permutationn.
/ˌpəːmjᵿˈteɪʃn/, U.S. /ˌpərmjəˈteɪʃ(ə)n/, /ˌpərmjuˈteɪʃ(ə)n/ 1.
a. The action of exchanging one thing for another; exchange; commutation; barter; (also) an instance of this. Now only in Scots Law: barter; a contract of barter.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > change > exchange > [noun]
change?c1225
changingc1350
interchangingc1374
exchangec1384
permutationa1398
commutation1496
achange1530
chopping and changing1548
interchange1548
exchanging1553
promutation1560
intercourse1576
counterchange1579
chopping1581
counter-cambio?1592
interchangementa1616
commerce1631
swapping1695
barter1819
counterchanging1881
switching1904
va-et-vient1919
switch-around1981
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 117v Chaunginge is nouȝt but by changinge of sterris in diuers signes..by coniunccioun and permutacioun & chaunginge [L. permutatione] of triplicite in two hundred ȝere and fifty.
c1400 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Trin. Cambr. R.3.14) (1960) A. iii. 237 In marchaundie is no mede..It is a permutacioun [v.r. permytacioun; c1400 B text v.r. permutacion], apertly, a peny for anoþer.
1436 in Hist. MSS Comm.: 15th Rep.: App. Pt. VIII: MSS Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry (1897) 45 in Parl. Papers (C. 8553) L. 207 In recompensacioun for the said permutacioun.
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1872) IV. 43 Men of Cartago sende Marcus Regulus to Rome, desirenge the permutacion of theire men in captiuite.
1553 in J. S. Clouston Rec. Earldom of Orkney (1914) 253 Be way of permutatioun changein and cossing for certain landis.
1582 Bible (Rheims) Matt. xvi. 26 What permutation shal a man giue for his soule?
1622 G. de Malynes Consuetudo 83 An exchange of commodities or rather a permutation of commodities.
1676 C. Molloy De Jure Maritimo vi. 436 He who trafiques in the way of Commerce, by importation..Barter, permutation or exchange.
1754 J. Erskine Princ. Law Scotl. II. iii. iii. 292 Permutation differs from a sale chiefly in this, that in permutation, one subject is to be given in barter or exchange for another.
1766 in R. L. Meek et al. Adam Smith: Lect. on Jurispr. (1978) 499 To consider money, first as the measure of value and then as the medium of permutation or exchange.
1795 Pennsylvania Gaz. 1 Apr. There is always more money on hand than a proportion of coffee for sale; hence the difficulty of permutation:—and it is very rare that our goods can be bartered for that article.
1821 tr. D. L. de Onis in W. R. Manning Early Diplomatic Relations (1916) ix. 278 It is improperly called a treaty of cession, as it is in reality one of exchange or permutation of one small province for another.
1970 D. M. Walker Princ. Sc. Private Law I. xl. 669 Permutation, barter or exchange is the contract whereby one or more items of moveable property are exchanged for other items of moveable property, not for money.
b. Ecclesiastical Law. The exchange of benefices or offices; an instance of this. Cf. permute v. 1b. Now historical.
ΚΠ
c1426 J. Audelay Poems (1931) 36 Ȝe curatis, fore ȝour couetys ȝecastun in þe new fayre þe churches þat ȝe byn chosun to, be Godus ordenauns, And callun hit permetacion cuntreys about to kayre.
a1475 in A. Clark Eng. Reg. Godstow Nunnery (1906) ii. 588 (MED) He had I-gete by wey of permutacion the said chirche of lamyete.
1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. cliiijv Pope Paule by his deputes ordeyned a reformation, touching the abuses of the Churche, as permutations, voisomes, benefices incompatibles.
1604 F. Bacon Certaine Considerations Church of Eng. sig. F Permutation, to make Benefices more compatible.
a1648 Ld. Herbert Life Henry VIII (1649) 137 In granting Benefices they used many Arts to get money, under the names of Reservations, Permutations, Surrogations, &c.
1980 J. R. Wright Church & Eng. Crown 1305–34 48 [In the Council of Vienne, Pope Clement V] had regularized permutations by declaring the practice valid only as between clerks who had resigned their benefices for the express purpose of exchanging them reciprocally.
1996 Amer. Hist. Rev. 101 1192/2 More often, novae provisiones were granted for benefices received through permutations effected by the ordinaries, probably to remove the stain of simony incurred in such exchanges.
