localadj.n.
/ˈləʊkl/, U.S. /ˈloʊkəl/ A. adj.† 7. Mathematics. Of or relating to a geometric figure whose points satisfy one or more mathematical relations or conditions, esp. as the solutions to an equation. Cf. locus n.1 2. Obsolete.
1. Medicine.
a. Of a remedy or treatment: acting upon or administered (esp. applied outwardly) to a limited area or particular part of the body; topical; not systemic (systemic adj. 3a).
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the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > [adjective] > local
local?a1425
localized1838
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > characteristics > [adjective] > focalized
local?a1425
focalized1838
localized1838
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 122v (MED) G. witnesseþ þat purgacionz withouten any locale medicyne [L. locali medicamine] ofte tymez heleþ allopuciez bigynnyng.
a1450 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Caius 336/725) (1970) 33 Of local antidotis [L. de antidotis localibus] for apostematis in whiche schal be tretid of medicyns repercussiues..& also of resolutiues. of mollificatiues..of mundificatiues.
1543 B. Traheron tr. J. de Vigo Most Excellent Wks. Chirurg. i. ii. f. 25v/2 The doctours make no mention of locale medicines in these diseases.
1580 J. Hester tr. L. Fioravanti Short Disc. Chirurg. sig. P This effecte it doth bicause it dryeth mightely, that alteration made in the secret parts of the raynes inwardlye, where no locall medicine can be applyed.
1651 P. Armin tr. F. Glisson et al. Treat. Rickets 369 Then you must proceed to Local Remedies.
1698 W. Salmon Ars Chirurgica v. xxviii. 1137/2 But yet at last, after all, if it resists all Local Medicaments, you must come to Incision.
1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Local Medicaments, those Remedies that are apply'd outwardly to a particular Place, or Part; as Plaisters, Salves, Ointments, etc.
1813 J. Thomson Lect. Inflammation 179 The Local or Topical treatment of inflammation.
1852 Lancet 3 Jan. 13/2 In the section devoted to treatment, the remedies are divided into the systemic and the local.
1907 Providence Med. Jrnl. 8 195 Condition did not subside under local treatment and it was decided to operate.
1954 Tubercle 35 142/1 Her general practitioner treated her by local applications of an anti-histamine cream, and three skin patch tests were negative.
1989 J. A. B. Collier & J. M. Longmore Oxf. Handbk. Clin. Specialties (ed. 2) ix. 636 Treatment:... Local steroid injection or division of the synovial fold arthroscopically.
2015 tr. C. Schaefer et al. Drugs during Pregancy & Lactation (ed. 3) 475 Resorcin is an aromatic alcohol used in local acne therapy, seborrheic eczema and psoriasis.
b. Esp. of a disease, pathological or physiological process, or symptom: confined to a limited area or particular part of the body; not systemic (systemic adj. 1b).
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?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 118 (MED) In curyng of locale combustioun ar had 3 entensionz.
1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida iv. vii. 128 Tell me you heauens, in which part of his body Shall I destroy him: whether there, or there, or there, That I may giue the locall wound a name. View more context for this quotation
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost xii. 387 Dream not of thir fight, As of a Duel, or the local wounds Of head or heel. View more context for this quotation
1771 Encycl. Brit. III. 59/1 Order II. Phlegmasiæ, or fevers accompanied with any local pain.
1792 T. Kirkland Comm. Apoplectic & Paralytic Affections 172 Were any other local palsy to happen, topical remedies might be sufficient.
1834 J. Forbes et al. Cycl. Pract. Med. III. 49/1 The symptoms may be considered as local and general, the local being, principally, pain, tenderness, and tumefaction; the general, fever [etc.].
1874 J. Sully Sensation & Intuition 56 The exquisite delicacy of local sensibility, especially that of the retina.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VII. 11 A local inflammation or hæmorrhage.
1910 Practitioner Jan. 129 I want to insist that pyorrhoea alveolaris is a local disease due to germ, or carbohydrate-germ.
1989 B. Alberts et al. Molecular Biol. Cell (ed. 2) xvii. 974 A local infection or injury in any tissue..rapidly attracts white blood cells into the affected region as part of the inflammatory response.
2001 N. Jones Rough Guide Trav. Health i. 58 Occasional local skin reactions can occur.
2. Chiefly in theological contexts.† b. Having a definite place or spatial position. Obsolete.
a. Of or relating to position in space, or to the fact of occupying or taking up space; of or relating to the location of something.
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the world > space > place > position or situation > [adjective]
local1485
positional?a1560
situal1654
1485 W. Caxton tr. Thystorye & Lyf Charles the Grete sig. aij/1 And also in recountyng of hye hystoryes, the comune vnderstondyng is better content to the ymagynacion local than to symple auctoryte, to which it is submysed.
1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. (1634) iv. xvii. 675 (margin) A local presence of the body of Christ.
1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream v. i. 17 The Poets penne turnes them to shapes, And giues to ayery nothing, a locall habitation, And a name. View more context for this quotation
1659 J. Pearson Expos. Apostles Creed v. 479 As to a locall descent into the infernall parts they all agree.
1706 W. Jones Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos 46 Some of these Powers have borrowed their Denominations from Local Extension.
1782 J. Priestley Disquis. Matter & Spirit (ed. 2) I. xix. 231 The Cartesians have overturned all these opinions; maintaining that spirits have no extension, nor local presence.
1806 W. Cruise Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. VI. 320 The local situation of the lands devised.
1901 Church Eclectic Aug. 396 It is needful to note that His presence in Hades was not the local presence of His Body, but the Presence of His Spirit.
1925 H. Bett Johannes Scotus Erigena ii. 73 The fire, the worm, the gnashing of teeth, the lake of brimstone, are not to be understood as corporeal and local.
2013 T. L. Humphries Ascetic Pneumatol. 125 Only creatures have corporeal, ‘local’ presence, and..only God has incorporeal, ‘non-local’ presence.
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the world > space > place > [adjective] > having the attribute of local position
local1533
1533 J. Frith Bk. answeringe Mores Let. sig. Hij Ye Lord, whiche to shewe hys humanyte to be locall (that is to saye: contayned in one place onelye) dyd saye vnto his dyscyples. I ascende vnto my father.
1533 J. Frith Bk. answeringe Mores Let. sig. Hii Howe dyd he ascende in to heauen, but because he is locall and a verye man.
1577 H. I. tr. H. Bullinger 50 Godlie Serm. II. iv. ix. sig. Lll.iij/1 Angels peraduenture at this daye are more aptly sayd to be locall or in place, not circumscriptiuely; but definitiuely.
1638 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy (ed. 5) ii. ii. iii. 246 [He] will have Hell a materiall and locall fire in the center of the earth.
1718 M. Prior Solomon on Vanity i, in Poems Several Occasions (new ed.) 418 A higher flight the venturous goddess tries, Leaving material worlds, and local skies.
a1745 J. Swift Direct. Birthday Song in Wks. (1765) VIII. ii. 158 That sound Divine the truth hath spoke all, And pawn'd his word, Hell is not local.
3.
a. Of, relating to, inhabiting, or existing in a particular place or region.
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the world > the earth > region of the earth > [adjective] > belonging to or existing in particular region
local?c1500
the world > space > place > [adjective] > relating to a particular place
regional?a1425
local?c1500
topical1588
territorial1606
topic1610
regionary1654
regionic1871
?c1500 MS BL Add. 22285 in Myroure Oure Ladye (1873) Introd. p. xxi (note) Priuileges, ordynary iniunccions, localle statutes, laudable custons, decrees, & al other ordynaunces.
1547 T. Cranmer Certayne Serm. sig. L.iii They do sweare to kepe common lawes, or locall statutes and good customes.
1612 J. Selden in M. Drayton Poly-olbion i. Illustr. 13 If in Prose and Religion it were as iustifiable, as in Poetry and Fiction, to inuoke a Locall power..I would therin ioyne with the Author.
1687 Let. 20 Oct. in J. R. Bloxham Magdalen Coll. & James II (1886) (modernized text) 112 That College had the Bishop of Winchester for their Visitor Local.
1740 C. Pitt tr. Virgil Æneid II. viii. 366 The Swains the Local Majesty rever'd.
1792 J. Almon Anecd. Life W. Pitt (octavo ed.) II. xxix. 125 I have no local attachments; it is indifferent to me, whether a man was rocked in his cradle on this side or that side of the Tweed.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. v. 612 (note) Oldmixon, who was a boy at Bridgewater when the battle was fought,..was so much under the influence of local passions that his local information was useless to him.
1891 E. Peacock Narcissa Brendon II. 313 Mr. Yeo, the local lawyer.
1940 J. Buchan Memory Hold-the-Door 315 Then there were local poachers... Their quarry was the salmon out of season.
1984 J. Updike Witches of Eastwick ii. 124 The Reverend Ed Parsley had run off with a local teenager.
2002 P. Long Guide to Rural Wales v. 189 The bar menu and the à la carte restaurant menu both make excellent use of fresh seasonal local produce and home-grown herbs.
b. Limited, restricted, or peculiar to a particular place or region.
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the world > space > place > [adjective] > relating to a particular place > peculiar to a particular place
local1615
vicinal1799
1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey 170 Those ceremonies that are not locall, I willingly omit.
1672 E. Ashmole Inst. Order of Garter xviii. 471 Offring up of Atchievements..is peculiar and local to the Chappel of St. George in Windesor Castle.
1749 W. Douglass Summary First Planting Brit. Settlem. N.-Amer. I. 442 The Persecution of Sectaries in New-England..is not minutely related here; as being only local and temporary.
1781 W. Cowper Retirem. 119 Truth is not local, God alike pervades And fills the world of traffic and the shades.
1811 Henry & Isabella I. 3 Her ideas were as local as Andrew's; and they neither of them seemed likely to disturb the brain of the other.
1886 Misc. Ess. Econ. Entomol. 49 In the region indicated as infested, the destruction was largely local.
1922 Calif. Fish & Game 188/1 If it can be shown that the increase is not just local, but of the entire coast, this herd [of sea lions] may have to be kept within a reasonable size.
1988 Hispanic Amer. Hist. Rev. 68 750 Revolts..tended to be local in character, spontaneous, of short duration.
2001 High Country News 5 Nov. 5/4 As the area feels its way toward an uncertain future, tourism boosters now have to contend with more than just local controversy.
c. spec. Of, relating to, or existing in a town or other comparatively small district as distinct from the state or country as a whole.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > a land or country > part of country or district > [adjective]
regional?a1425
locala1639
cantonal1842
departmental1883
a1639 H. Wotton State of Christendom (1657) 29 It was undoubtedly a local Law..and therefore as all other local Laws are, was tyed to the Inheritance of that Town only.
1688 J. Allyn Let. 27 Jan. in J. H. Trumbull Public Rec. Colony of Connecticut (1859) III. 439 The law that doth confirm or locall lawes.
1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations II. v. i. 402 Those local or provincial expences of which the benefit is local or provincial..ought to be no burden upon the general revenue of the society.
1786 E. Burke Articles of Charge against W. Hastings in Wks. (1842) II. 191 He the said Warren Hastings hath left the said troops, by his new treaty, without any local controul.
1848 H. Hallam Suppl. Notes View Europe Middle Ages 35 Such is the national importance which a merely local privilege may sometimes bestow.
1861 J. S. Mill Represent. Govt. xv. 278 Among the duties classed as local, or performed by local functionaries, there are many which might with equal propriety be termed national.
1920 Jrnl. Amer. Instit. Architects Jan. 12/2 There should be a general plan for the entire province and..that plan should be followed by auxiliary or local planning.
