▪ I. composite, a. and n.
(ˈkɒmpəzɪt, formerly kəmˈpɒzɪt)
Also 7 -it.
[ad. L. composit-us, pa. pple. of compōnĕre to put together. Cf. F. composite (in Archit.). Introduced first in the architectural sense (2), the only one recognized by Johnson, 1755–73.]
A. adj.
1. a. Made up of various parts or elements; compound; not simple in structure.
| 1678 Gale Crt. Gentiles III. 27 It is impossible, in a composite sense, that the creature should not act and do that unto which it is premoved by the first cause. 1836–7 Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. xxxvi. (1870) II. 328 We cannot decompose what is not already composite. 1851 Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. ii. ii. 96 To analyse a composite phenomenon into simpler ones. 1883 A. Roberts O.T. Revis. ii. 28 The Book of Genesis is composite..a congeries of fragments collected from many different sources. |
b. with of: = Compounded, composed. rare.
| 1842 Mrs. Browning Grk. Chr. Poets 17 A dithyrambic ode..composite of fantastic epithets. |
2. Arch. a. The name of the fifth of the classical orders, being ‘composed of the Ionic grafted upon the Corinthian’. At first Composita (sc. columna).
| 1563 Shute Archit. B ij a, This piller was firste buylded to his perfection in the time of Titus, Vespasianus, who..called it Composita, or as some doo name her Italica. Ibid. E iv b, Tuscana, Dorica, Ionica, Corinthia, & Composita, increase their heightes by Diameters. 1663 Gerbier Counsel (1664) 40 The Composite Order must be made of the same proportions of the Corinthian. 1706 Lond. Gaz. No. 4280/5 The Three Greek Orders, Dorick, Ionick, and Corinthian..and the Two Latin, Tuscan and Composita. 1766 Entick London IV. 95 Above there is placed a series of composite columns. 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) I. App. 359 Another order, the Composite, which is Ionic and Corinthian mixed..may be described as a spoiled Corinthian. |
b. composite arch: ‘the pointed or lancet arch’ (Gwilt).
3. Math. a. composite number: a number which is the product of two or more factors, greater than unity. [L. numerus compositus (Isidore iii. v. 7).]
| 1730–6 in Bailey (folio). 1772 Horsley Prime Numb. in Phil. Trans. LXII. 327 Two or more numbers, which have any common integral divisor besides unity, are said to be Composite with respect to one another. 1827 Hutton Course Math. I. 4 A Composite Number is one which is the product of two or more numbers. 1859 Barn. Smith Arith. & Algebra (ed. 6) 20. |
† b. See quot.: cf. compound a. 2 b.
| a 1500 in Halliwell Brief Acc. S. Morland (1838) 20 Composittys be alle nombrys that ben componyd of a digyt and of an articule, as fourtene. |
4. Nat. Hist. Consisting of an organic aggregation of individuals, or of distinct parts. a. Bot. (a) Belonging to the family Compositæ, in which what is popularly called the flower consists really of a close head of many small flowers (‘florets’) sessile on a common receptacle, and surrounded by a common involucre of bracts; examples are the daisy, dandelion, tansy, marigold, aster, chrysanthemum, dahlia, sunflower. Also n. A plant of this order.
In many Composites the florets of the ray or circumference differ in shape from those of the disc, being developed so as to look like petals; by cultivation, the florets of the disc may assume the same form, as in the daisy, dahlia, and common marigold; these two states are popularly called single and double.
| 1832 Pinnock Guide to Knowl. No. 11 88/2 The whole autumnal season is remarkable for the reign of the Compositæ, or composite flowers. 1854 Balfour Outlines Bot. 449 The properties of Composite plants are various. 1861 S. Thomson Wild Fl. ii. (ed. 4) 120 The head of a composite is made up of a number of..florets. 1882 Garden 10 June 405/1 Graceful single flowered Composites have become so popular. |
† (b) Compound. Obs.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Stalk, If the stalk divaricate, or, instead of sending out branches, it divide into them, it is called a composite stalk. |
b. Zool. Compound.
| 1861 J. R. Greene Man. Anim. Kingd., Cælent. 205 The corallum of the Tabulata is mostly, if not always, composite. 1872 Carpenter Anim. Phys. xv. 554 The arborescent structures of the Composite Zoophytes. |
c. Cryst. Compound.
| 1831 Brewster Optics xxvi. 220 These strata are not united together like the parts of certain composite crystals. |
5. Logic. Belonging to the terms collectively, but not to each separately; collective. (Cf. composition 4 b.)
| 1864 Bowen Logic ix. (1870) 278 Another ambiguity..is passing from the Composite to the Divisive, or from the Divisive to the Composite, meaning of a proposition. |
6. In various technical uses: a. Of ships: Built of both wood and iron; constructed of an iron framework covered with wood.
| 1878 A. Brassey Voy. Sunbeam 1 note, The ‘Sunbeam’.. may be technically defined as a screw composite three-masted topsail-yard Schooner. 1888 Daily News 10 Sept. 3/1 She is a composite vessel—that is, constructed of iron frames with a wood bottom, protected by copper sheathing. |
b. composite carriage: a railway-carriage with compartments of different classes. So a composite.
