▪ I. auto-1
(ˈɔːtəʊ)
repr. Gr. αὐτο- ‘self, one's own, by oneself, independent-ly,’ combining form of αὐτός self. Exceedingly common in Gr.; in L. only in a few words adopted from Gr. without analysis, as autochthones, autographus, automatus; more common in med.L.; and largely used in the mod. langs. In Eng., to a certain extent, a living element, prefixable to scientific terms denoting action or operation, whence occasionally to others, in combinations that are more or less nonce-words. In free composition as a prefix element, its chief meanings are: (a) of oneself, one's own; self-; (b) self-produced or -induced (pathologically) within the body or organism; (c) spontaneous, self-acting, automatic (cf. esp. b below).
Such are: auto-ˈabstract, a speaker's own abstract of an address or speech prepared for publication; ˌauto-agglutiˈnation [G. (A. Klein 1902, in Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift XV. 415/1)], spontaneous agglutination, esp. produced by auto-antibodies; auto-ˈantibody, an antibody which is produced by an organism and which reacts against some constituent of that organism; auto-catalepsy, catalepsy self-produced; autocaˈtalysis Chem., catalysis of a reaction by one of its own products; hence autoˈcatalyst, a substance or organism capable of autocatalysis; autocataˈlytic a., -ally adv.; autoclastic (-ˈklæstɪk), a. Geol. [clastic a.], of a rock, composed of its own fragments produced by crushing or granulation; ˌauto-colliˈmation, collimation of an instrument by means of its own parts; so autoˈcollimating ppl. a., that collimates by means of its own parts; autoˈcollimator, an instrument with an autocollimating eyepiece (Webster, 1934); auto-coprophagous a., eating its own dung; auto-criticism, criticism of oneself or one's own works; autocytotoxin (-saɪtəʊˈtɒksɪn) [cytotoxin], a cytotoxin formed in the body; ˌautodiagˈnosis, diagnosis of one's own disease; hence ˌauto-diagˈnostic a., of or pertaining to autodiagnosis; ˌauto-diˈgestion = autolysis; also, self-destruction of plant tissue; ˌauto-ˈfollow, -ˈfollowing Radar, automatic following; a system in which a radar beam automatically follows the object from which echoes are received; also attrib.; cf. automatic following (automatic a. 2); ˈautofrettage [a. F. autofrettage, self-hooping; cf. frettage], the process of strengthening a tube, esp. the barrel of a gun, by applying internal pressure in order to raise the limit of strain; hence ˈautofrettaged a.; ˈautograft Surg., a graft of skin or other tissue taken from a person's own body (Dorland, 1913); ˌautohypˈnosis [hypnosis 2], autoˈhypnotism, a self-induced hypnotic condition; so ˌautohypˈnotic a. and n.; ˌauto-hypnotiˈzation, the inducing of hypnosis by auto-suggestion; ˌauto-iˈmmunity, the state produced by the presence either of auto-antibodies or of lymphoid cells sensitized against some constituent of the subject's own tissues; so auto-immune a., characterized by auto-immunity; ˌauto-immuniˈzation, (a) immunization from within the body; self-immunization (Dorland, 1900); (b) the production of auto-immunity; auto-inˈfectant n., an agent of auto-infection; auto-infection, self-infection; auto-inˈfective a., or of pertaining to auto-infection; auto-infra-glottic a., of what is below one's own glottis; auto-inoculation, self-inoculation, whence auto-inoculable a.; auto-inˈtoxicant, a toxic substance generated in the system; also fig.; auto-intoxiˈcation, poisoning by or resulting from toxin produced within the body; also fig.; hence auto-inˈtoxicate v. trans.; autokinesis (ˌɔːtəʊkaɪˈniːsɪs), (a) = autokinesy (Mayne, Suppl. (1860) autocinesis); (b) the apparent movement of a stationary object; hence autokinetic (-kaɪˈnɛtɪk) a.; auto-larynˈgoscopy, examination of one's own larynx, whence auto-laryngoˈscopic a., auto-larynˈgoscopist; auˈtologous a., derived from the same organism; ˌautolumiˈnescence, the spontaneous emission of light from certain radioactive substances; autoˈphotograph = autoradiograph; autoˈpoisoning, poisoning caused by a virus