1977 W. A. Speck Stability & Strife v. 120 The price of grain..varied in response to local rather than to national conditions.
2003 H. Skandera & R. Sousa School Figures iv. 193 The source of public school funding has increasingly shifted from primarily local funding toward state and national funding.
d. Of a newspaper, or of radio or other media: distributed or broadcast only in a particular place or region, and featuring matters of local interest.
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1776 Bill to authorize Punishment by Hard Labour 7 The said Justices..shall cause to be inserted in the local News Papers, Advertisements for Plans of proper Buildings for the Purposes aforesaid.
1776 Morning Chron. 24 Dec. She expresses a desire to render the Detector a mere local paper, or a kind of daily advertiser of moral misdemeanors.
1810 Monthly Mag. Nov. 311/1 If any of the local newspapers think that my ideas would be attended with any utility, at least excite attention to the subject.
1898 Colorado Med. Jrnl. Sept. 353 A Local Medical Journal ought to be a local journal. It can hardly be both a local and a national publication.
1912 Times of India 2 Feb. 10 The local Radio station was in communication with the Royal escort vessels.
1926 Farmers' Bull. (U.S. Dept. Agric.) No. 1485. 13 Radio information may be broadcasted by local radio.
1974 Crisis May 166/1 Sometimes local media have taken a minor scuffle and blown it up to the proportions of a major riot.
1989 D. Leavitt Equal Affections (1990) ii. 203 The weatherman on the local news was describing the progress of a hurricane.
2009 S. M. Thomas Criminal Karma ix. 45 I leafed through the local newspaper.
e. Of a means of public transport, esp. a bus or train service: operating over short distances; serving a particular district, typically with frequent stops. Also: of or relating to such transport. Cf. local line n. at Compounds.Sometimes contrasted with express, fast, long-distance, etc.
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1845 Eng. Gentleman 14 June 128/3 Norwich and Brandon Railway. Opening of the line... The trains will run as follows... Ordinary train... Fast train... Local train [etc.].
1898 A. Bennett Man from North vii. 44 Cab-fares, bus-routes, and local railways.
1921 Pacific Reporter 197 693/1 A ticket from Reno to San Francisco is not a local ticket.
1934 Discovery Nov. 317/2 When..the railways are providing local services..no dearer than motor bus companies.
1996 J. Brown Hong Kong & Macau: Rough Guide (ed. 3) Introd. p. iv Once a typhoon is in full swing..local transport..will..stop running.
2014 Time Out Kuala Lumpur Mar. 100/2 Local buses or motorbike taxis are available to the hot spring area of Huashuiwan.
4. Of a name: denoting a geographical location. Also: of, relating to, or concerned with such names.
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the world > space > place > [adjective]
placely?1548
local1605
locational1855
1605 W. Camden Remaines i. 95 The most surnames in number, the most antient, and of best accompt, haue bene locall, deduced from places in Normandy and the countries confining.
1759 W. Robertson Hist. Scotl. i, in Hist. Wks. (1813) I. 21 Distinguished by some common appellation, either patronymical or local.
1849 W. A. Williamson Local Etymol. 70 Dor, Welsh, dwr, dwfr, water: in local names commonly referring to water districts, rivers, and coasts.
1857 R. Morris (title) The Etymology of Local Names.
1915 Eng. Hist. Rev. July 562 Like many other local etymologists, Mr. Walker shows a bias in favour of derivation from personal names.
1955 E. Schroeder Muhammad's People Introd. (note) Family names in later times take the patronymic form. A local name (e.g., Baghdadi—of Baghdad) and a reference to the profession (e.g., al-Hasib—the Accountant) may be added.
2012 R. Brackmann Elizabethan Invention Anglo-Saxon Engl. iv. 87 One of the reasons that knowing Old English is beneficial..is that it will help with local etymology.
5. Law. Situated in or fixed to the place in question, and hence subject solely to legal action within that jurisdiction. Opposed to transitory adj. 3.
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1598 tr. J. Kitchin Jurisdictions (1675) 180 b Pur ceo que le chose est local, & annex al franketeñ.]
1607 J. Cowell Interpreter sig. O3v/1 Chose locall, is such a thing as is annexed to a place. For example: a mill is chose locall. [With reference to the use in quot. 1598 at sense 5.]
a1638 R. Brownlow Rep. Diverse Cases: 2nd Pt. (1651) 204 The Court said, that they could not diminish the damages in Trespass which was locall.
1708 Rastell's Termes de la Ley (new ed.) 419 An Action of Trespass for Battery, is transitory and not local, and therefore the place need not be..set down in the Declaration.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Trespass Trespass local is that which is so annex'd to the Place certain, that if the Defendant join Issue upon a Place, and traverse the Place mention'd in the Declaration, and aver it; it is enough to defeat the Action.
1810 C. A. Rodney Let. 8 June in T. Jefferson Papers (2005) Retirement Ser. II. 454 It can not be an action of Trespass quare clausum fregit for that is local.
1882 Rep. Supreme Court Mississippi 59 321 An action founded in privity of estate is by the common law local and not transitory, and is not maintainable out of the jurisdiction in which it arose.
1928 Columbia Law Rev. 28 298 The development of the royal action of trespass would seem to coincide with the development of the king's peace, while local trespasses were violations of preexistent local peaces.
2001 P. Goldstein Internat. Copyright iii. 91 The principle rationale for the decision was that copyright infringement, like trespass to land, is a ‘local’ rather than a ‘transitory’ cause of action and is consequently not justiciable outside the jurisdiction in which it arises.
6. Grammar. Of a case, etc.: of or relating to place, position, or location. Cf. locative adj. 1.
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the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > other grammatical categories or concepts > [adjective] > expressing other relations or concepts
adversativec1450
commonc1450
concessive1653
local1662
aggregate1683
ecbatic1836
sociative1845
inversive1858
comitative1860
consecutive1871
conative1875
1662 J. Howell New Eng. Gram. 157 (heading) Local Adverbs, or of place.
1755 G. M. A. Baretti tr. in Introd. Ital. Lang. 3 There are three local adverbs much used in Italian; quì, in Latin hic, in English here.
1845 W. E. Jelf Gram. Greek Lang. I. 296 [Adverbs] are divided into a. Local,..b. Temporal,..c. Modal [etc.].
1889 E. A. Sonnenschein Lat. Gram. §348 Local Clauses. (Clauses of Place.)
1918 Amer. Jrnl. Philol. 39 3 We may read through a good many pages before striking a single local dative while non-local ones occur every few lines.
1963 A. B. Mickelsen Interpreting the Bible vi. 150 Local clauses are adverbial and answer the question ‘where’.
2005 G. Booij Gram. Words vi. 132 The Finnish nouns..all have a particular local case. These local cases have similar functions as locative prepositions in languages with less elaborated case systems.
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the world > relative properties > number > geometry > shape or figure > [adjective] > having specific property
hypotenusal?a1560
oblique?a1560
local1673
focal1676
octantal1777
symmetrical1794
radical1848
self-conjugate1855
quadric1856
stellated1859
periphractic1881
homoeoidal1883
tridiametral1891
one-sided1893
semi-infinite1903
simplicial1913
mirror-symmetric1952
1673 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 8 6074 The most abstruse parts of Geometry, as in the Conical Doctrine, Angular Sections, Solid and Curvilinear Geometry, and Local determinations.
1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I. at Local Problem The problem is said to be a local or indetermined one.
1777 London Rev. Eng. & Foreign Lit. Aug. 135 There are innumerable Porisms which by no means depend upon a local theorem, and have nothing common with loci.
1811 J. Leslie Elem. Geom. (ed. 2) iii. 317 If this local theorem were extended to the extreme cases, it would include other propositions which are exhibited in a separate form.
1871 Trans. Royal Irish Acad.: Sci. 24 528 This equation may be called the local equation of a bicircular quartic.
8. Painting. Designating the actual colour of something in ordinary daylight, independent of modification by light, shade, or environment.Frequently modifying colour: see note in etymology and cf. local colour n. at Compounds.
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society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > painting and drawing > painting > art of colouring > [adjective] > quality of colour
local1721
1721 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. Local Colours, in painting, are such as are natural and proper for each particular Object in a Picture.
1782 J. T. Dillon tr. A. R. Mengs Sketches Art of Painting 76 The local tints of the flesh, in every part are admirably diversified.
1797 Encycl. Brit. XIII. 599/2 The happy dispositions of colours both proper and local.
1821 W. M. Craig Lect. Drawing i. 15 The objects were all drawn..with a pen and..then thinly washed over with indications of their local colours.
1859 T. J. Gullick & J. Timbs Painting 8 The local colour, which is the self colour of an object, and what we mean when we talk of a ‘red coat’ or a ‘green field’.
1904 in M. Marks Home Arts Self-Teacher 210/1 Yellow flowers may be painted with the Yellow for the local tint and shaded with Sanguine or Gray Green toned with Violet or Cochineal.
1988 Artist's & Illustrator's Mag. Feb. 41/3 Effects of reflected colour among the local colours are represented by additional dots of the appropriate hues.
2010 M. Friel Still Life Painting Atelier iv. 102 Once you have mixed the local colour, tint or shade it as needed to match the value contrasts in the underpainting.
9. Mathematics. Occurring or valid only within a neighbourhood of a point or the value of a variable, or within a collection of such neighbourhoods; relative to a neighbourhood rather than the whole space. Contrasted with global adj. 3. [In quot. 1915 after French problème local (H. Poincaré 1907, in Rendiconti del Circolo Matematico di Palermo 23 185); unrelated to local problem n. at Compounds.]
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1915 Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 16 334 Our problem is then precisely what Poincaré has called the local problem of conformal geometry:..is it possible to find an analytic function of z, so as to convert o into O and l into L, the function to be regular in the neighborhood of z = 0?
1926 Ann. Math. 27 295 The geometry of paths is the theory of a system of curves having the local property that two points are joined by one and only one curve of the system.
1963 G. F. Simmons Introd. Topol. & Mod. Anal. vi. 152 The principal applications of local connectedness lie in the theory of continuous curves.
2003 G. H. Smith & G. J. McLelland On Shoulders of Giants (rev. ed.) v. 71 In contrast to local values, we can also consider global or absolute maxima and minima.
10. Computing. Designating a component of a system or a peripheral device which is connected directly to, and typically accessed only by, a particular computer, processor, etc.
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1962 Proc. IRE 50 433/1 The translator stores the target data in local memory for quick access during the display scanning cycle.
1987 PC Mag. 9 June 319/1 You can connect one local printer to each terminal and shared printers to the server.
2001 J. E. Canavan Fund. Network Security vi. 100 Even if you download your e-mail to your local disk drive, those messages probably have already been backed up and stored on some other media.
2014 J. Boyce & R. Tidrow Windows 8.1 Bible xxxix. 856 If a printer is connected to your computer by a cable, it's a local resource.
B. n.† 4. Telegraphy. A local battery; a local circuit; (see local battery n., local circuit n. at Compounds). Obsolete.
1. Originally: any local remedy or treatment (see sense A. 1). In later use: spec. local anaesthesia, or a local anaesthetic.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines for specific purpose > anaesthetic > [noun] > local
local anaesthetic1848
local1919
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 45 (MED) It bihoueþ noȝt þat he put euacuacioun bifore, bot applie he alsone localez [L. localia].
1562 W. Fulwood tr. G. Gratarolus Castel of Mem. sig. C.vii But ouerpassing also ye purging locals as aboue, if it be nedeful.
