interpolation
(ɪnˌtɜːpəʊˈleɪʃən)
[a. F. interpolation (Cotgr., 1611), or ad. L. interpolātiōn-em, n. of action f. interpolāre: see interpolate v. and -ation.]
† 1. The action of furbishing or polishing up.
| 1623 Cockeram, Interpolation, a polishing. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Interpolation, a new dressing or polishing a thing, a scowring or furbishing. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. §16. 281 Some may still suspect, all this to have been..but a Refinement and Interpolation of Paganism. |
2. a. The action of interpolating a writing, or a word, etc. therein (cf. senses 2 and 3 of the vb.); the condition or fact of being interpolated.
| 1612 Selden Illustr. Drayton's Poly-olb. iv. 73 Our Chronologies, which are by transcribing, interpolation, misprinting..now and then strangely disordered. 1720 Waterland Eight Serm. 64 Any pretence of Forgery or Interpolation does but expose the Man that makes it. 1838 Sir W. Hamilton Logic xxxiv. (1866) II. 194 Rules, by which the authenticity or spuriousness, the integrity or interpolation, of a writing is to be judged. 1851 Hussey Papal Power iii. 149 This end was carried out by interpolations and falsification of ecclesiastical documents. |
b. With pl. An interpolated word or passage.
| 1675–6 Evelyn Let. to Aubrey Feb. (R.), I beseech you to accept or pardon these trifling interpolations, which I have presumed to send you. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 78 ¶6 That the word Oxford was an Interpolation of some Oxonian instead of Cambridge. 1849 W. Irving Mahomet viii. (1853) 42 Both were pronounced errors and interpolations of the expounders. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. I. v. 306 note, That the name Aulaf is an interpolation in the text. |
3. a. The action of introducing or inserting among other things or between the members of any series. Also with an and pl.: An insertion.
| 1849 Murchison Siluria viii. 171 The interpolation of fossiliferous..rocks. 1860 Phillips Life 207 The Permian series contains some Mesozoic interpolations. 1864 Bowen Logic ix. 295 The vice [reasoning in a circle] is usually concealed by the interpolation of intermediate propositions. 1875 Ouseley Mus. Form ii. 17 An expansion of a regular four-bar phrase of two strains, formed by the interpolation of an additional strain. |
b. Math. The process of inserting in a series an intermediate number or quantity ascertained by calculation from those already known. Freq. attrib.
| 1763 Emerson Meth. Increments iv, The Differential Method of Mr. Sterling, which he applies to the summation and interpolation of series. 1816 Playfair Nat. Phil. II. 85 The manner of finding an equation between the time and any quantity determined by observations, made at given intervals of time, is called the Method of Interpolation. Ibid. 220 The most useful interpolations are, when the time is one of the unknown quantities [etc.]. 1816 tr. Lacroix's Diff. & Int. Calculus 551 One of the principal uses of the Calculus of Differences consists in the Interpolation of Series. 1872 [see extrapolation]. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 13/1 All tables of proportional parts may be regarded as interpolation tables. 1928 Monthly Notices R. Astron. Soc. LXXXVIII. 511 The interpolation formula known as Bessel's but really discovered by Newton. 1968 Fox & Mayers Computing Methods for Scientists & Engineers viii. 147 Moreover the ‘interpolation coefficients’..are available in tabular form,..and our interpolation process is reasonably straightforward. 1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing xvi. 256 The computer calculates a first approximation to the desired address by interpolation between the known minimum and maximum values of the argument. |
† 4. Interposition of time; interval. Obs. (So F. interpolation in Godef.)
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 55 The mutation or change of bloud into a bone, cannot be accomplished but by long interpolation and many meane alterations. |