constructn.
/ˈkɒnstrʌkt/, U.S. /ˈkɑnˌstrək(t)/ 1. Linguistics. A group of words forming a phrase, as distinct from a compound. Also attributive.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > phrase > [noun]
locution?a1475
phrase1530
saying1530
comma1592
speecha1599
standa1626
gramm1647
dictiona1660
roada1690
slip-slop1823
construct1871
group word1888
the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > phrase > [adjective]
phrasical1615
phrasal1859
construct1871
1871 J. Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue xi. 514 The distinction between compounds and constructs is a delicate one.
1871 J. Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue xi. 515 The transition from the construct to the compound state..takes time to accomplish.
1956 J. Whatmough Lang. viii. 143 Every language has its own constructs (i.e. repetitive patterns of order) of free-standing, bounded units (words).
1963 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 8 62 A clause can be said to have descended the grammatical hierarchy to operate at the phrase level. Such descending units are termed ‘constructs’ in this model. ‘That he stayed up all night doing linguistics’ is called a clause construct.
1967 Language 43 745 The psychological reality of linguistic constructs.
2.
a. Psychology. An object of perception or thought, formed by a combination of present with past sense-impressions.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > psychology of perception > object of perception > [noun]
phenomenona1704
phenomenals1878
construct1890
1890 C. L. Morgan Animal Life & Intell. viii. 312 At the bidding of certain stimuli from without we construct that mental product which we call the object of sense. It is of these mental constructions—‘constructs’ I will call them for convenience—that I have now to speak.
1890 C. L. Morgan Animal Life & Intell. viii. 317 What we call objects are human constructs.
1934 Nature 8 Sept. (Suppl.) 363/2 If the nature we study consists so largely of our own mental constructs, why do our many minds all construct one and the same Nature? Why, in brief, do we all see the same sun, moon and stars?
1956 A. J. Ayer et al. Revol. Philos. 30 Some said that natural numbers were mental constructs, meaning by this..that they had the same status as dreams and hallucinations.
b. gen. Anything constructed, esp. by the mind; hence spec., a concept specially devised to be part of a theory.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of ideation > idea, notion, or concept > [noun]
thoughtOE
thingOE
conceita1393
imagea1393
concept1479
conception1526
suppositiona1529
idee1542
idea1585
conceivement1599
project1600
representationa1602
notion1607
phantasma1620
conceptus1643
species1644
notice1654
revolution1675
representamen1677
vorstellung1807
brain-stuff1855
ideation1876
think1886
artefact1923
construct1933
mind1966
the mind > mental capacity > belief > speculation > confirmation of hypothesis, theory > [noun] > concept
construct1933
1933 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Oct. 161 The American psychologist..denies that they [sc. traits] are dynamic, existential entities within the organism... Rather are they constructs in the minds of the observers.
1937 ‘C. Caudwell’ Illusion & Reality ii. 48 The poetic construct.
1951 J. R. Firth Papers in Ling. 1934–51 (1957) xv. 190 The constructs or schemata of linguistics enable us to handle isolates that may be called language events.
1952 C. L. Hull Behavior Syst. xi. 327 Note..his total lack of comprehension of the role of symbolic constructs in natural-science theory.
1956 J. H. M. Beattie in A. Pryce-Jones New Outl. Mod. Knowl. 258 The kind of structure, in the sense in which anthropologists use the term, is a construct or model, based on but not composed of the empirical data.
1959 Listener 1 Oct. 520/1 Typical examples of theoretical terms are ‘gene’ in biology, and ‘electron’ in physics: these are theoretical constructs that are not directly observable.
3. Mathematics. A configuration, outline, or surface.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > geometry > surface > [noun]
superficec1400
superficies1530
surface1604
superficie1702
wave-surface1833
developable1847
quartic1854
scroll1862
conicoid1863
regulus1874
Riemann surface1876
tetrahedroid1889
construct1902
skew1902
trend surface1956
1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVIII. 541/1 A monogenic algebraic construct (or configuration, or surface)... The notion of monogenic construct is wider than that of a monogenic function.
