mechanismn.
/ˈmɛkənɪz(ə)m/, /ˈmɛkn̩ɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˈmɛkəˌnɪzəm/ I. The structure or operation of a machine or other complex system; a theory or approach relating to this.† 3. Mechanical action; action according to the laws of mechanics. Obsolete.
1. † b. More generally: the interconnection of parts in any complex process, pattern, or arrangement. Obsolete.
a. The structure of, or the relationship of the parts in, a machine, or in a construction or process comparable to a machine. (In early use chiefly with reference to natural systems.) Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > [noun]
shapec1050
composition1382
temperc1400
confectionc1420
temperament1471
frame?1520
compage1550
architecture1590
compacture1590
structure?1591
fabricaturec1600
constitution1601
membrature1606
composture1614
compositure1625
contexturea1639
composure1639
economy1644
fabric1644
conformation1646
composier1648
constructurea1652
compages1660
mechanism1662
compound1671
construction1707
componency1750
formation1774
make-up1821
1662 E. Stillingfleet Origines Sacræ iii. §15. 401 To impute that rare mechanism of the works of nature to the blind and fortuitous motion of some particles of matter?
1686 R. Boyle Free Enq. Notion Nature 73 I shall express, what I call'd General Nature, by Cosmical Mechanism, that is, a Comprisal of all the Mechanical Affections (Figure, Size, Motion, &c.) that belong to the matter of the great System of the Universe.
1722 W. Wollaston Relig. of Nature v. 100 He..knows the make of their bodies, and all the mechanism and propensions of them.
1776 G. Campbell Philos. of Rhetoric I. i. xi. 288 The wonderful mechanism of our mental frame.
1854 D. Brewster More Worlds xvii. 256 The wonderful mechanisms of animal and vegetable life.
1855 A. Bain Senses & Intellect i. i. 67 The mechanism or anatomy of movement in the animal frame.
1862 C. Darwin On Var. Contrivances Orchids Fertilised iii. 100 The mechanism of the flower.
1867 M. E. Herbert Cradle Lands iii. 96 The door was a marvel of mechanism.
1965 Listener 2 Sept. 332/2 The conceptions of molecular codes, and the chemical storage of information..have stimulated fascinating speculations about the mechanism of memory and the mystery of dreams.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > [noun] > a structure
machine1545
framework1578
compact1600
fabrication1602
machination1605
compound1607
structure1612
compilement1624
fabric1633
contignation1635
artifice1700
mechanism1712
creel1788
composition1793
arrangement1800
1712 Spectator No. 518. ⁋8 The Contour of his Person, the Mechanism of his Dress, [etc.].
1715 J. T. Desaguliers tr. N. Gauger Fires Improv'd 154 The whole Mechanism of it [sc. a chimney] will be easily understood by a sight of the Figures.
1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Mechanism,..2. Construction of parts depending on each other in any complicated fabrick.
1770 T. Percy tr. P. H. Mallet Northern Antiq. II. 191 A small Treatise on the Construction and Mechanism of the Gothic or Icelandic Metre.
2.
a. A system of mutually adapted parts working together in a machine or in a manner analogous to that of a machine; a piece of machinery. Also: machinery, mechanical appliances.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > [noun]
trama1400
ginc1400
pageant1519
engine1581
machination1605
machina1612
machine1659
mechanism1665
contrivance1667
gimcrack1772
plant1925
power1942
society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > parts of machines > mechanism > [noun]
mechanic1605
mechanism1758
machinery1803
mechanicism1856
action1864
1665 R. Hooke Micrographia 170 Its Mechanism consists principally in two parts, that is, first its two Claws,..and secondly, two Palms.
a1676 M. Hale Primitive Originat. Mankind (1677) i. ii. 48 That Opinion that depresseth the natures of sensible Creatures below their just value..rendring them no more but barely Mechanisms or Artificial Engins.
