organicadj.n.

Brit.

/ɔːˈɡanɪk/, U.S.

/ɔrˈɡænɪk/

Forms: Middle English organice, Middle English organik, Middle English organise, Middle English organys, Middle English 1600s– organic, Middle English–1500s organyk, 1500s organicke, 1500s organyque, 1600s organique, 1600s–1800s organick.

Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French organique; Latin organicus.

Etymology: < Middle French, French organique designating the jugular vein (1314 in Old French, also as organice ), in wider medical use in sense ‘instrumental’ in membre organique seat of a faculty or part of the body performing a vital function (1478 or earlier: compare quot. ?a1425¹ at sense A. 2a), relating to the organs or constitution of a living being (1561), having an organized physical structure, in corps organique (1669 in the passage translated in quot. 1670 at sense A. 2b), (in mathematics) organic (1765; compare sense A. 3c), derived from living matter (1769), (in chemistry) organic (1805; compare sense A. 7), and its etymon classical Latin organicus mechanical, relating to a musical instrument, in post-classical Latin also having an organized physical structure, in corpus organicum organized body (4th cent.), designating the jugular vein (a1250, a1350 in British sources), of or relating to a bodily organ (from a1294 in British sources; 1363 in the passage translated in quot. ?a1425² at sense A. 2a), serving as an instrument, instrumental (from 1230–50 in British sources; 1363 in the passage translated in quot. ?a1425¹ at sense A. 2a), relating to an instrument or means (1644 in the passage translated in quot. 1697 at sense A. 3b) < ancient Greek ὀργανικός of or relating to an organ, instrumental, especially of the several parts of the body < ὄργανον organ n.¹ + -ικός -ic suffix.With organic description (see sense A. 3c) compare post-classical Latin descriptio organica :1646 F. Schooten (title) De organica conicarum sectionum in plano descriptione tractatus.1704 I. Newton Enumeratio Linearum in Opticks 158 De Curvarum descriptione organica. With organic law (see sense A. 6b) compare French loi organique (1801).

A. adj.

†1. Anatomy. Designating the jugular vein. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > the body > vascular system > blood vessel > vein > [adjective] > specific vein

organica1400

original1486

basilic?1541

ankle vein1574

sciatical1598

organical1607

basilical1650

subclavicular1656

subclavial1664

saphenal1828

portal venous1833

brachio-cephalic1836

saphenous1840

postcaval1866

precaval1866

tracheloscapular1891

renovascular1902

a1400 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (Ashm.) (1894) 149 On þe riȝt side and on þe lift side of þe caane of þe lungis þer ben ij. greete veynes þat ben clepid organice or ellis guydes.

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 154 In þe heued bene 13 [veins]; 2 byhynd þe erez, 2 in þe anglez of þe eyen, 2 organic [?c1425 Paris two holwe veynes; L. due organice].

1598 A. M. tr. J. Guillemeau Frenche Chirurg. xii. b/2 The Iugulare or organicke vayne.

a. Biology and Medicine. †Of a part of the body: composed of distinct parts or tissues (obsolete); of, relating to, or of the nature of an organ or organs. Later (Medicine): producing or characterized by structural or other pathological change in an organ or organs (now esp. the brain) (cf. functional adj. 3b); not psychogenic.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > the body > system > [adjective] > organ

organicalc1450

organic1706

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 8 Componed membrez..bene called forsoþ organic & instrumentalez, for þai bene instrumentez of þe soule as hand, face, hert, lyuer..alle þe forsaid organic [?c1425 Paris instrumental; L. organica] membrez be componed of many bi cause of accioun & passioun of þam with dewe qualitee & quantitee in al plasmacioun.

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 8^v (MED) Þe hert forsoþ..is þe first organic membre of þe panniclez & ligamentez.

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 67 It semeþ forsoþ an organic inscisioun [?c1425 Paris kyttinge of an holwe membre, L. organica..incisio] where multitude of lyke membrez is inscised, of which þe onyng is impossible.

1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Organical or Organick, belonging to the Organs of the Body.

a1711 T. Ken Hymnotheo vii, in Wks. (1721) III. 212 Hymnotheo's Soul, which while he slept remain'd From its Organick Drudgery unchain'd.

1809 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 21 302 Great organic affections often excite the disease.

1833 J. Forbes et al. Cycl. Pract. Med. I. 87/1 The anginous paroxysms seem to be the direct consequence of organic disease of the heart.

1835 T. S. Smith Philos. Health i. 15 The organic actions consist of the processes by which the existence of the living being is maintained.

1842 W. T. Brande Dict. Sci., Lit. & Art 857/1 Tuberculated induration of the liver is an organic or structural disease of that viscus.

1933 G. Murphy Gen. Psychol. viii. 124 From what has been said about hunger and thirst it seems reasonable to believe that these organic sensations depend partly upon the compounding of simple sense qualities.

1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 19 Aug. 392/2 There is a tendency for physicians to attribute symptoms to organic pathology when it is present, and the process of ageing has supplied many organic changes to which pain may be ascribed.

1989 A. Storr Freud i. 2 Charcot..awoke his interest in the problems of the neuroses, as opposed to organic diseases of the nervous system.

2003 Clin. Nutrition 22 183 Copper and zinc deficiency are commonly reported among children with organic failure to thrive.

b. Having organs, or an organized physical structure; of, relating to, or derived from a living organism or organisms; having the characteristics of a living organism. Cf. inorganic adj. 1a.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > organism > [adjective]

organical1563

organized1598

organizate1647

organic1670

biological1896

1670 tr. L. G. de Cordemoy Disc. written to Learned Frier 42 Besides this Individual or Body Organick [Fr. corps organique], which maketh him feed & move like Beasts, he hath received another thing..which I call Spirit, or Thought.

1778 J. R. Forster (title) Observations made during a voyage round the World..on 1. The earth and its strata..5. Organic bodies, and 6. The human species.

1813 H. Davy Elements Agric. Chem. i. 16 Organic substances as soon as they are deprived of vitality, begin to pass through a series of changes.

1813 R. Bakewell Introd. Geol. Pref. p. vi These rocks contain no organic remains.

1835 W. Kirby On Power of God in Creation of Animals I. iii. 139 The animal derives this nutriment from organic matter, the vegetable from inorganic.

1851 W. B. Carpenter Man. Physiol. (ed. 2) 206 The Muscular tissue of Organic Life..exists under two forms; that of fibres and that of cells.

1862 T. H. Huxley Lect. Orig. Species i. 7 In speaking of the causes which lead to our present knowledge of organic nature, I have used it almost as an equivalent of the word ‘living’.

1959 A. C. Hardy Open Sea II. v. 102 The tiny organic fragments formed by the breakdown of the sea-weeds and dead animals.

1984 D. V. Ager Nature of Statigr. Rec. (BNC) 22 There was nothing like a ‘simultaneous’ extinction of many different groups, either within the brachiopods alone or within the organic world in general.

†a. Serving as an instrument or means to an end; instrumental. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [adjective] > instrumental

instrumentala1398

mediate?1504

organic1509

ministerial?1544

instrumentaryc1595

organical1605

subservient1624

ministering1886

1509 H. Watson tr. S. Brant Shyppe of Fooles (de Worde) i. sig. A*.ii Approche you vnto this doctryne & it reuolue in your myndes organykes.

1644 J. Milton Of Educ. 5 Those organic arts which inable men to discourse and write.

1645 J. Milton Tetrachordon 18 With that organic force that logic proffers us.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ix. 530 He..with Serpent Tongue Organic, or impulse of vocal Air, His fraudulent temptation thus began.

1883 T. H. Green Proleg. Ethics §85 The animal system is not organic merely to feeling of the kind just spoken of as receptive, to impressions..conveyed by the nerves of the several senses.

†b. Relating to an instrument or means. Cf. organon n. 2. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [adjective] > of or relating to means

organic1697

1697 tr. F. Burgersdijck Monitio Logica i. i. 2 A System of Logical Precepts consists of two Parts, Thematick and Organick [L. Organica]... [The latter] converses about the Organs themselves, with which the Understanding entreats of Themes.

c. Mathematics. Of the drawing of a curve: performed by means of instruments; mechanical. Chiefly in organic description. Cf. earlier organical adj. 3c. historical.Chiefly with reference to Isaac Newton.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > [adjective] > worked or produced by means of

mechanical1567

organical1726

machined1811

machine-made1828

organic1860

mechanic1876

1860 C. R. M. Talbot tr. I. Newton Enumeration Lines of Third Order vi. 26 (heading) Of the Organic Description of Curves.

1949 Amer. Math. Monthly 56 46 When only 21 years of age Maclaurin wrote a work called Geometria Organica which was inspired..by the organic description of a conic which we quoted from Newton's Principia.