1965 Math. in Biol. & Med. (Med. Res. Council) iii. 114 A readily visualizable geometrical construct such as the n-dimensional football.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
constructadj.
/kənˈstrʌkt/, U.S. /kənˈstrək(t)/ archaic.
1. past participle. Constructed.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > [adjective] > created or produced > formed or constructed
wroughtOE
wroughtOE
confecta1398
combinedc14..
complosec1420
made1428
counterfeit1463
edificatec1470
construct?a1475
featuredc1500
compact1531
fashioned1535
conflate1541
confectedc1550
framed1565
timbered1570
constitute1589
compacted1598
fact1600
coagulate1610
quilted1617
coagulated1633
conflated1652
composititious1657
made-up1677
compactilea1682
constructed1785
put-together1848
compaginate1877
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1865) I. 63 Compacte and constructe throe the heete of the sonne.
1578 J. Banister Hist. Man i. f. 19 In Children the same [sc. Occiput] is construct of many bones.
1773 J. Ross Fratricide (MS) iv. 333 For so immortal bodies are construct.
1867 G. MacDonald Sonn. Jesus xi To the few construct of harmonies.
2. adj. in construct state, state construct, in grammar of Hebrew and other Semitic languages: the form of the substantive used when standing before another having an attributive (or genitive) relation to it, which may be translated by the nominative (or other case) followed by of, as ˈbayith house, bēyth-ĕlōˈhīm house of God.It is distinctive of the Semitic languages that in expressing such a notion as house of God, they do not, like the Aryan languages, put God in the genitive, but, retaining this unchanged, put house in the ‘state construct’. In this form the substantive becomes accentually combined with that which follows, losing its independent stress, and undergoing various consequent changes, as loss or lightening of vowels, of inflectional consonants, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > a part of speech > noun > [adjective] > construct form of noun
constructed1785
construct1821
1737 A. Schultens Institutiones 184 Regimen autem, sive statum constructum, dicunt [grammatici] copulationem illam.]
1821 M. Stuart Hebrew Gram. (1831) 124 The construct state.
1830 W. T. Philipps Elem. Heb. Gr. 81 In regimen or the constructed state.
1836 R. Keith tr. E. W. Hengstenberg Christol. Old Test. I. 353 The Stat. Constr. is often used where the connexion is intimate, though not made by a genitive, especially before prepositions.
1874 T. W. Chambers Bk. Zechariah Expounded 57/2 in P. Schaff et al. tr. J. P. Lange et al. Comm. Holy Script.: O. T. XVI The singular occurrence of [such words] after a noun in the construct.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
constructv.
/kənˈstrʌkt/, U.S. /kənˈstrək(t)/ 1. absolute.1832 T. B. Macaulay Mirabeau Demolition is undoubtedly a vulgar task; the highest glory of the statesman is to construct.
a. transitive. To make or form by fitting the parts together; to frame, build, erect.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > [verb (transitive)] > construct
workOE
dighta1175
to set upc1275
graitha1300
formc1300
pitchc1330
compoundc1374
to put togethera1387
performc1395
bigc1400
elementc1400
complexion1413
erect1417
framea1450
edifya1464
compose1481
construe1490
to lay together1530
perstruct1547
to piece together1572
condite1578
conflate1583
compile1590
to put together1591
to set together1603
draw1604
build1605
fabric1623
complicate1624
composit1640
constitute1646
compaginate1648
upa1658
complex1659
construct1663
structurate1664
structure1664
confect1677
to put up1699
rig1754
effect1791
structuralize1913
society > occupation and work > industry > building or constructing > build or construct [verb (transitive)]
timbera900
workOE
betimberOE
craftOE
buildc1275
lifta1300
stagec1330
upraise1338
wright1338
edifya1340
to make outa1382
to make upa1382
biga1400
housea1400
risea1400
telda1400–50
to work upa1450
redress1481
levy1495
upmake1507
upbuild1513
exstruct?c1550
construct1663
to run up1686
practise1739
to lay up1788
elevate1798
to put up1818
to lay down1851
practicate1851
1663 R. Boyle Some Considerations Usefulnesse Exper. Nat. Philos. i. iii. 59 Those divine Attributes and Prerogatives for whose manifesting he was pleas'd to construct this vast Fabrick.
