contemplative, a. (n.)
(kənˈtɛmplətɪv)
[a. OF. contemplatif, -ive, (12th c. in Littré), ad. L. contemplātīv-us, f. ppl. stem of contemplāre to contemplate: see -ive.]
A. adj. (adv.)
1. Given to or having the habit of contemplation; meditative, reflective, thoughtful.
| 1340 Ayenb. 245 Þe yefþe of wysdom..þet þe holy gost yefþ to þe contemplatiue herte. 1485 Caxton Chas. Gt. 21 The which kyng deuoute & contemplatyf wythoute cure. 1502 Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) i. vii. 59 These deuoute and contemplatyf spyrytes. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. ii. v. 23 This Letter wil make a contemplatiue Ideot of him. 1625 Bacon Ess. Atheism (Arb.) 337 The Contemplatiue Atheist is rare..And yet they seeme to be more then they are. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. II, How far beyond itself doth it plunge the contemplative mind! 1856 Masson Ess., Wordsw. 375 It is this tendency to relapse into a few favourite, and, as it were, constitutional trains of thought, that makes the contemplative character. |
† b. Speculative, theorizing. Obs.
| 1657 Austen Fruit Trees i. 6 Some who have taught this art..have been in it only contemplative men, having little or no experience in it. 1661 Boyle Spring of Air Pref. (1682) 3 Except by some able mathematicians and very few other contemplative men. |
2. Characterized by, of the nature of, or tending to contemplation.
| c 1430 Lydg. Venus-Mass in Lay Folks Mass-bk. 395 In my contemplatyff medytacions. 1485 Caxton Chas. Gt. 2 A werk wel contemplatyf for to liue wel. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. i. i. 14 Our Court shall be a little Achademe, Still and contemplatiue in liuing Art. 1667 Denham Death of Cowley 75 Fix'd and contemplative their looks, Still turning over Nature's books. 1787 A. Hilditch Rosa de Montm. II. 14 To enjoy the delightfully contemplative prospect. a 1843 Southey Doctor cxxvi. (1862) 317 The same sober, contemplative, deep feeling of the realities of religion. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xxv. 350 Smoking a contemplative cigar under the clear starlight. |
3. Opposed to active, esp. in contemplative life, in the Middle Ages, a life given up to religious contemplation and prayer, esp. that of the religious recluse; so contemplative man, etc. In later use not confined to religious meditation.
The theological use appears to come directly from St. Augustine De Civit. Dei viii. §4; the contrast of activus and contemplativus is also in Seneca, and corresponds to the Aristotelian contrast of πρακτικός and θεωρητικός which came down through Philo and the Greek Fathers.
| c 1340 Hampole Prose Tr. 22 Thou shalt medle the werkis of actife liffe with goostely werkis of live comtemplatyfe. c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 383 It is seid comunli, þat þes two wymmen ben two lyves, actif and contemplatif; þe first is Martha, and þe toþer Marie. 1388 ― Ps. Prol., The lif of actif men, the spirituel beholding of contemplatif men. c 1450 Castle Hd. Life St. Cuthb. (Surtees) 2177 Þis lyf contemplatyue þan Cuthbert in a pryue place began. Ibid. 3404 In Farne contemplatyue, þe werld fra. 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 41 The Philosophers..wrangling, whether Vertue bee the chiefe, or the onely good; whether the contemplatiue, or the actiue life doe excell. 1670 Clarendon Ess. Tracts (1727) 187 Sixtus Quintus..betook himself to a contemplative life, that is, to the contemplation how he might come to be pope. 1823 D'Israeli Cur. Lit. (1858) III. 112 The active life of Rawleigh is not more remarkable than his contemplative one. 1885 Catholic Dict. s.v., Protestants..accuse contemplative orders of idleness. |
† b. Theoretical, as opposed to practical. Obs.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §100 We shall therefore, after our manner, joyn the Contemplative and Active Part together. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. i. 6 Al Arts and Sciences (whether active or contemplative). |
4. contemplative of: contemplating: † a. meditating on; b. looking or gazing at; c. having in view, reckoning upon.
| 14.. Prose Legends in Anglia VIII. 151 Contemplatif of gostlynesse. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. vi, They became contemplative of the mud. 1876 M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. I. 1 The fisherman, contemplative of that awful horizon. 1884 Law Times 14 June 113/1 The words..are plainly contemplative of a contingency..at an unknown and future period. |
† 5. Used advb. = contemplatively. Obs.
| 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge ii. 1453 A monke there dwellyng contemplatyue. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxix. (1887) 203 Religion being vsed mostwhat contemplative, and in nature of opinion. |
B. n.
1. A person devoted to religious meditation; one who leads the ‘contemplative life’.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter Prol. 4 Þe lyf of actyf men, þe meditacioun of contemplatifs. c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 289 Þis chirche shulde be maad of actyves and contemplatyves. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xx. §8 Henoch..who was the first contemplative and walked with God. 1799 J. Scott Bahar-Danush Pref. 20 The sacred collar of the humble contemplative. 1864 Sat. Rev. 21 May, The lonely contemplative, haunting his solitudes. |
b. (See quot.)
| 1658 Phillips, Contemplatives, certain Fryers of St. Mary Magdalens Order, who wear black upper garments, and white underneath [so in Cotgr. 1611]. 1730–6 in Bailey (folio); and in mod. Dicts. |
† 2. One who contemplates or considers anything. Obs. rare.
| a 1711 Ken Hymnarium Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 120 Silk⁓worms and Spiders, and a thousand kinds..Work wonders by Contemplatives admir'd. |
† 3. Short for contemplative life. Obs.
| 14.. Purif. Marie in Tundale's Vis. (1843) 135 The turtull by contemplatyffe For synne soroweth with waymentyng. |
† 4. pl. Matters relating to contemplation. Obs.
| 1609 Tourneur Fun. Poem Sir F. Vere Wks. 1878 I. 175 All his industries (As well in actives as contemplatives). |