†4. Of or relating to a musical instrument or technique.

a. Resembling a musical organ, or the tones of an organ; organ-like. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > [adjective]

organly1435

organica1631

instrumental1655

organic1786

digital1970

society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > keyboard instrument > organ > [adjective]

organized1603

organal1611

organica1631

organistic1817

organed1834

a1631 J. Donne Poems (1633) 69 He rounds the aire, and breakes the hymnique notes In birds, Heavens choristers, organique throats.

1818 L. Hunt Foliage Pref. 31 The long organic music of Homer.

1832 L. Hunt Poems Pref. 29 Hear young Milton practising his organic numbers.

b. Early Music. Relating to the organum (organum n.¹ 4). Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > harmony or sounds in combination > [adjective] > parts in harmony or counterpoint > other parts

quatreblea1450

organic1782

1782 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music II. 138 In some French churches, where the organizing the plain chant at a close has ceased, the organic, or additional part, has frequently been retained in the melody instead of the original notes.

c. Ancient Greek Music. Of or relating to musical instruments; instrumental. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > [adjective]

organly1435

organica1631

instrumental1655

organic1786

digital1970

1786 T. Busby Compl. Dict. Music Organic, the epithet applied by the ancients to that part of practical music which concerned instrumental performance. The organic comprehended three kinds of instruments.

1825 J. F. Danneley Encycl. Music Organic, according to the Greeks, that part of music which was executed upon instruments.

a. Belonging to or inherent in a living being; constitutional; natural. Also in organic-feeling adj. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > organism > [adjective] > relating to

organical1643

organic1796

structural1804

enorganic1846

organismal1861

organistic1910

1796 C. Burney Mem. Life Metastasio II. 415 I have, perhaps, a little indulged my organic indolence.

1844 R. W. Emerson New Eng. Reformers in Wks. (1906) I. 266 We believe that the defects of so many perverse and so many frivolous people..are organic.

1844 R. W. Emerson Young Amer. 21 There still remains an organic simplicity and liberty, which..redresses itself.

1901 W. James Let. 10 July (1920) II. 158 What I crave most is some wild American country. It is a curious organic-feeling need.

b. Linguistics. Basic to the form of a word; not introduced by inflection. Now disused.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > morphology > word-formation > [adjective] > derivative > belonging to etymological structure of word

organic1843

1843 Proc. Philol. Soc. (1844) 1 110 Nouns belonging to the n declension sometimes take the n, not as an inflexion, but as an organic or essential element.

1845 Proc. Philol. Soc. 2 136 Where the modifying vowel has only been introduced in the process of conjugation, and is therefore not really organic, the effect ceases on the cause being removed.

1903 N.E.D. (at cited word) In these (ME. þise) final e is organic, in those (ME. þás, þôs) it is inorganic.

c. Belonging to the constitution of an organized whole; structural.

ΚΠ

1880 B. Disraeli Endymion I. xxii. 206 The bow of Waldershare was a study. Its grace and ceremony must have been organic.

1892 J. Tait Mind in Matter (ed. 3) 58 The work of plausible writers in minimising organic difference is easy.

1932 R. Niebuhr Moral Man & Immoral Society i. 12 The inequality remains even after the slaves are no longer regarded as enemies and have become completely organic to the life of the group.

1958 J. K. Galbraith Affluent Society v. 41 Serious depressions..are inherent in the conflict between industry and business and hence are organic aspects of the system.

1993 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 17 Jan. 149/2 I felt the sex scenes and the love scenes were organic and part of the drama and important in the story telling. I agreed to do it and I did it.

6. Of or relating to an organized structure compared to a living being.

a. Of, relating to, or characterized by connection or coordination of parts into a single, harmonious whole; organized; systematic.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > [adjective]

anatomical1627

organical1648

compositional1815

organic1817

structural1848

the world > relative properties > order > [adjective] > relating to organization > organized

organed1586

institutive1644

organized1645

structured1796

organic1817

1817 S. T. Coleridge Biographia Literaria I. xii. 237 The fairest part of the most beautiful body will appear deformed and monstrous, if dissevered from its place in the organic whole.

1845 S. Judd Margaret i. vii. 43 An organic system was instituted throughout the country, embracing the states, counties and towns.

1847 W. Smith tr. J. G. Fichte Characteristics Present Age 94 What this organic unity of a work of Art..really is,—will be asked by no one to whom it is not already known.

1874 W. Wallace tr. G. W. F. Hegel Logic 19 The truths of philosophy are valueless, apart from their interdependence and organic union.

1923 Psychol. Rev. 30 371 Thinking is not an isolated fact... It is the final step in an organic learning process.

1952 A. Bevan In Place of Fear ii. 17 Their effectiveness in arming the minds of working class leaders all over the word with intellectual weapons showed that their teaching had an organic relationship with the political and social realities of their time.

1994 Amer. Spectator Oct. 65/1 The recently returned Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn continues to insist that Russia, Belarus, and the Russified parts of Ukraine and Kazakhstan constitute an organic whole.

b. Law. Constitutive; that establishes or sets up; stating the formal constitution of a nation or other political entity. Chiefly in organic law.

ΘΚΠ

society > law > [adjective] > various epithets applied to laws

vagabondc1485

strait1503

strict1578

unrelaxable1615

sanguinary1625

standard1660

formal1701

supplementary1714

eludible1735

organic1831

antinomic1849

loopy1856

antinomical1877

contravenable1880

violable1885

nexal1886

entrenched1920

hard1935

1831 New Eng. Mag. Dec. 532/1 The principles of equity, congenial to the equal rights guaranteed by the organic law.

1847 Santa Fe (New Mexico) Republican 30 Oct. 2/1 This organic law provides for the appointment of various officers from the Governor down.

1883 G. T. Curtis Buchanan II. ix. 202 His official duty under the organic Act by which the Territory was organized.

1900 Congress. Rec. 6 Feb. 1544/1 The fifteenth amendment..is a part of the organic law of this Republic.

1904 West. Gaz. 3 Aug. 10/1 The ‘Organic Articles’..are the articles of a law carried simultaneously with the conclusion of the Concordat, and regulating the new situation thereby created.

1963 M. Khadduri Mod. Libya vii. 184 Both the Tripolitanian and Fazzanese organic laws permit the amendment of any provision during the first session of the legislative assemblies by a simple majority of all the members.

1995 C. W.-H. Lo China's Legal Awakening 136 In 1983, amendment was made to the organic laws of both the people's court and the people's procuratorate, enhancing the independence of judicial organs.

c. Economics organic composition of capital n. the composition of capital expressed in terms of the value of the means of production and the value of wages (see quot. 1887).

ΘΚΠ

society > trade and finance > management of money > management of national resources > [noun] > political economy > specific theories or doctrines > value, accumulation, or reproduction of capital

reproduction1766

capital accumulation1863

organic composition of capital1887

primitive accumulation1887

primitive socialist accumulation1950

1887 S. Moore & E. Aveling tr. K. Marx Capital II. xxv. 625 The composition of capital is to be understood in a twofold sense. On the side of value, it is determined by the proportion in which it is divided into constant capital or value of the means of production, and variable capital or value of labour-power, the sum total of wages. On the side of material, as it functions in the process of production, all capital is divided into means of production and living labour-power... I call the former the value-composition, the latter the technical composition of capital. Between the two there is a strict correlation. To express this, I call the value-composition of capital, in so far as it is determined by its technical composition and mirrors the changes of the latter, the organic composition of capital. Wherever I refer to the composition of capital, without further qualification, its organic composition is always understood.

1937 M. Dobb Polit. Econ. & Capitalism i. 14 What Marx termed equality in the ‘organic composition of capital’ or what later economists would have called uniformity of the ‘technical coefficients’.

1991 Struct. Change & Econ. Dynamics 2 81 The economic meaning of Aa⁰ = μa⁰ is the assumption of an equal organic composition of capital.

d. Designating a work of art in which the parts seem naturally or necessarily coordinated into the whole; (Architecture) (in the writings of Frank Lloyd Wright) designating a style which attempts to make a unity of a building and its setting and environment; (also, more generally) designating any of various styles in which the character of buildings is more or less reminiscent of a living organism. Cf. metabolism n. 1d.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > architecture > style of architecture > [adjective] > other styles

florida1706

massive1723

rounded1757

round-arched1782

castellar1789

baronial1807

rational1813

English colonial1817

massy1817

transitional1817

Scottish Baronial1829

rococo1830

flamboyant1832

Scotch Baronial1833

Churrigueresque1845

Russo-Byzantine1845

soaring1849

trenchant1849

vernacular1857

Scots Baronial1864

baroque1867

Perp.1867

rayonnant1873

Dutch colonial1876

Neo-Grec1878

rococoesque1885

Richardsonian1887

federal1894

organic1896

confectionery1897

European-style1907

postmodern1916

Lutyens1921

modern1927

moderne1928

functionalist1930

Williamsburg1931

Colonial Revival1934

packing case1935

Corbusian1936

lavatorial1936

pseudish1938

Adamesque1942

rationalist1952

Miesian1956

open-planned1958

Lutyensesque1961

façade1962

Odeon1964

high-tech1979

Populuxe1986

1896 Dict. National Biogr. (1975) II. 1729/3 Speaking positively, Raeburn's merits consist in a fine eye for the character and structure of a head, as well as for the essentials of an organic work of art.

