creativen.
/krɪˈeɪtɪv/, U.S. /kriˈeɪdɪv/ 1. The creative faculty; creative work; (Advertising) creative material produced for an advertising campaign, such as the copy, design, or artwork.
ΚΠ
1903 Westm. Gaz. 3 June 5/2 It may be observed that the development of the critical creative is somewhat inimical to the purely creative, as appears from the case of the author of ‘Emilia Galotti’ and ‘Nathan der Weise’.
1987 Bottomline Nov. 35/1 Good creative for bank advertising is similar to any other creative.
1989 New Yorker 15 May 41 (caption) Bruce, you look fabulous! Who's doing your creative?
1993 Chicago Tribune 29 Jan. iii. 4/2 Icon Marketing, a Chicago-based firm, was identified as providing the creative behind the spots, with Turner doing the production.
2001 Revolution 1 Aug. 5/4 Youth web site TheSite.org is using ‘in-your-face’ ads to drive users to the service... The creative was designed by agency Digital Outlook.
2. A creative person, a person whose job involves creative work; (Advertising) a person who carries out creative work on an advertising campaign, esp. a copywriter, art director, or designer.
ΚΠ
1938 T. Dreiser in W. S. Maugham Of Human Bondage (new ed.) I. p. v Life..is our best novelist and our best biographer... Only it does not write them [sc. novels and biographies]—except and perforce..through one of its creations or creatives.
1965 Listener 20 May 747/1 May not teachers be thought of as creatives manqué rather than failed doers?
1970 New Yorker 12 Sept. 29/2 (advt.) The media used will be those that ‘creatives’ consider their own.
1989 Campaign 21 Apr. 5/3 Planners write the brief on screen, creatives read it, then visualise and copywrite on one of the various enhanced computer graphics systems.
2000 M. Johnson Drop iii. 160 Could you send a portfolio over, a client list and such?.. And could you tell me the name of the head creative? Thank you.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
creativeadj.
/krɪˈeɪtɪv/, U.S. /kriˈeɪdɪv/ 1.
a. Having the quality of creating, able to create; of or relating to creation; originative.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > inventive or creative faculty > [adjective]
imaginativec1405
inventivec1450
feigning1483
creativea1513
inventative1541
inventious1591
conceitful1594
forgetive1600
productive1612
projecting1614
excogitous1646
plastic1662
ingeniary1664
formful1730
forgeful1751
inventful1797
original-minded1797
original1803
originative1811
vivid1814
fingent1837
constructive1841
right-brained1871
poietic1905
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > inventive or creative faculty > creative genius > [adjective]
poetical1597
imaginative1829
poetic1872
creative1874
a1513 J. Irland Meroure of Wyssdome (1965) II. 89 Infinit perfeccioun in him the power creatiue.
1612 R. Sheldon 1st Serm. after Conversion 35 What new existencies are made of one Christ, by your productiue, creatiue, and factiue consecrations.
1625 T. Jackson Treat. Originall of Vnbeliefe iv. 20 Others..imagine two eternall indefectible creatiue powers; the one good, and sole fountaine of all goodnesse: the other evill, and maine souse of all evill and mischiefe in the world.
1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. v. 863 This Divine Miraculous Creative Power.
1728 D. Mallet Excursion 9 Fancy, creative Power, at whose Command Arise unnumber'd Images of Things, Thy hourly Offspring.
c1750 W. Shenstone Ruin'd Abbey 332 Heav'n's creative hand.
1847 C. Brontë Let. ?21 Apr. (1995) I. 523 Your creative fingers will turn it to better account than my destructive ones.
1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People iv. §2. 164 There is no trace of creative genius or originality in his character.
1921 Sci. Monthly Feb. 116 Avicenna..thought fossils were the unfinished work of vis plastica, a creative force that changed inorganic substances to organic.
1937 ‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier xii. 230 In my spare time I want to do something ‘creative’, so I choose to do a bit of carpentering.
1992 Sci. Amer. May 57/1 I went to China and found that a quarter of the human race doesn't find the need of believing in a benevolent and creative god.
b. Inventive, imaginative; of, relating to, displaying, using, or involving imagination or original ideas as well as routine skill or intellect, esp. in literature or art. Cf. creative writer n., creative writing n. at Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > the arts in general > [adjective] > qualities of works generally
wateryc1230
polite?a1500
meagre1539
over-laboured1579
bald1589
spiritless1592
light1597
meretricious1633
standing1661
effectual1662
airy1664
severe1665
correct1676
enervatea1704
free1728
classic1743
academic1752
academical1752
chaste1753
nerveless1763
epic1769
crude1786
effective1790
creative1791
soulless1794
mannered1796
manneristical1830
manneristic1837
subjective1840
inartisticala1849
abstract1857
inartistic1859
literary1900
period1905
atmospheric1908
dateless1908
atmosphered1920
non-naturalistic1925
self-indulgent1926
free-styled1933
soft-centred1935
freestyle1938
pseudish1938
decadent1942
post-human1944
kitschy1946
faux-naïf1958
spare1965
society > leisure > the arts > artist > [adjective] > creative
creative1876
1729 R. Savage Wanderer 3 Come, contemplation,..Whose Pencil paints, obsequious to thy Will, All thou survey'st, with a creative Skill!