2.
a. Change of form, position, state, etc.; alteration, transformation, transmutation; successive change, vicissitude; (also) an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > change > change to something else, transformation > [noun]
overchangingc1384
transmutation1398
permutationa1425
transforming1435
resolutiona1450
translating1503
resolvinga1513
conversion1549
transposing1550
conversationa1570
transmuting1579
projection?1583
transmigration1618
version1626
transversion1656
transmogrification1661
converting1711
metamorphosing1730
metastasis1818
turn-over1825
interconversion1865
transnaturation1873
transmorphism1888
segue1945
a1425 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (1987) v. 1541 Fortune..permutacioun Of thynges hath.
a1513 J. Irland Meroure of Wyssdome (1926) I. 32 He is allane ferme and stabile without chaunge ore permutacioune.
1543 B. Traheron tr. J. de Vigo Most Excellent Wks. Chirurg. i. ii. f. 61v/2 Thyrdely it [sc. quinsy] is ended by permutatyon, or chaungynge to some other parte of the bodye.
1598 A. M. tr. J. Guillemeau Frenche Chirurg. 51 b/1 All repentine and subite permutations are vnto our bodyes very preiudicialle.
1635 T. Heywood Hierarchie Blessed Angells iii. 141 Aire into Fire doth passe..Aire into Water too..And yet this permutation cannot be, But in the course of Time.
1650 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica (ed. 2) v. xxii. 230 There was no constitution of a new speech in every family; but a variation and permutation of the old, out of one common language raising severall dialects.
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 226 The violent convulsions and permutations that have been made in property. View more context for this quotation
1856 C. Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) II. 75 The continents have undergone within this same period such wonderful permutations.
1879 Times 31 Dec. 4/6 The permutation of carbon, from its ordinary opaque black condition into..the limpid crystal of diamond.
1965 MLN 80 391 The Don undergoes a startling permutation into the sophisticated rationalist.
1994 S. F. Porterfield Jung's Advice to Players iv. 54 The figure of the wounded healer..develops, by gradual permutation, into a savior figure.
b. A product of alteration or transformation, a changed form; a variety, a form, esp. one of many.In plural passing into sense 3c.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > change > change to something else, transformation > [noun] > product of transformation
metamorphosis1574
convert1589
magistery1605
transformationa1616
anagrama1631
permutation1883
1883 Q. Rev. Oct. 496 The image of Buddha, here typified by a seemingly female permutation, cast also in bronze.
1987 E. Prager Clea & Zeus Divorce (1988) xxxiii. 234 It was a strange shop,..devoted to war in its every permutation.
1999 Austral. Rev. Bks. Apr. 19/2 Greer sets herself up as an all-embracing champion of feminism's permutations during the second wave.
2003 New Yorker 15 Sept. 45/1 The phrase polny pizdets (‘the absolute end’) can mean ‘Everything's fucked’ or ‘I'm fucked up’ and every permutation in between.
3. † a. Mathematics. Transposition of the two middle terms of a proportion. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > arithmetic or algebraic operations > transformation > [noun] > correspondence > preserving relations or elements > changing order > of terms of proportion
permutation1570
1570 H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. v. f. 133 Proportion alternate, or proportion by permutation is, when the antecedent is compared to the antecedent, and the consequent to the consequent.
1656 tr. T. Hobbes Elements Philos. ii. xiii. 112 If four Magnitudes be in Geometrical Proportion, they will also be Proportionals by Permutation, (that is, by transposing the Middle Terms).
1827 O. Gregory Hutton's Course Math. (ed. 9) I. 324 Alternate proportion... As, if 1:2::3:6; then, by alternation, or permutation, it will be 1:3::2:6.
1884 N.E.D. at Alternately By taking the alternate terms; by permutation.
b. Chiefly Mathematics. The action of changing the linear order in which a set of items is arranged; each of the different sequences obtained by doing this.Permutations are contrasted with combinations, which are selections taken without regard to the order of the elements: e.g. given three letters abc taken two at a time, there are six permutations (ab, ba, ac, ca, bc, cb), but only three combinations (ab, ac, bc). Cf. combination n. 5b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > [noun] > alteration of order or sequence
permutation1645
transposing1706
the world > relative properties > number > arithmetic or algebraic operations > transformation > [noun] > correspondence > preserving relations or elements > changing order
permutation1645
transposition1664
alternation1685
transmutationa1690
variation1710
commutation1852
substitution1854
logical shift1946
1645 L. Sarson Anal. I. Timoth. I. 15 88 ךמלא by a (מוךאה) permutation (as Cabbalists speak) becomes מיכאל Michael. There's onely a Metathesis with jod inserted.
