rudimentn.
/ˈruːdᵻm(ə)nt/, U.S. /ˈrudəm(ə)nt/ 1.
a. In plural. The first principles or elements of a subject; those points which are first taught to, or acquired by, a person beginning the study or practice of a branch of knowledge, art, etc.
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society > education > learning > study > subject or object of study > [noun] > rudiments
elements1382
ABCa1393
ground1528
introduction1532
principles1532
rudiments1534
institution1537
accidence1562
institute1578
alphabet1593
ut, re1598
gamut1600
Christ-cross-row1608
grammates1633
initiament1727
notion1839
propaedeutics1842
rudimentaries1852
1534 W. Marshall tr. Erasmus Playne & Godly Expos. Commune Crede i. f. 9 This heuenly phylosophie also hath certayne rudymentes and pryncyples or rules and instructyons whiche are fyrste taughte to hym.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Matt. vii. 50 They shoulde by suche maner (as a manne would say) of shadowes and rudimentes, be by litle and litle enstructed to those thinges that belonge vnto true godlynes.
a1593 C. Marlowe Tragicall Hist. Faustus (1604) sig. A4v First Ile instruct thee in the rudiments, And then wilt thou be perfecter then I.
1639 J. Woodall Surgeons Mate (rev. ed.) Ded. sig. A3v When they had received their first rudiments from you as Apprentices.
a1680 S. Butler Genuine Remains (1759) I. 150 From these first Rudiments he grew To nobler Feats.
1710 J. Swift Hist. Vanbrugh's House in Medit. Broom-stick 29 From such deep Rudiments as these, Van is become by due Degrees For Building Fam'd.
1796 F. Burney Camilla I. 73 The rudiments, which would no sooner be run over, than the rest would become plain sailing.
1829 W. S. Landor Imaginary Conversat. 2nd Ser. I. xv. 526 We should at least be taught our rudiments, before a hard lesson is put into our hands.
1887 A. Austin Prince Lucifer iv. ii. 99 There is another tutor unto whom, When Nature hath her rudiments instilled, She passes on her pupil.
1927 J. Buchan Witch Wood iv. 80 He sent to Edinburgh for horn-books, and with them and his big Bible taught his class their rudiments.
1941 H. Saint-Gaudens Amer. Artist & his Times 298 Working during the day, he [sc. William Gropper] grounded himself in his rudiments first in night classes at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art and later under Robert Henri and George Bellows.
2001 J. Elkins Why Art cannot be Taught 36 It should not be accepted without question that the Bauhaus's miscellany of exercises is our ‘rudiments’. Do we really think that materials and textures are the basis of our practice?
b. With of (the thing to be learned or acquired).
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1534 W. Marshall tr. Erasmus Playne & Godly Expos. Commune Crede i. f. 13v I haue a greatte whyle desyred to here the rudymentes and pryncyples of the heuenly philosophie.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Acts ii. f. 13 Teache them that muste be christened the rudimentes and first beginninges of the gospell.
a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) v. iv. 31 This Boy..hath bin tutor'd in the rudiments Of many desperate studies. View more context for this quotation
1638 T. Herbert Some Yeares Trav. (rev. ed.) 22 Necessity has taught them some parts of the rudiments of Arithmetick.
1726 J. Swift Gulliver I. i. vi. 102 At which time, they are supposed to have some Rudiments of Docility.
1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 114. ⁋14 If those..had been detected in their rudiments of robbery.
1772 J. Priestley Inst. Relig. I. 154 Here we acquire..rudiments of knowledge.
1841 J. R. Young Math Diss. Pref. p. xii This class of equations will hereafter be admitted even among the rudiments of algebraic science.
1880 L. Stephen Alexander Pope i. 4 He picked up some rudiments of learning from the family priest.
1906 Westm. Gaz. 9 Aug. 2/2 War games, night operations, attacks on a large scale are ambitious exercises in which Volunteers who have not a firm grip upon the rudiments of infantry training are only too apt to overleap themselves.
1939 C. A. Naether Bk. of Pigeon iv. 39 Forego the fond delusion that you can produce prize-winning English Pouters, Jacobins, or Modenas..when you are busy learning the rudiments of pigeon keeping.
