nisusn.
/ˈnʌɪsəs/, U.S. /ˈnaɪsəs/ Now chiefly Philosophy.
Effort, endeavour; (now) esp. impulse, tendency.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > state or condition > tendency > [noun] > a tendency
spirita1425
inclination1526
bias?1571
vein1585
habitude1603
ply1605
nitency1662
result1663
tend1663
penchant1673
nisus1699
hank1721
squint1736
patent1836
subjectivism1845
lurch1854
biasness1872
tilt1975
1699 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 21 177 This condition of motion being chang'd, there is a lesser Nisus.
1741 A. Monro Anat. Nerves 34 in Anat. Human Bones (ed. 3) This Nisus of the Mind to free the Body.
1752 D. Hume Ess. & Treat. (1809) II. 476 No animal can put external bodies in motion without the sentiment of a nisus or endeavour.
1796 T. Green Diary 12 Nov. (1810) 16 I..have considerable reliance on that nisus towards a healthy state.
1818 Lady Morgan Florence Macarthy (1819) III. iii. 146 For what is virtue but an effort against vice? What genius?—the nisus to overcome suffering.
1831 Edinb. Rev. Dec. 502 The whole nisus of our reasoning was to demonstrate the negative.
1851 F. Palgrave Hist. Normandy & Eng. I. 39 Species and their varieties seem to have been produced by an inward nisus.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 248 When the nisus of web-spinning dominates the spider, when the nisus of nest-building dominates the bird.
1920 A. S. Pringle-Pattison Idea of God vxii. 325 The traditional form of the argument seems to represent the Creator as originating a material which has no relation to his purposes—which has no formative nisus in itself.
1971 G. Urang Shadows of Heaven i. 34 He has only scorn for the idea that one must align himself with the nisus toward value in the evolutionary process.
1986 Polit. Theory 14 200 Mediation between reason and imagination..is set in motion by a dynamic nisus toward perfection.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1699