current

▪ I. current, a.
    (ˈkʌrənt)
    Forms: 4–6 corant(e, coraunt, 6 corrant, 4–8 currant, 5–6 curraunt, 6– current.
    [ME. corant, currant, a. OF. corant, curant (from 16th c. courant) running, pres. pple. of courir, OF. corre:—L. currĕre to run. The spelling of the Eng. word as currant (very common in 16th c.) gradually led to its complete conformation to L. current-em.]
    1. a. Running; flowing. (Now rare.)

c 1300 K. Alis 3461 With him cam..mony faire juster corant. 1393 Gower Conf. III. 96 Like to the currant fire, that renneth Upon a corde. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §128 Se that there be no water standynge..but that it be alwaye currant and rennynge. 1596 Davies Orchestra lxix, Those current travases, That on a triple dactyl foot do run Close by the ground. 1651 T. Barker Art of Angling (1653) 10 They will go currant down the River. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 67 The current streame. 1756 T. Amory Buncle (1770) I. 265 The water was current through the pond. 1830 W. Phillips Mt. Sinai i. 597 The current spring.

    † b. current ship: see quot. Obs.

1555 Eden Decades 120 The lyghtest shyp which maye bee a passinger betwene them: that lyke as we vse poste horses by lande so may they by this current shippe in shorte space certifie the Lieuetenaunt of suche thynges as shall chaunce.

    † c. Her. = courant a. Obs.

1610 J. Guillim Heraldry iii. xv. (1660) 176 He beareth..three Unicornes in Pale, Current. 1681 T. Jordan London's Joy in Heath Grocers' Comp. (1869) 542 Argent, three Grey⁓hounds Currant Arm'd and Collard, Gules.

    † d. Having a fall or inclination; sloping. Obs. (Cf. current n. 3.)

1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §128 To make them euen somwat dyscendynge or currant one waye or other. 1530 Palsgr. 441 This water avoydeth nat well; by lykelyhod the goutter is nat courrant.

    e. Of handwriting: ‘Running’, cursive.

1891 E. Maunde Thompson in Classical Rev. Nov. 418/2 Ought our descendants then to infer that we knew nothing of a current hand?

    2. fig. Smoothly flowing; running easily and swiftly; fluent. (Now rare.)

1586 J. Hooker Girald. Irel. in Holinshed II. 97 Mistrusting..that all went not currant. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. iv. (Arb.) 24 Speech by meeter..is more currant and slipper upon the tongue. 1659 Hammond On Ps. vii. 4 Thus the sense is perspicuous and current. 1709 Strype Ann. Ref. I. ii. 67 April 18. The Bill..was read the first time. Apr. 19. Read the second time..Apr. 20. Read the third time, and passed the House. So current it seems this bill went. 1818 Byron Juan i. cc. (MS. reading), Other incidents..Which shall be specified..in current rhyme.

    3. a. Running in time; in course of passing; in progress. Often used ellipt., as in the 10th current (abbreviated curt.), i.e. the 10th day of the current month. b. Belonging to the current week, month, or other period of time.

1608 Hieron Defence iii. 131 There was not any long time current and past wherein it has been observed and made usuall. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) II. 7, I had yours of the tenth current. 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. 477 [It] does not imply the time fully run out, but that the last part thereof must then be current. 1708 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. iii. i. (1743) 142 None is to be ordained..Deacon till he is at least twenty-three current. 1734 Berkeley Let. 17 Mar. Wks. IV. 218, I paid the curates for the current year. 1780 Burke Sp. Econom. Reform Wks. 1842 I. 230 No tax is raised for the current services. 1858 Herschel Outlines Astron. xviii. §927 A date..always expresses the day or year current and not elapsed. 1862 Ruskin Munera P. (1880) 46 To enlarge his current expenses. 1868 Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 387 We must call the current number for that date the Christmas number.

    c. current account, an account kept by a customer at a bank to meet his current expenses; current affairs, current events, those in progress, those belonging to the present time; current cost accounting, a method of accounting in which assets are valued on the basis of their replacement cost and increases in their value as a result of inflation are excluded from calculations of profit; current goods (see quot. 1948).

