departmental, a.
(diːpɑːtˈmɛntəl)
[ad. mod.F. départemental: see prec. n. and -al1.]
1. a. Of or pertaining to a French Department.
| 1791 Mackintosh Vind. Gallicæ Wks. 1846 III. 111 The series of three elections was still preserved for the choice of Departmental Administrators. 1862 Fraser's Mag. July 128 The municipal and departmental archives and public libraries in France. |
b. gen. Of or pertaining to a particular district or region.
| 1883 E. Clodd in Knowledge 15 June 352/2 Indra..god of the bright sky..a departmental or tribal deity. |
2. Of or pertaining to a department or branch of government, or of any organized system.
| 1832 Southey in Q. Rev. XLVIII. 256 It has found an active auxiliary in the departmental process. 1854 Times, Let. War Correspt. 31 Mar., Needless departmental etiquette. 1883 American VII. 65 The new Commissioner of Internal Revenue in his first departmental report to the Secretary of the Treasury. |
3. Of a store: consisting of or comprising several departments.
| [1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) p. xi/2 A list of the Society's Departmental Price Lists..will be found on page xii.] 1911 R. Strong in W. B. Robertson Encycl. Retail Trading xii. 114 Small wonder that..the growth of a departmental store is sometimes phenomenal. 1924 Times Trade & Engin. Suppl. 29 Nov. 235/2 The departmental stores and the larger retail shops throughout the Western States. 1926 A. James Commerce i. 53 Departmental stores contain under one roof many departments. It is possible to purchase groceries, boots and shoes, furniture, clothing, toilet requisites, as well as listen to the latest jazz music from the orchestra. 1955 Times 14 May 12/1 Perhaps the departmental stores were the most consistent in their experience. |
Hence departˈmentally adv.; also departˈmentalism, attachment to departmental methods; departˈmentalize v., to divide into departments; departˈmentalized ppl. a.; departˌmentaliˈzation.
| 1846 R. Ford Gatherings fr. Spain 31 It was found to be no easy matter to carry departmentalization. 1878 Fraser's Mag. XVIII. 636 We have..been, geographically speaking, in the Jura, though departmentally in the Doubs. 1886 Pall Mall G. 1 Jan. 4/1 The..crippling diseases of official red tape and departmentalism. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 6 Dec. 9/3 The Bovril business was strikingly departmentalised..and..the managing-director..still occupies the position he has held from the start. 1924 W. B. Selbie Psychol. Relig. 40 That tendency to departmentalize human nature from which modern psychology has at length shaken itself free. 1930 N.Y. Times 10 Aug. v. 2/2 Everything should be organized and departmentalized. 1931 W. Rose Outl. Mod. Knowl. p. xiii, Scientific investigation is thus becoming more departmentalised; each worker finds himself compelled to devote his mind and energies to a more restricted field. 1931 A. L. Rowse Politics & Younger Generation i. 11 The normal continental type of a departmentalized social life. 1933 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XXXVII. 346 In the beginning there was no departmentalisation of flying. The pioneers designed, financed, built, flew, crashed and repaired their own aircraft. 1936 Mind XLV. 250 The feeble-minded..seem to be more departmentalised than normal children. 1940 Economist 27 July 125/1 The ultimate task of linking these ‘Special’ and ‘Registered’ accounts into an organic whole will demand more elastic methods. As a result of this departmentalisation, sterling is rapidly losing the homogeneity which is the hall-mark of a free currency. 1961 Daily Tel. 25 Feb. 8/2 If these negotiations fail, then President de Gaulle will have no alternative but to proceed with his interim plans for Algeria—departmentalisation, and the admission of more Moslems to office. 1962 Listener 5 July 19/2 Professor Haydn was arguing against departmentalization of history, the separate analysis of religious, political, and economic ‘factors’. |