1910 F. L. Wright in C. Jencks Mod. Movement Archit. (1987) 124 In organic architecture..it is quite impossible to consider the building as one thing, its furnishings another and its setting and environment still another.

1939 F. L. Wright Org. Archit. p. vii/1 An Organic Architecture means more or less organic society.

1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 7 Feb. 70/2 Fashionable art critics' jargon which attributes organic qualities to Mr Moore's bronzes or Mr Frank Lloyd Wright's pillars of Pyrex glass.

1990 Lifestyle Summer 22/2 Grant Watson..redyes old wool blankets and transforms them with bold organic abstract appliqués into absolutely contemporary sweeping cloaks and coats.

1999 J. S. Curl Dict. Archit. 466/2 Organic Modernism, architecture employing, for example, assymetrical blob-like forms.

e. Characterized by continuous or natural development; (Business) designating expansion generated by a company's own resources, as opposed to that resulting from the acquisition of other companies.

ΘΚΠ

the world > existence and causation > causation > effect, result, or consequence > [adjective] > logical or natural (of consequence)

unenforced1607

logical1860

organic1923

1923 Psychol. Rev. 30 371 Thinking is not an isolated fact... It is the final step in an organic learning process.

1940 E. Wilson To Finland Station ii. xi. 195 It conceives revolutionary progress as an organic development out of the past, for which the reactionary forces have themselves in their way been preparing.

1967 R. Simpson Essence of Bruckner i. 21 If the slow movement lacks that organic growth and cumulative sense that has become so familiar in the mature Bruckner adagio, it also has some lovely things in it.

1978 Fortune (Nexis) 13 Feb. 80 Coffee, soup, and frozen foods are parts of the food business in the U.S. that are clearly out of bounds for further acquisitions because of antitrust considerations. The main emphasis now is on organic growth in the U.S.

1987 J. Uglow George Eliot ii. 34 Change, she insists, must be gradual, organic, natural and not imposed.

2001 Independent 25 Apr. (Business Suppl.) 4/2 They have had periods of huge organic growth, then opportunistic acquisition that took them strategically into areas they weren't in before.

7. Chemistry.

a. Originally: relating to or designating compounds which exist naturally as constituents of living organisms or are formed from such substances (all of which contain carbon and hydrogen). Later: of, relating to, or designating any compounds of carbon (other than certain simple compounds such as oxides, carbides, carbonates, etc.), whether of biological or non-biological origin. See also organic chemistry n. at Compounds. Cf. inorganic adj. 1b.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > organism > [adjective] > organic or existing in living organisms

organic1822

1822 A. Ure in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 112 464 The organic compound being intimately mixed with that powder [sc. calomel], and gently heated, the muriatic gas obtained, demonstrates the presence..of, hydrogen.

1827 M. Faraday Chem. Manip. ii. 42 In the processes of organic analysis.

1831 R. Knox tr. H. Cloquet Syst. Human Anat. (ed. 2) 2 By the mutual combination of these principles are formed the organic elements, which exist only in living beings, and are the exclusive product of organization... These organic elements are, gelatine, albumen, fibrin, fat, mucus, and certain other substances less generally distributed.

1849 D. Campbell Pract. Text-bk. Inorg. Chem. 295 Sulphuric and several organic acids do not cause a precipitate, even in strong solutions.

1869 W. S. Kirkes Handbk. Physiol. (ed. 7) 16 The term organic has long ceased to imply a substance that is formed only by organized living tissues, and now signifies only matter with a certain degree of complexity of composition.

1907 G. M. Norman Systematic Pract. Org. Chem. ii. x. 84 (heading) Preparation of some reagents used in organic analysis.

1934 Discovery Dec. 335/1 Hydrogenation..has long been a commonplace operation in organic chemical laboratories.

1964 N. G. Clark Mod. Org. Chem. xvi. 330 Cellulose and starch..are probably the most abundant organic substances known.

2000 Edupage (online newsletter) 18 Aug. Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles are using organic molecules called catenanes to build an electronic switch with reversible on/off capability.

b. Of an element: contained in organic compounds.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > [adjective] > organic compounds

organic1868

1868 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 21 87 Estimation of the carbon and nitrogen contained in the organic portion of the solid constituents (organic carbon and nitrogen).

1895 Proc. Royal Soc. 1894–5 57 262 Bacteria, owing to their minuteness, have..given little evidence of the presence of an organic iron compound.

1924 L. Doncaster Introd. Study Cytol. (ed. 2) ii. 20 Practically the whole of the organic phosphorus in the nucleus is contained in..nucleic acid.

1990 Vitamin Connection Nov.–Dec. 2/3 Organic chromium, the so called chromium yeast is much more available and much better utilised by the body than inorganic chromium.

8. Of, relating to, or derived from living matter.

a. Of a fertilizer or manure: produced from natural substances, usually without the addition of chemicals.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > preparation of land or soil > fertilizing or manuring > [adjective] > chemical fertilizers

organic1861

1861 Amer. Agriculturist Jan. 31/3 (advt.) Organic, Phosphatic and Ammoniate Guano. The attention of Farmers is called to this valuable Guano, which contains over seventy per cent of Animal Bone Phosphate of Lime, Organic Matter and Ammonia.

1942 Org. Farming & Gardening 1 3/2 Compost fertilizer is a purely organic material as distinguished from mineral fertilizers (chemicals).

1975 D. Green Food & Drink from your Garden v. 38 There is probably something in the theory that vegetables have their quality improved by the use of organic fertilizers.

1990 B. Swain Roses (BNC) 77 The more common chemical fertilizers and organic manures of plant and animal origin.

b. Of a method of farming or gardening: using no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial chemicals. Also designating a farmer or gardener utilizing such a method, or a farm on which the method is employed.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > farming > [adjective] > types of farming

all-organic1917

subsistent1934

organic1942

agribusiness1957

dry-land farm1976

the world > food and drink > farming > gardening > [adjective] > types of gardening

chemical1797

soilless1938

veganic1962

organic1971

1942 J. I. Rodale in Org. Farming & Gardening 1 3/1 What is claimed roughly for these organic methods of farming is that they increase the fertility of the soil, produce much better tasting crops,..reduce weeds, do away with the necessity of using poisonous sprays, improve the mechanical structure of the soil.

1948 Sci. Monthly June 482/1 Considerable success is claimed in the humid tropics with ‘organic farming’ where labor is plentiful..and where fertilizers are very expensive or difficult to obtain.

1971 Islander (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 13 June 14/2 An organic gardener uses natural mineral and organic fertilizers to build his soil.

1990 Sci. Amer. June 77/1 Although the organic farms had lower crop yields than the conventional farms, their operating costs were lower by about the same cash equivalent.

2001 Underground Wine Jrnl. Sept. 20/2 Unlike organic farming, which is a federally regulated term, sustainable agriculture is more loosely defined.

c. Of food: produced without the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial chemicals.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > food > qualities of food > [adjective] > pure or organic

pure food1894

organic1960

1960 N.Y. Times 12 Feb. 25 (advt.) Fruit and vegetable juice. Natural. Organic foods. Energy vitamin and minerals. Catering to special diets.

1972 Daily Tel. 12 Feb. 6/7 The organic food market is booming.

1986 Here's Health Apr. 5/2 The true value of chemical-free food is now becoming fully appreciated and organic fruit and vegetables easier to buy than ever.

2002 Org. Life May–June 92/3 It is vital that people avoid buying factory farmed chicken and go for free-range or organic.

B. n.

1. An organic substance or chemical compound; a product based on such a substance. Usually in plural.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > [noun] > organic compounds

organic1840

phytochemical1966

1840 Trans. Geol. Soc. 5 114 Chalk.—It may be considered rather a bold step to place this mineral under the head of ‘Organics’.

1928 New Phytologist 27 98 In the benthoplanktonic habitat the organic matter is more diluted; and the limnoplanktonic habitat is relatively deficient in organics.

1949 Times 29 June 8/6 Every endeavour is also being made to maintain the vigour..of the bushes by continuing to supplement the rationed supply of inorganic manure with liberal applications of organics.