1846 Dickens Pictures from Italy 66 A means of establishing a current account with Heaven, on which to draw..for future bad actions. 1875 H. Fisher Opening, etc. Spec. Banking Accts. 1 The opening, working, and closing of certain classes of Current and Deposit Accounts. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 1 Sept. 6/3 It is the depositor, rather than the current-account customer, who is victimised by this custom. 1951 R. W. Jones Thomson's Dict. Banking (ed. 10) 206/1 A current or running account is the active account on which cheques are drawn and to which credits are paid.

1920 Beerbohm And Even Now 60 Swinburne did, from time to time, take public notice of current affairs. 1955 ‘C. Brown’ Lost Girls x. 111 We began each afternoon's session with a ‘current affairs’ talk. 1957 B.B.C. Handbk. 102 Up-to-date information on current affairs.

1975 Rep. Inflation Accounting Comm. (F. E. P. Sandilands) i. 3 in Parl. Papers 1974–75 VII. 411 We recommend that a system to be known as Current Cost Accounting should be developed. 1977 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 2 Mar. 2/6 Current cost accounting, a system which takes account of inflation, is called inflation accounting in the United States. 1984 Hitching & Stone Understanding Accounting! vii. 85 We shall be turning our attention to the question of ‘value’, and to current cost accounting.

1850 Harper's Mag. June 122 (headline) Monthly record of current events. 1920 S. Lewis Main Street ix. 107 The Thanatopsis Club..have some of the best..current-events discussions.

1936 Discovery Nov. 355/2 The distinction between capital goods and current goods is..one of the most important in the whole of economics. 1948 G. Crowther Outl. Money (ed. 2) v. 129 Every year the community produces a certain total of goods and services; some of them are for immediate consumption, the rest are goods whose value will last beyond the immediate present. These two categories can be called current goods and durable goods. All services are naturally current goods.

    4. Of money: Passing from hand to hand; in circulation; in general use as a medium of exchange.

1481 Caxton Myrr. iii. xiv. 167 In the begynnynge of the Regne of Kynge Edward..was no monoye curraunt in englond but pens and halfpens and ferthynges. 1535 Coverdale Gen. xxiii. 16 Currant money amonge marchauntes [Wyclif preued comune money]. 1611 Coryat Crudities 286 The currantest money of all both in Venice itselfe and in the whole Venetian Signiory. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 501 In Kataia a coine is currant, made of the blacke rinde of a certaine tree. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. II. 66 Of the current coin of the empire. 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 33 Pieces of leather impressed with the government mark and passing current like our bank-notes.

    = Locally current. (Cf. currency 4 b.)

1593 in Muniments of Irvine (1890) I. 79 The Burrow meillis..to be payit in Stirlling money..ar resavit in current money to our greit hurt.

    † 5. Having the quality of current coin; sterling, genuine, authentic: opposed to counterfeit. Obs.

1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 73 Though others seem counterfeit in their deeds..Euphues will be alwayes currant in his dealings. 1599 Warn. Faire Women ii. 1555 To put your love unto the touch, to try If it be currant, or but counterfait. 1611 Cotgr., À Preuve de marteau, sound, currant, good, right stuffe. 1634 W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. 67 If the report which passeth be current. 1639 Horn & Rob. Gate Lang. Unl. ix. §85 With a touch-stone we try metals, whether they be good (currant) or counterfeit. 1744 Harris Three Treat. iii. i. (1765) 141 Do we not try [a piece of Metal]..by the Test, before we take it for Current?

    6. Generally reported or known; in general circulation; in general use, prevalent.

1563 Mirr. Mag., J. Shore xxiv, What I sayd was currant every where. 1625 Bacon Ess. Ep. Ded., I doe now publish my Essayes; which, of all my other workes, haue beene most currant. 1631 J. Pory in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 271 III. 267 It is current in every mans mouth that the Kings journey into Scotland is putt off. 1775 Burke Corr. (1844) II. 40, I find it very current that parliament will meet in October. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 549 The stories which were current about both Seymour and the Speaker.