1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II To Construct,..to build, to frame.
1794 R. J. Sulivan View of Nature II. xlv. 30 A sacred ship, the first that was ever constructed.
1817 S. T. Coleridge Biogr. Lit. (1870) xiii. 139 Des Cartes..said, Give me matter and motion and I will construct you the universe.
1848 H. H. Wilson Hist. Brit. India 1805–35 III. i. 37 The Burmas..constructed stockades on either bank of the Surma river.
1863 M. Howitt tr. F. Bremer Greece & Greeks I. i. 19 This splendid road has been lately constructed.
b. (immaterial objects, creations of the mind, etc.)
ΚΠ
1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Construct, to form by the mind: as, he constructed a new system.
1812 Examiner 4 May 283/2 M. Didelot has constructed a fanciful ballet.
1849 W. Thomson Outl. Laws of Thought (ed. 2) Introd. Before an Art of Rhetoric could be constructed.
1875 W. S. Jevons Money (1878) 10 It is easy to construct a theory of the nature of exchange and value.
2.
a. Grammar. To put together (words) in syntactical arrangement; to combine in grammatical construction. (Used chiefly of the manner.)
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > syntax or word order > construct syntactically [verb (transitive)]
construe1530
construct1871
1871 B. H. Kennedy Public School Lat. Gram. 248 Syntax is that division of Grammar which teaches how sentences are constructed.
1871 B. H. Kennedy Public School Lat. Gram. 257 The Vocative..is attached to the Sentence, but not constructed with it.
1871 B. H. Kennedy Public School Lat. Gram. 321 Many Adjectives above mentioned [as governing a Genitive] are also constructed with Prepositions.
b. (See quot. 1864.)
ΚΠ
1864 H. Alford Plea for Queen's Eng. (ed. 2) 183 Suppose I..direct one of them to construe the sentence. He knows perfectly well what I mean.. But suppose I tell him to construct the sentence. He..ought to know, that I mean that he is to explain the construction of the sentence, to give an account of its concords and governments.
3.
a. Geometry. The ordinary word for: To draw, delineate, or form geometrically. Also, to make the required construction or figure for (a problem in geometry, astronomy, navigation, etc.).
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > representation > a plastic or graphic representation > graphic representation > represent graphically [verb (transitive)] > a geometrical figure
erect1660
to lay down1669
construct1715
traverse1905
1715 tr. D. Gregory Elements Astron. I. ii. §63. 357 Some construct this Problem of finding the Parallax of Longitude or Latitude from the given Parallax of Altitude, more expeditiously thus.
1828 Moore's Pract. Navigator (ed. 20) 67 This case is constructed much the same as the last.
1840 D. Lardner Treat. Geom. 132 A rectangle whose area is equal to that of a given triangle, may be found by constructing one with the same base as the triangle and half its altitude.
1840 D. Lardner Treat. Geom. 277 A method of constructing or drawing a parabola by a series of points.
1882 G. M. Minchin Uniplanar Kinematics 125 Construct round P as centre the conic whose equation..is, etc.
b. To represent (an algebraical quantity or equation) by a geometrical construction.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > geometry > form or represent geometrically [verb (transitive)]
construct1728
geometricize1880
geometrize1880
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) This Method of constructing Equations is different, according to the Diversity of Equations.
1739 N. Saunderson Method of Fluxions (1756) 44 To construct this Fluent, that is, to find some geometrical Area with which it may be compared.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > explanation, exposition > interpretation > particular interpretation, construction > interpret in particular way [verb (transitive)] > apart from real sense
construe1362
constructc1610
c1610 J. Melville Mem. Own Life (1735) 84 Expressions which were constructed by the Queen of England as a Violation of their former Familiarity.
1668 Sir R. Murray in Evelyn Mem. (1857) III. 203 I..construct the design of all to be to express quaintly your kindness in desiring I may be where you are.
a1698 W. Row Suppl. in R. Blair Life (1848) (modernized text) xi. 361 This would be constructed by the King and others a homologating of the Protestor's petition.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1871adj.?a1475
v.c1610