1791 J. Ireland Hogarth Illustr. II. 332 He carries in his countenance a perfect consciousness of his talents in this creative art.
1816 W. Wordsworth Ode Gen. Thanksgiving 30 Creative Art..Demands the service of a mind and heart..Heroically fashioned.
1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda II. iii. xxii. 73 A creative artist is no more a mere musician than a great statesman is a mere politician.
1900 W. B. Worsfold Judgm. in Lit. iii. 25 Aristotle has once and for all characterised the method of creative literature, and distinguished such literature from all other branches of letters.
1958 Spectator 14 Feb. 197/1 ‘Creative’ commercial jobs, such as advertising, designing, modelling, public relations, TV production, or on a ‘glossy’ news-magazine.
1969 Times 13 Dec. 9/7 Middleclass mothers who leave a child alone with a roomful of creative toys all day may produce ‘C’ stream children as often as the working mother.
1990 Times Educ. Suppl. 1 June a6/2 A new performing arts centre will be set up in September, involving creative music making.
c. Esp. of a financial or other strategy: ingenious, esp. in a misleading way. Recorded earliest in creative accounting n. at Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > skill or skilfulness > [adjective] > ingenious > characterized by ingenuity
craftlyOE
quaintc1230
sly1297
subtilea1393
subtlea1400
cunning1423
prettyc1450
ingenious1548
politicc1550
well-contrived1563
conceited1579
well-invented1588
concepted1594
nimble1602
artful1605
artly?1614
artistical1646
callid1656
well-couched1671
tippy1863
genius1924
creative1967
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > types of money-dealing > [adjective] > other attributes of investments or capital > esp. misleading
creative1967
1967 M. Brooks Producers (screenplay) 20 Bialystock: How could a producer make more money with a flop than with a hit?.. Bloom: It's simply a matter of creative accounting.
1979 Economist 7 July 91/2 The purpose of unitary taxation is ostensibly to capture income which might otherwise, through creative transfer pricing, go untaxed or undertaxed in other jurisdictions.
1985 Dirt Bike Mar. 9/1 (advt.) Our competitors claim ‘Number 1 this’, ‘Fastest growing that’... We have but a single response to all this ‘creative’ ad copy—Nonsense!
1996 H. K. Smith Events leading up to my Death lxii. 295 Kennedy came out on top, but his victory margin was so thin and was obtained under such dubious conditions in two states famous for creative vote counting that the opposite result may have been the true one.
2. Providing the cause or occasion of, productive of. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > [adjective] > causing > productive of
causativea1420
nutrix?a1475
effective1594
inductive1613
productivea1631
creative1701
gignitive1837
causeful1849
1701 S. Hill Rights, Liberties, & Authorities Christian Church ii. 17 Not only concessive of Liberty, but creative of all Authority.
1795 A. Thomas Newfoundland Jrnl. (1968) 206 I wrote with the quill of a Goose. A simple Animal. Therefore all my subjects are flat, mucid, rough, heavy and creative of lethargy.
1803 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 9 272 Injuries..unattended by any symptoms creative of alarm.
1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. III. 130 Laws and customs cannot be creative of virtue: they may encourage and help to preserve it; but they cannot originate it.
1904 Proc. Amer. Polit. Sci. Assoc. 1 130 The true activity of the government is not creative of social action but liberative of social forces.
1975 Times 5 Feb. 17/4 He lifted up the loss of his eyes, in bounden duty and service, day by day for nearly 60 of his 77 years of life... That living sacrifice was accepted and made creative of great good.
Compounds
creative accountancy n. = creative accounting n.
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society > trade and finance > management of money > keeping accounts > [noun] > book-keeping > misleading
window dressing1892
creative accounting1967
creative accountancy1981
1981 Washington Post 12 Mar. c2/1 Congress has not approved Carter's or Reagan's budget, so the data in them represent a certain amount of ‘creative accountancy’.
