retentivityn.

1847 Liverpool Corp. Waterworks: Minutes of Evid. 6 in Parl. Papers (H.C. 124-32) XXI. 1 I have also the satisfaction to observe, as respects the retentivity of the valley, that Professor Ansted..has examined the sites of the reservoirs, and concurs with me in pronouncing them perfectly capable of containing the water proposed to be impounded upon them.

1896 P. McConnell Elements Farming iv. 75 The retentivity of the soil is strong for phosphates and potash, and weak for nitrogenous material.

1931 A. D. Hall Soil (ed. 4) x. 372 Knowing this factor, and the retentivity of the soil for moisture under ordinary conditions of rainfall, one can decide upon the character of the manures for most loamy soils.

1943 Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 54 305 Preliminary investigation of the helium retentivity of minerals.

1968 P. E. Damon in E. I. Hamilton & R. M. Farquhar Radiometric Dating for Geol. i. 22 The retentivities vary greatly within a mineral species.

1991 Jrnl. Range Managem. 44 314/2 Water retentivity was determined gravimetrically after drying at 106° C for 24 hr.

2005 A. P. Dickin Radiogenic Isotope Geol. (ed. 2) x. 283/1 The variable domain sizes..explain the traditional reputation of K-feldspars for having such poor retentivity of argon as to be useless as a dating tool.

1865 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 10 June 579/1 The very exercises by which the acquisivity of ideas, retentivity of facts and principles,..have been improved or educed.

1899 R. Park tr. C. Féré Pathol. Emotions ix. 298 This diminution of retentivity in conditions of nerve exhaustion can be studied experimentally in several common conditions.

1909 C. S. Myers Text-bk. Exper. Psychol. xiii. 173 Nor is the superior retentivity of the most distributed readings due to the involuntary revival of the syllables by the subject.

1923 C. E. Spearman Nature of Intell. ix. 132 Our second quantitative principle may be called that of retentivity... It appears not to be restricted to cognition, but to extend to mental processes of almost all sorts. It even governs an immense number of purely physical events.

1961 Lancet 12 Aug. 361/2 Spearman held that ‘retentivity’ was a factor not closely related to general intelligence.

2005 H. P. Bahrick in E. Tulving & F. I. M. Craik Oxf. Handbk. Memory (ed. 2) xxii. 359/1 Differential rates of forgetting..reflect not only differential retentivity..but also differing degrees of original learning.

1881 S. P. Thompson Elem. Lessons Electr. & Magn. ii. §90 This power of resisting magnetisation or demagnetisation, is sometimes called coercive force; a much better term, due to Lamont, is retentivity. The retentivity of hard-tempered steel is great.

1887 Proc. Physic. Soc. Apr. (1888) 120 This experiment was made with a view of ascertaining whether the reglow would occur at a lower temperature the greater the amount of retentivity of the specimen.

1924 C. R. Underhill Magnets xvi. 291 The retentivity or the residual structural flux density..will be about 9,900 gausses, or about 66 per cent of the induction.

1948 Electronic Engin. 20 351/1 The principal requirements of steels for permanent magnets is that they shall have high remanence (retentivity) and coercive force.

2006 V. Gurevich Electr. Relays ii. 23 This lack of retentivity is a very important requirement for materials used in magnetic circuits of typical neutral relays.