1758 A. Reid tr. P. J. Macquer Elements Theory & Pract. Chym. I. 129 This is brought about by a mechanism to which we are strangers.
1777 W. Mason Epist. Dr. Shebbeare 17 (note) As Mr. Cox's automata were very much in the Chinese taste, [he] was very curious to discover their mechanism.
1802 W. Paley Nat. Theol. xxiii. 447 Mechanism is not itself power. Mechanism, without power, can do nothing.
1814 D. Stewart Elem. Philos. Human Mind II. ii. §2. 143 The wonderful mechanism of speech.
1822 J. Imison Elem. Sci. & Art I. 94 The part of the mechanism of a watch which shows the hour of the day.
1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. 9 809 The vascular dilatation must be considered as the result of the morbid condition of the mechanism of the circulation.
1913 J. S. Haldane Mechanism, Life & Personality i. 9 Descartes, in his writings about the nervous system,..suggested nervous mechanisms.
1939 E. D. Laborde tr. E. de Martonne Shorter Physical Geogr. (rev. ed.) 2 The meteorologist analyses the mechanism of climate.
1973 A. d'A. Bellairs & J. F. D. Frazer Smith's Brit. Amphibians & Reptiles (ed. 5) v. 164 Kinesis and streptostylism..form the basis for the mechanism of fang erection in the vipers and their allies.
1984 C. James Flying Visits 2 Those old piston-engined airliners would have fascinated me even had they never left the ground, but the thought of such beautiful mechanisms actually travelling through the sky was almost too much to take.
1993 Atlantic Monthly Oct. 40/1 As winds change, a computer orders hydraulic mechanisms to change the pitch of the blades.
b. spec. in a musical instrument.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > keyboard instrument > [noun] > mechanism
mechanism1834
piano action1853
pianoforte action1856
key action1857
1834 New Eng. Mag. Jan. 28 There was then but little acquaintance with the internal mechanism of musical instruments of this kind [sc. piano-fortes] in Boston.
1849 Brit. Patent 12,378 (1857) 2 My invention consists of so arranging the mechanism of a flute that the closing of the C sharp and the B natural holes may be simultaneous by the action of the second finger.
1876 J. Stainer & W. A. Barrett Dict. Musical Terms 283/2 Mechanism, that part of an instrument which forms the connection between the player and the sound-producing portion.
1938 Oxf. Compan. Music 625/1 All these instruments possessing the double reed and the conical bore, their differences are only of detail, especially in a progressive refinement of tone and improvement of mechanism.
1961 T. Dart in A. C. Baines Musical Instruments through Ages iii. 68 For more than four hundred years the clavichord held a place of honour among keyboard instruments... Its mechanism is very simple.
1975 S. Marcuse Musical Instruments (rev. ed.) 122/1 Contrabasses [sc. clarinets] were generally made of metal, Fr[ench] ones being fitted with the Boehm mechanism.
c. An ordered sequence of events involved in a biological, chemical or physical process; (Chemistry) the steps making up a chemical reaction, frequently described in terms of the transfer and sharing of bonding electrons.
ΚΠ
1848 W. H. Walshe in Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. IV. 100/2 This is a most plausible and clear view of the chemical mechanism of sugar disease.
1909 G. N. Calkins Protozoölogy (1910) i. 29 Bodies closely associated with the mechanism of nuclear division and of locomotion.
1927 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 49 2451 These new facts make possible a better conception of the mechanism of the photochemical decomposition of ammonia.
1939 N. Bohr & J. A. Wheeler in Physical Rev. 56 426 On the basis of the liquid drop model of atomic nuclei, an account is given of the mechanism of nuclear fission.
1955 A. C. Chamberlain Aspects of Trav. & Deposition of Aerosol & Vapour Clouds (A.E.R.E. Doc. HP/R 1261) 2 The four mechanisms by which aerosol particles and vapours are removed from the atmosphere, namely: (a) Sedimentation, (b) Impaction, (c) Diffusion.., (d) Wash out by rain.