1974 Sci. Amer. May 75/1 The biological material in Dean's recipe..represents 2,000 times the amount of organics normally present in seawater.

1977 Kitchens & Bathrooms (Time Life Bks.) i. 22/1 Tile adhesives include cement-based mortars, epoxies, latex-mortar and epoxy-mortar combinations and organic adhesives. Most popular with amateur tilesetters are the organics.

1990 C. Rose Dirty Man of Europe (1991) 11 A growing number of wells contain metals and industrial organics.

2. A food produced by organic farming. Usually in plural.

ΚΠ

1989 Gettysburg (Pa.) Times 20 Mar. 6 b/5 While consumers may want to switch to organics, the problem is finding organically grown food.

1990 New Age Jrnl. Apr. 85/1 Consumer interest in organics soared..after CBS's 60 Minutes reported on a Natural Resources Defense Council study that had documented the dangers of Alar (daminozide).

1998 Grocer 30 May 20/5 It dropped organics some five years ago because it then claimed consumers were not showing enough interest.

2002 N.Y. Times 16 Oct. d5/2 Pillsbury markets organic flour, and Tyson Foods has introduced organic chickens. Archer Daniels Midland and Procter & Gamble have dipped their toes into organics, too.

Compounds

organic alkali n. Chemistry (originally) an alkali of organic origin, an alkaloid (now historical); (in later use) any alkaline organic compound.

ΚΠ

1828 A. Ure Dict. Chem. (ed. 3) 787/1 M. Robiquet has on more than one occasion stated his doubts of the pre-existence of organic alkalis in vegetables.

1863 H. Watts Dict. Chem. (1879) 117 The earliest addition made..to the old list of alkalis was morphia..This was the first organic alkali, or alkaloid, which became known.

1913 T. A. Henry Plant Alkaloids iv. 137 Pelletier and Caventou..inspired by the then recent observations of Sertürner on the existence of ‘organic alkalis’ in nature, undertook the further investigation [of quinine].

1989 R. Dryer & G. Lata Exper. Biochem. i. iii. 66 Chemiluminescence may also be promoted by use of tissue solubilizers, which are usually strong organic alkalis.

2008 Materials Lett. 62 478/1 Tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) is a strong organic alkali which can be used to adjust very high pH values.

organic chemist n. a specialist in organic chemistry.

ΚΠ

1839 Rep. 8th Meeting Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 7 315 The changes remarked by Perkins in the oil of his high-pressure steam engine, and very many similar known to the organic chemist.

1928 Physiol. Rev. 8 418 The study of proteins became once more an occupation in which a self-respecting organic chemist might take a part.

1992 New Scientist 19 Sept. 16/2 Organic chemists are already beginning to use individual enzymes as catalysts in difficult steps in the synthesis of complex natural products.

organic chemistry n. the branch of chemistry concerned with the reactions and properties of organic compounds (see sense A. 7a).

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > [noun]

organic chemistry1827

the world > life > biology > study > [noun] > biochemistry

organic chemistry1827

physiological chemistry1845

biochemistry1848

biological chemistry1865

biochem1968

1827 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 117 356 Organic chemistry is confessedly one of the most difficult departments of the science.

1894 C. Schorlemmer Rise & Devel. Org. Chem. v. 88 We define, therefore, that part of our science which is commonly called organic chemistry as the Chemistry of the Hydrocarbons and their derivatives.

1991 New Scientist 21 Sept. 25/1 Aromaticity is an important concept in organic chemistry, originally devised to describe the special chemical stability of benzene and its derivatives.

organic metal n. an organic compound or material having electrical or magnetic properties resembling those of metals.

ΚΠ

1851 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 141 361 The molecular group combined with iodine..behaves like sodium or potassium; it is a true organic metal in all its bearings.

1909 Science Sept. 316/1 Tetramethyl ammonium amalgam... Unlike ammonium amalgam, the new organic metal does not have any tendency to puff up.

1984 Nature 10 May 119/1 There are two classes of organic metals—charge-transfer complexes and polymeric hydrocarbons.

organic molecule n. [compare French molécule organique (1749 in Buffon)] (a) (in the terminology of Buffon) any of the minute indivisible particles of which living things are constituted and by means of which they reproduce (now historical); †(b) (in the terminology of L. Spallanzani) a spermatozoon (obsolete rare); (c) a molecule of an organic compound (see sense A. 7a).Sense (b) is apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > reproductive substances or cells > [noun] > supposed reproductive particles

organic molecule1815

1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 30 They acted by the ancient organized states in the shape of their old organization, and not by the organic moleculæ of a disbanded people. ]

1815 J. Scott Visit to Paris App. p. xxi His theory of the Earth, now forgotten, and his organic molecules, on which he attempted to raise a system of materialism.

1835 R. D. Hoblyn Dict. Terms Med. & Collateral Sci. 175/1 Organic molecules, a term applied by Spallanzani to certain floating bodies supposed to exist in the male semen, and which he regarded as primordial monads of peculiar activity.

1857 Proc. Royal Soc. 1856–7 8 489 The compound ammonias, in which 1 equivalent of hydrogen is replaced by an organic molecule.

1929 Sci. Monthly Dec. 536/1 His chief opponents in this field were Buffon with his ‘organic molecules’.

1998 Limnol. & Oceanogr. 43 1411/1 Heterotrophic bacteria are effective processors of dissolved organic molecules.

† organic pulse n. [compare French pouls organique (1868 in Littré)] Obsolete rare a pulse whose location and nature (supposedly) indicates disease of a particular organ.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disordered pulse or circulation > [noun] > other pulse disorders

rarity1583

softness of the pulse1632

concentration1714

tightness1785

organic pulse1822

bigeminy1904

1822 J. M. Good Study Med. II. 27 He [sc. de Bordeu] describes..an overwhelming multiplicity of organic pulses.

organic selection n. Biology a theory emphasizing the role of adaptive non-hereditary phenotypic or ontogenetic variations (esp. those affecting the behaviour of an individual organism with respect to its environment) in evolutionary selection.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > biological processes > evolution > [noun] > selection

natural selection1842

selection1857

survival of the fittest1864

selection value1892

organic selection1896

post-selection1896

orthoselection1907

survival value1912

kin selection1964

r selection1967

1896 J. M. Baldwin in Amer. Naturalist 30 444 We may simply..apply the phrase, ‘Organic Selection’, to the organism's behavior in acquiring new modes or modifications of adaptive function.

1942 J. S. Huxley Evolution vi. 304 We have here a beautiful special case of the principle of organic selection,..according to which modifications repeated for a number of generations may serve as the first step in evolutionary change.

1970 T. Dobzhansky Genetics Evol. Process ix. 303 The term organic selection has been coined to describe the parallelism between racial genotypic and environmental phenotypic variability.

1991 Ecology 72 1909/1 A modified version of organic selection in which animals, through their behaviour, select the environment to which they are adapted.

organic soil n. soil that is naturally rich in organic matter (typically containing at least 20% organic matter by weight in a layer more than one meter in thickness) (cf. mineral soil n. at mineral adj. Compounds 1).

ΘΚΠ

the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > earth or soil > kind of earth or soil > [noun] > organic soil

muck1832

muck soil1852

organic soil1886

1886 Bot. Gaz. 11 199 The..table lands of the interior..show a great extent..of fine organic soil of great depth and apparent unbounded fertility.

1928 Bull. Amer. Soil Survey Assoc. 9 33 Organic soils, soils composed mainly of organic material; the organic content being sufficient to dominate the soil characteristics.

1943 C. E. Millar & L. M. Turk Fund. Soil Sci. ii. 63 Deposits of organic soils are of common occurrence in the northern border states of Minnesota eastward.

1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. (rev. ed.) XII. 423/1 Organic soils such as peats and mucks may contain as much as 95% carbonaceous material.

1991 R. J. Pankhurst & J. M. Mullin Flora of Outer Hebrides (BNC) 27 Peat is an organic soil which contains more than 60 per cent of organic matter and exceeds 50 centimetres in thickness.

organic world n. (with the) the animal and vegetable kingdoms in combination; living things collectively; nature; cf. world n. 11.

ΚΠ

1784 tr. L. Spallanzani Diss. Nat. Hist. II. 336 Does the organic world afford a single law, which can be called universal?

1887 A. M. Brown Treat. Animal Alkaloids ii. i. 70 Sarkine or hypoxanthine, so widely distributed in the organic world, both animal and vegetable.