2007 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 28 Mar. 2 Eric Pickles, the Conservative spokesman, said: ‘Labour spin doctors are again using creative accountancy to hide the fact that their councils cost more and deliver less.’
creative accountant n. a person who practises creative accounting.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > management of money > keeping accounts > [noun] > keeper of accounts > other accountants
Accountant General1621
actuary1772
chartered accountant1855
liquidator1858
costs clerk1860
cost clerk1861
cost-keeper1865
credit man1878
cost accountant1892
preparer1960
creative accountant1973
1973 New Yorker 20 Aug. 39/3 Losses, then, of three hundred billion dollars in a year or a half, spread over more than thirty million investors—such were the bitter fruits..of the works of corporate fiction written by the ‘creative’ accountants, who found ways of justifying fanciful figures on their clients' earnings statements.
2005 Chillicothe (Missouri) Constit.-Tribune (Nexis) 16 June 5/4 He and some creative accountants schemed and scammed the company into bankruptcy.
creative accounting n. the modification of accounts to achieve a desired end; falsification of accounts that is misleading but not necessarily illegal.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > management of money > keeping accounts > [noun] > book-keeping > misleading
window dressing1892
creative accounting1967
creative accountancy1981
1967Creative accounting [see sense 1c].
1986 Tribune 12 Sept. 3/2 The working party on local government finance will look first at the extent of creative accounting, particularly deferred purchase schemes, which councils have used to get round government restrictions.
2008 Sunday Times (Nexis) 31 Aug. 4 Creative accounting to take advantage of low tax rates means that productivity estimates for these firms are greatly exaggerated.
creative class n. creative people collectively; people working in fields such as the arts, publishing, design, etc., considered as a class.
ΚΠ
1836 Amer. Q. Rev. June 429 If he [sc. a writer] do indeed belong to that creative class, who make the world they inhabit, what need has he of calling for more ground?
1936 Times 9 June 12 The individual..who views familiar vistas from a new angle—'tis he who is of the creative class.
2005 D. McWilliams Pope's Children ii. 18 It [sc. the educational uplift] has already led to the emergence of a new creative class.
creative destruction n. the process by which something is replaced, and thus effectively destroyed, by something newly created; (Economics) the process by which emerging technologies, industries, and ideas in capitalist economies continuously supplant existing ones, identified by Joseph Schumpeter in 1942; frequently in gale of creative destruction.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > [noun]
end832
bale-sithea1000
wrakea1275
wonderc1275
destroyingc1300
destruction1340
contritionc1384
stroying1396
undoing1398
tininga1400
ruinc1425
fatec1430
fordoingc1450
perishing?1523
shipwreck1526
pernicion?1530
ruining1562
ruinating1587
defeasance1590
defeature1592
breakneck1598
ruination1599
defeat1600
doom1609
planet-striking1611
mismaking1615
rasurea1616
destructa1638
perition1640
interemption1656
smashing1821
degrowth1876
uncreation1884
creative destruction1927
1927 H. J. Laski Communism ii. 57 Its utility for its age draws near completion; its antithesis then begins the work of creative destruction.
1942 J. A. Schumpeter Capitalism, Socialism & Democracy vii. 84 It must be seen in its role in the perennial gale of creative destruction.
1981 Philos. & Phenomenol. Res. 42 106 It is..a creative destruction. The substitution for the destroyed Oedipus complex is the boy's formation within himself of a father-like self-critical agency.
2001 P. Anton et al. Global Technol. Revol. Summary p. xvi The accelerating pace of technological change combined with ‘creative destruction’ of industries will increase the importance of continued education and learning.
creative director n. a person who oversees the creative elements or overall design of an organization's advertising, products, publications, etc. (frequently as a job title).
ΚΠ
1938 N.Y. Times 10 Jan. 30/3 S. K. Wilson, creative director of Erwin, Wasey & Co., Ltd., [sc. an advertising agency], London, for the last two years.
1966 Crisis June–July 332/2 Mr. Read is creative director of the Department of Supporting Services of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
2005 Daily Tel 26 Apr. 19/1 Since Tomas Maier took over as creative director of Bottega Veneta four years ago, the butterfly has been the label′s emblem, and has appeared as a signature print on his ultra-luxe bags.
creative evolution n. [after French L'Évolution créatrice (title of book by H. L. Bergson, 1907)] (in the philosophy of Henri Bergson) continuous change and development, conceived as an inherent property of the universe.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > absolute idealism > [noun] > Bergsonism and its adherents > elements of
supraconsciousness1879
creative evolution1908
1908 Jrnl. Philos., Psychol. & Sci. Methods 5 606 The active principle of life Bergson describes by the phrase tendency to create. Its movement is a creative evolution.
1921 G. B. Shaw Back to Methuselah p. lxxviii Creative Evolution is already a religion, and is indeed now unmistakably the religion of the twentieth century.