formed within the body; autoˈpoisonous a., that is poisonous to the organism within which it is formed; auto-portrait, a portrait drawn by any one of himself; auto-portraiture, portraiture of oneself; auto-prothesis, self-produced or spontaneous prothesis; autoˈpsychic a. Psychol. [ad. G. autopsychisch (C. Wernicke 1892, in Pathologie des Nervensystems (1893) 166)], of or pertaining to self-consciousness or awareness of oneself; auto-psychology, psychological study of oneself; ˌautopsyˈchography, psychography of oneself; so ˌautopsyˈchographize v. intr., to give the psychography of oneself; autoroˈtation Aeronaut., unpowered rotation, esp. that of the rotor of a rotorcraft; so autoroˈtate v. intr.; ˈautoscript, a communication received by a medium in the form of automatic writing; ˈauto-sex a., ˈautosexed a., ˌautoˈsexing ppl. a., applied to any breed of poultry in which the sexes are distinguishable at hatching; so autosex-linkage, etc.; autosoteric (-səʊˈtɛrɪk), a.[Gr. σωτηρία salvation], relating to salvation by oneself; so autoˈsoterism; autotelic (-ˈtɛlɪk) a., having or being an end or purpose in itself (see quot. 1901); ˌautoˈtherapy, treatment of one's own infirmity; hence autoˈtherapist n.; ˌautotoˈxæmia, -toxemia, the presence of autotoxin in the blood; ˌautotransplanˈtation, transplantation of tissue from one site to another in the same individual; autotrophic (-ˈtrɒfɪk), a. [Gr. τροϕός + -ic. Cf. Gr. τροϕικός nursing, tending], self-nourishing; of a plant, as distinguished from parasitic and saprophytic; of a lake (see quot. 1927); hence ˈautotroph(e, an autotrophic organism; autotropism (ɔːˈtɒtrəpɪz(ə)m), Bot. [tropism], (see quots.). So auto-burglar, etc.
| 1903 Nature 15 Jan. 253/2 It is pleasing to note that a considerable number of these are auto-abstracts, for this method of summarising is the only one which ensures that the really essential points in the various investigations are brought forward. |
| 1910 Practitioner Feb. 234 The older the infection the more noticeable is the tendency to clump (auto-agglutination). 1960 L. Picken Organiz. Cells iii. 66 In another phase it may aggregate spontaneously, undergoing auto-agglutination. |
| 1910 Lippincott's Med. Dict. 101/1 Auto-antibody, an antibody against products of the individual in which it is formed. 1943 Brit. Jrnl. Exper. Pathol. XXIV. 122 It seems appropriate to look upon the cold agglutinin in atypical pneumonia as an auto-antibody. 1964 Humphrey & White Immunology (ed. 2) 448 Auto-antibody, antibody reacting with constituents of the subject's own tissues. 1965 New Scientist 11 Mar. 628/3 Since rheumatoid factor activity is directed against the individual's own IgG, it too may be regarded as ‘auto-antibody’. |
| 1884 Reade Singleheart v. 105 No drunkard and auto-burglar to drain the wife's purse. |
| 1851 Kingsley Yeast Epil., Unattributable even to auto⁓catalepsy. |
| 1891 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. LX. 1151 Autocatalysis... The presence of a salt of the acid, for instance the sodium salt, in the solution, retards the formation of the lactone very considerably, and the amount of free acid in the solution, as determined alkalimetrically, remains constant for days together. 1913 Dorland Med. Dict. (ed. 7), Autocatalysis.., catalysis, or alteration of the velocity of a reaction, produced by products formed during the course of the reaction. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 61/1 Autocatalysis, reaction or disintegration of a cell or tissue, due to the influence of one of its own products. 1940 C. S. Sherrington Man on his Nature v. 163 And the gene? A protein system containing auto⁓catalysts? 1952 G. H. Bourne Cytol. & Cell Physiol. (ed. 2) ix. 392 The suggestion has been advanced that viruses are complex auto-catalysts. |
| 1913 Dorland Med. Dict. (ed. 7) Autocatalytic. 1939 Ann. Reg. 1938 376 Certain plant viruses..may be a new type of autocatalytic protein. 1965 Phillips & Williams Inorg. Chem. I. x. 370 A typical autocatalytic curve for the decomposition of a solid. |