1678 T. Strode Short Treat. Combinations 1 By Variations, permutation or changes of the Places of Quantities, I mean, how many several ways any given Number of Quantities may be changed.
1710 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum II Variation, or Permutation of Quantities, is the changing any number of given Quantities, with respect to their Places.
1795 Doctr. Permutations & Combinations i. 38 By permutations of a number of things, I mean the several variations that may be made in their relative situations, or positions, or in the order in which they may be made to follow each other, while their number continues the same.
1806 C. Hutton Course Math. (ed. 5) I. 148 The doctrine of permutations, combinations, &c. is of very extensive use in different parts of the Mathematics; particularly in the calculation of annuities and chances.
1884 J. Parker Apostolic Life III. 192 The letters are but six-and-twenty in number..but..through how many permutations, may those letters be thrown or passed!
1928 A. Williams Telegr. & Teleph. ii. 33 The possible number of permutations is thirty-one, but each of these can be made to signify either of two characters.
1965 J. J. Rotman Theory of Groups iii. 31 This result led Galois to his discovery of the intimate relationships between polynomials and certain groups of permutations of their roots.
1995 B. L. M. Bauer Emergence & Devel. SVO Patterning v. 130 In Attic Greek anastrophy (that is, permutation of the preposition and the object) was only used for περί ‘round about’.
c. gen. In plural. Variations of order or arrangement; arrangements. Frequently in permutations and combinations.
ΚΠ
1795 F. Maseres tr. J. Bernoulli (title) The doctrine of permutations and combinations.]
1841 T. De Quincey Style: No. IV in Blackwood's Mag. Feb. 216/1 Thrown by utter want of energy upon counting the very nails of his dungeon in all permutations and combinations.
1860 G. P. Marsh Lect. Eng. Lang. 540 The ancient temporal metres were inexhaustible, because the permutations and combinations of the prosodical feet were infinite.
1902 W. James Varieties Relig. Experience i. 24 In the endless permutations and combinations of human faculty, they [sc. a superior intellect and a psychopathic temperament] are bound to coalesce often enough.
1937 L. MacNeice in W. H. Auden & L. MacNeice Lett. from Iceland 133 The permutations..of zip bags, Of compacts..and coiffures.
1967 Times Rev. Industry May 117/1 (advt.) Diazotype printing processes have endless permutations.
1990 A. Stoddard Gift of Let. ii. 85 I watched artful oozes of ink being whipped around to create unique permutations of color and design.
4. Phonetics. An interchange of consonants occurring regularly in cognate words belonging to related languages; a consonantal sound shift.For example Latin duo, English two, German zwei; Latin tria, English three, German drei.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > a language > [noun] > family of languages > features of or processes in
permutation1843
the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > consonant > [noun] > addition or interchange of spec.
mutation1808
permutation1843
mimation1873
betacism1885
1843 Proc. Philol. Soc. (1844) 1 21 It is..an attempt to give a tabular form to Sanskrit grammar, the exemplifications of the rules for the permutation of letters.
1870 F. W. Farrar Families of Speech i. 28 Those regular permutations of letters in different linguistic families.
1933 M. R. Brailsford tr. H. Pinnow Hist. Germany 5 The High German permutation of consonants which set in in the seventh century A.D.
1990 N. Baker Room Temperature v. 36 Some sort of microphilological equivalent of Grimm's law of the permutation of Teutonic consonants.
5. Logic.
a. = obversion n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > predicate or propositional logic > [noun] > logical inference > obversion
permutation1851
obversion1870
1851 W. H. Karslake Aids Study Logic I. 64 The third form of Immediate Inference which we have to speak of is, what may be called Permutation.
1906 H. W. B. Joseph Introd. Logic 214 In Permutation, or (as it has been also called) Obversion, there is no transposition of terms, but the quality of the proposition is changed.
1931 R. M. Eaton Gen. Logic 206 Obversion, also known as permutation differs from conversion in that the subject and predicate do not change places.
b. In propositional calculus: an interchange of terms that does not affect the validity of the proposition. Chiefly in principle of permutation, law of permutation.
ΚΠ
1910 A. N. Whitehead & B. Russell Principia Mathematica I. 100 *1.4. ⊦ : p∨q.⊃.q∨p Pp. This principle states that ‘p or q’ implies ‘q or p’. It states the permutative law for logical addition of propositions, and will be called the ‘principle of permutation’. It will be referred to as ‘Perm’.
