determine
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪˈtɜː(ɹ).mɪn/
ipa: /dɪˈtɝmɪn/
note: Indic, spelling pronunciation
ipa: /ˈɖeʈa(ɾ).maɪn/
note: Indic, spelling pronunciation
ipa: /ɖiˈʈɜː(ɾ)ˌmaɪn/
Forms: form: determines
form: determining
form: determined
form: determined
form: determin
Etymology: From Middle English determinen, from Old French determiner, French déterminer, from Latin determināre (“to bound, limit, prescribe, fix, determine”), from de + termināre (“to limit”), from terminus (“bound, limit, end”).
Senses: examples: text: [God] hath determined the times before appointed.
ref: 1611, Bible, KJV edition, Acts 17:26:
text: The knowledge of men hitherto hath been determined by the view or sight.
ref: 1844, Francis Bacon, The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England:
glosses: To set the boundaries or limits of.
examples: text: Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
glosses: To ascertain definitely; to figure out, find out, or conclude by analyzing, calculating, or investigating.
examples: text: The character of the soul is determined by the character of its God.
ref: 1741 July 8, Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God:
text: something divinely beautiful […] that at some time or other might influence or even determine her course of life
ref: 1913, W. Black, 1913 Webster's Dictionary:
text: These dramas may appear purely internal but they are perhaps economically determined … when people think they are being so subtly inventive or creative they merely reflect society's general need for economic growth.
ref: 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 259:
glosses: To fix the form or character of; to shape; to prescribe imperatively; to regulate; to settle.
examples: text: The news of his father's illness determined him to depart immediately.
glosses: To fix the course of; to impel and direct; with a remoter object preceded by to.
examples: text: The court has determined the cause.
glosses: To bring to a conclusion, as a question or controversy; to settle authoritative or judicial sentence; to decide.
examples: text: I determined to go home at once.
glosses: To resolve (to do something); to establish a fixed intention; to cause (something) to come to a conclusion or decision; to lead.
topics: human-sciences
logic
mathematics
philosophy
sciences
glosses: To define or limit by adding a differentia.
examples: text: Novv, vvhere is hee, that vvill not ſtay ſo long
Till his Friend ſickneſſe hath determin'd me?
ref: c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii (5)], page 94, column 2:
text: […] whose assemblies are continued […] for the space of seven moons, after which their authority determines, and writs are issued for new elections.
ref: 1728, Samuel Johnson, The State of Affairs in Lilliput:
text: The statutes for the general government of the new universities ... shall be made in the first instance ... by the Dublin Commissioners appointed under this Act, and ... by the Belfast Commissioners appointed under this Act, and, after the powers of these commissioners determine, by the governing bodies of the universities and colleges.
ref: 1908 August 1, UK Parliament, “Irish Universities Act, 1908”, in Irish Statute Book, § 4(1):
text: If a lease is determined by notice, forfeiture or frustration, all incumbrances will normally end automatically with the determination of the lease and can therefore be ignored.
ref: 2021, HM Land Registry, Practice guide 26: leases – determination, archived from the original on 04 Oct 2021:
topics: law
qualifier: otherwise obsolete
glosses: To bring to an end, finish; to come to an end, stop, end.
Derived terms: codetermine
determinability
determinable
determinably
determinant
determination
determinative
determiner
determinise
determinism
determinist
deterministic
determinize
foredetermine
misdetermine
overdetermine
predetermine
redetermine
self-determine
underdetermine
undeterminable
undetermine