| 1868 Daily News 24 Aug., A composite (first and second class) carriage. 1883 Ibid. 3 Jan. 2/4 Captain Price and Dr. Davies scrambled out of the capsized composite. 1887 Times 19 Sept. 10/2 He was in the bogie composite carriage. |
c. composite candle: one made of a mixture of stearic acid and the stearin of coco-nut oil; also absol.
| 1845 Mech. Mag. 60 A very cheap composite candle. 1857 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 334 There isn't a candle allowed..wax, dip, moulded, or composite. 1865 Look Before You Leap I. 176 A pair of hastily lit composites. |
d. composite photograph or portrait: a single photographic portrait, produced by combining those of two or more persons. Also a composite. e. composite (high) school: in Canada, a secondary school providing courses in academic, commercial, and industrial subjects.
| 1943 Canada & Newfoundland Educ. Assoc. Rep. Survey C'ttee v. 63 Composite high schools should be located in advantageous locations so that rural children may benefit from diversified curricula. 1955 W. G. Hardy Alberta Golden Jubilee Anthol. 174 In Senior High, the new Composite School is changing the educational picture again; large school plants are being designed for the teaching of technical, commercial and academic subjects. 1958 Encycl. Canadiana III. 389 The composite school, an educational institution which offers a wide variety of instruction in the technical, vocational and academic fields, is a relatively recent type of secondary school. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 50 (Advt.), This is a fully composite school with a projected enrolment of 1450 students for September 1968, and a pupil-teacher ratio of 17 to 1. |
7. composite sailing in Naut.: a combination of great-circle and parallel sailing.
| c 1850 Rudim, Navg. (Weale) 56 Another variety of the system is Composite Great Circle Sailing. 1868 Daily News 10 Sept., Connected with these tables was a sailing which Mr. Towson had designated ‘composite sailing’, by which he had enabled the mariner to take the nearest practical route when great circle sailing is not available. |
B. n. (See also prec. senses 3 b, 4 a, 6.)
† 1. A component part. Obs. rare— 1.
| 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes 12 If time and tune be the Composits of Musicke. |
2. a. A composite thing; anything made up of different parts or elements, a compound.
| 1656 J. Serjeant tr. White's Peripat. Inst. 204 The Composit or compound must needs be, in some measure, dense. 1721 Bailey, Composites, (in Pharmacy) Medicines made up of many simple ones; as certain Waters, Syrups, Electuaries, etc. 1750 Harris Hermes iii. v. Wks. 241 Each man's understanding..is a composite of natural capacity and of super-induced habit. 1794 T. Taylor tr. Pausanias' Descr. Greece I. Pref. 15 Beauty in every composite consists in the apt connexion of its parts with each other. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 151 That wonderful composite called English. |
b. A material made from two or more physically different constituents each of which largely retains its original structure and identity.
| 1959 Jrnl. Electrochem. Soc. CVI. 318/2 Ceramic-and-plastic composites. 1966 [see carbon fibre]. 1967 Times Rev. Industry June 68/1 Upgrading of the physical properties has..been achieved by the production of composites, materials in which physical deficiencies in the plastics are compensated by the addition of reinforcing materials. 1970 Materials & Technol. III. xii. 881 An interesting new addition to the range of fibre reinforced composites is glass reinforced cement. |
c. With pronunc. (kɒmpəˈzaɪt). A composite resolution put before a Trades Union Congress, which has been compiled from several related resolutions proposed by trade unions or constituency Labour parties.
| 1971 Daily Tel. 5 Oct. 1/3 From the agendas..resolutions are plucked..to be amended..and finally extruded in a series of ‘composites’ (pronounced for obscure reasons to rhyme with ‘kites’). 1972 Ibid. 29 Apr. 14 The debate at Tenby was on a composite of motions on the issue set down by branches. 1978 Spectator 21 Oct. 33/1 He shows an ignorance of politics, perhaps not surprisingly, when he complains of a journalist accenting ‘composite’ on the last syllable, to rhyme with ‘flight’. 1984 Ibid. 1 Sept. 13/3 Committees of General Council members and TUC officials wheedle, beg, hector or entrap those unions which have submitted resolutions into merging them in with others dealing with the same topic to produce omnibus resolutions—composites. |
3. Gram. A compound word or term. rare.
| 1708–15 Kersey, Composite, a Term in Grammar; as A Composite, or Compounded Word. 1887 Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue §397 These [adjectives] are Composites; they have been formed by the combination of two words. |
▪ II. composite, v. Pol.
(kɒmpəˈzaɪt)
[f. the n.: see composite n. 2 c.]
trans. To amalgamate (resolutions put before a party conference or Trades Union Congress) into one composite resolution. Hence compoˈsiting vbl. n.
| 1962 Economist 8 Sept. 873/3 The Liberal executive keeps a watch over this agenda by compositing into multi-point motions the ideas. 1965 New Statesman 8 Oct. 506/3 Whereas Labour resolutions generally do have to be composited out of recognition, they at any rate are composited by the delegates themselves and, having been composited, they stand some chance of actually being debated. 1973 Daily Tel. 23 July 34/6 By the time the five-day conference opens on Oct. 1 it [sc. the agenda] will have been ‘composited’ into workable compass. 1979 H. Wilson Final Term ix. 183 NEC members worried about their seats, or concerned with the ‘compositing’ of resolutions on the Saturday afternoon. 1985 Times 30 Sept. 32/1 He has attended ‘compositing’ negotiations to resist any change in the wording. |