1965 G. E. Hughes & D. G. Londey Elements Formal Logic xv. 104 T1. (p⊃(q⊃r))⊃(q⊃(p⊃)) We call T1 the Law of Permutation, or Perm for short. Perm is an extremely useful thesis, allowing us to change the order of terms in any implication associated to the right.
2001 Bull. Symbolic Logic 7 527 The Lambek calculus, which rejects thinning, contraction, and permutation, dates from the late 1950's.
6. Linguistics. In or with reference to the theories of Gustaf Stern: a type of semantic change (see quot. 1931).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > semantics > types of semantic change > [noun]
usurpation1644
amelioration1871
pejoration1889
adequation1931
permutation1931
melioration1939
loan-shift1950
signal reaction1976
1931 G. Stern Meaning & Change of Meaning xiii. 361 Permutations are unintentional sense-changes in which the subjective apprehension of a detail—denoted by a separate word—in a larger total changes, and the changed apprehension (the changed notion) is substituted for the previous meaning of the word.
1965 Eng. Stud. 46 405 The type of semantic change involved is that called by Gustaf Stern ‘permutation’.
7. British. Gambling. In football pools: any of the combinations of a specified number of results drawn from a larger number selected by the gambler, each of which may be eligible for a dividend. In plural: a selection of results betted on in this way.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > betting > football pools > [noun] > form or system
permutation1951
treble chance1951
perm1955
1938 Times 10 Mar. 4/5 When four matches were played..there were 81 possible permutations of results.]
1951 Times 18 Apr. 9/6 The prohibition of abbreviated permutations was not an essential part of the proposals for the control of pool betting.
1959 Listener 19 Feb. 347/3 The filling of a ‘Pools’ coupon with recommended permutations.
1998 Independent (Nexis) 7 Nov. 11 It's all to do with score draws and permutations.
Compounds
C1.
permutation principle n.
ΚΠ
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. III. 1669/1 The permutation principle was introduced into tumbler-locks by Dr. Andrews of New Jersey, about 1841.
1997 Biometrika 84 987 Both Park and Neuhaus applied the permutation principle to obtain the null distributions.
C2.
permutation group n. Mathematics a group whose elements are permutations; = substitution group n. at substitution n. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > numerical arrangement > [noun] > set > in abstract algebra > groups
syntheme1844
group1854
substitution group1861
quaternion group1881
subgroup1881
Abelian group1892
permutation group1893
quotient group1893
factor group1895
order1897
symmetric group1897
point group1903
Sylow subgroup1905
module1927
Lie group1939
symmetry group1956
Weyl group1961
stabilizer1965
1893 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 15 195 The permutation group, moreover, since all its operations except identity affect every number, is a regular group, and its degree and order are equal.
1945 E. T. Bell Devel. Math. (ed. 2) x. 242 In the early 1930's..the somewhat neglected algorithm of Frobenius became of possible scientific significance, and the heavy labor of applying it in detail to the permutation groups required in physics was undertaken.
1990 Proc. London Math. Soc. 60 68 The most effective way of reducing problems concerning finite primitive permutation groups to problems concerning almost simple groups and linear groups is via distinguishing eight types of primitive groups, and dealing with them type by type.
permutation lock n. = combination lock n. at combination n. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > building and constructing equipment > fastenings > [noun] > lock > other types of lock
inlock1488
treble lock1680
French lock1787
ringlock1789
thumb-lock1801
bar-lock1828
permutation lock1835
check-lock1850
pin lock1851
time lock1858
garret-lock1860
dead lock1866
seal-lock1871
dead-latch1874
Bramah-lock1875
cylinder lock1878
police lock1910
ziplock1956
solenoid lock1976
D-lock1990
1835 U.S. Patent X9294 28 Dec. 1 (title) Permutation Lock.
1845 N. P. Willis Dashes at Life with Free Pencil iv. 204/1 Mr. Newell denominates this new masterpiece of ingenuity, the Parautoptic Toiken Permutation Lock.
1883 Times 23 Nov. 3/2 Two ingenious locks..are being introduced..the Dalton dual time lock and the permutation lock.
1992 Re: interest..combination lock in alt.locksmithing (Usenet newsgroup) 8 Apr. If I want real security, though, I use a permutation lock encased in solid steel.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1398