| 1949 New Biol. VII. 60 The actual flower-promoting hormone..accumulates autocatalytically at the growing points once it has been formed. |
| 1891 H. L. Smyth in Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 3rd Ser. XLII. 331 The two orotechnic actions have produced great developments of autoclastic schists. That is, schists formed in place from massive rocks by crushing and squeezing, without intervening processes of disintegration or erosion, removal and deposition. 1903 Lamplugh Geol. Isle of Man 70 The autoclastic structure occurs where strata of different characters are in juxtaposition. 1961 J. Challinor Dict. Geol. 15/2 Autoclastic rock, a rock formed by the breaking up of a part of a rock-mass within itself. |
| 1915 R. A. Houstoun Treatise on Light vii. 106 The Abbe or Auto-collimating Spectrometer..performs the functions of both telescope and collimator. 1946 Nature 24 Aug. 275/1 The auto-collimating spectrograph consists of solid glass prisms of 6-in. aperture. |
| 1932 McCaw & Cazalet tr. O. von Gruber's Photogrammetry vii. 139 By autocollimation on one of the surfaces of the first pair the line of collimation is brought into parallelism with the picture axis. 1938 Geogr. Jrnl. XCI. 388 To effect auto-collimation with a scale in the focus of the telescope. |
| 1951 Engineering 6 July 9/3 The probe arm..is observed by sighting an autocollimator on to a mirror fixed to [it]. |
| 1880 Swinburne in Fortn. Rev. 719 Obscurity..proper to such autocoprophagous animals. |
| 1884 Pall Mall G. 20 June 11/1 Another literary curiosity is an auto⁓criticism of ‘Christie Johnstone’ [by Chas. Reade]. |
| 1902 Science 2 May 697 In a few instances autocytotoxins for blood-cells have been produced. |
| 1894 Gould Dict. Med., Autodiagnosis.., self-diagnosis; the morbid impression sometimes possessed by a patient that he is affected with some particular disease. 1903 Med. Record LXIII. 169/1 The same hand must not be used for autodiagnostic purposes all the time. |
| 1890 Billings Med. Dict., Autodigestion, self-digestion of stomach by gastric juice. 1896 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. LXX. 616 In autodigestion, xanthine-like substances are formed. 1913 S. M. Baker in Ann. Bot. XXVII. 172 The well-known phenomenon of ‘auto-digestion’ shown by the fruit bodies of most species of Coprinus. 1962 Lancet 22 Dec. 1313/1 It allows for the progress of autodigestion over a wide range of pH. |
| 1948 Taylor & Westcott Princ. Radar iv. 62 Auto-follow systems..have found many applications... Any equipment which needs to track one selected target only usually benefits considerably by being fitted with auto-following. 1961 Aeroplane CI. 75/1 Auto-follow is manually initiated by means of ‘rolling-ball’ type controls, which are used to set the initial position of the auto-follow track symbols on the airways displays. |
| 1946 Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engin. XCIII. iii. 17/1 (heading) Auto-following Radar Sets. |
| 1920 Proc. U.S. Naval Inst. Dec. 1969 Investigation..has been made at the Central Laboratory of the French Navy, under the name of ‘Autofrettage’, literally self-hooping or auto-hooping... The pressure of autofrettage is limited to such a pressure that..there shall not be developed any new permanent deformations in the interior layer. 1950 Engineering 28 Apr. 479/3 Autofrettage is the art of inducing elasticity in a tube at pressures which otherwise cause overstrain. |
| 1933 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXXVIII. 620 Some details are given of the tests applied to the autofrettaged tubes used in the construction of the pressure pipes. |
| 1919 J. S. Davis Plastic Surgery ii. 16 An autograft is a graft obtained from the same individual. 1955 Sci. News XXXV. 104 Skin grafts are only permanently successful when the skin is taken from another area of the patient's own body—an autograft. |
