to originate; as, to conceive a purpose, plan, hope. It was among the ruins of the Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised near twenty years of my life. Gibbon. Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Is. l…

e; figure. It is the variety of configurations [of the mouth] . . . which gives birth and origin to the several vowels. Harris.

Similarity of origin; affinity. [Obs.] Dr. H. More.

Belonging to the same genus; allied in origin, nature, or action. R. Owen.

Allied in origin or cause; congeneric; as, congenerous diseases. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

close of the Revolution. -- The Federal Congress, the assembly of representatives of the original States of the American Union, who met under the Articles of Confederation from 1781 till 1789. -- Congress boot or gaiter, a high shoe or half-boot, coming above the ankle, and having the sides made in part of some elast…

Originally, a part of the palestra, or gymnasium among the Greeks; either the place where sand was stored for use in sprinkling the wrestlers, or the wrestling ground itself. Hence, a part of the orchestra of the Greek theater.

. A difference has been made by some; those diseases or conditions which are dependent on original conformation being called congenital; while the diseases of affections that may have supervened during gestation or delivery are called connate. Dunglison.

By the act of nature; originally; from birth. Sir M. Hale.

he system has undergone any series of changes, and been brought back in any manner to its original state, the whole work done by external agents on the system is equal to the whole work done by the system overcoming external forces. Clerk Maxwell.

A collection of maritime laws of disputed origin, supposed to have been first published at Barcelona early in the 14th century. It has formed the basis of most of the subsequent collections of maritime laws. Kent. Bouvier.

e person or thing which constitutes, determines, or constructs. Their first composure and origination require a higher and nobler constituent than chance. Sir M. Hale

d (as of the world or of life). "Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. Shak. From its original to its consummation. Addison. Quiet consummation have, And renownShak. Consummation of marrige, completion of the connubial relation by actual cohabition.

shall prove these writings . . . authentic, and the contents true, and worthy of a divine original. Grew.

one; the contention is how the subject is to be divided and defined. Bagehot. This was my original contention, and I still maintain that you should abide by your former decision. Jowett.

A so-called immediate inference which consists in denying the original subject of the contradictory predicate; e.g.: Every S is P; therefore, no Not-P is S.

One who copies; one who writes or transcribes from an original; a transcriber.