1954 Evolution 8 88/2 Generalizations are based on less than a fully adequate sampling of the organic world.

2008 Buffalo (N.Y.) News (Nexis) 7 Apr. b1 After they leave the preschool years, many children don't seem to spend much time thinking about the organic world.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2004; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	organic
释义	organicadj.n. Brit. /ɔːˈɡanɪk/, U.S. /ɔrˈɡænɪk/ Forms: Middle English organice, Middle English organik, Middle English organise, Middle English organys, Middle English 1600s– organic, Middle English–1500s organyk, 1500s organicke, 1500s organyque, 1600s organique, 1600s–1800s organick. Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French organique; Latin organicus. Etymology: < Middle French, French organique designating the jugular vein (1314 in Old French, also as organice ), in wider medical use in sense ‘instrumental’ in membre organique seat of a faculty or part of the body performing a vital function (1478 or earlier: compare quot. ?a1425¹ at sense A. 2a), relating to the organs or constitution of a living being (1561), having an organized physical structure, in corps organique (1669 in the passage translated in quot. 1670 at sense A. 2b), (in mathematics) organic (1765; compare sense A. 3c), derived from living matter (1769), (in chemistry) organic (1805; compare sense A. 7), and its etymon classical Latin organicus mechanical, relating to a musical instrument, in post-classical Latin also having an organized physical structure, in corpus organicum organized body (4th cent.), designating the jugular vein (a1250, a1350 in British sources), of or relating to a bodily organ (from a1294 in British sources; 1363 in the passage translated in quot. ?a1425² at sense A. 2a), serving as an instrument, instrumental (from 1230–50 in British sources; 1363 in the passage translated in quot. ?a1425¹ at sense A. 2a), relating to an instrument or means (1644 in the passage translated in quot. 1697 at sense A. 3b) < ancient Greek ὀργανικός of or relating to an organ, instrumental, especially of the several parts of the body < ὄργανον organ n.¹ + -ικός -ic suffix.With organic description (see sense A. 3c) compare post-classical Latin descriptio organica :1646 F. Schooten (title) De organica conicarum sectionum in plano descriptione tractatus.1704 I. Newton Enumeratio Linearum in Opticks 158 De Curvarum descriptione organica. With organic law (see sense A. 6b) compare French loi organique (1801). A. adj. †1. Anatomy. Designating the jugular vein. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > life > the body > vascular system > blood vessel > vein > [adjective] > specific vein organica1400 original1486 basilic?1541 ankle vein1574 sciatical1598 organical1607 basilical1650 subclavicular1656 subclavial1664 saphenal1828 portal venous1833 brachio-cephalic1836 saphenous1840 postcaval1866 precaval1866 tracheloscapular1891 renovascular1902 a1400 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (Ashm.) (1894) 149 On þe riȝt side and on þe lift side of þe caane of þe lungis þer ben ij. greete veynes þat ben clepid organice or ellis guydes. ?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 154 In þe heued bene 13 [veins]; 2 byhynd þe erez, 2 in þe anglez of þe eyen, 2 organic [?c1425 Paris two holwe veynes; L. due organice]. 1598 A. M. tr. J. Guillemeau Frenche Chirurg. xii. b/2 The Iugulare or organicke vayne. 2. a. Biology and Medicine. †Of a part of the body: composed of distinct parts or tissues (obsolete); of, relating to, or of the nature of an organ or organs. Later (Medicine): producing or characterized by structural or other pathological change in an organ or organs (now esp. the brain) (cf. functional adj. 3b); not psychogenic. ΘΚΠ the world > life > the body > system > [adjective] > organ organicalc1450 organic1706 ?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 8 Componed membrez..bene called forsoþ organic & instrumentalez, for þai bene instrumentez of þe soule as hand, face, hert, lyuer..alle þe forsaid organic [?c1425 Paris instrumental; L. organica] membrez be componed of many bi cause of accioun & passioun of þam with dewe qualitee & quantitee in al plasmacioun. ?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 8^v (MED) Þe hert forsoþ..is þe first organic membre of þe panniclez & ligamentez. ?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 67 It semeþ forsoþ an organic inscisioun [?c1425 Paris kyttinge of an holwe membre, L. organica..incisio] where multitude of lyke membrez is inscised, of which þe onyng is impossible. 1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Organical or Organick, belonging to the Organs of the Body. a1711 T. Ken Hymnotheo vii, in Wks. (1721) III. 212 Hymnotheo's Soul, which while he slept remain'd From its Organick Drudgery unchain'd. 1809 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 21 302 Great organic affections often excite the disease. 1833 J. Forbes et al. Cycl. Pract. Med. I. 87/1 The anginous paroxysms seem to be the direct consequence of organic disease of the heart. 1835 T. S. Smith Philos. Health i. 15 The organic actions consist of the processes by which the existence of the living being is maintained. 1842 W. T. Brande Dict. Sci., Lit. & Art 857/1 Tuberculated induration of the liver is an organic or structural disease of that viscus. 1933 G. Murphy Gen. Psychol. viii. 124 From what has been said about hunger and thirst it seems reasonable to believe that these organic sensations depend partly upon the compounding of simple sense qualities. 1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 19 Aug. 392/2 There is a tendency for physicians to attribute symptoms to organic pathology when it is present, and the process of ageing has supplied many organic changes to which pain may be ascribed. 1989 A. Storr Freud i. 2 Charcot..awoke his interest in the problems of the neuroses, as opposed to organic diseases of the nervous system. 2003 Clin. Nutrition 22 183 Copper and zinc deficiency are commonly reported among children with organic failure to thrive. b. Having organs, or an organized physical structure; of, relating to, or derived from a living organism or organisms; having the characteristics of a living organism. Cf. inorganic adj. 1a. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > organism > [adjective] organical1563 organized1598 organizate1647 organic1670 biological1896 1670 tr. L. G. de Cordemoy Disc. written to Learned Frier 42 Besides this Individual or Body Organick [Fr. corps organique], which maketh him feed & move like Beasts, he hath received another thing..which I call Spirit, or Thought. 1778 J. R. Forster (title) Observations made during a voyage round the World..on 1. The earth and its strata..5. Organic bodies, and 6. The human species. 1813 H. Davy Elements Agric. Chem. i. 16 Organic substances as soon as they are deprived of vitality, begin to pass through a series of changes. 1813 R. Bakewell Introd. Geol. Pref. p. vi These rocks contain no organic remains. 1835 W. Kirby On Power of God in Creation of Animals I. iii. 139 The animal derives this nutriment from organic matter, the vegetable from inorganic. 1851 W. B. Carpenter Man. Physiol. (ed. 2) 206 The Muscular tissue of Organic Life..exists under two forms; that of fibres and that of cells. 1862 T. H. Huxley Lect. Orig. Species i. 7 In speaking of the causes which lead to our present knowledge of organic nature, I have used it almost as an equivalent of the word ‘living’. 1959 A. C. Hardy Open Sea II. v. 102 The tiny organic fragments formed by the breakdown of the sea-weeds and dead animals. 1984 D. V. Ager Nature of Statigr. Rec. (BNC) 22 There was nothing like a ‘simultaneous’ extinction of many different groups, either within the brachiopods alone or within the organic world in general. 3. †a. Serving as an instrument or means to an end; instrumental. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [adjective] > instrumental instrumentala1398 mediate?1504 organic1509 ministerial?1544 instrumentaryc1595 organical1605 subservient1624 ministering1886 1509 H. Watson tr. S. Brant Shyppe of Fooles (de Worde) i. sig. A.ii Approche you vnto this doctryne & it reuolue in your myndes organykes. 1644 J. Milton Of Educ.* 5 Those organic arts which inable men to discourse and write. 1645 J. Milton Tetrachordon 18 With that organic force that logic proffers us. 1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ix. 530 He..with Serpent Tongue Organic, or impulse of vocal Air, His fraudulent temptation thus began. View more context for this quotation 1883 T. H. Green Proleg. Ethics §85 The animal system is not organic merely to feeling of the kind just spoken of as receptive, to impressions..conveyed by the nerves of the several senses. †b. Relating to an instrument or means. Cf. organon n. 2. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [adjective] > of or relating to means organic1697 1697 tr. F. Burgersdijck Monitio Logica i. i. 2 A System of Logical Precepts consists of two Parts, Thematick and Organick [L. Organica]... [The latter] converses about the Organs themselves, with which the Understanding entreats of Themes. c. Mathematics. Of the drawing of a curve: performed by means of instruments; mechanical. Chiefly in organic description. Cf. earlier organical adj. 3c. historical.Chiefly with reference to Isaac Newton. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > [adjective] > worked or produced by means of mechanical1567 organical1726 machined1811 machine-made1828 organic1860 mechanic1876 1860 C. R. M. Talbot tr. I. Newton Enumeration Lines of Third Order vi. 26 (heading) Of the Organic Description of Curves. 