| 1903 S. S. Cohen Syst. Physiol. Therap. VIII. 275 Auto-hypnosis..relieves the cortex of the corrective restraint imposed in the waking condition by the contact of the senses with the outer world. 1941 ‘Rebecca West’ Black Lamb & Grey Falcon I. 209 ‘I will sit here and look at the maps,’ said my husband, who is much given to that masculine form of auto-hypnosis. |
| 1913 Dorland Med. Dict. (ed. 7), Autohypnotic..1. Pertaining to self-induced hypnotism. 2. One who can put himself into a hypnotic state. 1955 R. Blesh Shining Trumpets (ed. 3) v. 101 It is a possessive spell, seemingly auto⁓hypnotic upon the singer, which is projected. |
| 1894 Gould Dict. Med., Auto-hypnotism.., mental stupor induced by dwelling intensely upon some all-absorbing delusion. 1924 W. B. Selbie Psychol. Relig. ii. 49 He [sc. the Shaman] is regularly consecrated to the office through initiation and other methods, which produce a kind of auto-hypnotism, trance, or alternate personality. |
| 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 53/2 They [sc. our witch-burning ancestors] could scarcely have reasoned otherwise..in certain cases of hysteria and autohypnotization. |
| 1952 Proc. Third Congr. Internat. Soc. Hematology 120 The development of an autoimmune, anti⁓red cell mechanism. 1962 New Scientist 27 Sept. 668/1 A typical case..of severe autoimmune disease, systemic lupus erythrematosus. |
| 1904 Dunglison's Dict. Med. Sci. (ed. 23) 114/2 Autoimmunity, immunity..effected by the unaided powers of the organism. 1961 New Scientist 17 Aug. 383/2 This concept of immunization against the body's own constituents has been termed auto-immunity. 1967 J. R. Anderson et al. Autoimmunity ii. 33 The term autoimmunity is used..to indicate the occurrence of an immune response resulting in the production of antibody and/or sensitized lymphoid cells capable of reacting with normal endogenous antigenic body constituents. |
| 1907 Practitioner Nov. 653 These cases [of pulmonary tuberculosis]..will be found..to show ‘high phases’ and ‘low phases’, corresponding with waves of auto-immunisation. 1952 Proc. Third Congr. Internat. Soc. Hematology 132 By some obscure mechanism the phenomenon of autoimmunization develops and becomes injurious to the person's own red cells. |
| 1887 A. M. Brown Anim. Alkaloids p. iii, Their action as auto-infectants. |
| 1878 T. Bryant Pract. Surg. I. 135 Auto-infection..is not seen equally in all the sorts of infectious tumours. |
| 1887 A. M. Brown Anim. Alkaloids 136 The body escapes disturbance and disintegration by processes purely auto-infective. |
| 1872 Cohen Dis. Throat 45 A series of auto-infra-glottic examinations. |
| 1874 Van Buren Dis. Urin. Org. 19 Auto-inoculation is the proper test. Ibid. Auto-inoculable. |
| 1900 Dorland Med. Dict., Auto-intoxicant, a poison generated within the system. 1909 Nation 29 Apr. 427/2 They have ceased to get very much excited since they have learned that selfishness and greed are auto-intoxicants. |
| 1902 W. James Var. Relig. Exper. i. 13 If we adopt the assumption,..Carlyle was undoubtedly auto-intoxicated by some organ or other, no matter which. |
| 1887 A. M. Brown Anim. Alkaloids p. v, Lessons on Auto-intoxication in Disease. 1893 Times 3 Oct. 9 The practice of introspection not rarely results in autointoxication or the generation of doubts and perplexities that work like poison in the blood. 1901 H. H. Foster in Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 160 The common starting point of auto-intoxication theories is the influence of certain products of decomposition of living substance upon the continuance of cell activity. 1928 Galsworthy Swan Song i. vii. 55 You suffer from auto-intoxication in that House [i.e. Parliament]. |
| 1900 Dorland Med. Dict., Autokinesis, voluntary motion. 1949 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LIII. 943/2 When only the tail light of an aircraft is visible auto-kinesis may occur. 1959 New Scientist 19 Feb. 389/2 An optical illusion known as autokinesis may confuse the pilots... If you stare at a stationary object for a few seconds it appears to move. |