1725 E. Strother Ess. Sickness & Health 201 Locals have a good Effect upon'em, and if assisted by Internals of a like Nature, we may depend upon a surer and quicker Relief.
1869 Western Jrnl. Med. 4 618 The treatment was now changed to meet the new invader [sc. diphtheria], consisting of ‘muriated tincture of iron and quinine..,’ constitutionally—nitrate of silver, per-sulphate of iron, vinegar, salt, soot, &c., as locals.
1919 Jrnl. Michigan State Med. Soc. 18 335/2 This [sc. remaining tonsil tissue] I remove under local with a punch at the office.
1939 ‘J. Struther’ Mrs. Miniver 199 I'd better give you a local.
1971 D. Francis Bonecrack vii. 93 He..shot the freezing local in Indigo's near fore.
2003 N.Y. Mag. 13 Oct. 43/1 The vascular-surgery case that ran for five hours with the patient under general anesthesia, yet could have been dealt with by an interventionalist in 45 minutes under a local.
2. † b. Among Methodists: = local preacher n. at Compounds. Obsolete.
a. A person or group of people that is attached, esp. by employment or occupation, to a particular place or region. In early use: esp. a local soldier or regiment.In quot. 1851: an editor of local news for a newspaper. In quot. 1887: a passenger on a local train.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > inhabitant of a district or parish > [noun]
parishen?c1225
parishioner1462
provinciala1475
hundreder1501
parochian1502
local1591
confiner1595
palatine1610
provincialist1656
shiremana1825
dozener-
1591 H. Savile View Certaine Militar Matters 57 in tr. Tacitus Ende of Nero: Fower Bks. Hist. The Auxiliarie Cohorts and Wings, speciallie locals, had also their seuerall names.
1777 W. Hornby Let. 7 Dec. in 6th Rep. Comm. Secrecy Causes War Carnatic (House of Commons) (1782) 409/1 The garrison consisting of only one company of regular Sepoys, and one of Locals.
1800 Asiatic Ann. Reg. 1798–9 June 21/1 Resolved, that..the four companies of Locals, at present entertained under the Resident at Fort Victoria, be disbanded.
1851 New London (Connecticut) Democrat 29 Mar. 1/2 When is a man drunk? This question says the local of the Washington Republic we believe has never been satisfactorily decided.
1875 Chambers's Jrnl. 26 June 401/1 I have hardly done justice to that respectable body, the local militia, or ‘locals’, as they were familiarly called.
1887 C. B. George 40 Years on Rail ii. 35 Tickets..were at first sold only to through passengers, while the ‘locals’ had to pay cash.
1900 Westm. Gaz. 16 Mar. 1/3 He has been what is known in the legal world as a ‘local’—that is, he has confined his practice to courts of Lancashire, and has not taken up a professional abode in London.
2012 G. Rossman Climbing Charts iii. 23 These promotional workers are responsible for a specific territory and hence are known as ‘locals’.
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society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > preacher > [noun] > lay
prophet1560
green apron1654
lay preacher1747
local preacher1765
local1824
1824 W. Carr Horæ Momenta Cravenæ Gloss. 90 Local, a local preacher amongst the Methodists.
1889 T. E. Brown Manx Witch 121 He cudn go on by the hour Like these Locals.
1912 S. P. Cadman William Owen iv. 42 These earlier preachers..were known as ‘itinerants’ and ‘locals’.
3. An inhabitant of a particular place or region.
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1832 Loyal Reformer's Gaz. 7 Apr. 296 Whatever the locals may say about us, it is satisfactory to us to know, that the most eminent men in other parts of the empire..have firmly supported us.
1850 Illustr. London News 8 June 414/2 The Newton Meeting..attracted few but the ‘locals’; the county, however, is so densely populated, that as far as numbers can ensure success, racing in Lancashire must always prosper.
1891 ‘H. Haliburton’ Ochil Idylls 148 Gang freely, fishers, by their banks, Baith foreign loons an' locals.
1946 Billboard 4 May 53/2 Basic minimum salary for line girls is $35 for locals, and $50 for out-of-towners.
1996 H. Hull Tennessee Post Office Murals 137 I spent considerable time talking to a local who was around when the mural was painted.
2008 Bicycling June 82/1 In the city center, the locals ride bikes for more than half of all trips.
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1853 G. Gifford Argument before Supreme Court 69 Is it not obvious, even then, that the main and locals would be a different apparatus from the consecutive circuits?
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1338/1 Local, the battery of a local circuit. The latter is one which includes only the apparatus in an office, and is closed by a relay.
1905 C. Thom Electr. Telegr. II. 53 The field of devices for locals is well covered.
1921 Railway Signal Engineer Feb. 72/1 The relay local being permanently connected to its transformer, the direction of the current flowing through the local is always the same.
5. † e. U.S. A local post office; an item of mail addressed to a local post office. Obsolete.
a. An item of local news in a newspaper. Also occasionally as a mass noun: local news. Now rare.
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society > communication > journalism > journal > matter of or for journals > [noun] > item > news item > others
ship news1712
splash1810
local1854
spot news1893
1854 Country Gentleman 31 Aug. 142/3 A paragraph among the ‘locals’ of your paper of this day, sets forth an instance of a cat which its master banished to the other end of the town, finding its way back on the following morning.
1873 W. Carleton Farm Ballads 83 So long as the paper was crowded with ‘locals’ containing their names.
1888 J. M. Barrie When Man's Single iii. 42 There's a column of local coming in, and a concert in the People's Hall.
1938 Life 28 Feb. 10 (caption) Mrs. William White..once wrote locals and society for the Gazette.
1989 C. R. Wilson & W. Ferris Encycl. Southern Culture 10/2 News columns, especially those called ‘locals’..reflected the folkways..in rural communities.
b. A postage stamp valid only in a certain district.
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society > communication > correspondence > postal services > payment for postage > [noun] > postage stamp > types of
black1863
penny black1863
local1865
error1866
toadskin1867
fiscal1869
imperforate1874
tête-bêche1874
halfpenny1881
provisional1885
British colonial1902
precancel1903
definitive1929
airmail1930
pictorial1934
perfin1945
1865 Stamp-collector's Mag. 3 2/1 We are not in a position to speak with accuracy on the total number of recognised species, whether of government issues, locals, essays, or proofs.
1870 Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. Feb. (Suppl.) 3/1 The apparently interminable Russian locals.
1918 Amer. Philatelist 15 Apr. 218/2 In the 60's Mr. George A. Hussey..made reprints galore of lots of the so called ‘locals’.
1984 J. Novacek Guide to Stamp Collecting 153 These provisional locals..are valuable only if found on postally handled entires.
2000 Lancaster (Pa.) New Era (Nexis) 4 Jan. b1 The locals were generally printed with a hand-held device that would precancel 25 stamps at a time.
c. A train, bus, or other means of public transport serving a particular district, typically with frequent stops (as opposed to an express).
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society > travel > rail travel > rolling stock > [noun] > train > local
local1868
1868 Railway Times 19 Sept. 970/2 Of the ninety trains which will leave Edgware-road for Kensington, the greater part will require to be taken from the ‘locals’ which now proceed no farther than Bishop's-road.
1879 Webster's Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang. Suppl. Local..an accommodation railway train, which receives and deposits passengers and freight along the line of the road.
1902 Strand Mag. Jan. 74/2 He boarded the local in the morning.
1955 W. H. Auden Shield of Achilles i. 21 Any junction at which you leave the express For a local that swerves off soon into a cutting.
1988 G. Mers Working the Waterfront vii. 182 The bus was a ‘local’ that stopped at half a dozen stations along the way.
2007 T. Zahn Third Lynx (2008) 81 There's a local leaving in forty minutes, or an express leaving in two hours.
d. British. = local examination n. at Compounds. Now historical.
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society > education > educational administration > examination > [noun] > university examinations > local examination
local examination1854
middle-class examination1857
non-gremial examinations1858
local1869
1869 Schools Inq. Comm. XVIII. 138 in Parl. Papers 1867–8 XXVIII. xv. 1 And a good number have passed the University Locals and Preliminary Local Examinations.
1893 Athenæum 4 Feb. 157/3 This [book] is intended mainly for students preparing for..the University Locals.
1995 R. Aldrich School & Society in Victorian Brit. iii. 75 Some 2,000 pupils sat the College's examinations each year, considerably more than took the Locals of Oxford and Cambridge.
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society > communication > correspondence > letter > mail > [noun] > type of
first class1863
second class1863
local1879
third class1891
registered1914
junk mail1921
direct mail1930
mailing shot1936
V-Mail1942
sea-mail1951
hate mail1954
certified mail1955
Mailgram1969
1879 D. M. Key Let. 14 Oct. in U.S. Official Postal Guide (1880) Jan. 572 There may be..fifteen other states, each having a post office of the same name as these locals.
1882 U.S. Official Postal Guide Jan. 681 Locals and nixes. Matter addressed to places which are not post offices is unmailable.
f. North American. A local branch of a trade union.
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society > occupation and work > working > association of employers or employees > [noun] > trade union > branch of trade union
local1886
1886 St. Louis Globe-Democrat 1 May The only locals that now exist are at Carbon, Nickle Plate and Hoosierville.
1888 Nation (N.Y.) 3 May 356/3 The Knights of Labor have locals of engineers and firemen.
1911 M. W. Ovington Half Man 98 Strong organizations in the South, as the bricklayers, send men North with union membership, who easily transfer to New York locals.
1949 Newsweek 18 Apr. 29/1 The local announced..miners would refuse to work in the pits with him.
1967 Boston Herald 1 Apr. 1/7 Nicholas P. Morrissey, New England regional director of the Teamsters Union, said Boston Local 25 will vote Sunday at 10 a.m. in the Charlestown armory.
1972 Evening Telegram (St. John's, Newfoundland) 24 June 3/2 A trawler..had taken aboard approximately 100,000 pounds of fish, according to Jack Dodd, president of the fishermen's local.
2005 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 2 Apr. a15 The city and two locals of the Canadian Union of Public Employees are quietly at work on negotiating contracts.
g. British colloquial. A pub near to one's home or place of work.
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the world > food and drink > drink > drinking > drinking place > [noun] > tavern or public house > local pub
lokal1903
local1934
1934 Evening News 11 Sept. 10/1 After a modest beer or two at the ‘local’, bedtime calls about nine o'clock.
1954 L. M. Boston Children of Green Knowe 120 The story about it is widespread. It has been told me in much the same form in different ‘locals’ all over the country.
1957 J. Braine Room at Top x. 92 The Siege Gun was our local.
1985 L. Page Real Estate i. iii. 31 I usually pop down to the local for lunch.
2014 Burton (Staffs.) Mail (Nexis) 13 Jan. An East Staffordshire pub is being used as a centerpiece of a campaign to get more people to go out and drink at their local.
6. Stock Market (originally U.S.). An independent trader who trades on his or her own account rather than on behalf of other investors.
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society > trade and finance > financial dealings > [noun] > money-dealer > capitalist or financier > specific
negotiator1682
operator1828
fiscal agent1841
local1969
1969 R. J. Teweles et al. Commodity Futures Trading Guide ii. 25 Floor traders trading for their own accounts are sometimes referred to as ‘locals’.
1975 G. Gold Mod. Commodity Futures (rev. ed.) vii. 58 Floor traders who trade for their own account are known as ‘scalpers’ or ‘locals’.
1986 Times 18 Dec. 24/4 Some 60 locals do business on the London International Financial Futures Exchange.
1995 Independent 6 Mar. 17/2 For seven years her husband, Fergus, was a ‘local’ on the Liffe exchange, trading on his own account, which means with his own money.
