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A first principle or element.

First principles; fundamental beginnings; elements; as. Newton's Principia.

Elementary. [Obs.] Bacon.

Analysis into primary or elemental parts. [Archaic] Bacon.

which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate element, or cause.

lower of Priscillian, bishop of Avila in Spain, in the fourth century, who mixed various elements of Gnosticism and Manicheism with Christianity.

rivate knowledge; privy. [Obs.] Private act or statute, a statute exclusively for the settlement of private and personal interests, of which courts do not take judicial notice; -- opposed to a general law, which operates on the whole community. -- Private nuisance or wrong. See Nuisance. -- Private soldier. See Priva…

trial of a ministerial candidate's qualifications prior to his ordination, or to his settlement as a pastor. (c) Moral trial; the state of man in the present life, in which he has the opportunity of proving his character, and becoming qualified for a happier state. No [view of human life] seems so reasonable as that w…

n; a matter stated for examination or proof; hence, a matter difficult of solution or settlement; a doubtful case; a question involving doubt. Bacon.

A preliminary course or publication; -- used esp. in the titles of elementary works.

etc.; suitable in all respect; appropriate; right; fit; decent; as, water is the proper element for fish; a proper dress. The proper study of mankind is man. Pope. In Athens all was pleasure, mirth, and play, All proper to the spring, and sprightly May. Dryden.

The combining weight or equivalent of an element. [Obs.]

Denoting the first or lowest of a series, or the one having the smallest amount of the element to the name of which it is prefixed; as protoxide, protochloride, etc.

That one of a series of sulphides of any element which has the lowest proportion of sulphur; a sulphide with but one atom of sulphur in the molecule.

To combine with oxygen, as any elementary substance, in such proportion as to form a protoxide.

erse, supposed to have been differentiated into what are recognized as distinct chemical elements.

ecially a danger or an evil; -- followed by against or for; as, to provide against the inclemency of the weather; to provide for the education of a child. Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Burke.

wn upon it can be displaced in any way without tearing it or altering in size any of its elements.

dants. The principal Puranas are eighteen in number, and there are the same number of supplementary books called Upa Puranas.

Free from moral defilement or quilt; hence, innocent; guileless; chaste; -- applied to persons. "Keep thyself pure." 1 Tim. v. 22. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience. 1 Tim. i. 5.