1977 D. Jacobson Confessions of Josef Baisz ii. 16 I acquired the rudiments of book-keeping and office routines.
2008 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 30 Oct. 10 As the father moved surreptitiously closer to the corner with every lap, so Lewis picked up the first rudiments of the late-braking technique that is such a hallmark of his driving style today.
c. In singular. A first principle; a basic tenet or procedure; an initial step or stage in learning or teaching a subject or practice. Also with of.Less usual than the plural.
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1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Luke ix. 95 This was the first rudimente and entreaunce of the Apostles preachyng.
1579 W. Fulke Heskins Parl. Repealed in D. Heskins Ouerthrowne 9 The law..of leauing the old bird..was a good rudiment to teach them to abhor..couetousnes.
1615 H. Crooke Μικροκοσμογραϕια 31 The Veynes of the Mesentary giue the blood a kinde of rudiment or initiation.
1657 in E. Calamy Evid. for Heaven sig. P8v (advt.) Mr. Knowles, his Rudiment, of the Hebrew Tongue.
1740 W. Stukeley Stonehenge iii. 17 Plain, natural, easy geometry, what we may call the first rudiment of art.
1777 P. Duigenan Lachrymæ Academicæ 78 He was entitled to premiums, for his knowledge in the very first rudiment of learning, near forty years ago.
1811 T. Jefferson Writings (1830) IV. 160 The political rudiment of the young, and manual of our older citizens.
1843 H. B. Stowe Mayflower 45 Our practised young gentleman felt himself colour to the roots of his hair, and for a moment he could scarce recollect that first rudiment of manners, ‘to make his bow like a good boy.’
1871 J. McCosh Christianity & Positivism ii. v. 138 There is no nation, in fact no individual, without some rudiment of religion.
1916 Eng. Jrnl. 5 101 Is it not a religious duty of every civilized mother to teach her offspring spelling as soon as possible—the first rudiment of learning?
1961 D. G. James Matthew Arnold ii. 41 It is only a very naïve person who sees our life and the world as encompassable by solutions of scientific and philosophical problems. To see this clearly, as the rudiment of all reflection, is necessary to understand the doctrine I am expounding.
d. In plural. With capital initial. (The name of) the first form or class in certain Roman Catholic, especially Jesuit, schools and colleges. Cf. figure n. 22b.Frequently divided into the ‘third’, ‘second’, and ‘first’ class (of) Rudiments.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > learning > learner > one attending school > [noun] > division of pupils > Roman Catholic or Jesuit > specific form
rhetoric1599
syntax1628
figures1629
grammar1629
poetry1629
rudiments1716
underlow1837
1716 M. Davies Crit. Hist. 2 in Athenæ Britannicæ III Their Humanity-Schools..are sub-divided, and call'd Little Figures..then great Figures or Rudiments.
1799 C. Butler Acct. Life & Writings A. Butler 6 The year after Mr. Alban Butler's arrival at Douay, I was placed in the same school, under the same master, he being in the first class of rudiments, as it is there called, and I in the lowest.
1846 in Stonyhurst Mag. (1933) Dec. 415/2 July 25th Sun. Themes judged Rhet... 29th. Themes judged Rudiments.
1885 J. Gillow Literary & Biogr. Hist. Eng. Catholics II. 553 At the period of his liberation Robert Gradwell was in second-class Rudiments.
1912 B. Ward Eve Catholic Emancipation III. xxxiv. 2 He was a boy in the ‘Second of Rudiments’ [Note] Equivalent to the Second or Third form at an English school.
1936 M. Trappes-Lomax Bishop Challoner i. 5 The ‘classes’, or forms, were named Figures or Rudiments, Grammar, Syntax, Poetry, and Rhetoric, names which originally were related to the work of the class... This nomenclature is still retained in some of the English Catholic schools.
1972 Publ. Catholic Rec. Soc. 63 142 The vast majority of students began their course..in one or other of the Rudiments classes.
2000 K. Ridgway in Granta Spring 223 Told her that he was a good swimmer, probably the best in all of Elements. And probably better than anyone in Rudiments as well.
e. Music. A basic pattern of drumming, such as the roll, the flam, and the paradiddle. Frequently in plural.
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1919 Jacob's Band Monthly Aug. 69/1 Individual snare drum rudiments, Long Roll, 15 Stroke Roll, Double Ratamacue, [etc.].
1946 Mus. Educators Jrnl. 33 60/1 The twenty-six rudiments of drumming and how to play them.
1988 S. Feldstein & D. Black Alfred's Drum Method Bk. 2 xxviii. 60 This section will introduce you to a number of corps-style rudiments.