| a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 56/2 Autokinetic telegraph, an English name for a form of municipal telegraph for fire-alarms, police, etc. 1934 H. C. Warren Dict. Psychol. 26/2 Autokinetic illusion. 1966 Daily Tel. 16 Aug. 18/4 Autokinetic reactions..occur when a person fixes his eye on an illuminated object in an otherwise empty field of vision. |
| 1870 A. Durham in Syst. Surg. IV. 527 By Auto-laryngoscopy, or by the examination of the Larynx of some living subject. 1872 Cohen Dis. Throat 35 The practice of the auto-laryngoscopist. |
| 1921 Stedman Med. Dict. (ed. 6) 99/2 Autologous. 1958 Immunology I. 206 Incubated..in heparinized autologous plasma. 1962 Lancet 27 Jan. 194/1 The dose of autologous marrow had been so very small. |
| 1904 Sci. Amer. 7 May 366/1 Prof. Barker showed a number of photographs which had been developed by the autoluminescence of the minerals which he exhibited. 1938 R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) xxiv. 242 The rays from radium, themselves invisible, are able to excite substances to emit visible light... This is most strikingly manifested in the phenomenon of autoluminescence. |
| 1904 Nature 25 Feb. 403 Thorium with less than a trace of actinium produces an auto-photograph. |
| 1924 Chambers's Jrnl. 773/2 Constipation is..responsible for more ultimate disease or auto-poisoning than anything else. |
| a 1909 Buck's Handbk. Med. Sci. IV. 184 (Cent. D. Suppl.), Autopoisonous. |
| 1828 Edin. Rev. XLVIII. 468 The auto-portrait they present. |
| 1881 Times 2 Feb. 12/1 Dental autoprothesis with aurification. |
| a 1909 Buck's Handbk. Med. Sci. V. 27 (Cent. D. Suppl.), Consciousness is a function of the associative mechanism and may be considered in its threefold relationship to the outer world, the body and self—allopsychic, somatopsychic, and autopsychic. 1941 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 232 The amnesia was already less marked, and autopsychic orientation largely restored. |
| c 1833 W. H. Brookfield Let. in H. Tennyson Memoir (1897) I. v. 126 At autopsychography I am not good, if I had any idiopsychology to autopsychographize. 1940 E. Gill Autobiogr. 7 The only kind of autobiography I can possibly write must be an autopsychography, a record of mental experience. |
| a 1850 Rossetti Dante & Circ. i. (1874) 1 The Vita Nuova (the Autobiography or Autopsychology of Dante's youth). |
| 1920 Flight XII. 1194/2 Below 15° the aerofoil remains at rest, but at high angles it auto-rotates, slowly at first, and then more quickly. 1938 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XLII. 578 The lifting screw in this case autorotates and is not engine driven. |
| 1918 Rep. & Mem. Advis. Committee for Aeronaut. No. 549 p. 4 The speed of auto-rotation is very nearly proportional to the wind speed. 1935 Times 4 Mar. 11/3 Speed lift is obtained by autorotation and the whole of the engine power is available for speed. |
| 1909 Review of Reviews Feb. 121/1 Autoscript from ‘F. W. H. Myers’. 1909 Daily Chron. 19 Feb. 6/5 A friend of mine who has a remarkable faculty of automatic writing sends me the following autoscript which she received this morning. |
| 1936 tr. A. L. Hagedoorn in Scient. Rep. VIth World's Poultry Congress III. 54 (title) The autosexing Barnevelder, and the autosexing Leghorn, two new breeds. Ibid., The author started..to produce an autosexing Barnevelder by adding the barring factor to the ordinary laced brown Barnevelder. 1936 M. Pease Ibid. 59 On Brown stripe downs the barred factor in the homozygous state (male) produces a far greater effect than it does in the heterozygous state (female)... This is the principle underlying auto-sexlinkage. Ibid., Directions are given for the making of new auto-sexlinking breeds. 1941 Poultry Sci. XX. 317/1 Auto-sex linkage is a name given to the phenomenon of simple and positive sex differences apparent among baby chicks of a fixed breed, not crossbreds. Ibid. 317/2 The third..method for distinguishing sex at hatching is the production of auto-sexing (self-sexing) varieties. 1951 Catal. of Exhibits, South Bank Exhib., Festival of Britain 112/1 Live autosexed chicks. |
