magnituden.
/ˈmaɡnᵻtʃuːd/, /ˈmaɡnᵻtjuːd/, U.S. /ˈmæɡnəˌt(j)ud/ 1. The quality or fact of being great (in various senses); = greatness n.
a. In physical sense: great size or extent. Of sound: loudness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > loudness > [noun]
loudnessc1050
magnitude?a1425
vehemencyc1487
noisiness1727
streperousness1727
thunderousness1904
the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > largeness > [noun]
micklenesseOE
muchnessa1398
largenessa1400
magnitude?a1425
meta1425
bignessc1487
greatnessc1500
muchity1534
magnity1790
stourness1866
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 127v Magnitude of disposicoun, as in woundeȝ so grete þat hem nedeþ sewing.
tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) i. 1066 (MED) To bey thy been..preue hem by their murmurs magnitude.
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1865) I. 127 (MED) Profitable waters..whiche be callede sees what for the magnitude of theyme.
1640 Bp. J. Wilkins Disc. New Planet (1684) ii. 149 'Tis said, that Magnitude does always add to the swiftness of a violent motion.
1650 J. Bulwer Anthropometamorphosis 230 That which fails in magnitude is called smal.
1727 D. Defoe Syst. Magick i. i. 10 The Height, and Strength, and Magnitude of their Building could only serve to make its Fall..more terrible.
1817 T. Chalmers Series Disc. Christian Revelation i. 22 We have something more than the mere magnitude of the planets to allege in favour of the idea that they are inhabited.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xi. 82 And as our eye ranged over the broad shoulders of the mountain,..the conception of its magnitude grew upon us.
1892 R. L. Stevenson & L. Osbourne Wrecker xiii. 207 The Flying Scud..was some thrice the size of the Norah Creina..; and..she impressed us with a mountain magnitude.
1904 J. London Sea-wolf xxviii. 274 There broke upon our ears a continuous and mighty bellowing. It partook of the magnitude and volume of distant thunder.
1917 E. R. Burroughs Princess of Mars x. 92 Only a few peaks on all Mars exceed four thousand feet in height; the suggestion of magnitude was merely relative.
1937 Discovery Nov. 334/2 Though the Loch Ness monster itself were laid before him in all its magnitude.
1983 V. Tanzer Call it Delmarvelous iii. x. 118 You might think that vegetables of such magnitude would be stringy and bitter.
b. Greatness of character, rank, or position. Also as a humorous title of address. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > virtue > morally elevated quality > [noun] > specifically in a person
honourc1300
virtuousnessc1449
freelyheadc1450
magnitude?a1475
nobility1508
ingenuity1598
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > rank > [noun] > elevated rank
pridea1300
honourc1300
primatea1402
honesty1418
grandeur1600
eminencea1616
magnitude1620
eminency1629
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1871) III. 117 (MED) Nabugodonosor transcendede in magnitude and fortitude Hercules in his actes.
1495 Trevisa's Bartholomeus De Proprietatibus Rerum (de Worde) i. 3 Our wytte maye be led to the consyderacyon of the gretnesse, or magnytude, of the moost excellent bewteuous clarete dyuyne & Inuysyble.
1567 Compend. Bk. Godly Songs (rev. ed.) f. 59 Thy magnitude I will it put in dyte.
1609 B. Jonson Masque of Queens in Wks. (1616) I. 961 [Boadicea's] orations..wherein is expressed all magnitude of a spirit, breathing to the libertie and redemption of her Countrie.
1620 T. Shelton tr. M. de Cervantes Don Quixote III. xxxii. 231 And, for proof of this, let me tell your Magnitudes [etc.].
1665 T. Manley tr. H. Grotius De Rebus Belgicis 741 The United States did not omit forthwith to send an Embassy to congratulate him [sc. King James] for his new access of magnitude.
1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. i. 50 The two Secretaries of State (which were not in those days Officers of that magnitude they have been since..) were [etc.].
1874 T. Hardy Far from Madding Crowd I. xiii. 161 ‘What fun it would be to send it to the stupid old Boldwood..!’ said the irrepressible Liddy..indulging in an awful mirth..as she thought of the moral and social magnitude of the man contemplated.