2006 Mod. Drummer Nov. 109/2 The flam five-stroke roll is another rudiment that Tony often explored.
2.
a. In plural. The imperfect beginnings of some (material or immaterial) thing; an embryonic stage; those parts which are the foundation of later growth or development. Also with of.
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the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > beginning > [noun] > the first part or beginning > the earliest stage(s)
beginningc1200
calendsc1374
crepusculum1398
childhood1549
infancy1555
rudiments1566
primordium1577
primitives1602
inchoation1652
inceptive1728
incunabula1824
baby step1825
inchoate1845
incipiency1858
incipience1864
1566 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure I. xxiii. f. 46v The same bloodde..is redie to nourishe the rudimentes of life and light.
1710 R. Steele Tatler No. 189. ⁋1 The first Rudiments of Thought which they shew in their Letters.
1766 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. II. 9 It was calculated merely for the rudiments of civil society.
1777 J. Priestley Disquis. Matter & Spirit xviii. 235 Brutes have the rudiments of all our faculties.
1839 R. I. Murchison Silurian Syst. i. xxvii. 349 This fault has produced only the rudiments, if I may so speak, of a transverse valley.
1842 T. De Quincey Mod. Greece in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. July 121/2 Many excellent works..intercepted in their rudiments by these expurgatorial ruffians.
1933 A. S. Eddington Expanding Universe i. 8 Perhaps in the first stage only the rudiments of matter existed—protons and electrons traversing the void.
1988 A. H. Buss Personality i. 8 Less social mammals tend to display only the rudiments of the behavioral features that are fully developed in highly social animals.
1999 Akron (Ohio) Beacon Jrnl. (Nexis) 25 July D3 At first, it was an individual tournament. In the mid-1970s, a change was made to its present format—a four-man scramble. But those are mere rudiments. The true character of the tournament has come from its participants.
b. In singular. A beginning; an initial or imperfect form or stage. Also with of.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > beginning > [noun] > the first part or beginning > the earliest stage(s) > something in earliest stage
bud1579
embryon1581
infantc1595
embryo1608
rudiment1625
fetus1632
1625 K. Long tr. J. Barclay Argenis ii. xx. 135 Care must be had, that these warres against Lycogenes, be..a rudiment against Radirobanes.
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §316 This [maturation of fruits] is effected..by a Rudiment of putrefaction.
1779 London Mag. Dec. 538/2 The first rudiment of commerce carried on by barter, exchanging one necessary for another.
1779 W. Marshall Exper. & Observ. conc. Agric. & Weather 120 I found a Copper Tunnel,..which I was told was the Rudiment of a Rain-Gage.
1897 B. Stoker Dracula vi. 71 This gave me an idea, or the rudiment of one.
1940 Rotarian Aug. 62/2 While in those days food was the motive, there was a certain element of sport in the hunt, a rudiment of the lore which burns brightly within the modern Kit Carson and Bill Cody.
2002 P. Davis Victorians (2004) v. 256 Women like her, books like hers..by embodying thoughts and aspirations they could not bring to a completion were at the very least ‘the rudiment of an idea’ or what Trollope called ‘a something’ working itself out in need.
3. Biology. A small and (as yet) undeveloped precursor of an organ, limb, leaf, etc.
ΚΠ
1588 W. Bayley Short Disc. Peppers sig. A5v This long fruit is the first rudiment of the pepper, which is called long pepper.
1664 J. Evelyn Sylva (1679) 4 To raise Trees for Timber..from their Seeds and first Rudiments.
1712 J. Browne tr. P. Pomet et al. Compl. Hist. Druggs I. 166 With a Pointal or Rudiment of a Seed in the Cavity of the Flower.
1748 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 45 169 The Bud or Rudiment..appears in Autumn wrapped up in a conic scaly Perianthium.
1796 W. Withering Arrangem. Brit. Plants (ed. 3) I. 146 The rudiment of a third floret standing upon a little fruit-stalk betwixt the other two florets.
1879 tr. E. Haeckel Evol. Man I. 297 The dull-coloured shield-shaped spot itself is the first rudiment of the dorsal portion of the embryo.