1949 Amer. Math. Monthly 56 46 When only 21 years of age Maclaurin wrote a work called Geometria Organica which was inspired..by the organic description of a conic which we quoted from Newton's Principia. †4. Of or relating to a musical instrument or technique. a. Resembling a musical organ, or the tones of an organ; organ-like. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > [adjective] organly1435 organica1631 instrumental1655 organic1786 digital1970 society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > keyboard instrument > organ > [adjective] organized1603 organal1611 organica1631 organistic1817 organed1834 a1631 J. Donne Poems (1633) 69 He rounds the aire, and breakes the hymnique notes In birds, Heavens choristers, organique throats. 1818 L. Hunt Foliage Pref. 31 The long organic music of Homer. 1832 L. Hunt Poems Pref. 29 Hear young Milton practising his organic numbers. b. Early Music. Relating to the organum (organum n.¹ 4). Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > harmony or sounds in combination > [adjective] > parts in harmony or counterpoint > other parts quatreblea1450 organic1782 1782 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music II. 138 In some French churches, where the organizing the plain chant at a close has ceased, the organic, or additional part, has frequently been retained in the melody instead of the original notes. c. Ancient Greek Music. Of or relating to musical instruments; instrumental. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > [adjective] organly1435 organica1631 instrumental1655 organic1786 digital1970 1786 T. Busby Compl. Dict. Music Organic, the epithet applied by the ancients to that part of practical music which concerned instrumental performance. The organic comprehended three kinds of instruments. 1825 J. F. Danneley Encycl. Music Organic, according to the Greeks, that part of music which was executed upon instruments. 5. a. Belonging to or inherent in a living being; constitutional; natural. Also in organic-feeling adj. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > organism > [adjective] > relating to organical1643 organic1796 structural1804 enorganic1846 organismal1861 organistic1910 1796 C. Burney Mem. Life Metastasio II. 415 I have, perhaps, a little indulged my organic indolence. 1844 R. W. Emerson New Eng. Reformers in Wks. (1906) I. 266 We believe that the defects of so many perverse and so many frivolous people..are organic. 1844 R. W. Emerson Young Amer. 21 There still remains an organic simplicity and liberty, which..redresses itself. 1901 W. James Let. 10 July (1920) II. 158 What I crave most is some wild American country. It is a curious organic-feeling need. b. Linguistics. Basic to the form of a word; not introduced by inflection. Now disused. ΘΚΠ the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > morphology > word-formation > [adjective] > derivative > belonging to etymological structure of word organic1843 1843 Proc. Philol. Soc. (1844) 1 110 Nouns belonging to the n declension sometimes take the n, not as an inflexion, but as an organic or essential element. 1845 Proc. Philol. Soc. 2 136 Where the modifying vowel has only been introduced in the process of conjugation, and is therefore not really organic, the effect ceases on the cause being removed. 1903 N.E.D. (at cited word) In these (ME. þise) final e is organic, in those (ME. þás, þôs) it is inorganic. c. Belonging to the constitution of an organized whole; structural. ΚΠ 1880 B. Disraeli Endymion I. xxii. 206 The bow of Waldershare was a study. Its grace and ceremony must have been organic. 1892 J. Tait Mind in Matter (ed. 3) 58 The work of plausible writers in minimising organic difference is easy. 1932 R. Niebuhr Moral Man & Immoral Society i. 12 The inequality remains even after the slaves are no longer regarded as enemies and have become completely organic to the life of the group. 1958 J. K. Galbraith Affluent Society v. 41 Serious depressions..are inherent in the conflict between industry and business and hence are organic aspects of the system. 1993 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 17 Jan. 149/2 I felt the sex scenes and the love scenes were organic and part of the drama and important in the story telling. I agreed to do it and I did it. 6. Of or relating to an organized structure compared to a living being. a. Of, relating to, or characterized by connection or coordination of parts into a single, harmonious whole; organized; systematic. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > [adjective] anatomical1627 organical1648 compositional1815 organic1817 structural1848 the world > relative properties > order > [adjective] > relating to organization > organized organed1586 institutive1644 organized1645 structured1796 organic1817 1817 S. T. Coleridge Biographia Literaria I. xii. 237 The fairest part of the most beautiful body will appear deformed and monstrous, if dissevered from its place in the organic whole. 1845 S. Judd Margaret i. vii. 43 An organic system was instituted throughout the country, embracing the states, counties and towns. 1847 W. Smith tr. J. G. Fichte Characteristics Present Age 94 What this organic unity of a work of Art..really is,—will be asked by no one to whom it is not already known. 1874 W. Wallace tr. G. W. F. Hegel Logic 19 The truths of philosophy are valueless, apart from their interdependence and organic union. 1923 Psychol. Rev. 30 371 Thinking is not an isolated fact... It is the final step in an organic learning process. 1952 A. Bevan In Place of Fear ii. 17 Their effectiveness in arming the minds of working class leaders all over the word with intellectual weapons showed that their teaching had an organic relationship with the political and social realities of their time. 1994 Amer. Spectator Oct. 65/1 The recently returned Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn continues to insist that Russia, Belarus, and the Russified parts of Ukraine and Kazakhstan constitute an organic whole. b. Law. Constitutive; that establishes or sets up; stating the formal constitution of a nation or other political entity. Chiefly in organic law. ΘΚΠ society > law > [adjective] > various epithets applied to laws vagabondc1485 strait1503 strict1578 unrelaxable1615 sanguinary1625 standard1660 formal1701 supplementary1714 eludible1735 organic1831 antinomic1849 loopy1856 antinomical1877 contravenable1880 violable1885 nexal1886 entrenched1920 hard1935 1831 New Eng. Mag. Dec. 532/1 The principles of equity, congenial to the equal rights guaranteed by the organic law. 1847 Santa Fe (New Mexico) Republican 30 Oct. 2/1 This organic law provides for the appointment of various officers from the Governor down. 1883 G. T. Curtis Buchanan II. ix. 202 His official duty under the organic Act by which the Territory was organized. 1900 Congress. Rec. 6 Feb. 1544/1 The fifteenth amendment..is a part of the organic law of this Republic. 1904 West. Gaz. 3 Aug. 10/1 The ‘Organic Articles’..are the articles of a law carried simultaneously with the conclusion of the Concordat, and regulating the new situation thereby created. 1963 M. Khadduri Mod. Libya vii. 184 Both the Tripolitanian and Fazzanese organic laws permit the amendment of any provision during the first session of the legislative assemblies by a simple majority of all the members. 1995 C. W.-H. Lo China's Legal Awakening 136 In 1983, amendment was made to the organic laws of both the people's court and the people's procuratorate, enhancing the independence of judicial organs. c. Economics organic composition of capital n. the composition of capital expressed in terms of the value of the means of production and the value of wages (see quot. 1887). ΘΚΠ society > trade and finance > management of money > management of national resources > [noun] > political economy > specific theories or doctrines > value, accumulation, or reproduction of capital reproduction1766 capital accumulation1863 organic composition of capital1887 primitive accumulation1887 primitive socialist accumulation1950 1887 S. Moore & E. Aveling tr. K. Marx Capital II. xxv. 625 The composition of capital is to be understood in a twofold sense. On the side of value, it is determined by the proportion in which it is divided into constant capital or value of the means of production, and variable capital or value of labour-power, the sum total of wages. On the side of material, as it functions in the process of production, all capital is divided into means of production and living labour-power... I call the former the value-composition, the latter the technical composition of capital. Between the two there is a strict correlation. To express this, I call the value-composition of capital, in so far as it is determined by its technical composition and mirrors the changes of the latter, the organic composition of capital. Wherever I refer to the composition of capital, without further qualification, its organic composition is always understood. 1937 M. Dobb Polit. Econ. & Capitalism i. 14 What Marx termed equality in the ‘organic composition of capital’ or what later economists would have called uniformity of the ‘technical coefficients’. 1991 Struct. Change & Econ. Dynamics 2 81 The economic meaning of Aa⁰ = μa⁰ is the assumption of an equal organic composition of capital. d. Designating a work of art in which the parts seem naturally or necessarily coordinated into the whole; (Architecture) (in the writings of Frank Lloyd Wright) designating a style which attempts to make a unity of a building and its setting and environment; (also, more generally) designating any of various styles in which the character of buildings is more or less reminiscent of a living organism. Cf. metabolism n. 1d. