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▪ I. † ˈnotional, n. Obs. rare.
[ad. med.L. *nōtiōnāle, neut. of nōtiōnālis: see next.]
1. A divine attribute. (See quot.)
a1533Frith Disput. Purgat. (1829) 131 If he make one Notional in God greater than another, (by this word Notional, which the schoolmen use, I would you should understand the goodness, wisdom, power, justice, and mercy of God, &c.) then shall he..imagine that one Notional subdueth another.
2. A mere supposition or idea.
1653R. G. tr. Bacon's Hist. Winds 277 We shall finde ill determined notionalls, phantasms, and imaginary things, and Axioms daily to be amended. 1666Phil. Trans. I. 325 Philosophy, which searches out the real Productions of Nature.., does manifest the Divine Glory more, than the Notionals of the Gentiles.
▪ II. notional, a.|ˈnəʊʃənəl|
Also 6–7 -all.
[ad. med.L. nōtiōnālis: see notion and -al1. So obs. F. notional, -el (Godef.), It. notionale, Sp. and Pg. nocional.]
1. a. Of knowledge, etc.: Purely speculative; not based upon fact or demonstration.
1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxxi. (1611) 442 Whatsoever we may..write in our bookes through a notionall conceipt of things needfull. 1626Bacon Sylva §836 They are to be set aside, being but Notional, and ill Limited; and Definite Axiomes are to be drawn out of Measured Instances. 1677Gale Crt. Gentiles iv. Proem. 3 Philosophie considered in its Particular Ideas, is either Notional or Real. 1680Boyle Exper. Chem. Princ. Pref. 9, I have a very differing esteem of the Notionall and of the Practicall part of Chymistry. 1730Chamberlayne Relig. Philos. Pref. p. xx, People may be very well experienced in these Ideal or Notional Sciences, and yet be Masters of very little Knowledge, in Things that actually exist. 1771Wesley Wks. (1872) V. 213 It is not a barely notional or speculative faith. 1831Whewell in Todhunter Acct. Writ. (1876) II. 115 A popular exposition of the matter applied mainly to moral, political, and other notional sciences. 1873M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma (1876) 280 A notional work as distinguished from an experimental work.
†b. Of persons: Given to abstract or fanciful speculation; holding merely speculative views.
1664Power Exp. Philos. iii. 193 The old Dogmatists and Notional Speculators. 1671Bohun Wind 170 The impertinence of those Notionall men, that enquire no further, but declare, That [etc.]. 1710Steele Tatler No. 125 ⁋3, I would not be thought altogether notional in what I have to say, and pass only for a Projector in Morality. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. v. §33 Airy, notional men, enthusiasts [etc.]. 1772Wesley Jrnl. 12 Aug., I preached at Salop, and spake strong words, to the amazement of many notional believers.
c. Economics. Of a figure, profit, etc.: speculative, hypothetical; for the purposes of a particular interpretation or theory.
1958Spectator 8 Aug. 204/3 The profit attributable to Iraq is the notional one which the oil companies regard as economic. 1960Economist 15 Oct. 278/1 Costs per ton of storage, mainly notional interest charges, were put at roughly {pstlg}5 for lead and zinc. 1964Financial Times 3 Mar. 15/6 The formula for calculating this standard price has been drawn up so that it would leave the Corporation with a notional profit of {pstlg}1·8 m. before tax. 1972Accountant 17 Aug. 197/1 A company..will be able to obtain relief..on a notional figure.
2. Of things, relations, etc.: Existing only in thought; not real or actually existent; imaginary.
1629Gaule Holy Madn. 138 Meere notionall is their [gems] value; which is in the Opinion, not in the Thing. 1655–87H. More App. Antid. (1712) 199 Distance is no Physical affection of any thing, but only Notional. 1710Berkeley Princ. Hum. Knowl. §34 All things that exist, exist only in the mind, that is, they are purely notional. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) II. 81 As it is founded generally upon mere notional excellencies. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. xii. 247 No wonder, that..he..bewilders himself in the pursuit of notional phantoms. 1841D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 639 Her Majesty seems to have remunerated empty phrases by providing notional places. 1858Bushnell Serm. New Life 94 It is a mind dealing with notions or notional truths.