1972 R. A. Jackson Mechanism i. 1 To understand completely the mechanism of an organic reaction, we require to know as a function of time the precise positions of the atoms in the reactant molecules as they are converted into products via any possible intermediates.
1999 New Scientist 3 July 85/1 (advt.) The project will employ biochemical and genetic approaches to investigate the molecular mechanism of the frameshift process.
d. Mechanics. A kinematic chain of which one link is fixed or stationary.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > parts of machines > other parts > [noun] > other specific parts
armOE
button?1561
running gear1663
relax1676
collar1678
drumhead1698
long arm1717
drum1744
press cloth1745
head1785
absorber1789
bearing plate1794
crown1796
rhodings1805
press box1825
alternator1829
cushion1832
saw tooth1835
shoe1837
keyboard1839
returner1839
cross-head1844
channel shoe1845
baster1846
water port1864
shifter1869
magazine1873
entry port1874
upsetter1875
mechanism1876
tapper1876
tension bar1879
buttonholer1882
take-up1884
auger1886
instrument panel1897
balancer1904
torsion bar1937
powerhead1960
1876 A. B. W. Kennedy tr. F. Reuleaux Kinematics of Machinery 47 A closed kinematic chain, of which one link is thus made stationary, is called a mechanism.
1915 R. F. McKay Theory of Machines viii. 92 When one of the links of the kinematic chain is fixed, the chain is called a mechanism. When the mechanism transmits force..it is called a machine.
1946 L. Toft & A. T. J. Kersey Theory of Machines (ed. 5) iv. 89 When one of the links of a kinematic chain is fixed, the chain becomes a mechanism, and if the mechanism performs the functions described in Art. 1 it is a machine.
1995 Robotica 13 507 The kinematic structure of closed chain mechanisms.
e. Psychology. An unconscious, structured set of mental processes underlying a person's behaviour or responses.defence mechanism: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > mental action or process > [noun] > mechanism of
mechanism1876
1876 Mind 1 138 How abstruse, complicated, and difficult to follow in its details and applications the Herbartist theory of mind as a ‘psychological mechanism’ is.
1885 E. Hamilton & E. E. C. Jones tr. H. Lotze Microcosmus I. ii. iv. 232 The mind is not content to have connections of ideas imposed on it by the mechanism of perception and memory.
1921 H. C. Miller New Psychol. & Teacher 161 This mental mechanism [sc. the complex] lies at the root of all bias, all injustice, and all inability to think clearly.
1929 K. S. Lashley (title) Brain mechanisms and intelligence.
1941 Psychosomatic Med. July 227/1 The adaptive mechanisms by means of which the organism strives to achieve this goal.
1941 Psychosomatic Med. July 233/1 By ‘cognitive field’ or ‘practical insight’ we mean a mechanism capable of registering and integrating stimuli.
1964 C. N. Cofer & M. H. Appley Motivation xi. 573 Conceptions of learned drive basically assert that responses which produce strong stimuli are the mechanisms of such drives.
1979 H. Segal Klein viii. 102 Introjection and projection are fundamental mental mechanisms existing from birth and continuing throughout life.
1991 Brit. Jrnl. Psychiatry 114 677/1 This reflected his [sc. Freud's] growing belief that phobias had their roots, as with hysteria, in psychological mechanisms.
f. gen. A means by which an effect or result is produced.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [noun] > (a) means
keyOE
toolc1000
wherewithc1230
ministerc1380
meanc1390
instrumenta1425
organ?a1425
mesne1447
moyen1449
handlec1450
hackneya1500
receipta1500
operative1526
ingine1531
appliance1555
agent1579
matter1580
mids1581
wedge1581
wherewithal1583
shoeing-horn1587
engine1589
instrumental1598
Roaring Meg1598
procurement1601
organy1605
vehicle1615
vehiculuma1617
executioner1646
facility1652
operatory1660
instrumentality1663
expedient1665
agency1684
bladea1713
mechanic1924
mechanism1924
1924 Brit. Weekly 28 Aug. 471/3 He will see strange recesses in human personality and unsuspected mechanisms fashioning religious beliefs.