| 1894 Autosoteric [see heterosoteric s.v. hetero-]. 1909 B. B. Warfield Calvin as Theologian iii. 31 The logic of Socinianism gave us..an auto-soteric religion. Ibid. ii. 18 There is nothing against which Calvinism set its face with more firmness than..auto-soterism. |
| 1901 Baldwin Dict. Philos. & Psychol. I. 96/1 Autotelic is suggested as serving, in the phrases autotelic function, process, &c., the meaning indicated by the German Selbstzweck. 1932 T. S. Eliot Sel. Essays i. ii. 24 No exponent of criticism..has..ever made the preposterous assumption that criticism is an autotelic activity. |
| 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 12 Sept. 507/1 The autotherapists, conscious or unconscious, who compulsively at the end of each day make their confessions to their journal. |
| 1933 H. G. Wells Shape of Things to Come ii. §8. 197 This great German mind..was incapable of autotherapy, and let its sickness have its way with it. |
| 1890 Billings Med. Dict. Autotoxæmia. 1924 Psyche July 67 A form of blood poisoning due to the development of autotoxaemia from over indulgence in flesh foods. |
| 1909 Jrnl. Exper. Med. XI. 177 Besides my own the only successful autotransplantations of these glandules in dogs are, perhaps, the two in puppies reported by Pfeiffer, Hermann, and Mayer. 1920 Ibid. XXXII. 113 (title) Homeotransplantation and autotransplantation of the spleen in rabbits. |
| 1938 S. Morgulis tr. A.I. Oparin's Origin of Life viii. 206 These autotrophic organisms can be compared..to the green autotrophes, even to the simplest algae. Ibid. 207 This fairly isolated group of living things must have arisen..at the same time when the first autotrophes capable of photosynthesis appeared. 1954 New Biol. XVII. 61 Organisms able to subsist entirely on inorganic nutrients are known as autotrophs (‘self-feeders’); they are relatively common among the sulphur bacteria. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. II. 317/2 The autotrophes, which include the green plants, possess the ability to trap and harness for their own purposes energy from the inorganic world outside. |
| 1901 I. B. Balfour in Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 820 The root-difference between plants and animals is one of nutrition. Plants are autotrophic, animals heterotrophic. 1927 Birge & Juday in Amer. Philos. Soc. Proc. LXVI. 371 Many lakes..are dependent wholly on internal sources and may be called autotrophic—they receive water directly from rain and from a very limited drainage which has passed through a sand filter. 1947 Endeavour VI. 173 Nitrogen-fixing blue-green algae are the most completely autotrophic organisms known. |
| 1898 Nat. Science June 387 By autotropism is implied the inherent tendency of vegetable organs to grow in a straight line. 1908 H. Driesch Sci. & Philos. of Organism I. i. 158 ‘Autotropism’, that is, the fact that branches of plants always try to reassume their proper angle with regard to their orientation on the main axis, if this orientation has been disturbed. |
b. Used frequently in the names of self-acting mechanisms, machines, instruments, etc.;
auto-aˈlarm, a radio receiving device which in time of distress gives audible automatic warning of the need for help;
auto-ˈanalyser, an automatic apparatus for performing (chemical) analyses;
auto-change,
-changer, a device which automatically places a record on the turntable of a record-player when the previous record has finished playing;
ˈautocode Computers (see
quots.);
auto-conˈverter Electr. = auto-transformer;
ˈautoflare Aeronaut., a mechanism for automatically preparing an aircraft to land (see
quots.);
auto-focus, a device by means of which an enlarger, camera, or the like is automatically focused; also
attrib. or quasi-adj.; hence
auto-focusing;
auto-transˈformer, a transformer or compensator in which a part of the primary coil is used as a secondary, or a part of the secondary as a primary coil.