1981 E. R. Harrison Cosmology xx. 395/2 In Bergson's theory of creative evolution the world of material things is orderly and deterministic, whereas the élan vital, the breath of life, is creative and free.
2001 Slavic & East European Jrnl. 45 321 Kazantzakis's profound interest in the idea of creative evolution, espoused by his teacher Henri Bergson, accounts for his attraction to, but ultimate desire to transcend, communism.
creative evolutionist n. an adherent of Bergson's concept of creative evolution.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > absolute idealism > [noun] > Bergsonism and its adherents
Bergsonian1909
Bergsonism1909
creative evolutionist1915
1915 Jrnl. Philos., Psychol. & Sci. Methods 12 373 I am myself certainly no Kantian, or at least no more Kantian than pragmatist, creative evolutionist, or anything else you please.
1969 R. Boxill Shaw & Doctors ii. 50 The mechanism of the Neo-Darwinians could not be established any more than the vitalism of the creative evolutionists.
creative sentencing n. Law (originally and chiefly U.S.) the passing of an (often unorthodox or innovative) sentence as an alternative to imprisonment, esp. with the aim of linking the punishment to the crime committed; esp. a sentence which causes the offender to face the consequences of his or her actions or to make some form of retribution.
ΚΠ
1975 Pacific Reporter 543 413/1 We are not unaware of the fact that the sentence review process has the potential of stifling creative sentencing. This must not happen; appellate review must insure the quality of justice, not diminish it.
1982 N.Y. Times 6 June xi. 25 We urge judges to consider other creative sentencing options on a case-by-case basis, with jail always available as a last resort when other punishments fail.
2001 Sunday Mail (Glasgow) (Nexis) 28 Oct. At his court in..Ohio, Judge Hostetler said the overcrowded jail forced creative sentencing. He once made vandals..auction their possessions to pay for the damage.
creative writer n. a person who engages in creative writing.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > writer or author > [noun]
bookerOE
writerOE
makerc1350
authora1382
inditera1387
pena1398
poetc1400
bookmakera1425
ditera1425
compilera1500
compositor?1533
book writer1565
penner1568
authorizera1579
bookwright1583
scribe1584
epistler1592
penman1592
scriptora1600
composer1603
book-breeder1605
comprisor?1623
volumist1641
scrivenera1660
literatist1660
knight of the quill1692
belletrist1816
scriever1825
creative writer1854
penworker1876
1839 Edinb. Rev. Jan. 370 [Southey] is really an original and a creative writer.]
1854 Gentleman's Mag. Sept. 231 This deficiency places him [sc. Alexandre Dumas], in our opinion at least, immeasurably below his rival, M. Eugene Sue, in the scale of creative writers.
1907 G. K. Chesterton in C. Dickens Pickwick Papers p. viii In creative art the essence of a book exists before the book... The creative writer laughs at his comedy before he creates it.
1938 W. S. Maugham Summing Up 232 One of the reasons why current criticism is so useless is that it is done as a side-issue by creative writers.
2004 Times Lit. Suppl. 23 Apr. 26/3 A few lucky individuals received a liberal education and went on to be creative writers..or..became the hostesses of literary salons.
creative writing n. writing which displays imagination or invention (sometimes differentiated from academic, journalistic, or other forms of writing which are more constrained in style or scope); also frequently (originally U.S.) as a subject of study.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > art or occupation of writer or author > [noun]
bookcraftOE
fayingc1200
pena1387
composition1577
penwork1596
book writing1600
pencraft1600
composure1601
authoragea1628
literature1663
authorism1702
authorship1710
letters?1710
authoring1742
authorcraft1746
penwomanship1776
penmanship1793
authorhood1832
creative writing1837
pen-and-inkeryc1909
1837 R. W. Emerson Oration before Phi Beta Kappa Soc. 11 One must be an inventor to read well... There is then creative reading, as well as creative writing.
1889 Dial Sept. 94/1 Does it in truth rest entirely, or even mainly, with the reviewer..to elevate criticism to its rightful place, very near to creative writing itself?
1922 R. C. Holliday & A. Van Rensselaer Business of Writing 100 Then, actually, there is comparatively small demand for creative writing.
1930 Eng. Jrnl. 19 635 Courses in creative writing.
1958 Oxf. Mag. 4 Dec. 164/2 In America..established, or at any rate committed, writers have been absorbed, permanently or temporarily, into the apparatus of creative writing workshops.
1991 Nation (N.Y.) 23 Sept. 338/1 The school's small rooms were alive with activity—hands-on use of scientific and mathematical materials and lots of creative writing and art work.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1903
adj.a1513