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > architecture > style of architecture > [adjective] > other styles florida1706 massive1723 rounded1757 round-arched1782 castellar1789 baronial1807 rational1813 English colonial1817 massy1817 transitional1817 Scottish Baronial1829 rococo1830 flamboyant1832 Scotch Baronial1833 Churrigueresque1845 Russo-Byzantine1845 soaring1849 trenchant1849 vernacular1857 Scots Baronial1864 baroque1867 Perp.1867 rayonnant1873 Dutch colonial1876 Neo-Grec1878 rococoesque1885 Richardsonian1887 federal1894 organic1896 confectionery1897 European-style1907 postmodern1916 Lutyens1921 modern1927 moderne1928 functionalist1930 Williamsburg1931 Colonial Revival1934 packing case1935 Corbusian1936 lavatorial1936 pseudish1938 Adamesque1942 rationalist1952 Miesian1956 open-planned1958 Lutyensesque1961 façade1962 Odeon1964 high-tech1979 Populuxe1986 1896 Dict. National Biogr. (1975) II. 1729/3 Speaking positively, Raeburn's merits consist in a fine eye for the character and structure of a head, as well as for the essentials of an organic work of art. 1910 F. L. Wright in C. Jencks Mod. Movement Archit. (1987) 124 In organic architecture..it is quite impossible to consider the building as one thing, its furnishings another and its setting and environment still another. 1939 F. L. Wright Org. Archit. p. vii/1 An Organic Architecture means more or less organic society. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 7 Feb. 70/2 Fashionable art critics' jargon which attributes organic qualities to Mr Moore's bronzes or Mr Frank Lloyd Wright's pillars of Pyrex glass. 1990 Lifestyle Summer 22/2 Grant Watson..redyes old wool blankets and transforms them with bold organic abstract appliqués into absolutely contemporary sweeping cloaks and coats. 1999 J. S. Curl Dict. Archit. 466/2 Organic Modernism, architecture employing, for example, assymetrical blob-like forms. e. Characterized by continuous or natural development; (Business) designating expansion generated by a company's own resources, as opposed to that resulting from the acquisition of other companies. ΘΚΠ the world > existence and causation > causation > effect, result, or consequence > [adjective] > logical or natural (of consequence) unenforced1607 logical1860 organic1923 1923 Psychol. Rev. 30 371 Thinking is not an isolated fact... It is the final step in an organic learning process. 1940 E. Wilson To Finland Station ii. xi. 195 It conceives revolutionary progress as an organic development out of the past, for which the reactionary forces have themselves in their way been preparing. 1967 R. Simpson Essence of Bruckner i. 21 If the slow movement lacks that organic growth and cumulative sense that has become so familiar in the mature Bruckner adagio, it also has some lovely things in it. 1978 Fortune (Nexis) 13 Feb. 80 Coffee, soup, and frozen foods are parts of the food business in the U.S. that are clearly out of bounds for further acquisitions because of antitrust considerations. The main emphasis now is on organic growth in the U.S. 1987 J. Uglow George Eliot ii. 34 Change, she insists, must be gradual, organic, natural and not imposed. 2001 Independent 25 Apr. (Business Suppl.) 4/2 They have had periods of huge organic growth, then opportunistic acquisition that took them strategically into areas they weren't in before. 7. Chemistry. a. Originally: relating to or designating compounds which exist naturally as constituents of living organisms or are formed from such substances (all of which contain carbon and hydrogen). Later: of, relating to, or designating any compounds of carbon (other than certain simple compounds such as oxides, carbides, carbonates, etc.), whether of biological or non-biological origin. See also organic chemistry n. at Compounds. Cf. inorganic adj. 1b. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > organism > [adjective] > organic or existing in living organisms organic1822 1822 A. Ure in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 112 464 The organic compound being intimately mixed with that powder [sc. calomel], and gently heated, the muriatic gas obtained, demonstrates the presence..of, hydrogen. 1827 M. Faraday Chem. Manip. ii. 42 In the processes of organic analysis. 1831 R. Knox tr. H. Cloquet Syst. Human Anat. (ed. 2) 2 By the mutual combination of these principles are formed the organic elements, which exist only in living beings, and are the exclusive product of organization... These organic elements are, gelatine, albumen, fibrin, fat, mucus, and certain other substances less generally distributed. 1849 D. Campbell Pract. Text-bk. Inorg. Chem. 295 Sulphuric and several organic acids do not cause a precipitate, even in strong solutions. 1869 W. S. Kirkes Handbk. Physiol. (ed. 7) 16 The term organic has long ceased to imply a substance that is formed only by organized living tissues, and now signifies only matter with a certain degree of complexity of composition. 1907 G. M. Norman Systematic Pract. Org. Chem. ii. x. 84 (heading) Preparation of some reagents used in organic analysis. 1934 Discovery Dec. 335/1 Hydrogenation..has long been a commonplace operation in organic chemical laboratories. 1964 N. G. Clark Mod. Org. Chem. xvi. 330 Cellulose and starch..are probably the most abundant organic substances known. 2000 Edupage (online newsletter) 18 Aug. Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles are using organic molecules called catenanes to build an electronic switch with reversible on/off capability. b. Of an element: contained in organic compounds. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > [adjective] > organic compounds organic1868 1868 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 21 87 Estimation of the carbon and nitrogen contained in the organic portion of the solid constituents (organic carbon and nitrogen). 1895 Proc. Royal Soc. 1894–5 57 262 Bacteria, owing to their minuteness, have..given little evidence of the presence of an organic iron compound. 1924 L. Doncaster Introd. Study Cytol. (ed. 2) ii. 20 Practically the whole of the organic phosphorus in the nucleus is contained in..nucleic acid. 1990 Vitamin Connection Nov.–Dec. 2/3 Organic chromium, the so called chromium yeast is much more available and much better utilised by the body than inorganic chromium. 8. Of, relating to, or derived from living matter. a. Of a fertilizer or manure: produced from natural substances, usually without the addition of chemicals. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > preparation of land or soil > fertilizing or manuring > [adjective] > chemical fertilizers organic1861 1861 Amer. Agriculturist Jan. 31/3 (advt.) Organic, Phosphatic and Ammoniate Guano. The attention of Farmers is called to this valuable Guano, which contains over seventy per cent of Animal Bone Phosphate of Lime, Organic Matter and Ammonia. 1942 Org. Farming & Gardening 1 3/2 Compost fertilizer is a purely organic material as distinguished from mineral fertilizers (chemicals). 1975 D. Green Food & Drink from your Garden v. 38 There is probably something in the theory that vegetables have their quality improved by the use of organic fertilizers. 1990 B. Swain Roses (BNC) 77 The more common chemical fertilizers and organic manures of plant and animal origin. b. Of a method of farming or gardening: using no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial chemicals. Also designating a farmer or gardener utilizing such a method, or a farm on which the method is employed. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > farming > [adjective] > types of farming all-organic1917 subsistent1934 organic1942 agribusiness1957 dry-land farm1976 the world > food and drink > farming > gardening > [adjective] > types of gardening chemical1797 soilless1938 veganic1962 organic1971 1942 J. I. Rodale in Org. Farming & Gardening 1 3/1 What is claimed roughly for these organic methods of farming is that they increase the fertility of the soil, produce much better tasting crops,..reduce weeds, do away with the necessity of using poisonous sprays, improve the mechanical structure of the soil. 1948 Sci. Monthly June 482/1 Considerable success is claimed in the humid tropics with ‘organic farming’ where labor is plentiful..and where fertilizers are very expensive or difficult to obtain. 1971 Islander (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 13 June 14/2 An organic gardener uses natural mineral and organic fertilizers to build his soil. 1990 Sci. Amer. June 77/1 Although the organic farms had lower crop yields than the conventional farms, their operating costs were lower by about the same cash equivalent. 2001 Underground Wine Jrnl. Sept. 20/2 Unlike organic farming, which is a federally regulated term, sustainable agriculture is more loosely defined. c. Of food: produced without the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial chemicals. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > food > qualities of food > [adjective] > pure or organic pure food1894 organic1960 1960 N.Y. Times 12 Feb. 25 (advt.) Fruit and vegetable juice. Natural. Organic foods. Energy vitamin and minerals. Catering to special diets. 1972 Daily Tel. 12 Feb. 6/7 The organic food market is booming. 1986 Here's Health Apr. 5/2 The true value of chemical-free food is now becoming fully appreciated and organic fruit and vegetables easier to buy than ever. 2002 Org. Life May–June 92/3 It is vital that people avoid buying factory farmed chicken and go for free-range or organic. B. n. 1. An organic substance or chemical compound; a product based on such a substance. Usually in plural. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > [noun] > organic compounds organic1840 phytochemical1966 1840 Trans. Geol. Soc. 5 114 Chalk.—It may be considered rather a bold step to place this mineral under the head of ‘Organics’. 1928 New Phytologist 27 98 In the benthoplanktonic habitat the organic matter is more diluted; and the limnoplanktonic habitat is relatively deficient in organics. 