1966 J. F. Pickering Resale Price Maintenance i. 15 In a number of trades r.p.m. was enforced privately through the mechanism of the relevant trade association.
1972 Physics Bull. Mar. 141/1 Some mechanism must be found for judging the quality of the work done by the chief scientist and the controller.
1996 Population Stud. 50 239 The effectiveness of the ‘old moral order’ as a mechanism of social control over individuals explains a substantial amount of the variation in fertility within many traditional societies.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > necessity > [noun] > natural necessity > action according to mechanical laws
mechanism1671
1671 Bp. S. Parker Def. Eccl. Politie 342 The Philosophy of a Phanatick being as intelligible by the Laws of Mechanism, as the Motion of the Heart, and Circulation of the Bloud.
1692 R. Bentley Boyle Lect. iii. 32 He acknowledges nothing besides Matter and Motion; so that all that he can conceive to be transmitted hither from the Stars, must needs be perform'd either by Mechanism or Accident.
1704 J. Norris Ess. Ideal World II. ii. 90 The most that use them [sc. movements] are utterly ignorant of the laws of mechanism and yet order their footing as artificially as the most skilful.
1731 J. Arbuthnot Ess. Nature Aliments ii. 16 After the Chyle has pass'd through the Lungs, Nature continues her usual Mechanism to convert it into Animal Substances.
1749 D. Hartley Observ. Man i. iv. 500 The Mechanism or Necessity of human Actions, in Opposition to what is generally termed Free-will.
1794 R. J. Sulivan View of Nature IV. 5 Mechanism has become a learned word. But, does it mean any more than that one particle of matter is impelled by another,..and that still by another, until we come to the particle first moved?
1813 H. Cowley Bay in Turkey ii. i, in Wks. 263 Your men..seem but Statues made to walk by mechanism!
4. Philosophy. The opinion or doctrine that all natural (esp. biological or mental) phenomena can be explained with reference to mechanical or chemical processes.Associated esp. with Descartes (1596–1650). Cf. mechanicalism n. 1a, mechanicism n. 3.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > theoretical scientific philosophy > [noun] > mechanism or mechanistic theory
mechanism1690
mechanicism1867
mechanicalism1892
mechanicalism1893
1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding i. iii. 22 Thereby making Men no other than bare Machins... And upon that ground, they must necessarily reject all Principles of Vertue, who cannot put Morality and Mechanism together.
1777 J. Priestley Matter & Spirit (1782) I. Introd. 5 Mechanism is the undoubted consequence of materialism.
1849 Amer. Whig Rev. June 582/1 Thought cannot belong to the province of animal sensations, nor be explained by them, neither can sensations be resolved into the movements of insensible matter, nor be explained by the laws of ordinary mechanism.
1902 J. M. Baldwin Dict. Philos. & Psychol. II. 59/1 In biology: mechanism is opposed to vitalism, and in more recent controversy to neo-vitalism.
1909 W. R. Sorley Interpr. Evol. 24 ‘The organization of nature’, says Kant, ‘has in it nothing analogous to any causality we know.’ It is not mechanism; nor, again, is it finalism.
1956 O. L. Zangwill in A. Pryce-Jones New Outl. Mod. Knowl. 170 Mechanism has sought to account for all behaviour in terms of the quasi-automatic activities of the central nervous system.