1944 M. McLuhan Let. 18 Jan. (1987) 149 Those interested in sitting for you are of sufficient magnitude to keep the St. Louis situation both fluid and promising.
c. Of immaterial things: great degree or importance.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > [noun]
micklenesseOE
mickleheadc1300
greatnessc1330
micklehooda1400
muchheada1425
magnitude?a1475
muchness1494
largeness1528
ampleness1566
grandeur1599
extensiveness1639
stupendosity1828
massiveness1855
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1869) II. 343 (MED) Wherefore he [sc. Saturnus] was..namede as godde of alle goddes, for the magnitude of his power.
1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. a*iiv And howe the effectes that suche ioye of the spirit leaueth behynde it, sheweth the magnitude or greatnesse therof.
1769 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) I. xxiii. 168 A great man,..even in the magnitude of his crimes, finds a rescue from contempt.
a1806 S. Horsley Serm. (1816) I. iv. 70 We commonly find in the ambitious man a superiority of parts, in some measure proportioned to the magnitude of his designs.
1844 C. Thirlwall Hist. Greece VIII. lx. 29 The preparations..were..on a scale proportioned to the magnitude of the object he had in view.
1861 A. P. Stanley Lect. Eastern Church (1869) vi. 189 No conversion of such magnitude [as that of Constantine] had occurred since the Apostolic age.
1911 J. E. C. Hayford Ethiopia Unbound vi. 79 I confess, Bilcox, I cannot see the magnitude of the offence.
1959 J. Barzun House of Intellect iv. 90 We can never forget the magnitude of the difficulties in what we then undertook.
1978 B. Shaw Vertigo v. 70 He was tackling an engineering job of Brunelian magnitude.
2.
a. Size (whether great or small); (Mathematics) (a) the geometrical measure or extent of a line, angle, vector, etc.; (b) the absolute value of a complex (or real) number.order of magnitude: see order n. 4b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > [noun]
greatness1381
measurea1382
quantitya1387
muchnessa1398
sizea1400
largec1400
micklec1400
moisonc1400
of suingc1400
bignessc1475
assize1481
proportions1481
bodya1500
dimension1529
measuring1529
wideness1535
bind1551
corporance1570
magnitude1570
mickledom1596
amplitude1599
breadth1609
extendure1613
extension1614
extent1623
extensure1631
dimense1632
dimensity1655
bulkiness1674
bulksomeness1674
admeasurement1754
calliper1819
acreage1846
the world > relative properties > number > geometry > [noun] > geometrical property
duality1532
magnitude1570
solidity1570
order1706
symmetry1823
unicursality1887
self-coincidence1902
closure1905
non-orientability1938
1570 H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. i. f. 1 A signe or poynt..is the beginnyng of magnitude.
1599 A. M. tr. O. Gaebelkhover Bk. Physicke 74/1 Mixe of this poulder the magnitude of a hasell~nutte amongst a little Cotten.
1615 H. Crooke Μικροκοσμογραϕια 355 It is a Membrane enclosing the whole cauity of the Chest, wherefore his Figure and magnitude is answerable to that cauity.
1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 1080 It is a small creature, and contemptible for its magnitude.
1725 D. Defoe New Voy. round World ii. 118 As to the Magnitude of those Rivers, he could say little.
1754 Bp. T. Sherlock Disc. (1759) I. iv. 159 Reason can measure the Magnitudes and Distances of the heavenly Bodies.
1840 D. Lardner Treat. Geom. v. 59 We can never obtain an arc of the precise value of any one of the usual denominations of angular magnitude.
1854 D. Brewster More Worlds v. 94 The creations of the material world, whether they be of colossal or atomic magnitude.
1885 H. W. Watson & S. H. Burbury Math. Theory Electr. & Magn. I. 119 Two infinite series of images, the magnitudes or values of which converge.
1926 A. T. Dover Theory & Pract. Alternating Currents iii. 49 Impedance is therefore a complex quantity, i.e. it is only completely specified when its magnitude and inclination, or alternatively its two perpendicular components with respect to the current, are given.
1938 R. S. Woodworth Exper. Psychol. xviii. 445 The ‘indifference point’, a phenomenon observed for many years in judgments of magnitude.
1951 M. V. Wilkes et al. Prepar. Programs for Electronic Digital Computer i. iv. 35 One difficulty which arises in programming complicated problems is the control of the magnitudes of the numbers involved.
1962 D. R. Corson & P. Lorrain Introd. Electromagn. Fields i. 1 Lightface type will indicate either a scalar quantity or the magnitude of a vector quantity.
1980 B. Arnold Song of Nightingale iii. 25 The stream, at no time in its course of any great magnitude, widened out a little.