Compounds
local action n. chemical activity that occurs on the surface of an electrode in a cell or battery, as distinct from that involved in the flow of current or the maintenance of a potential.Local action occurs chiefly as a result of impurities in the metal of the electrode, which effectively form miniature voltaic cells with the bulk metal; the result is corrosion of the electrode even when no current is being drawn.
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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > galvanism, voltaism > voltaic or galvanic battery > [noun] > metal electrode > action between parts of
local action1835
1835 M. Faraday in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 125 270 The more gas which is generated upon these surfaces, the greater is the local action and the less the transferable force.
1841 W. T. Brande Man. Chem. (ed. 5) 297 In the common battery..much local action takes place upon the zinc plates without contributing to the circulating forces.
2010 J. Bird Electr. & Electronic Princ. & Technol. (ed. 4) iv. 31/2 (caption) In a simple cell two faults exist—those due to polarisation and local action.
local anaesthesia n. loss of sensation in a limited area of the body; the production of this, usually by the injection or topical application of nerve-blocking drugs, in order to prevent or relieve pain, esp. during surgical and dental operations.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > anaesthetization, pain-killing, etc. > [noun] > anaesthetization > anaesthesia
local anaesthesia1843
anaesthesis1848
spinal anaesthesia1885
1843 T. Watson Lect. Princ. & Pract. Physic I. xxxi. 545 The examples which are met with of local palsy, and local anæsthesia, are numberless.
1867 Times 14 Mar. 12/6 He next demonstrated the principle and practice of the local method by ether spray... In veterinary surgery this local anæsthesia is, Dr. Richardson said, applicable to all operations.
1921 A. E. Smith Block Anesthesia v. 44 Refrigerant analgesics are those substances which cause a rapid abstraction of heat from the tissues, thereby producing diminished sensation, and their prolonged application produces local anesthesia.
2010 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 8 Apr. e3/1 Doctors offering awake breast augmentation and awake abdominoplasty..make the case for local anesthesia and sedation on their Web sites.
local anaesthetic n. any drug or other agent used to produce local anaesthesia; (also) treatment with such an agent.
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1848 Lancet 9 Sept. 287/1 The present paper..is intended..to facilitate the general application of the local anæsthetic [sc. cold] which I have recommended.
1851 J. Arnott Neuralgic Affections 20 It is very natural that the disappointment from the exaggerated statements..should indispose the surgeon to put trust in any local anæsthetic, without such corroborative evidence.
1922 J. J. Sudborough Bernthsen's Text-bk. Org. Chem. (new ed.) liv. 817 Novocaine..is the most widely used of all local anæsthetics, as it is non-irritant, and only about one-seventh as toxic as cocaine.
2012 New Yorker 18 June 67/2 He could elect I.V. sedation (‘twilight sedation’) or just local anesthetic, as the dentist suggested.
local area network n. Computing a network that interconnects computers within close proximity to one another (e.g. in the same building or on the same site), typically allowing for better-quality connections than networks covering a wider area; abbreviated LAN; cf. wide area network n. at wide adj. Compounds 2.
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society > computing and information technology > network > [noun] > local area network
local area network1969
internet1974
net1977
LAN1981
1969 Proc. 1st ACM Symp. Probl. Optimization Data Communications Syst. 183 A model of the ‘local area’ network assumed, but never analysed in detail, in the NPL proposal for a possible National Data Communication System.
1991 Mod. Power Syst. Sept. 47/1 Digital event logging to a host computer over a local area network.
2003 Personal Computer World June 20/1 Wifi was designed originally for local area networks (Lans) in places like warehouses and hospitals with many roaming staff.
local attraction n. magnetic attraction resulting from some nearby object rather than from the earth's magnetic field.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > navigational aids > [noun] > compass > effect of iron on compass
local attraction1774
deviation1819
1774 C. J. P. Mulgrave Voy. North Pole 109 The observations being taken..changing the places and the observers repeatedly, to try whether there was any error to be imputed to local attraction, or the different mode of observation by different persons.
1854 Brit. Patent 2652 (1855) 3 An instrument or apparatus..for determining the amount of magnetic aberration occasioned by local attraction in ships or vessels of every description.
2007 J. Sessions Forest Road Operations Tropics 150 Local attraction can be caused by a mineral deposit, a vehicle, or a mechanical pencil in a nearby shirt pocket.
local authority n. British an administrative body in local government; a local council; later sometimes abbreviated L.A. n. at L n. Initialisms 1; frequently. attributive, as local authority housing, local authority planning, etc.
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society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > local government body > [noun]
council1428
local board1788
local council1788
local authority1795
town hall1925
1795 Coll. State Papers War against France III. i. 25 The division might have been settled by agents of the French government..but the French Republic..has left it to the local authorities.
1812 Jrnl. Senate U.S. 18 Dec. 335 Respecting any proposal to or from the local authorities of East Florida.
1861 J. S. Mill Represent. Govt. xv. 273 Things..which would be best left to local authorities if there were any whose authority extended to the entire metropolis.
1909 Daily Chron. 22 July 5/3 There would soon be a growth in the number of local authority training colleges.
1937 Discovery Jan. p. viii The difficulty of persuading local authorities to provide funds.
1956 J. M. Richards in A. Pryce-Jones New Outl. Mod. Knowl. 380 The best British local-authority housing.
1984 Third Way Mar. 22/2 The effect has been to throw local authority planning and budgeting into chaos.
2014 Evening Standard (Nexis) 15 Apr. Local authorities have issued £312 million worth of Fixed Penalty Notices for traffic contraventions.
local battery n. Telegraphy and Telephony (now chiefly historical) a battery which powers only adjacent telegraph or telephone equipment, as contrasted with a battery that provides current to the line, or with equipment which is powered centrally.In situations where a local battery is used, current sent to a distant instrument or to an exchange is typically generated using a hand-cranked magneto.
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1845 H. J. Rogers Telegr. Dict. 40 How is your local battery?
1916 Telegr. & Telephone Age 1 Apr. 169/2 One of the messenger boys had..cracked one of the glass jars of the local battery which fed one of his call circuits.
1961 M. G. Say Electr. Engineer's Ref. Bk. (ed. 10) xxiii. 65 The telephone system is local battery operated with magneto ringing.
1993 Gloss. Electrotechnical, Power Terms (B.S.I.) iii. ii. 19 Telephone station... The auxiliary equipment may include for example: an external call indicating device, a protector, a local battery.
local board n. an administrative board in local government; spec. any of various bodies established locally to improve public health and sanitation in urban areas of England and Wales under the provisions of the Public Health Act 1848, but abolished by the Local Government Act of 1894 (now historical).
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society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > local government body > [noun]
council1428
local board1788
local council1788
local authority1795
town hall1925
1788 Times 4 Aug. 3/4 These local boards have their several Committees.
1860 Proc. Bristol Local Board of Health 8 Sept. in P. McGrath Bristol Misc. (1985) 160 The Local Board would see the propriety under this arrangement of paying to the Company the value of the 1300 service pipes, fittings and contingent apparatus in the ancient city and the District now the property of the Company.
1863 H. Cox Inst. Eng. Govt. iii. ix. 732 In the places and districts in which the Act [sc. the Local Government Act, 1858] is adopted, it is carried into execution by local Boards... The local Boards have extensive powers of undertaking and regulating the drainage and cleansing of towns, the suppression of nuisances, and similar matters of police.
1920 C. Hookstadt Compar. Workmen's Compensation Laws U.S. & Canada (Bull. U.S. Bureau Labor Statistics) 112 In case of disagreement the local boards shall appeal to the State medical board.
1973 J. N. Tarn Five Per Cent Philanthropy 10/1 The Local Board could make regulations requiring that all new houses should have proper drainage.
2008 Guardian (Nexis) 22 May Birmingham city council said the local board responsible for overseeing child protection in the city would meet tomorrow to consider the case.
local bubble n. (also with capital initials) Astronomy a region of the galaxy that contains the solar system and in which the density of the interstellar medium is significantly less than the galactic average.The region is approx. 300 light years across.
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1985 T. W. Hartquist in F. D. Kahn Cosmical Gas Dynamics 86 Cox and Anderson considered adiabatic remnant models of the local bubble.
1994 N. Henbest & H. Couper Guide to Galaxy vi. 185/2 The Local Bubble is so small that it is unlikely to contain any of the rather rare highly luminous stars.
2002 Economist 12 Jan. 81/2 The Local Bubble is a quiet place: just thin, hot gas and stars, almost all of them small ones like the sun that are up to no particular mischief.
local call n. a telephone call made within a prescribed area around a telephone exchange, as opposed to a long-distance call; any call made within a particular district, typically to a number having the same area code, and charged at a relatively low rate.Recorded earliest in attributive use.
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society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telephony > [noun] > call or message > types of
personal call1843
local call1882
ringback1895
long distance1902
private call1907
trunk-call1910
toll call1912
callback1914
overflow1924
picture message1929
alarm call1966
text message1977
text1990
1882 Washington Post 4 Oct. 1/8 Three patents, for telephone local call instrument.
1890 Pall Mall Gaz. 3 May The local calls on the Bristol exchange cost the renters alone 1¼d. per call.
1927 E. Murray Post Office viii. 138 A fixed annual charge for the installation together with a uniform fee for each effective local call.
1975 D. Bagley Snow Tiger xv. 124 The exchange has a bank of batteries... We're all right for local calls.
2013 Aberdeen Evening Press (Nexis) 10 Oct. 4 The change means people in Aberdeen will have to dial the code when making a local call from a landline.
local circuit n. an auxiliary circuit distinct from the main communication circuit of a telegraph or telephone but connected to it (typically by means of a relay).
ΚΠ
1848 S. F. B. Morse in U.S. Reissue Patent 118 1/2 The arrangement of circuits or conductors consisting of the main circuit and local circuit or circuits connecting the machinery of both termini.
1928 A. E. Stone Text Bk. Telegr. xiii. 192 If during this period the tongue of the relay ‘kicks’, the local circuit is momentarily broken.
2009 R. Stachurski Longitude by Wire vi. 86 In the original Morse design this local circuit controlled a register, a recording device that used a steel stylus to mark a paper strip driven by a clockwork mechanism.
local cluster n. Astronomy (a) a nearby cluster of stars; spec. one within the galaxy to which the sun belongs (now rare); (b) = local group n. (b).
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the world > the universe > constellation > star-cluster > [noun] > local
local cluster1898
local group1912
the world > the universe > constellation > galaxy > [noun] > cluster of galaxies > local
local cluster1898
local group1912
supergalaxy1916
1898 Sunday Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) 29 May 8/1 The 6000 or 7000 stars around us seen by the naked eye are scattered in space with a near approach to uniformity, the only exception being local clusters, the component stars of which are few in number and pretty widely separated.
1918 H. Shapley in Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 4 228 To test further for the existence of a limited local cluster..an investigation has been made of the galactic arrangement of the brighter stars.
1938 W. M. Smart Stellar Dynamics i. 2 There is some evidence that the stars in the neighbourhood of the sun form a loose cluster—known as the local cluster.
1971 New Scientist 29 July 245/1 The Supergalaxy is, in turn, composed of smaller clusters of galaxies, including the local cluster of about a dozen members, our Galaxy being one of them.