| 1885 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. XLVIII. 854 New Pile, or Auto-accumulator. 1895 S. P. Thompson Polyphase Electric Currents x. 186 The auto-transformer (or ‘one-coil’ transformer) merely consists of a coil of wire wound on an iron core, and connected across the mains. 1902 W. J. Dibdin Public Lighting 176 The auto-valve, which is not affected by condensation or grit. 1904 Electr. Rev. 17 Sept. 459 (Cent. D. Suppl.), An ‘oil-break auto-starter’ switch. 1927 Glasgow Herald 18 July 10 The object of the auto-alarm is to ensure that the call shall be received by the smaller ships and that no wireless distress calls shall be missed by any ship owing to the operator being off duty. 1928 B.B.C. Handbk. 1929 427/2 Auto-transformer, a transformer either in radio or audio frequency in which the primary and secondary windings are formed by one and the same coil having three connections to it. 1943 Gloss. Terms Electr. Engin. (B.S.I.) 38 Auto-transformer, a transformer in which the primary and secondary windings have a common part or parts. 1944 Gramophone Apr. 174/3 (Advt.), H.M.V. Autochange Radiogram. Ibid., Specially constructed Connoisseur Radiogram with twin auto changers. 1949 Q. Jrnl. Forestry XLIII. 26 A new model..auto-scythe, with independent wheel drive was demonstrated cutting bracken. 1957 Times Survey Brit. Aviation Sept. 2/5 Auto-stabilization is fitted to simplify the pilot's tasks. 1958 V. Drumm in M. L. Hall Newnes Compl. Amat. Photogr. 312 When the two systems are coupled together, auto-focus to get the approximate position, and manual focusing for the final fine touch, it is very satisfactory. Ibid., A test for auto-focus enlargers. Ibid. 313 If the enlarger is auto-focus, try altering the focus slightly, and see if the image can be improved. 1959 New Scientist 25 June 1375/2 Some of the [computer] machine-makers have gone as far as building into their later machines an ‘autocode’ by which the advanced types can automatically adapt the programme codes of previous models. 1959 Listener 29 Oct. 731/1 (Advt.), Four speed autochanger. 1959 ‘Ellis Peters’ Death Mask i. 17 We hadn't got an auto-change on the old radiogram. 1960 Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. LXXXVII. 6/6 The development of the Auto-Analyzer has made available an instrument for rapid, precise colorimetric analysis of various biochemical components. 1960 Times Rev. Industry Aug. 53/2 Emission of air from the nozzles is controlled by the aircraft's electro hydraulic autostabilizer. 1962 Engineering 26 Jan. 137 Auto-ignition is now virtually standard on gas cookers. 1962 Lancet 2 June 1162/1 Urea was measured by autoanalyser (‘Technicon’). 1962 Listener 7 June 986/2 We can just say let the letter ‘A’ stand for the set of instructions, and then we can, in our programme, simply write ‘repeat {oqq}A{cqq} fifty times’. This instruction is what is called an auto-code, which the computer will itself translate into the fully detailed instructions. 1962 New Scientist 12 July 84/3 The autoflare system (the system which puts the aeroplane into the landing attitude at the right moment). 1963 Times 19 Apr. 11/6 On the Trident and VC 10 it is proposed to use the equipment in stages, the first being autoflare, in which the aircraft is brought down to the height at which it levels off for landing, leaving the pilot to put the aircraft down. 1967 Karch & Buber Offset Processes iv. 123 It is linked with an ‘autofocussing’ system. |
c. Biol. In
comp. with
-ploid, as
autopolyploid,
autotetraploid: having sets of chromosomes derived from a single species (
opp. allo-).
