classifiern.
/ˈklasᵻfʌɪə/, U.S. /ˈklæsəˌfaɪər/ 1. A person who classifies things.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > kind or sort > [noun] > a kind, sort, or class > a number of things classed together > assigning to category > one who
classifier1799
classificator1853
1799 J. Tytler Treat. Plague & Yellow Fever i. i. 3 The ingenious classifiers, in modern times, have brought into alliance the plague with other epidemic diseases.
1830 J. F. W. Herschel Prelim. Disc. Study Nat. Philos. 293 He has performed his task, if not as a natural historian at least as a classifier and arranger.
1838 R. W. Emerson Lit. Ethics 13 No history, that we have, is safe, but a new classifier shall give it new and more philosophical arrangement.
1895 ‘M. Twain’ in N. Amer. Rev. 160 49 The Observer of Peoples has to be a Classifier, a Grouper, a Deducer, a Generalizer, a Psychologizer.
1927 W. W. Bishop Pract. Handbk. Mod. Libr. Catal. (ed. 2) 21 The catalog room..should be..on the same floor with the order clerks, classifiers and shelf-listers.
1989 G. Wolff Best Amer. Ess. p. xxxiii The personal essay, autobiography, has been a red flag to professional classifiers and epistemologists.
2006 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 8 June 62/1 Holmes seems to be a confirmed classifier: he has created several religious boxes into which he places each of the Founders.
2. A machine or device for screening or sizing mixtures of solid particles, esp. crushed ore.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > equipment for treating ores > [noun] > for separating or sorting ore by size or weight
grate1778
percussion table1839
classificator1856
classifier1856
grating1869
1856 Mining Mag. 7 227 The classifier is the same as that called separation-rütter of the Hartz, but it is not so long or so complete.
1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 371/1 Sizes smaller than can be satisfactorily handled by screens are treated by means of hydraulic classifiers and box classifiers.
2002 R. S. Shoemaker Circulating Load v. 10 Only slimes overflowed the classifier.
3. Linguistics. A word or morpheme which accompanies a numeral or other unit in collocation with a noun, and typically varies with the semantic class to which the noun belongs. Cf. numerative n.
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the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > a part of speech > other parts of speech > [noun] > classifier
classifier1863
numerative1863
1863 J. Summers Handbk. Chinese 47 Under the appositional relation we must also consider the very large class of nouns formed by the use of what have been called numeratives or classifiers... The Chinese, in conversation, extend the use of such words to every object; they say..‘one handle fan’ for a fan, ‘one length road’ for a road.
1951 Amer. Anthropologist 53 353 An interest in place as shown by words indicating direction, the importance of the body by possessive classifiers, [etc.].
1964 E. Bach Introd. Transformational Gram. vi. 141 The following Japanese forms (numerals and classifiers).
1975 J. H. Greenberg in C. N. Li Word Order & Word Order Change 29 The world-wide favoring of the word order QN in languages without numeral classifiers.
1994 S. Pinker Lang. Instinct viii. 240 Like classifier languages, English insists upon classifiers for many nouns: you can't refer to a single square as a paper but must say a sheet of paper.
2000 G. Senft Syst. Nominal Classif. 4 The six classifier types in Tariana (possessive and verb classifier, noun class, numeral classifier, demonstrative classifier, article classifier).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1799- stone-smatch
- stone-smitch
- stone-snipe
- stone-sponge
- stone-square
- stone-squarer
- stone-still
- stone-strewn
- stone-sucker
- stone-thrower
- stone-throwing
- stone-thrush
- stone-tivet
- stone-toter
- stone-turf
- stone-turnip
- stone-user
- stone-using
- stone-vaulted
- stone-volley
- stone-walled
- stone-weed
- stone-weight
- stone-white
- stone-worker