1990 Brain 113 528 The size of the caudal striatal lesions did not parallel the magnitude of the decrease of GABA.
b. concrete. Chiefly Mathematics. A quantity, an amount.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > enumeration, reckoning, or calculation > [noun]
rimeeOE
talec950
numbrarya1382
compota1387
denumberment1455
numeration1533
magnitude1570
enumeration1577
annumeration1604
tally1614
denumeration1623
recensiona1638
connumeration1646
calculate1695
1570 J. Dee in H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. Math. Præf. sig. *j What Magnitude so euer, is Solide or Thicke, is also broade, & long... A long magnitude, we terme a Line.
1570 H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. v. f. 141 Magnitudes which haue to one and the same magnitude one and the same proportion: are equall the one to the other.
1625 N. Carpenter Geogr. Delineated i. v. 99 An imaginary point, conceiued in a magnitude deuoyde of all quantity, yet bounding and termining all Magnitudes.
1702 V. Mandey tr. J. J. Hainlin Synopsis Mathematica: Geom. i. ii. 137 Rational or Effable Magnitudes are those whose Proportions may be exprest by certain Numbers.
1859 B. Smith Arith. & Algebra (ed. 6) 192 The term Magnitude or Quantity is used in Mathematics to express whatever is capable of increase or diminution. Thus a sum of money is a magnitude or quantity.
1864 F. C. Bowen Treat. Logic iv. 66 A Concept is a magnitude or Quantity.
1995 D. Berlinski Tour of Calculus vi. 37 The discovery of incommensurable magnitudes provoked a crisis among Greek mathematicians committed (as most mathematicians are) to the supremacy of numbers.
c. The intrinsic size of an earthquake or underground explosion (as distinguished from the intensity of its effects at any particular place), usually expressed by a number that is a logarithmic function of the maximum resulting seismometric deflection adjusted to allow for distance.The use shown in quot. 1830 at sense 3c is unrelated.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > formation of features > convulsion > [noun] > earthquake > size of
magnitude1935
Richter magnitude1938
1935 C. F. Richter in Bull. Seismol. Soc. Amer. 25 1 In the course of historical or statistical study of earthquakes in any given region it is frequently desirable to have a scale for rating these shocks in terms of their original energy, independently of the effects which may be produced at any particular point of observation. On the suggestion of Mr. H. O. Wood, it is here proposed to refer to such a scale as a ‘magnitude scale’.
1935 C. F. Richter in Bull. Seismol. Soc. Amer. 25 2 The requirements of research..call for some estimate of the magnitude, in the sense here used, of each important shock in the California region.
1947 K. E. Bullen Introd. Theory Seismol. xiv. 234 The smallest earthquakes reported felt are of magnitude 1·5;..those of magnitude 4·5 are capable of causing slight damage near the epicentre.
1959 B. F. Howell Introd. Geophysics ix. 125 Values of magnitude calculated at different observatories, using different seismometers at one observatory, or even different phases (body or surface waves) on the same seismogram, may be different.
1972 Sci. Amer. Jan. 14/3 Underground explosions in the megaton range can have a body-wave magnitude of 6·5 to 7.
1993 Albuquerque (New Mexico) Jrnl. 30 Apr. d 17/6 (heading) The temblor took place in the same locales as an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.8.
3. † c. In various other technical uses. Obsolete.
a. Astronomy. [After a Hellenistic use of ancient Greek μέγεθος (in Ptolemy, Almagest); compare post-classical Latin magnitudo (attested in this sense late 13th and late 17th centuries in British sources).] Each of the classes into which stars and other celestial objects have been placed according to their degree of brilliancy. Now regarded (according to a system introduced by the British astronomer N. R. Pogson in 1856) as a number on a continuous scale representing the negative logarithm of the brightness, such that a decrease of five magnitudes represents a hundred-fold increase in brightness and a decrease of one magnitude an increase of 2.512 times.Originally, stars ‘of the first magnitude’ were the most brilliant; later, when the size of this class was found to have become disproportionately large, negative magnitudes were introduced for the brightest objects. The ‘sixth magnitude’ includes objects that are barely visible to the naked eye; the seventh and lower magnitudes are telescopic only. The classification into ‘magnitudes’, originally a subjective one, is now a matter of photometric measurement. Formerly often denoted by the symbol m, as 2.m, 3.m.Before decimal or fractional numbers were used there was an intermediate stage illustrated by quots. 1796, 1826, and 1851.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > star > star-matter > [noun] > magnitude
magnitude1580
mag1840
apparent magnitude1875
absolute magnitude1902
third magnitude1905
the world > the universe > star > kind of star > by light > [noun]
magnitude1580
1580 F. K. Of Crinitall Starre sig. Aiiiv This Crinita is fixed agaynst a Starre of the thyrde Magnitude, neere upon the Dolphyn.
