differentiallyadv.
/ˌdɪfəˈrɛnʃl̩i/, /ˌdɪfəˈrɛnʃəli/, U.S. /ˌdɪfəˈrɛn(t)ʃəli/ 1. So as to distinguish; distinctively. Cf. differential adj. 1. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > difference > [adverb] > distinctly or marking the difference between
distinctlya1382
in sunderc1450
differencinglya1640
differentially1644
distinguishedly1680
distinguishably1704
sheerly1866
distinctively1871
1644 J. Strickland in C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David (1871) II. Ps. xlvi. 7 God is said to be in heaven differentially, so as he is not anywhere else.
1650 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica (ed. 2) iii. xxvii. 151 When biting Serpents are mentioned in the Scripture, they are not differentially set down from such as mischief by stings.
1846 T. De Quincey Antigone in Tait's Edinb. Mag. Feb. 113/2 These persons will..wish to know..what there is differentially interesting in a Grecian tragedy, as contrasted with one of Shakspere's, or of Schiller's.
1886 W. Stubbs 17 Lect. Study Hist. ix. 210 I will..state next what sorts of rights, forces, and ideas, I consider, mark differentially the three periods at which I have been looking.
1938 J. Dewey Logic ii. xii. 243 Traits which describe differentially the conceptions of mountains and islands.
2. Mathematics. In terms of or in respect of differentials; in terms of differentiable functions or mappings. rare.
ΚΠ
1831 W. S. B. Woolhouse Elem. Treat. Applic. Algebraic Anal. Geom. vi. 37 This may also be expressed differentially.
1902 W. H. Echols Elem. Text-bk. Differential & Integral Calculus xxxviii. 409 Written differentially, dy2 = ax3dx2.
1964 Science July 456/3 Milnor gave an example of two seven-dimensional surfaces which are topologically equivalent but are not differentially equivalent.
3. To a varying extent or degree; in different directions or ways; not uniformly.
ΚΠ
1844 Edinb. Rev. Jan. 124 We lay very heavy duties on foreign butter and cheese, which..are taxed differentially four times more than the produce of our colonies.
1862 H. Spencer First Princ. ii. x. 286 Whether..everything is explicable on the hypothesis of universal pressure, whence what we call tension results differentially from inequalities of pressure in opposite directions.
1876 W. H. Preece & J. Sivewright Telegraphy 177 The wire..to be then stretched..by passing round drums, either varying in diameter or differentially geared as to speed.
1909 in R. H. Brand Union of S. Afr. 185 Matters specially or differentially affecting Asiatics throughout the Union.
1945 Times 31 Oct. 5/6 Part of the cost of industrial accidents should be borne differentially by particular industries or employers.
1952 W. J. Miller Introd. Hist. Geol. (ed. 6) xxiii. 391 Since then the Great Plains region has been differentially uplifted to its present height.
2014 D. J. Miller & G. Konopka in J. T. Streelman Adv. in Evolutionary Developmental Biol. ix. 187 The differentially expanding cortical regions of the human brain.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
adv.1644