1880 S. Haughton Six Lect. Physical Geogr. vi. 282 Several species have been found..with a rudiment of a thumb.
1913 J. W. Jenkinson Vertebr. Embryol. vii. 159 The optic vesicles are the rudiments of the retinae of the eyes.
1940 G. S. Carter Gen. Zool. Invertebr. ix. 181 In the metamorphosis of the echinoderms the adult rudiment replaces the larval organs by new tissues formed by its growth.
2005 R. McNeill Alexander Human Bones iv. 104 The holes that we saw in the rib-rudiments on the cervical vertebrae correspond to the gap between the two attachments of thoracic ribs.
Phrases
rudiments of the world n. Theology (in translations of or allusions to biblical passages, especially Galatians 4:3, where alternatively ‘elements of the world’, but variously interpreted over time). [Translating Hellenistic Greek τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου (New Testament: Galatians 4:3); compare post-classical Latin elementa mundi (Vulgate)] .
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > spirituality > unspirituality > [noun]
secularity1395
sieclec1400
worldlishipa1425
worldliness?c1430
worldlihoodc1443
mundanity1506
secularness?1529
carnality1548
carnalness1549
earthliness1549
rudiments of the world1557
Sadduceeism1577
Sadducism1581
earthly-mindedness1603
temporalness1611
worldly-mindedness1621
corporality1628
unspiritualness1642
civility1644
corporeity1653
materialism1822
unspirituality1843
secularism1851
terrestrialism1856
temporalism1872
this-worldliness1872
despiritualization1874
this-worldism1883
this-worldness1930
1557 Bible (Whittingham) Gal. iv. 3 We, as longe as we were children, were in bondage vnder the rudiments of the worlde.
1577 T. Vautrollier tr. M. Luther Comm. Epist. to Galathians (new ed.) f. 180 Paule..speaketh here euen of the law of God, which he calleth the elements or rudiments of the world.
1603 H. Clapham Three Partes Salomon Song of Songs Expounded iii. iii. 149 How well may the Gentiles seede..cry after a freedome..from the rudiments of the world.
1628 W. Prynne Vnlouelinesse of Louelockes 35 God commands us..not to subiect our selues to the Rudiments, Lusts, and Ordinances of Carnall, or Worldly men.]
1665 J. Bunyan Holy Citie 176 Not every babbling fellow, nor those that look for their abilities from the rudiments of the world.
1749 J. Bilstone Thirteen Serm. xiii. 252 St. Paul should thus guard his Christian Converts against this vain Deceit, the Traditions of Men, and the Rudiments of the World.
a1752 R. Erskine Serm. (1777) I. xvii. 482 We must not be conformed to the traditions and rudiments of the world.
1808 Statem. Proc. Presbytery of Glasgow, Relative to Use of Organ in St. Andrew's Church 108 It cannot be doubted..that the carnal ordinances imposed under the former covenant, are no longer obligatory. They were the rudiments of the world—the shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ.
1847 J. Dunlavy Manifesto ii. x. 309 The rudiments of the world are its first principles, by which it is continued through succeeding generations, and the place of the deceased is continually supplied with a multiplied increase.
1911 Harvard Theol. Rev. 4 464 Why turn to the beggarly rudiments of the world when in Christ is God's consummate revelation?
2001 W. W. Wiersbe Bible Expos. Comm.: New Test. II. 131/2 Asceticism has to do with the rudiments of the world and not the riches of the kingdom.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
† rudimentv.
Obsolete.
transitive. In passive with in. To be initiated into; to be taught the rudiments of.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > initiating or causing to begin > initiate [verb (transitive)]
beginc1175
baptizec1384
to set a (on) broachc1440
open1471
to set abroachc1475
entame1477
to set afloat1559
initiate1604
first1607
principiate1613
to set afoot or on foot1615
unclap1621
inchoatea1631
flush1633
to set on1638
principatec1650
rudiment1654
auspicate1660
embryonate1666
to strike up1711
start1723
institutea1797
float1833
spark1912
1654 E. Gayton Pleasant Notes Don Quixot ii. ii. 37 It is the right discipline of Knight-Errantry, to be rudimented in losses at first.
1677 J. Webster Displaying Supposed Witchcraft i. 3 There have been others..who were better principled in their Morals, and better rudimented in the Christian Religion.
1711 G. Cary Physician's Phylactic 257 Laity are well rudimented in the Principles of the Christian Religion.
1768 Lyric Muse ii. 23 The performers were properly rudimented in polite literature.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
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