2012 J. Al-Khalili Paradox iii. 56 What Hubble had been observing was very distant galaxies moving away from us, rather than movement among those that make up our local cluster.
local colour n. (esp. with reference to works of art or literature) evocative representation of the customs, manner of speech, dress, or other features characteristic of a particular place or period; (also) such features themselves, picturesque qualities; (occasionally, as a count noun) a detail, description, etc., which evokes these features. [Compare French couleur locale (1811; earlier as a technical term in painting in sense ‘the distinctive, natural colour of an object or place’ (1699); compare sense A. 8).]
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society > leisure > the arts > the arts in general > [noun] > work of art > qualities generally
decoruma1568
humoura1568
variety1597
strength1608
uniformity1625
barbarity1644
freedom1645
boldness1677
correctness1684
clinquant1711
unity1712
contrast1713
meretriciousness1727
airiness1734
pathos1739
chastity1760
vigour1774
prettyism1789
mannerism1803
serio-comic1805
actuality1812
largeness1824
local colour1829
subjectivitya1834
idealism1841
pastoralism1842
inartisticalitya1849
academicism1852
realism1856
colour contrast1858
crampedness1858
niggling1858
audacity1859
superreality1859
literalism1860
pseudo-classicism1861
sensationalism1862
sensationism1862
chocolate box1865
pseudo-classicality1867
academism1871
actualism1872
academicalism1874
ethos1875
terribilità1877
local colouring1881
neoclassicism1893
mass effect1902
attack1905
verismo1908
kitsch1921
abstraction1923
self-consciousness1932
surreality1936
tension1941
build-up1942
sprezzatura1957
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > painting and drawing > painting > art of colouring > [noun] > colour natural to an object
local colour1829
1829 Western Monthly Rev. Nov. 245 The neglect of local colors so common in Shakspeare, is an unimportant consideration.
a1868 W. E. Gladstone Juventus Mundi (1870) xiii. 469 The Greek catalogue is charged throughout with what I may call local colour and visual epithets; epithets which..raise up a prospect or scene before the mental eye of a reader or a hearer.
1878 H. James Europeans I. i. 37 Brought up among ancient customs and in picturesque cities, he yet found plenty of local colour in the little Puritan metropolis.
1904 F. M. Colby Imaginary Obligations 7 Stupendous ‘local color’ work going on at every railway junction, and you heed it not.
1934 Amer. Speech 9 111/2 Villages with ‘local color’.
1949 A. Huxley Let. 6 Mar. (1969) 593 About the country in which they lived you might consult, for local colour, a travel book by..Freya Stark.
1964 Life 1 May 16/3 The plot..is spiced by a dollop of sex in one sequence, a lot of tasteful local color, and a fine, screaming climax.
2001 N.Y. Times 6 Dec. e5/6 The score is bleached Puccini: no tunes, no characterization, no local color.
local colouring n. = local colour n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > the arts in general > [noun] > work of art > qualities generally
decoruma1568
humoura1568
variety1597
strength1608
uniformity1625
barbarity1644
freedom1645
boldness1677
correctness1684
clinquant1711
unity1712
contrast1713
meretriciousness1727
airiness1734
pathos1739
chastity1760
vigour1774
prettyism1789
mannerism1803
serio-comic1805
actuality1812
largeness1824
local colour1829
subjectivitya1834
idealism1841
pastoralism1842
inartisticalitya1849
academicism1852
realism1856
colour contrast1858
crampedness1858
niggling1858
audacity1859
superreality1859
literalism1860
pseudo-classicism1861
sensationalism1862
sensationism1862
chocolate box1865
pseudo-classicality1867
academism1871
actualism1872
academicalism1874
ethos1875
terribilità1877
local colouring1881
neoclassicism1893
mass effect1902
attack1905
verismo1908
kitsch1921
abstraction1923
self-consciousness1932
surreality1936
tension1941
build-up1942
sprezzatura1957
1881 J. Payne in tr. F. Villon Poems (new ed.) Introd. 22 If one should excerpt from their verse its accidental local colouring.
1973 Times 3 Mar. 9/8 With..a great variety of local colouring (the ballet is set in Provence but introduces Hungarian and Saracen characters) this is very theatrical music.
2014 N.Z. Herald (Nexis) 15 Mar. Despite chirpy local colouring that included harpist Rebecca Harris plucking out the chimes of Big Ben, this is no set of musical picture postcards.
local colourist n. a person skilled in using local colour (local colour n.) in writing, etc.
ΚΠ
1875 Judy 11 Aug. 165/3 I can't answer for any other local colourist, only Distance does lend Enchantment to the view sometimes.
1987 St. Petersburg (Florida) Times 5 July d6/4 The serious novel has become the province of the local colorists and ‘dirty realists’ and the comic novel has become all but moribund.
2003 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 16 Mar. 13 David and Grigson were local colourists and collectors rather than teachers.
local content n. Business the part of a product that is made, supplied, or assembled locally, or within a particular country; frequently attributive.Foreign manufacturers or investors may be required to meet a minimum threshold for local content when operating in a particular country.
ΚΠ
1946 Congress. Rec. 11 May 10201 Three percent if the local content in relation to the tender price is more than 10 percent but not in excess of 20 percent.
1950 Sydney Morning Herald 17 Oct. (Finance & Commerce Suppl.) 3/2 Overseas manufacturers who have assembly plants in the Commonwealth are progressively increasing the already high local content of their vehicles.
1955 Financial Times 31 May (heading) Volkswagen in Australia. 51% of local content planned.
1979 Facts on File 23 Feb. 133/2 Vehicle manufacturers would be allowed..to use export credits to meet 5% of the local content requirement.
2010 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 9 Sept. a10/3 China strongly opposes suggestions..that the United States or Europe..impose ‘local content’ rules to help their own struggling..industries.
local council n. the governing and administrative body of a city, county, district, etc., dealing with local concerns, as distinguished from those of national, state, or central government.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > local government body > [noun]
council1428
local board1788
local council1788
local authority1795
town hall1925
1788 A. Hamilton et al. Federalist II. lx. 175 It is infinitely less likely that either of them should gain an ascendant in the national councils, than that the one or the other of them should predominate in all the local councils.
1833 Morning Chron. 26 Feb. 2/3 The creation of Corporations in towns not before possessed of them, in order that the local concerns of the people of this country may be attended to in Local Councils.
1890 Manch. Guardian 3 Jan. 5/3 Almost every village or town of 5,000 inhabitants or more has or had its local council, which is partly elective.
1979 Guardian 14 Apr. 22/8 He has never contested a Parliamentary seat before but once stood in local council elections at Leicester.
2011 Daily Tel. (Austral.) (Nexis) 18 Jan. 25 I suggest Marrickville Council concentrates on doing what local councils are meant to do, the three R's—roads, rubbish and..rates.
local councillor n. an official member of a local council.In quot. 1829 with reference to France.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > local government body > [noun] > member of local government council
councillor1526
MPP1826
local councillor1829
MLC1849
1829 Times 9 Apr. 5/2 The number of electors of local councillors was limited to a much smaller amount than that of electors of returning deputies to the lower Chamber.
1909 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 18 Sept. 815/2 Local councillors who would not adopt the Infectious Disease Notification Act because it involved the payment of half-crown fees to the doctors.
2005 Dunoon Observer & Argyllshire Standard 25 Nov. 1/1 Local councillor Douglas Currie expressed serious concerns about local people being unable to rent affordable accommodation.
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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electric current > [noun] > local
local current1837
1837 London & Edinb. Philos. Mag. 10 245 It is clear that there are four small local currents in each cell.
1876 W. H. Preece & J. Sivewright Telegraphy 101 We then work by local currents.
1876 W. H. Preece & J. Sivewright Telegraphy 102 In flowing through R′ it..completes the local circuit by which the local current flows from L′B′ through M′.
local examination n. British (now historical) (the name of) an examination for secondary school pupils introduced in the mid 19th cent. and held in various local centres under the direction of a central board organized by a university.
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society > education > educational administration > examination > [noun] > university examinations > local examination
local examination1854
middle-class examination1857
non-gremial examinations1858
local1869
1854 Illustr. London News 7 Jan. 24/3 Exhibitions or scholarships to reward those students who, at the local examinations, should distinguish themselves, to enable them to receive a higher kind of instruction.
1861 4th Ann. Rep. Delegacy (Local Exam.) 1 The Oxford Local Examinations for the year 1861 commenced on Tuesday, May 28.
1879 Nineteenth Cent. Aug. 317 A good number of the pupils have passed with credit the Oxford and Cambridge local examinations.
1969 D. Wright Deafness vi. 72 In my second year at Northampton I was entered for the Oxford Junior Local examination.
2004 F. M. G. Wilson Univ. London 1858–1900 101 Much educational attention was focussed on an experiment at Cambridge, in which girls were allowed to sit for the Local Examinations.
local exchange n. the nearest telephone exchange to which a particular telephone is connected.
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society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telephony > telephone equipment > [noun] > exchange
telephone exchange1878
local exchange1879
call office1882
central1883
exchange1887
private branch exchange1904
PBX1914
zone centre1934
1879 Standard 26 Dec. 2/7 To each of these switch boards are led a number of..wires coming from..the immediate local subscribers or from other local exchanges in connection.
1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 507/2 Local exchange, the exchange to which a given subscriber has a direct line.
1983 I. de S. Pool Technol. of Freedom vi. 177 Replacing the loops that reach from the local exchange to the customers' phones is..very expensive.
2014 Observer (Nexis) 2 Mar. 48 If your house is a long distance from the local exchange, the strength of your connection weakens, giving you a slow broadband speed.
local exchange carrier n. U.S. Telecommunications a local telephone company (abbreviated LEC).
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1981 Calif. Law Rev. Mar. 482 (note) A local exchange carrier serving more than 50,000 stations (subscribers) would be a large carrier.
1991 Bellcore News 15 May 1/4 If the mobile carrier switches can communicate through a local exchange carrier (LEC) single transfer point.
2011 J. L. King in J. E. Katz Mobile Communication ii. 57 Local exchange carriers..now seek to eliminate wireline service because it is too expensive.
local ghost n. a guardian spirit or god associated with a place; = genius loci n. [After classical Latin genius locī genius loci n.]
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1619 E. M. Bolton tr. Florus Rom. Hist. i. xiii. 59 When they beheld the purple-cloathed Senatours sitting in their chayres of state, they worshipt them at first as gods, or locall Ghosts.
1818 T. D. Whitaker Hist. Parish of Whalley (ed. 3) iv. iii. 355 Every principal house had a local ghost.
2006 Asian Folklore Stud. 65 47 Most communities in Java have tales of a founder and a tutelary spirit with whom he made a pact, as well as stories of local ghosts and spirits and the rules for dealing with them.
local government n. administration of a town or other comparatively small district by elected representatives of the people who live there, as distinguished from central government; the governing body responsible for this.
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society > authority > rule or government > a or the system of government > centralized or regionalized systems > [noun] > local government
local government1753
1753 Gen. Shop Bk. Corporations, a Corporation is properly an investing the people of the place, with the local government thereof, and therefore their law shall bind strangers.
1787 A. Hamilton in Amer. Museum June 447/1 The causes taken notice of, as securing the attachment of the people to their local governments, present us with another important truth—the natural imbecility of federal governments.
1848 H. H. Wilson Hist. Brit. India 1805–35 III. vi. 279 The local government was involved in a discussion with the Supreme Court at the Presidency.
1880 E. Robertson in Encycl. Brit. XI. 21 Local government repeats on a small scale the features of the supreme government, but its business is chiefly judicial and administrative.
1901 J. A. Fairlie Munic. Administr. 69 An important change..was made by the Local Government Act of 1894... The urban local boards are called Urban District Councils, and the term of office of the councillors is fixed at three years.