    7. Generally accepted; established by common consent; in vogue. Often with mixture of sense 3: Accepted or in vogue at the time in question.

1593 Bilson Govt. Christ's Ch. 169 If laie Elders had bene currant in Gregories time. 1665 Glanvill Sceps. Sci. 78 The current Theology of Europe. 1666 Dryden Ann. Mirab. Pref., A word which is not current English. 1713 Berkeley Hylas & P. ii. Wks. 1871 I. 309 The current proper signification attached to a common name in any language. 1831 Sir J. Sinclair Corr. II. 187 The commerce of Holland greatly depends on the current interest. 1884 H. Spencer in Contemp. Rev. XLVI. 46 Current utilitarian speculation..shows inadequate consciousness of natural causation.

    8. Phr. to pass current, go current, or run current (senses 5–7): to be in circulation or in common use; to be generally related, reported, or accepted; to be received as genuine. (Formerly to pass orgo for current.)

1596 Harington Metam. Ajax (1814) 12 And so now it passeth current to be spoken and written Ajax. 1600 Abp. Abbot Exp. Jonah 3 Which opinion hath gone so currant, that..some of the new writers haue accepted it for a truth. 1605 Camden Rem. (1637) 16 But most true this may seeme which runneth currant every where. 1611 Bible Transl. Pref. 4 Why the Translation of the Seuentie was allowed to passe for currant. 1618 Bolton Florus iii. iii. (1636) 168 That invincible rage and furious onset, which goes current with the Barbarous for true valour. 1629 J. Rouse Diary 46 It went for currant that the Spanyards had killed the French and Dutch. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 210 It went current among the seamen that the Spanish Doctor was an Englishman. 1727 A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. I. xxi. 250 Their Language [Portuguese] goes current along most of the Sea-coast. 1828 Macaulay Hallam Ess. I. 54 If such arguments are to pass current it will be easy to prove [etc.].

▪ II. current, n.
    (ˈkʌrənt)
    Forms: 4 curraunt, 6–7 currant, 6– current.
    [a. OF. corant, curant, n. use of courant adj.: see prec., with which this is in its orthographical history identical.]
    1. That which runs or flows, a stream; spec. a portion of a body of water, or of air, etc. moving in a definite direction.

c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 186 Men þat knowen þe worchinge of þe elementis..and worchiþ woundir bi craft in mevynge of currauntis. 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 441 Two such siluer currents when they ioyne Do glorifie the bankes that bound them in. 1665 Hooke Microgr. 212 A small current of blood, which came directly from its snout, and past into its belly. 1727 Swift Gulliver iii. iv. 205 A..mill turned by a current from a large river. 1863 A. C. Ramsay Phys. Geog. i. (1878) 10 Great ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream.

    2. a. The action or condition of flowing; flow, flux (of a river, etc.); usually in reference to its force or velocity.

1555 Eden Decades 353 Where the currant setteth alwayes to the eastwarde. 1683 Burnet tr. More's Utopia (1684) 65 There is no great Current in the Bay. 1769 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. III. 57 [The River Trent] comes down from the Hills with a violent Current into the flat Country. 1832 W. Irving Alhambra I. 25, I came to a river with high banks and deep rapid current. 1863 M. Howitt F. Bremer's Greece II. xiv. 90 The well-known phenomenon of the changing current in the Straits [of Euripus].

    † b. The course of a river or other flowing body. Obs.

1696 Whiston Th. Earth ii. (1722) 119 The rise and currents of Rivers are not always the same now as before the Flood. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. iii. xxvi. 111 The peasants diverted the current of the flame, and saved their villages. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 25 The Earn is a more rapid river than the Forth, has a longer current.

    3. The inclination or ‘fall’ given to a gutter, roof, etc. to let the water run off.

1582 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 423 No..persons shall make their pavements higher then an other, but that hit may have a reasonable currant. 1699 in Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 559 Neglect of Levelling the streets and ordering the Currents yrof. 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 161 Take care that the Gutter..lie..in such a Position that it may have a good Current. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 407 All sheet lead is laid with a current to keep it dry. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., Gutters usually have a current of 1/4 inch to the foot.