1949 Times 29 June 8/6 Every endeavour is also being made to maintain the vigour..of the bushes by continuing to supplement the rationed supply of inorganic manure with liberal applications of organics. 1974 Sci. Amer. May 75/1 The biological material in Dean's recipe..represents 2,000 times the amount of organics normally present in seawater. 1977 Kitchens & Bathrooms (Time Life Bks.) i. 22/1 Tile adhesives include cement-based mortars, epoxies, latex-mortar and epoxy-mortar combinations and organic adhesives. Most popular with amateur tilesetters are the organics. 1990 C. Rose Dirty Man of Europe (1991) 11 A growing number of wells contain metals and industrial organics. 2. A food produced by organic farming. Usually in plural. ΚΠ 1989 Gettysburg (Pa.) Times 20 Mar. 6 b/5 While consumers may want to switch to organics, the problem is finding organically grown food. 1990 New Age Jrnl. Apr. 85/1 Consumer interest in organics soared..after CBS's 60 Minutes reported on a Natural Resources Defense Council study that had documented the dangers of Alar (daminozide). 1998 Grocer 30 May 20/5 It dropped organics some five years ago because it then claimed consumers were not showing enough interest. 2002 N.Y. Times 16 Oct. d5/2 Pillsbury markets organic flour, and Tyson Foods has introduced organic chickens. Archer Daniels Midland and Procter & Gamble have dipped their toes into organics, too. Compounds organic alkali n. Chemistry (originally) an alkali of organic origin, an alkaloid (now historical); (in later use) any alkaline organic compound. ΚΠ 1828 A. Ure Dict. Chem. (ed. 3) 787/1 M. Robiquet has on more than one occasion stated his doubts of the pre-existence of organic alkalis in vegetables. 1863 H. Watts Dict. Chem. (1879) 117 The earliest addition made..to the old list of alkalis was morphia..This was the first organic alkali, or alkaloid, which became known. 1913 T. A. Henry Plant Alkaloids iv. 137 Pelletier and Caventou..inspired by the then recent observations of Sertürner on the existence of ‘organic alkalis’ in nature, undertook the further investigation [of quinine]. 1989 R. Dryer & G. Lata Exper. Biochem. i. iii. 66 Chemiluminescence may also be promoted by use of tissue solubilizers, which are usually strong organic alkalis. 2008 Materials Lett. 62 478/1 Tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) is a strong organic alkali which can be used to adjust very high pH values. organic chemist n. a specialist in organic chemistry. ΚΠ 1839 Rep. 8th Meeting Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 7 315 The changes remarked by Perkins in the oil of his high-pressure steam engine, and very many similar known to the organic chemist. 1928 Physiol. Rev. 8 418 The study of proteins became once more an occupation in which a self-respecting organic chemist might take a part. 1992 New Scientist 19 Sept. 16/2 Organic chemists are already beginning to use individual enzymes as catalysts in difficult steps in the synthesis of complex natural products. organic chemistry n. the branch of chemistry concerned with the reactions and properties of organic compounds (see sense A. 7a). ΘΚΠ the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > [noun] organic chemistry1827 the world > life > biology > study > [noun] > biochemistry organic chemistry1827 physiological chemistry1845 biochemistry1848 biological chemistry1865 biochem1968 1827 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 117 356 Organic chemistry is confessedly one of the most difficult departments of the science. 1894 C. Schorlemmer Rise & Devel. Org. Chem. v. 88 We define, therefore, that part of our science which is commonly called organic chemistry as the Chemistry of the Hydrocarbons and their derivatives. 1991 New Scientist 21 Sept. 25/1 Aromaticity is an important concept in organic chemistry, originally devised to describe the special chemical stability of benzene and its derivatives. organic metal n. an organic compound or material having electrical or magnetic properties resembling those of metals. ΚΠ 1851 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 141 361 The molecular group combined with iodine..behaves like sodium or potassium; it is a true organic metal in all its bearings. 1909 Science Sept. 316/1 Tetramethyl ammonium amalgam... Unlike ammonium amalgam, the new organic metal does not have any tendency to puff up. 1984 Nature 10 May 119/1 There are two classes of organic metals—charge-transfer complexes and polymeric hydrocarbons. organic molecule n. [compare French molécule organique (1749 in Buffon)] (a) (in the terminology of Buffon) any of the minute indivisible particles of which living things are constituted and by means of which they reproduce (now historical); †(b) (in the terminology of L. Spallanzani) a spermatozoon (obsolete rare); (c) a molecule of an organic compound (see sense A. 7a).Sense (b) is apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > reproductive substances or cells > [noun] > supposed reproductive particles organic molecule1815 1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 30 They acted by the ancient organized states in the shape of their old organization, and not by the organic moleculæ of a disbanded people. View more context for this quotation] 1815 J. Scott Visit to Paris App. p. xxi His theory of the Earth, now forgotten, and his organic molecules, on which he attempted to raise a system of materialism. 1835 R. D. Hoblyn Dict. Terms Med. & Collateral Sci. 175/1 Organic molecules, a term applied by Spallanzani to certain floating bodies supposed to exist in the male semen, and which he regarded as primordial monads of peculiar activity. 1857 Proc. Royal Soc. 1856–7 8 489 The compound ammonias, in which 1 equivalent of hydrogen is replaced by an organic molecule. 1929 Sci. Monthly Dec. 536/1 His chief opponents in this field were Buffon with his ‘organic molecules’. 1998 Limnol. & Oceanogr. 43 1411/1 Heterotrophic bacteria are effective processors of dissolved organic molecules. † organic pulse n. [compare French pouls organique (1868 in Littré)] Obsolete rare a pulse whose location and nature (supposedly) indicates disease of a particular organ. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disordered pulse or circulation > [noun] > other pulse disorders rarity1583 softness of the pulse1632 concentration1714 tightness1785 organic pulse1822 bigeminy1904 1822 J. M. Good Study Med. II. 27 He [sc. de Bordeu] describes..an overwhelming multiplicity of organic pulses. organic selection n. Biology a theory emphasizing the role of adaptive non-hereditary phenotypic or ontogenetic variations (esp. those affecting the behaviour of an individual organism with respect to its environment) in evolutionary selection. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > biological processes > evolution > [noun] > selection natural selection1842 selection1857 survival of the fittest1864 selection value1892 organic selection1896 post-selection1896 orthoselection1907 survival value1912 kin selection1964 r selection1967 1896 J. M. Baldwin in Amer. Naturalist 30 444 We may simply..apply the phrase, ‘Organic Selection’, to the organism's behavior in acquiring new modes or modifications of adaptive function. 1942 J. S. Huxley Evolution vi. 304 We have here a beautiful special case of the principle of organic selection,..according to which modifications repeated for a number of generations may serve as the first step in evolutionary change. 1970 T. Dobzhansky Genetics Evol. Process ix. 303 The term organic selection has been coined to describe the parallelism between racial genotypic and environmental phenotypic variability. 1991 Ecology 72 1909/1 A modified version of organic selection in which animals, through their behaviour, select the environment to which they are adapted. organic soil n. soil that is naturally rich in organic matter (typically containing at least 20% organic matter by weight in a layer more than one meter in thickness) (cf. mineral soil n. at mineral adj. Compounds 1). ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > earth or soil > kind of earth or soil > [noun] > organic soil muck1832 muck soil1852 organic soil1886 1886 Bot. Gaz. 11 199 The..table lands of the interior..show a great extent..of fine organic soil of great depth and apparent unbounded fertility. 1928 Bull. Amer. Soil Survey Assoc. 9 33 Organic soils, soils composed mainly of organic material; the organic content being sufficient to dominate the soil characteristics. 1943 C. E. Millar & L. M. Turk Fund. Soil Sci. ii. 63 Deposits of organic soils are of common occurrence in the northern border states of Minnesota eastward. 1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. (rev. ed.) XII. 423/1 Organic soils such as peats and mucks may contain as much as 95% carbonaceous material. 1991 R. J. Pankhurst & J. M. Mullin Flora of Outer Hebrides (BNC) 27 Peat is an organic soil which contains more than 60 per cent of organic matter and exceeds 50 centimetres in thickness. organic world n. (with the) the animal and vegetable kingdoms in combination; living things collectively; nature; cf. world n. 11. ΚΠ 1784 tr. L. Spallanzani Diss. Nat. Hist. II. 336 Does the organic world afford a single law, which can be called universal? 1887 A. M. Brown Treat. Animal Alkaloids ii. i. 70 Sarkine or hypoxanthine, so widely distributed in the organic world, both animal and vegetable. 1954 Evolution 8 88/2 Generalizations are based on less than a fully adequate sampling of the organic world. 2008 Buffalo (N.Y.) News (Nexis) 7 Apr. b1 After they leave the preschool years, many children don't seem to spend much time thinking about the organic world. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2004; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < adj.n.a1400
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