1984 D. Cupitt Sea of Faith i. 31 The shift, then, is from myths to maths, from animism to mechanism.
II. Extended uses.† 5. A contrivance, a trick; trickery, falsehood. Obsolete. rare.† 6. Technical skill or artistry; technical execution. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [noun] > (a) means > available means or a resource > a device, contrivance, or expedient
costOE
craftOE
custc1275
ginc1275
devicec1290
enginec1300
quaintisec1300
contrevurec1330
castc1340
knackc1369
findinga1382
wilea1400
conject14..
skiftc1400
policy?1406
subtilityc1410
policec1450
conjecturea1464
industry1477
invention1516
cunning1526
shift1530
compass1540
chevisance1548
trade1550
tour1558
fashion1562
invent?1567
expediment1571
trick1573
ingeny1588
machine1595
lock1598
contrival1602
contrivement1611
artifice1620
recipea1643
ingenuity1651
expedient1653
contrivance1661
excogitation1664
mechanism1669
expediency1683
stroke1699
spell1728
management1736
manoeuvre1769
move1794
wrinkle1817
dodge1842
jigamaree1847
quiff1881
kink1889
lurk1916
gadget1920
fastie1931
ploy1940
1669 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 4 904 'Tis true indeed, it may be done..by tryals and profers; as, who cannot in that manner divide an Arch into three Equal parts? But such Mechanisms are accounted ageometrick.
1670 W. Clarke Nat. Hist. Nitre 92 It is also a pretty Mechanism in Cookery..which is this, Nitre giveth a Red Colour to Neats-Tongues, [etc.].
1688 J. Evelyn Let. 10 Oct. in J. Gutch Collectanea Curiosa (1781) I. lxvi. 414 All their [sc. the Jesuits'] other mechanismes, and arts having fail'd them.
1730 J. Ralph Fashionable Lady ii. xv. 57 Ballad. This is the best Scene in Christendom; it shall act with any Play in Europe... Drama. Meer Mechanism, Mr. Ballad, I assure you!
1820 C. R. Maturin Melmoth I. v. 250 I tell you it was artificial;..it was all mechanism or imposture;..it was all practised with the hope of escaping from it ultimately.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > skill or skilfulness > [noun] > skill or art > skill or craftsmanship
artc1300
artificialityc1535
artifice1597
craftsmanshipa1652
mechanism1710
craftmanship1829
artificership1835
craftiness1974
1710 R. Steele Tatler No. 209. ⁋2 Painting is Eloquence and Poetry in Mechanism.
1736 R. Ainsworth Thes. Linguæ Latinæ Talus..who first invented the saw..grew such an artist, that Dædalus fearing to be outdone in mechanism put him to death.
1786 R. P. Knight Acct. Worship of Priapus 139 Mercury,..the God of Art and Mechanism.
7.
a. In painting, sculpture, music, etc.: the mechanical or physical execution of a work of art; technique. Opposed to style or expression.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > the arts in general > [noun] > work of art > technique
mechanism1833
1833 H. Martineau Briery Creek iv. 85 The mechanism of society thus resembles the mechanism of man's art.
1843 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters I. 94 (note) Canaletti's mechanism is wonderful. Prout's the rudest possible; but there is not a grain of feeling in the one, and there is much in the other.
1860 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters V. 281 [Teniers and Wouvermans] seem never to have painted indolently, but gave the purchaser his thorough money's worth of mechanism.
1876 J. Stainer & W. A. Barrett Dict. Musical Terms 283/2 Mechanism,..(2) The physical power of performance, as distinguished from the intellect or taste which directs it.
1978 ELH 45 523 The dichotomous catch-alls, ‘romantic’ and ‘classical’..tend to evade the essentially organic process of poetic history and, when applied to Byron and Eliot, easily obscure the mechanism of their poetry.
b. The formulaic following of a set technique, etc., in order to produce desired effects. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > weakness or feebleness > [noun] > mechanical quality
mechanism1903
1903 Ld. Rosebery in Daily News 27 Nov. 5/5 Lord Macaulay's works..are charged now with a certain amount of mannerism and a certain amount of mechanism.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2001; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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