    † 4. Circulation (of money), currency. Obs.

1586 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. 635 This privie councell..taketh order for the currant and finenes of money. 1651 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. ii. vii. (1739) 44 The regulating of the Mint, and the current of Money. 1691 tr. Emilianne's Frauds Romish Monks 91 They find a plentiful current of Devotional-Mony.

    5. fig. The course of time or of events; the main course.

1586 J. Hooker Girald. Irel. in Holinshed II. 136/1 That place was not possessed of the like in manie currents of yeares. 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. v. Wks. 1856 I. 66 My joyes passion..choakes the current of my speach. 1721 Strype Eccl. Mem. I. 19 More perhaps will be said of him in the current of these memorials. 1788 Priestley Lect. Hist. iii. xiii. 106 Without some such general comprehension, as we may call it, of the whole current of time. 1817 Chalmers Astron. Disc. iii. (1852) 77 The whole current of my restless and ever-changing history. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. x. 519 One more tale will bring us back directly to the current of our story.

    6. a. Course or progress in a defined direction; tendency, tenor, drift (of opinions, writings, etc.).

1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 335 Say, shall the currant of our right rome on. 1607 Hieron Wks. I. 370 This is..plaine and obuious out of the very current of the words. 1692 Locke Toleration iii. x, In your first Paper, as the whole Current of it would make one believe. 1782 Priestley Corrupt. Chr. I. i. 76 The current of men's opinions having..set that way. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. I. xii. 152 [These] words..express the whole current of modern feeling.

    † b. The tendency or drift of the common opinion, practice, etc., of a body of persons. Obs.

1613 J. Salkeld Treat. Angels 218 Against this opinion is the common current of all Doctors and Fathers. 1650 R. Hollingworth Exerc. conc. Usurped Powers 17 The current of the people or community I am of is to be followed. 1738 Swift Pol. Conv. xxxii, Affecting Singularity, against the general Current and Fashion of all about them. 1863 Sat. Rev. XV. 583/1 The current of modern American authorities is in complete accordance with this view.

    7. a. Electr. The name given to the apparent transmission or ‘flow’ of electric force through a conducting body: introduced in connexion with the theory that electrical phenomena are due to a fluid (or fluids) which moves in actual ‘streams’; now the common term for the phenomenon, without reference to any theory.
    An electric current is according to its nature called alternating or continuous, intermittent, pulsatory, or undulatory.

1747 Gentl. Mag. XVII. 141 The frequent exciting such currents of ethereal fire in bed-chambers. 1752 Franklin Let. Wks. 1887 II. 253 Perhaps the auroræ boreales are currents of this fluid in its own region, above our atmosphere. 1842 Grove Corr. Phys. Forces 48 From the manner in which the peculiar force called electricity is seemingly transmitted through certain bodies..the term current is commonly used to denote its apparent progress. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6) I. x. 306 Faraday..illustrated the laws of these induced currents. 1881 W. L. Carpenter Energy in Nature 153 Dynamo machines..that supply alternating currents, i.e. currents alternately in opposite directions. Mod. Advt. The [Electric Lighting] Company are prepared to supply current within the district named.

    b. transf. Applied to the transmission of nerve-force along a nerve.

1855 Bain Senses & Int. i. ii. §18 A current of nervous stimulus..derived from the [spinal] cord to the muscles.

    8. attrib. and Comb. a. In relation to currents of water, air, and the like, as current-drifted; current-bedding, the bedding of geological strata in a sloping direction caused by deposition in a current of water; current-fender, a structure to ward off the current from a bank, etc., which it threatens to undermine; current-gauge, current-meter, an apparatus made for measuring the flow of liquids through a channel; (see also quot. 1868); current-mill, a mill driven by a current-wheel; current-wheel, a wheel driven by a natural current of water. b. Of or pertaining to an electrical current; as current-breaker, current-collector, current-meter, current-regulator, current-weigher, etc.