1988 H. T. Jensen in J. Regulski Decentralization & Local Govt. iii. 49 If the control by the central government is too tight, then the local governments rebel by not, or by just barely, abiding by the central demands.
2005 Yachting Dec. 40/2 Cruisers wonder how local government can usurp ‘navigable waterways’, which are under federal control.
Local Government Board n. now historical a government department acting as a central authority for local government in England and Wales, as constituted by the Local Government Board Act 1871 and abolished by the Ministry of Health Act 1919.
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society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > a or the government > government department or agency > [noun] > with specific responsibility > English or British
admiralty1459
ordnance1485
Navy Office1660
navy board1681
patent office1696
excise-office1698
Treasury Office1706
Plantation Office1708
stamp office1710
War Office1721
India Office1787
home office1795
Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues1803
the Stamps1820
Welsh Office1852
W.O.1860
Local Government Board1871
pall-mall1880
Scottish Office1883
Ministry of Munitions1915
War House1925
Min of Ag1946
Mintech1967
DOE1972
Manpower Services Commission1973
1871 Public Gen. Statutes of Reign of Queen Victoria p. ix (heading) An Act for constituting a Local Government Board, and vesting therein certain functions of the Secretary of State and Privy Council concerning the Public Health and Local Government.
1875 Public Health Act §184 Bye-laws made by a Local Authority..shall not take effect unless..confirmed by the Local Government Board.
1912 Daily News 3 Jan. 4/7 Birmingham will be able to submit to the Local Government Board for approval its first town planning scheme in a completed form.
1919 Times 27 Feb. 11/1 The Ministry of Health is to take over the work of the Local Government Board and of the Insurance Commissioners.
2001 Oxoniensia 65 156 In November 1898 the town clerk wrote again to the Local Government Board requesting consent to the raising of £21,500.
local group n. Astronomy (a) = local cluster n. (a); (b) (also with capital initials) the cluster of galaxies to which our galaxy belongs, and which also includes the Andromeda galaxy.Sense (b) originated with Hubble (quot. 1936). The Local Group of galaxies is approx. 10 million light years across.
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the world > the universe > constellation > star-cluster > [noun] > local
local cluster1898
local group1912
the world > the universe > constellation > galaxy > [noun] > cluster of galaxies > local
local cluster1898
local group1912
supergalaxy1916
1912 Carnegie Inst. Year Bk. 174 It has been found that a number of stars in Vela probably form a local group.
1918 J. C. Kapteyn in Astrophysical Jrnl. 47 106 The B0-B5 stars are about 12 times and the B8-B9 stars about 5·7 times more numerous than in the surrounding regions. This alone proves..that we have to do with a local group which probably does not extend in depth much farther than it does laterally.
1936 E. Hubble Realm of Nebulæ vi. 125 The known members of the ‘local group’ are the galactic system with the Magellanic Clouds as its two companions; M31 with M32 and NGC 205 as its companions; M33, NGC 6822 and IC 1613.
1971 D. W. Sciama Mod. Cosmol. iii. 40 They [sc. galaxies] show considerable clustering, ranging from pairs of galaxies through clusters with fifteen or twenty members like the local group, up to clusters such as the one in Virgo containing several thousand galaxies.
2005 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) May 11/1 The Milky Way is part of the Local Group of galaxies.
local hero n. a person regarded as a hero in a particular region; a generally admired person associated with a particular locality.
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1812 Literary Panorama July 91 Were the natives of that country..equally intent with the Irish on perpetuating the exploits of their local heroes?
1848 Era 23 Apr. 5/3 The attendance was quite a monster gathering, so eager were the millions to see the pugilistic powers of the local heroes.
1943 Port Arthur (Texas) News 10 Nov. 1/3 (advt.) Talk by Lt. Bradford Jackson, local hero home on leave after completing 56 aerial missions over enemy territory.
2010 I. McEwan Solar iii. 245 He was, after all, something of a local hero, honoured by the Chamber of Commerce on East 2nd Street for bringing jobs to the town.
local historian n. a writer of local histories; an expert in or student of local history.
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1773 J. Whitaker Hist. Manch. (ed. 2) I. i. vi. 233 Such therefore are equally obvious in the precincts of others within the kingdom, though they have never been noticed by any of our local historians.
1880 Glasgow Herald 14 Oct. 3/3 One pre-eminent duty of a local historian..is to give a reasonably complete account of those who..did some good work in their day, but probably not sufficient to merit any reminder in the way of a public monument.
2012 P. Brand in A. Musson & C. Stebbings Making Legal Hist. iii. 26 They are also of potential use to various kinds of other historian: social historians, local historians, even economic historians.
local history n. (a) a written history focusing on a particular town, district, or other limited area; (b) originally British the branch of history that deals with the social, economic, and cultural development of particular localities, often using local records and resources.
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the world > time > relative time > the past > history or knowledge about the past > [noun] > branches or types of history
ancient history1566
church story1581
archaeology1607
church history1609
local history1615
mythistory1731
human story1753
intellectual history1755
oral history1827
Assyriology1828
world history1833
hierologya1848
meta-history1854
Hibernologya1869
prehistory1871
proto-history1876
prehistorics1879
earth history1880
Sumerology1897
historiometry1909
black history1920
herstory1932
ethnohistory1938
meta-history1946
Annales1952
Hittitology1952
revisionism1965
longue durée1968
Warburgianism1977
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > historical narrative > [noun] > types of historical narrative or work
memoriala1393
commentary1547
church story1563
church history1566
local history1615
anecdotes1649
political history1656
memoirs1659
family history1726
nobiliary1728
sacred history1853
prosopography1896
herstory1932
microhistory1969
1615 J. Hoskins 2 Serm. preached at Oxf. 47 in Serm. Iustus Lipsius..doted not in this..in his Local Historie of Louaine.
1736 F. Drake Eboracum Pref. sig. b2 This discouragement from the publick does not in the least abate in me a value for local histories.
1779 Crit. Rev. Oct. 255 Through the whole, Mr. Phillips discovers an extent of research and information, equal to that of most of his predecessors in the department of local history.
1860 Notes & Queries 7 Apr. 259/1 Local histories such as these, written by persons who have ready access to original documents.., cannot fail to be interesting.
1889 F. M. Burdick in Trans. Oneida Hist. Soc. 1887–9 98 One of the most interesting fields of inquiry entered by the student of American local history is that connected with the common-lands of the New England and New Netherland town.
1992 B. O'Connell in W. Apess On our Own Ground iii. 153 The Reverend John Avery recalled her years later in his fine local history, History of the Town of Ledyard, 1650–1900.
2010 M. Wood Story of Eng. i. 8 Though local history has often been dismissed as a lesser branch of historical studies, it is only through close examination of local conditions that real historical change can be observed.
local line n. a railway line used by local trains, as opposed to a main line or one used by express trains.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > a railway > forming part of a system > types of
branch line1825
sideline1831
stem1832
light rail1836
suburban1839
branch railway1840
main line1841
spurring1842
local line1843
trunk line1843
extension1852
feeder1855
main trunk1858
loop-line1859
loop1863
spur1878
main1886
spur line1924
1843 Manch. Guardian 27 Sept. 7/3 The sole object of the writer has been to contribute..as much to the success of a local line of railway as to the welfare of the inhabitants of Oldham.
1869 Bradshaw's Railway Man. 21 86 The question was accordingly referred to the arbitration of Captain Galton, who decided that the Midland might work the local line with Cheltenham..but that it ought not to work the main line.
1967 G. F. Fiennes I tried to run Railway iv. 43 At Seven Kings we went down the local line.
2013 C. Howse Train in Spain i. 3 The local line through the suburbs of Madrid up into the Sierra de Guadarrama.
local maximum n. Mathematics any of a sequence of values which is greater than or equal to those adjacent to it; (in later use) esp. a value of a function which is greater than or equal to all of the values it assigns to a neighbourhood of the point to which that value corresponds.In the graph of a function, each peak represents a local maximum.
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1891 G. B. Longstaff Stud. Statistics xv. 285 All the curves rise to local maxima in 1857, 1861, 1868, and 1878.
1961 Ann. Math. 74 392 There exists a (nice) non-degenerate function on M with just one local maximum and one local minimum.
2013 D. R. van Deventer et al. Adv. Financial Risk Managem. (ed. 2) iii. 47 It is very common for the forward rate curve to show a large number of local maximums and local minimums.
local minimum n. Mathematics any of a sequence of values which is less than or equal to those adjacent to it; (in later use) esp. a value of a function which is less than or equal to all of the values it assigns to a neighbourhood of the point to which that value corresponds.In the graph of a function, each trough represents a local minimum.
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1891 G. B. Longstaff Stud. Statistics, Social, Polit., & Med. xv. 285 All the curves fall to local minima or are very low in 1850, 1855, 1856, 1860, 1862, 1869, and 1877.
1951 Amer. Math. Monthly 58 549 Besides summit (local maximum) and bottom (local minimum) one has the further possibility of a saddle point (pass) as a point of 'stationary' altitude.
2007 D. Szecsei Calculus xiii. 224 Calculus will help us determine whether a critical point is a local maximum or local minimum, or neither. The term local extrema refers to either local maxima or local minima.
local motion n. now rare movement in space or from place to place; locomotion.
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the world > movement > progressive motion > [noun]
goinga1250
passagec1300
passingc1350
progressiona1460
local motion1551
progress1564
pass1602
traverse1663
locomoving1704
roll1827
onwards1943
1551 S. Gardiner Explic. Catholique Fayth f. 128 There is in the godly nature no local motion.
1561 R. Eden tr. M. Cortés Arte Nauigation i. viii. sig. B ii The elementes are..moueable by locall motion.
1644 K. Digby Two Treat. i. xxiii. 208 Zoophytes..that is such creatures as though they goe not from place to place, and so cause a locall motion of their whole substance, yet in their partes, they haue a distinct and articulate motion.
1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. v. 831 It is certain, that Cogitation, (Phancy, Intellection, and Volition) are no Local Motions.
1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening 34 Plants have no local or progressive Motion.
1874 Irish Monthly 2 570 That the forces of matter should produce mere local motion, or should take the shape of sensation and thought, is due solely to the circumstances in which they act.
2003 Isis 94 526/2 Aristotelianism, with its canonical belief that all action is by contact and local motion.
local option n. (without article) (originally) the system or policy of allowing the electorate of a particular district to decide whether or not to prohibit the sale of alcohol within that district (cf. local veto n.); (later more generally) the ability of local government to opt in or out of certain central government regulations; frequently attributive, as local option law, etc.
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society > authority > rule or government > a or the system of government > centralized or regionalized systems > [noun] > local government > local option
local option1868
1868 W. E. Gladstone in Pall Mall Gaz. 14 Oct. 6/2 My disposition [with regard to the liquor question] is to let in the principle of local option wherever it is likely to be found satisfactory.
1878 J. Samuelson Hist. Drink 218 The tendency of legislation seems to be towards ‘local option’ or ‘permissive prohibition’.
1882 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 688/2 Those celebrated ‘local option laws’ which are in force in some of the United States.
1884 S. Smith Lett. in reply to Manifesto Democratic Federation 11 I enclose you a speech I delivered in the Liverpool Town Council on ‘local option’.
1901 Scotsman 28 Feb. 6/3 The reluctance of the Welsh and Midland miners to admit the principle of local option.
1942 Billboard 31 Oct. 3/2 31 States have local option laws and dry territories.
1973 Amer. Bar. Assoc. Jrnl. Nov. 1262/2 A local option approach may be found desirable by state legislators who will be called on to pass new pornography laws.