Add:
[b.] ˈauto-fade, a facility on some video cameras for fading sequences in or out automatically during filming.
| [1983 L. Langman Video Encycl. 10 Automatic Fade Control, a video camera feature designed to provide fade-outs at the end of scenes and fade-ins at the openings.] 1986 What Video? Dec. 47/1 Your machine [sc. a camcorder] may have a fade facility as standard. *Auto-fades usually come in fade-to-white and fade-to-black guises. 1990 PIC July 60/2 When I am out behind one of my trusty Canons peering through the small rectangular world, nothing else matters save the image in my viewfinder, and then the most monumental problem will disappear as if on autofade. |
▸
auto reverse n. a facility on an audio tape player allowing the reverse side of a tape to play automatically once the first side has finished;
freq. attrib.| 1973 Hi-Fi Answers Dec. 59/2 Among its more extravagant features is the *auto-reverse facility. The recording tape spools may be arranged to engage a reverse mode automatically at the end of a tape. This saves the operator the inconvenience of changing over the spools to play the second side of a stereo four track tape. 1992 Which? Dec. 13/1 All the models included in our tests had fast-forward, rewind and auto-reverse (to play the other side of the tape without physically turning it over). 2005 Radio (Nexis) Sept. 16 Other features include optional VHF or UHF diversity receiver plug-in modules, an optional auto-reverse cassette player and recorder module. |
▸
auto-tune n. a device for tuning something automatically; (now chiefly)
Sound Recording a studio effect or device which enables the correction of an out-of-tune vocal performance.
| 1938 Times 2 Sept. 6/4 Nine of the models of the Radio Gramophone Development Company (R.G.D.) are shown with the new motor-driven ‘*autotune’ system. 1961 N.Y. Times 1 Oct. f3/3 [He] has come up with many profitable ideas of his own. One of these was the Autotune, which in the early Nineteen-Thirties enabled for the first time instantaneous band switching and tuning of radio equipment used in aircraft. 2004 Future Mus. May 124/2 The vocals are too swamped in a thick reverb probably to cover up a poor performance, a bit of auto-tune and less reverb would do better. |
▪ II. auto-2 (
ˈɔːtəʊ)
abbreviation of
automobile used as comb. form, chiefly in the names of vehicles, as
autobus,
autocar,
automotor, etc. See also
auto n.2,
autocycle.
| 1895 Daily News 30 Nov. 5/1 To apply the new principle of the ‘auto-motor’ to road-waggons, heavy drags, hunting-traps, and stage-coaches. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 17 Dec. 3/1 We congratulate the police authorities..on having convicted the owner of an autocar for proceeding along a road at a pace exceeding three miles an hour. 1896 (title) The Automotor Journal. 1897 N.Y. Herald 19 Sept. 2/1 The introduction of an efficient autocab service in the streets of Paris. 1899 N.Y. Jrnl. 17 June 5/2 The New York Auto-Truck Company. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 4 July 6/3 The auto⁓conveyances of members of Parliament. 1899 Boston Herald 12 July 6/5 We should have the new words..auto⁓bus, [etc.]. 1900 Engineering Mag. Aug. 733 The auto⁓waggon, which provides just that rapid and cheap form of independent direct transport [etc.]. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 23 Sept. 7/3 Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt, junior's auto-boat ‘Mercédès the Sixth’. 1908 A. Bennett Buried Alive iv. 88 Two commissionaires were helping him into an auto-cab. 1918 W. Stevens Let. 30 Apr. (1967) 208, I must wait..for an auto-bus back to Johnson City. 1927 Chambers's Jrnl. 375/2 You can..explore the French side..from end to end by safe, strong, comfortable autocar. 1927 South America May 137/2 The auto-coach is much needed to replace the horse-coach. 1941 Koestler Scum of Earth 206 The regular autobus line Bergerac-Bordeaux still functioned. |