1891 Jrnl. Derbyshire Archæol. Soc. XIII. 35 The direction of the dip of planes of *current-bedding.

1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xvii. 206 A *current-drifted cask.

1874 Knight Dict. Mech. 661 The dynamometer *current-gage of Woltmann, 1790, is a light water-wheel operated by the current.

1868 W. D. Haskoll Land & Marine Surveying xi. 170 The *current meter is useful also to ascertain the velocity of under currents.

1874 Knight Dict. Mech. 661 The *current-wheel is perhaps the first application of the force of water in motion to driving machinery.

1866 R. M. Ferguson Electr. (1870) 185 A contrivance for this purpose is called a rheotome or *current-break.

1962 Corson & Lorrain Introd. Electromagn. Fields v. 179 A *current-carrying conductor.

1884 F. Krohn tr. Glaser de Cew's Mag.- & Dyn.-Electr. Mach. 207 The *current closers and interrupters.

1889 Pall Mall G. 16 Mar. 3/3 This *current collector, which is connected with the motor placed between the wheels underneath the floor of the car, moves in the conduit beneath the rail.

1884 F. Krohn tr. Glaser de Cew's Mag.- & Dyn.-Electr. Mach. 272 The *current-energised rotating helix.

1962 Simpson & Richards Junction Transistors xiii. 295 The more usual practice is to define the feedback, solely by the way it is derived, as ‘voltage’ (parallel) or ‘*current’ (series) feedback.

1964 R. F. Ficchi Electr. Interference x. 210 A *current-limiting device in neutral circuits.

1879 G. B. Prescott Sp. Telephone 16 When the latter acts, it does so in obedience to *current pulsations.

1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib. II. xiii. 13 As these instruments have no break pieces or *current reversers they cannot get out of order. 1888 S. R. Bottone Electr. Instr. Making (1894) 192 The current reverser for the Wheatstone single needle telegraph.

1881 Maxwell Electr. & Magn. I. 380 A stratum of a conductor contained between two consecutive surfaces of flow..is called a *Current-Sheet.

1946 Nature 13 July 54/2 A system which gives the constant line voltage required for *current-using devices.

1881 Maxwell Electr. & Magn. II. 341 The suspended coil in Dr. Joule's *current-weigher is horizontal and capable of vertical motion.

    
    

---

    
     Add: [7.] c. Particle Physics. A transfer or exchange of a subatomic particle, esp. a particle that mediates an interaction between other particles; a particle so transferred.

1958 Physical Rev. CIX. 196/1 Imagine that the interaction is due to some intermediate (electrically charged) vector meson of very high mass M0 . If this meson is coupled to the ‘current’ ( ψpγµaψn ) and ( ψµγµaψν ) by a coupling.., then the interaction of the two ‘currents’ would result from the exchange of this ‘meson’ if 4πf2M0-2 = (8)½ G. Ibid., The current of pions. 1964 Physics Lett. XIII. 169/2 When we come to consider hadrons the absence of neutral leptonic currents interacting with heavy particles requires that we assume X0 particles are at least as massive as W+ or W- . 1978 Nature 11 May 98/2 Here two charged leptonic currents interact, one of them turning a muon into a mu-neutrino, the other generating an electron and its antineutrino. 1980 J. Trefil From Atoms to Quarks xiii. 203 The beta decay of the neutron... It proceeds by the exchange of a W boson which is called the charged current. A similar process in which a Z is exchanged would be said to proceed by the exchange of a neutral current. 1983 McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 1984 142/2 Interest in beta decay stems from the predictions of modern gauge theories that the helicity of the weak leptonic current is not exact, being broken either by a small right-handed current admixture..or by a nonzero neutrino mass.

▪ III. † ˈcurrent, v. Obs. rare.
    Also 7 currant.
    [f. current a.]
    trans. To render current, give currency or acceptance to.

1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. Induct. 27 The uneven scale, that currants all thinges by the outwarde stamp of opinion. 1607 ― What You Will ii. i. 295 Faith, so, so..As 't please opinion to current it.

Oxford English Dictionary