2003 W. J. Weston Leading from Center iv. 54 A second proposal to also send an amendment allowing local option on gay ordination failed.
local optionism n. now rare support for or advocacy of local option.
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1887 National Rev. Oct. 275 The insidious moral and mental features discernible in Gladstonianism, as in the Salvation Army, in the Captain Shandys of Social Purity, and in Local Optionism, have their lesson of warning.
1898 G. B. Shaw Let. 19 Sept. (1972) II. 62 The political force of Teetotalism—or let us say Local Optionism.
1912 M. A. Green Nineteen-two in Vermont xi. 184 The perspective of a decade of local optionism has cleared up several things.
local optionist n. now chiefly historical a supporter or advocate of local option.
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1871 Daily Evening Bull. (San Francisco) 22 Apr. Total abstinence men, local optionists, ‘prohibitionists’, moral suasionists, and even the ‘moderate drinkers’, have each in turn found sturdy advocates and followers.
1880 Daily News 28 Jan. 2/4 The Home Rulers, the Teetotallers, the Local Optionists.
1920 E. W. Bowman Ramblin' Kid ix. 129 She confessed to being a Bolshevik or local-optionist or something.
2006 O. S. Lovoll Norwegians on Prairie v. 222 The ground had been prepared by the local optionists and the several temperance and prohibition organizations and political constellations.
local oscillation n. Electronics an oscillatory signal generated within a receiver.The signal may be produced deliberately, by a local oscillator, or it may arise as a result of self-oscillation.
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1901 Electr. Rev 22 June 786/2 If this be the case the frequency of these local oscillations can not be equal to that of the whole circuit.
1913 Proc. IRE 1 102 In the apparatus using a local oscillation generator in combination with a standard rectifier receiver electrical beats are produced and utilized.
1953 A. H. W. Beck Thermionic Valves x. 308 In the pentagrid mixer, the local oscillation is generated by a separate valve.
2009 A. Das & S. K. Das Microwave Engin. (ed. 2) x. 393 The input and output impedances will depend upon the amplitude of the local oscillations.
local oscillator n. Electronics (originally) a source of local oscillations (disused); (in later use) an oscillator used to generate oscillations of a known and stable frequency that can be combined with a signal of higher frequency to convert it to a different frequency; cf. heterodyne adj.
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society > communication > telecommunication > radio communications > radio equipment > [noun] > radio set > oscillators
local oscillator1904
squegger1921
master oscillator1928
LO1946
1904 U.S. Patent 751,803 5/1 To protect the coherer from the radiations of the local oscillator.
1919 R. Stanley Text-bk. Wireless Telegr. (new ed.) II. viii. 143 With an independent local oscillator C.W. reception can take place with very loosely coupled circuits.
1967 W. Wharton & D. Howorth Princ. Television Reception v. 74 The function of the mixer is to multiply together the received and local oscillator signals so as to produce an output at the intermediate frequency.
2013 D. Hillerkuss Single-Laser Multi-Terabit/s Syst. iv. 52 (caption) The local oscillator is a narrow bandwidth laser..with a linewidth of approximately 1 kHz.
local patriotism n. [compare German Lokalpatriotismus (1786)] love of or devotion to one's home or local region, as distinct from that of one's country or nation.
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1802 Parl. Deb. 1st Ser. 3 339 A militia..had excited a partial and local patriotism more concentrated..though not destructive of that general patriotism which points out indiscriminately to the whole.
1871 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest IV. xviii. 146 It shows the strength of local, as distinguished from national, patriotism;..the ideas of municipal freedom which were growing up.
1999 Billboard 3 July 8/2 The largest county in England [sc. Yorkshire], whose rugged brand of local patriotism still moves many to brand the region as a separate British nation in custom, accent, and indomitable spirit.
local preacher n. (among Methodists) a layperson authorized to preach in the district in which he or she resides, as distinguished from an ordained itinerant minister; cf. sense B. 2b.
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society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > preacher > [noun] > lay
prophet1560
green apron1654
lay preacher1747
local preacher1765
local1824
1765 London Evening Post 5 Jan. The two former were travelling Preachers with Mr. W——y: the two last (what they call) Local Preachers.
1885 Min. Wesleyan Confer. 369 Our supply of Ministers is drawn from our Local-preachers.
1936 Crisis May 135/2 The new organization would be the largest Protestant denomination in the country, boasting eight million members with 29,000 ordained ministers, 19,000 local preachers, [etc.].
2014 Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Nexis) 19 Aug. 12 The morning service at the Methodist Church was led by Jean Heath, a member of the church and a local preacher.
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1684 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 14 549 That part of this method which concerns local Problems has been well explained by de Wit.
1761 Crit. Rev. Feb. 148 Fermat..claimed several of the inventions attributed..to Descartes..by which he pretended he could solve those local problems which had foiled antiquity.
1845 R. Potts Euclid's Elements Geom. 291 In the Geometrical Exercises which follow, only those local problems are given where the locus is either a straight line or a circle.
local rag n. colloquial (chiefly humorous or depreciative) a local newspaper, esp. one regarded as lacking quality or substance; cf. rag n.2 7a.
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1840 London Mag. Apr. 239/1 A local rag, yclept the Nottingham Mercury, attacks his Grace in the grossest and most indelicate manner.
1930 Wisconsin State Jrnl. 31 Oct. 3/6 The Madison Square Garden historian..disagreed with the various sports writers on the local rags.
2010 L. Jewell After Party iii. xxvi. 362 He's at the gallery, with Philippe, being interviewed for the local rag.
local rank n. British Military a higher rank awarded to a person temporarily and restricted to service in a particular region or location.
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1761 C. Dalrymple Mil. Ess. i. ii. 32 It is to prevent occasional and local rank being given, that colonel commandants are recommended where the colonel of a regiment is a general officer.
1840 Gentleman's Mag. Jan. 83/2 Col. R. H. Sale, 13th foot, to have the local rank of Major-General in Afghanistan.
1900 Official Gaz. E. Afr. & Uganda Protectorates 15 Dec. 4 Lord Roberts..has been promoted to Lieutenant General with local rank of General.
2006 Times 9 Nov. 63 Towards the end of 1944 [Brian Thompson] was posted to the staff college in Haifa, Palestine, with the local rank of lieutenant-colonel.
local reduction n. Photography the diminution of image density in selected parts of an image; (also) an instance of this; cf. reduction n. 14f.
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1868 M. C. Lea Man. Photogr. iii. xiv. 254 If the pin to which the sheet hung to dry, was put through a wet place, a local reduction follows with this result.
1941 Kenyon Rev. 3 350 Comic pictures that can automatically be produced by..mechanical and chemical manipulation of the negative after exposure: tilting the enlarging easel, local reduction, etc.
1993 C. Graves Elem. Black-and-White Printing vii. 84 Local reduction has the advantage over dodging of allowing you to work under room light and without time pressure.
local room n. U.S. a room in a large newspaper office used communally by reporters.
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society > communication > journalism > newspaper offices > [noun] > department or room in
newsroom1792
editing room1862
local room1877
edit room1917
newsdesk1943
1877 St. Louis (Missouri) Globe-Democrat 31 July 2/1 The city editor..put his head into the local room and exclaimed ‘Ho, Pat!’ whereupon thirty-six of the reporters..said ‘Yis, sor!’
1890 Scribner's Mag. Aug. 157/2 We were all talking about it one night..in the local room.
1948 Chicago Tribune 18 Jan. iv. 2/3 The usual banter that goes on in a local room after presstime.
2013 San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News (Nexis) 13 Aug. The space the new restaurant occupies was once the ‘local room’, a wide-open newsroom shared by reporters from every beat.
local rule n. Golf a rule which is not in the official rules of golf but which is established at an individual club to deal with abnormal conditions specific to that particular course.
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1882 Jrnl. Brit. Archaeol. Assoc. 38 373 He must..play the ball from the place where it is dropped, counting one or more extra strokes against himself, according to the local rules of the game.]
1889 W. T. Linskill Golf 48 (heading) Local rules for St. Andrews links.
1960 N.Y. Times 9 Apr. 18/1 It was announced that Finsterwald would suffer a two-stroke penalty for his practice putting. This is strictly a ‘local rule’ that is not in the official rules of golf.
2013 Golf Digest (Nexis) Sept. 46 Any tournament or course committee can enact Local Rules to meet unusual situations, such as allowing golfers to replay a stroke without penalty if the ball strikes an electric power line on the course.
local sign n. Psychology (H. Lotze's term for) an element of sensation by which an individual perceives spatial relations, being information either from a photoreceptor in the eye indicating direction in space or from a touch receptor indicating a specific point on the body. [After German Localzeichen ( H. Lotze Medicinische Psychologie (1852) 331, now Lokalzeichen).]
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1860 J. D. Morell tr. I. H. Fichte Contrib. Mental Philos. vi. 102 In this way, Lotze considers that those local signs are generated, according to which the continuous impressions are moulded into an extended image.
1874 J. Sully Sensation & Intuition 70 What this difference of local sign (Localzeichen) really is, we cannot, in the nature of the case, hope to discover, since, ex hypothesi, long before the mind is able to inquire into its character, it is buried deep under associations derived from the eye itself and from the other organs.
1884 B. Bosanquet et al. tr. H. Lotze Metaphysic 490 If the local signs π κ ρ merely differ generally in quality, it is true that they would suffice to prevent three perfectly similar stimuli from coalescing, and to make them appear as three instances of the same felt content.
1907 Univ. Stud. Apr. 19 An object is represented as a thing that will excite a local sign upon the toe.
1984 W. R. Woodward in J. Brožek Explor. Hist. Psychol. U.S. 153 This doctrine, derived by Wilhelm Wundt from the local sign theory of spatial perception, stated that feelings of ocular movement provide an index of location in three dimensions.
2008 Pluralist 3 66 Lotze's famous theory of local signs, by which he explains spatial perception, closely parallels his theory of aesthetic and moral perception.
Local Supercluster n. (also with lower-case initials) Astronomy a supercluster to which the Local Group of galaxies belongs; cf. local group n. (b).The Local Supercluster is about 110 million light years across, and besides our galaxy also contains the Virgo Cluster. Cf. earlier local supergalaxy n.
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1958 Astron. Jrnl. 63 54/2 De Vaucouleurs, G. Further evidence for a local super-cluster of galaxies.
1993 New Scientist 10 Apr. 14/3 Neither the Virgo cluster not the Great Attractor can fully explain the Local Group's motion. This is because both lie in the plane of the Local Supercluster.
2003 J. Scalzi Rough Guide to Universe xiii. 197 Large as the Virgo Cluster is, it is just part of a much larger collection of galaxies known as the Virgo Supercluster (or the Local Supercluster).
local supergalaxy n. Astronomy (now historical) = Local Supercluster n.In the source cited in quot. 1930, Shapley uses both local system and super-galaxy, but not local supergalaxy.
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1930 H. Shapley in Harvard Coll. Observatory Circular No. 350. 7 The main advantage of the super-galaxy hypothesis of the Milky Way is that it is comprehensive.]
1934 Sci. News Let. 13 Jan. 20/2 Dr. Shapley..finds that there is a local supergalaxy, a sort of universe within a universe, consisting of our own Milky Way system, the two clouds of Magellan, the Andromeda nebula and two companions, and two other external galaxies.