a1641 R. Montagu Acts & Monuments (1642) 121 In the firmament of heaven be many Starres;..of the first, second, third magnitude, as they use to speak.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost vii. 357 He..form'd the Moon Globose, and everie magnitude of Starrs. View more context for this quotation
1690 W. Leybourn Cursus mathematicus 383 A star of the 1 Magnitude may be seen when the Sun is but 12 deg. below the Horizon.
1796 W. Herschel in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 86 168 1.2m for instance, denotes that a star so marked is between the first and second magnitude. 2.1 signifies the same thing, with an intimation that the star so marked is nearly at the second magnitude, but partakes still something of the lustre of a star of the first order.
1826 J. F. W. Herschel in Mem. Royal Astron. Soc. 2 444 I shall extend the examination to all stars of the 8th and (8·9) magnitudes; those of the 9th however not included.
1849 J. F. W. Herschel Outl. Astron. xv. 523 At present it is not unfrequent to find the interval trisected thus: 1 m, 1.2 m, 2.1 m, 2 m, &c. where the expression 1.2 m denotes a magnitude intermediate between the first and second, but nearer 1 than 2; while 2.1 m designates a magnitude also intermediate, but nearer 2 than 1.
1851 Monthly Notices Royal Astron. Soc. 11 187 This triple star..is designated by Argelander..as of magnitude 5·4 (or about 4·7).
1897 D. P. Todd New Astron. xvi. 423 Even the surpassing brilliancy of the sun can be indicated on the same scale; the number − 25·4 expresses his stellar magnitude.
1902 Daily Chron. 11 Aug. 6/7 Eros will be detected by the naked eye as a sixth magnitude star.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 13 Nov. 12/1 The only first-magnitude star in the track of the moon.
1930 R. H. Baker Astron. i. 20 The magnitude of the brightest star, Sirius, is −1·6; Canopus is −0·9.
1967 C. M. Huffer et al. Introd. Astron. xvii. 248/2 The photoelectric photometer, under the best conditions and by averaging several observations, can make measures down to 0·001 magnitude in accuracy.
1994 Daily Tel. 31 May 22/6 Mars is low in the western morning sky well before sunrise, but is still faint at magnitude 1.2.
b. figurative. In of the first magnitude, of the greatest importance; outstanding. Similarly, of the second (third, etc.) magnitude. Cf. first adj. 1a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [adjective] > most important
mosteOE
foremostc1000
headOE
headlyOE
nexta1200
umest1513
primary1565
headest1577
ruling1590
forward1591
capital1597
of the first magnitude1643
palmary1646
top1647
prepondering1651
headmost1661
home1662
life-and-death1804
palmarian1815
bada1825
key1832
première1844
1643 D. Cawdrey Good Man Ded. f. A2v Never did any Kingdome know and finde so great a generation of Scornfull men,..even those of the second and third magnitudes.
1693 G. Stepney tr. Juvenal Sat. viii. 47 Whatever be your Birth, you're sure to be A Peer of the First Magnitude to me.
1706 E. Baynard Hot & Cold Baths in J. Floyer Hist. Cold Bathing (ed. 2) ii. 16 Those that go Snips with their Apothecaries, Villains of the first Magnitude.
1892 R. L. Stevenson & L. Osbourne Wrecker xvii. 258 Messieurs Sharpe and Fowler had left..in the persuasion that I was a liar of the first magnitude.
1927 Travel Nov. 18 Today San Antonio is a commercial city of the first magnitude and the metropolis of Texas.
1989 Independent 9 Nov. 29/3 This is a convulsive historical event of the first magnitude.
ΚΠ
1681 N. Grew Musæum Regalis Societatis i. vii. 157 The Great Butterfly. Papilio major. This is of the second magnitude.
1705 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. 19 Dec. (1885) I. 133 The said Coyns are all Brass of the 3d magnitude.
1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 413 In the following year there were one hundred and fifty-one [sc. earthquake shocks: they were registered in four classes], of which ninety-eight were of the first magnitude.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.?a1425