3. (See quot. 1806.)
1794Piozzi Synon. II. 5 In notional and ideal Madness, particularly the first, many symptoms are only cunningly suppressed. 1806T. Arnold Insanity I. 56 Notional Insanity is that state of mind in which a person..perceives external objects as they really exist..; yet conceives such notions of the powers, properties [etc.], of things and persons,..as appear obviously..erroneous or unreasonable.
4. U.S. Of persons:
a. Inclined to think.
1823Cooper Pioneers ix, I'm glad if the Judge is pleased; but I'm notional that you'll find the sa'ce overdone.
b. Fanciful; full of fancies, whims, or caprices.
1791Gazette of U.S. (N.Y.) 9 Feb. (Th.), If a man is a little odd in his ways, his friends say he is a notional creature, or full of notions... Love is the most notional passion. 1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), Notional, fanciful, whimsical. Applied to persons; as, ‘He's a very notional man’. 1881Howells Dr. Breen's Practice ix, She's been a little notional, she's had her head addled by women's talk. 1894Outing XXIV. 96/2 He did think he would have to get the room cleaned and whitewashed, as his wife was rather notional.
5. Of the nature of, pertaining or relating to, a notion or idea. (See quots.)
1861National Rev. Oct. 379 The various modifications of time..are expressed by the notional words themselves, not by distinct words. 1870J. H. Newman Gram. Assent i. i. 7 There are propositions, in which one or both of the terms are common nouns, as standing for what is abstract... These I shall call notional propositions, and the apprehension with which we infer or assent to them, notional. Ibid. iv. 72 In Notional Assent as well as in inferring, the mind contemplates its own creations instead of things.
6. Gram. Used (orig. by Jespersen) in relation to the semantic content, real or apparent, of grammatical forms and categories; of a word: carrying full meaning, not merely grammatical; of a verb: principal, main, not auxiliary.
1924O. Jespersen Philos. Gram. iii. 56 Our examples of gender and sex will make it clear that the relations between the syntactic and notional categories will often present a similar kind of network to that noticed between formal and syntactic categories. 1933― Syst. Gram. 20 In ‘he happened to fall’ the notional subject is a nexus ‘he..to fall’. 1942Partridge Usage & Abusage 148/2 Jespersen's The Philosophy of Grammar ..urges us to consider all words..in their three aspects, form, syntactic function, and ‘natural or logical meaning’; this third aspect he calls ‘notional’. 1957R. W. Zandvoort Handbk. Eng. Gram. i. v. 64 The opposite of ‘auxiliary’ is ‘notional verb’, ‘principal verb’, or ‘verb of full meaning’. 1966M. Pei Gloss. Linguistic Terminol. 182 Notional word, a word that carries a full meaning (‘he has luck’ vs. ‘he has gone’). 1971P. J. Lucas in Archivum Linguisticum II. 19 There is a considerable degree of overlap (in Capgrave's Chronicle) between the notional signs on the one hand, and, between the grammatical signs on the other, but there is no overlap between primarily notional and primarily grammatical signs.
Sense 1 c in Dict. becomes 1 d. Add: [1.] c. Of a period of time (esp. during a working week): equivalent for the purposes of calculation to the period stated.
1949Brit. Med. Jrnl. 19 Mar. (Suppl.) 150/1 The object is to express this aggregate number of hours per week as a number of notional ‘half-days’ per week. 1961Times 5 Oct. 3/1 The appointment is for one notional half-day a week. 1976B. Armstrong Gloss. TV Terms 65 Notional weekend, the ‘floating’ Saturday and Sunday break which production crew, who are required to work during a normal weekend, sometimes enjoy on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, thus suffering two Mondays in a week. |