2007 R. J. Buta et al. De Vaucouleurs Atlas Galaxies 311/1 He [sc. Gérard de Vaucouleurs] established (1953–56) the reality of the Local Supercluster (or Local Supergalaxy).
local talent n. (a) talent possessed by people in a particular local area; (b) (with the, and singular or plural agreement) talented people of a particular place or region considered collectively; (colloquial, frequently regarded as offensive) attractive or beautiful people, esp. women, of a particular place or region considered collectively.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > [noun] > ability or talent > people having talent > local
local talent1821
the mind > attention and judgement > attractiveness > [noun] > attractive person > woman > collectively
witchery1777
local talent1947
talent1947
crackling1949
1821 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 9 197/1 I requested to be put in possession of those documents, to illustrate the answer I was then preparing to the insolent impugners of local talent.
1824 Newcastle Courant 4 Sept. The local talent has greatly improved since last season, and I am happy to observe many pictures by native artists that would hold their rank in any exhibition in the kingdom.
1872 Baily's Monthly Mag. Aug. 173 There is..a plethora of amateur regattas, and nearly every reach on the Thames has its meeting, at which the local talent have an easy opportunity of acquiring pots.
1947 M. Gilbert Close Quarters xii. 175 You can play darts and engage the local talent in gossip.
1975 Times 18 Feb. 13/3 So much ‘local’ talent, so much unearthed by chance... Is the crafts revival the illustration of the desire for independence and self-sufficiency?
2011 V. Gregg Rifleman 115 Whenever we passed through a village we were treated like heroes. Flowers, gallons of the local vino and kisses from the local talent.
local time n. (originally) time at a particular place reckoned from the instant of transit of the mean sun over the meridian at that place (which defines noon); (now more usually, and sometimes as a postmodifier) time as reckoned in the time zone containing the observer or the specified place; cf. time n. 35b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > reckoning of time > [noun] > systems of reckoning time of day
time1646
apparent time1694
local timea1703
Greenwich Mean Time1782
sun time1837
GMT1840
railway time1847
railroad time1849
Greenwich time1861
Eastern time1878
Pacific time1880
Universal Time1882
Eastern Standard Time1883
Mountain time1883
British Standard Time1908
daylight saving1908
zone time1908
LMT1909
British Summer Time1916
summertime1916
U.T.1929
B.S.T.1930
EST1935
British Double Summer Time1941
war time1942
B.D.S.T.1943
ephemeris time1950
a1703 R. Hooke Lect. Navigation & Astron. in Posthumous Wks. (1705) 513 The different Local times being compar'd will give the different Longitude of those places in respect of one another.
1865 Catholic World Apr. 127/1 Railway time is gradually beating local time.
1935 World Almanac (ed. 50) 115/2 Mountain Standard Time is the local time of the 105th meridian.
1968 H. Franklin Crash i. 9 Our estimated time of arrival at Cairo is 17.45 local time, 15.45 G.M.T.
1998 J. Dougill Oxf. in Eng. Lit. 286 Five past nine equals nine o'clock local time, for Oxford lies five minutes behind Greenwich Mean Time.
2005 Flying July 111/1 I try to eat light so I can plan on eating dinner around five o'clock local time.
local value n. Mathematics the value represented by a numeral appearing as a digit in the expression of a number.The local value of a such a numeral is determined by its position, e.g. the local value of the ‘3’ in 534 is thirty, or three tens.
ΚΠ
1705 tr. A. Taquet Pract. Arithm. i. ii, in tr. Euclid Elements Arithm. 84 Teacheth to write and express any Number given, both which he may easily perform, that rightly understands both the simple and local values [L. valorem..loci] of Figures.
1853 B. Smith Arith. & Algebra (1857) 2 All numbers have a simple or intrinsic value, and also a local value.
1901 N. Hawkins Hand Bk. Calculations for Engineers & Fireman 227 The simple value of a figure is its value when standing in units' place. The local value of a figure is the value which arises from its location.
1919 Sci. Monthly Nov. 458 Our so-called ‘Arabic’ notation owes its excellence to the application of the principle of local value and the use of a symbol for zero.
2000 M. Mohamed Great Muslim Mathematicians ii. 25 About 400 B.C., the Babylonians possessed both the principle of relative local value and the zero symbol.
local variable n. (a) a factor which varies between different localities; a factor which is unique to a particular locality; (b) (Computing) a variable which is declared within the definition of (and hence is accessed only by) a particular function, procedure, etc.
ΚΠ
1898 Polit. Sci. Q. 13 129 The rates of interest on mortgages of urban real estate show differences..more nearly in correspondence with those of discount rates than those of any other local variable yet examined.
1961 Proc. 1960 Computer Applic. Symp. 158 Translation from BALGOL to ALGOL 60 is easier in this respect, as one need only declare the local variables within the block which constitutes the procedure.
1976 News Jrnl. (Mansfield, Ohio) 5 Nov. 4/2 There is no way the national planners can take into account local variables.
2007 K. Jung & A. Brown Beginning Lua Programming iv. 147 A local variable inside a function is evaluated every time the function is called.
local veto n. (also with capital initials) now historical prohibition of the sale of alcohol in a particular district, under the system of local option (local option n.).
ΚΠ
1868 Birmingham Daily Post 7 Oct. 3/1 The following are the points on which an amendment of the [licensing] law is required... Diminution of the present facilities for obtaining new licenses..by giving to owner and occupiers of adjacent property a local veto.]
1869 Wrexham & Denbighshire Advertiser 16 Jan. 3/3 It means exactly the same as the older phrase which has got into popular use—‘local veto’... We doubt not ‘local option’ will become a very popular phrase, when indicating the policy of the Permissive Bill.
1895 Speaker 20 July 63/1 We are compelled to speak thus of the Local Veto Bill and the Local Veto panacea for the evil of the drink traffic.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 769/2 Sweden and Norway.—In these countries the celebrated ‘Gothenburg’ or company system is in force together with licensing and local veto.
2001 R. Kenna Glasgow Pub Compan. (ed. 2) 51/1 In 1920 the good people of Whiteinch voted to become ‘dry’ under the ‘Local Veto’ provisions of the Temperance (Scotland) Act of 1913.
local vetoism n. (also with capital initials) now rare support for or advocacy of local veto.
ΚΠ
1889 Brewers' Guardian 15 Oct. 323/1 Local Vetoism, or rather Direct Controlism, must be prohibited.
1893 Derby Mercury 3 May 4/7 Local Vetoism certainly makes strange bedfellows.
1900 A. J. Balfour in Daily News 29 May 2/5 Perhaps the hon. baronet would reverse his opinion about the infallibility of democracies, or even of local vetoism.
local vetoist n. (also with capital initials) now rare a supporter or advocate of local veto.
ΚΠ
1884 Glasgow Herald 12 Mar. 6/4 There is a special section saving the rights of manufacturers, a point ignored by the Local Vetoists here.
1894 Sir W. Lawson in Westm. Rev. Sept. 4/3 What would happen if they, the Local Vetoists, got their bill?
1929 Economist 17 Aug. 326/1 If he is a local vetoist..he should ipso facto, be ineligible for membership of the Commission.
local white n. Caribbean (originally) a white colonist or settler in the Caribbean; (later) a descendent of these people; a Caribbean person of European or mixed ancestry, having a light or fair complexion.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > colonist or settler > [noun] > other specific colonists or settlers
pilgrim1630
originals1703
old settler1744
Big Knife1750
out-settler1755
provincial1756
Boer1776
freeman1791
Pilgrim Fathers1799
back-settler1809
undertaker1819
oecist1846
Argonaut1848
Canterbury pilgrim1850
poblador1850
shagroon1851
forty-niner1853
planter1858
inside squatter1881
local white1888
Minyan1928
1888 C. S. Salmon Caribbean Confederation iv. 27 The opinions of the local whites on the form of government they are under are easy enough to get at; they cry them from the house tops.
1961 Sunday Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 26 Nov. 7/4 Of the thousands who attended the Re-Opening of Nelson's Dockyard there was only a sprinkling of Europeans..and a few..local whites, descendants of the old settlers of the island.
2007 Tribune (Bahamas) 31 May 4/2 The red flags..are on the cars of the local conchy joes, the name by which the local whites are called.
local yokel n. colloquial (usually depreciative) a person belonging to a small (esp. rural) community, typically characterized as insular or less educated and sophisticated than city dwellers; cf. yokel n.
ΚΠ
1845 Era 16 Mar. 11/2 A very slight sprinkling of local yokels, who said they would keep ‘aw selant’.
1937 Down Beat Feb. 22/4 The local yokels that have coin to spend should patronize the spots in town instead of..scraping their last nickle to..belong to some Country Club.
2007 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 5 Aug. iv. 11/4 The enduring suspicion of some rural hinterlanders is that the Northwest's precious environment..is merely an urban weekend amenity, to be saved from the local yokels by crusading Seattleites.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2015; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
localv.
/ˈləʊkl/, U.S. /ˈloʊkəl/ Scots Law. Now historical and rare.
transitive. To apportion the cost of an increase in (a parish minister's stipend) among landholders under the teind system; to lay the charge of (such an increase) on a landholder or lands. Cf. locality n. 2a.
ΚΠ
1593 in Rec. Parl. Scotl. to 1707 (2007) 1593/4/64 To locall sufficient stipendis.
1681 J. Dalrymple Inst. Law Scotl. xviii. 359 A Commission was granted for valuation of Teinds, and for disponing thereof as aforesaid, and for modifying and localling Stipends to the Ministers.
a1768 J. Erskine Inst. Law Scotl. (1773) I. ii. x. §47 359 Where a determinate quantity of stipend..is modified to a minister out of the tithes of the parish..the decree is called of modification: but where that quantum is also localled or proportioned among the different landholders liable in the stipend, it is styled a decree of modification and locality.
1808 Act 48 Geo. III c. 138 §14 The Right of any Heritor to surrender his valued Teind in place of subjecting his Lands, to the Amount of the Stipend localled upon them, shall not be taken away.
1816 W. Scott Antiquary II. iv. 93 A clause, which had occurred in a process for localling his last augmentation of stipend.
1877 Cases Court of Session 4th Ser. 4 1127 The proceedings shewed that at this time there was sufficient free teind without localling on heritors who had heritable rights.
1893 Glasgow Herald 19 May 9/1 Teinds appropriated to pious uses, including teinds granted to the deans of the chapel-royal, are localled upon.
1902 Scots Law Times 29 Mar. 481/2 It was his absolute right, when the commissioners fixed the amount of the stipend, to local it at his own pleasure.
Derivatives
ˈlocalled adj.
ΚΠ
1695 J. Sage Fund. Charter Presbytery ii. 210 The Earl of Morton..had flattered the Church out of their Possession of the Thirds of the Benefices..; promising, instead thereof, to settle local'd Stipends upon the Ministers.
1773 in Decisions Court of Session (1804) XVII. 14810 Before a constant localled stipend should be fixed in favour of the Minister, the extent of funds..should be established.
1893 W. G. Black What are Teinds? v. 68 Ministers with such localled stipends.
ˈlocalling n.
ΚΠ
1783 J. Dalrymple Argument Consideration State of Nation 46 Of the impropriety of any new localling of the Land Tax, I have already made my sentiments public.
1872 Bell's Princ. Law Scot. (ed. 6) §1162 496 The localling or apportioning of the burden on the unexhausted teind is under the jurisdiction of the Court of Session as Commissioners of Teinds.
1933 Encycl. Laws Scot. XIV. 365 The Act of 1925 provides that any application to the Lord Ordinary, and the localling of any augmentation, and any decree of locality following thereon shall be made and dealt with in such manner as the Court of Session may prescribe.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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