majority
(məˈdʒɒrɪtɪ)
[a. F. majorité, ad. med.L. mājōritāt-em, f. L. mājōr-em major a. Cf. Sp. mayoridad, Pg. maioridade, It. maggiorità.]
† 1. The state or fact of being greater; superiority; pre-eminence. Obs.
| 1552 Latimer Serm. SS. Simon & Jude's Day (1584) 267 Nowe abideth fayth, hope, and loue, euen these three; but the chiefe of these is loue. There be some learned men whiche expound this maioritie of which S. Paule speaketh here for diuturnitie. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 866 It may be prooued that that maiority [i.e. the primacy of Rome] as they call it, hath not the originall from the sonne of God. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. ii. 109. 1597 Bacon Colours Good & Euill v. E 5 b, It is not plurality of partes without maiority of partes that maketh the totall greater. 1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Answ. (1653) 53 This particularization of Peter did not import any singular preheminence or majoritie of power to Peter more then to the other Apostles. 1677 Gale Crt. Gentiles iv. 280 In Eternitie there is no divisibilitie: no majoritie or minoritie. 1690 Leybourn Curs. Math. I. 335 Of Algebra. Symbols of Majority >, Minority Is the sign of majority, or of the excess of one quantity beyond another. |
2. The state of being major or of full age. Also
transf.| 1565 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 370 Quhen we ar at oure full majoritie, sall we be brocht bak to the stait of pupillis and minoris. 1579 Fenton Guicciard. i. (1599) 19 At what time Phillip being risen to his maioritie, might in good validitie confirme the accord past. 1632 Lithgow Trav. A 2 b, [These] being begunne in Your hopefull Infancy, are now finally accomplished in the fulnesse of Your thrice blessed Majority. 1842 J. D. Chambers Jurisd. High Crt. Chancery over Infants iii. 506 So where the settlement executed is the completion of a treaty entered into during minority, without the sanction of the Court, there is jurisdiction to control that after majority. 1867 John Bull 7 Sept. 628/2 The Majority of Mr. C. L. A...has been celebrated during the week in the good old English style at the family seat. 1892 Gillespie Bar's Priv. Intern. Law (ed. 2) 311 A Cuban of twenty-two years of age, who by the law of his own country would not attain majority till twenty-five. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 28 Sept. 5/1 The majority celebration of the pneumatic tyre promises to be the biggest trade function on record. 1939 F. M. Ford Let. 25 May (1965) 324 If it [sc. the book] did not see the light until its majority it will become almost a historical novel. 1965 Listener 1 July 10/1 It is sad that, as it approaches its majority, this organisation should have run into deep waters. |
3. a. The greater number or part; a number which is more than half the whole number;
spec. the larger party voting together in a deliberative assembly or electoral body.
absolute majority: A number of votes received by one candidate which is more than half the total number polled, or than half the number of electors.
| 1691 Norris Pract. Disc. 102 Measures of Right and Wrong are not always to be concluded from the consent of Majority; for you see here, that Vice has by much the Majority of its side. c 1714 Pope, etc. Mem. M. Scriblerus xii. Wks. 1741 II. 47 In a House of Commons all things are determin'd by a Majority. 1714 Swift Pres. State Affairs Wks. 1751 IV. 264 The Queen, finding herself and the Majority of her Kingdom grown weary of the Avarice and Insolence..of her former Ministers. 1759 Robertson Hist. Scot. vi. Wks. 1813 I. 413 War was chosen by a majority of voices. 1793 Blackstone's Comm. I. 181 In the house of commons the speaker never votes but when there is an equality without his casting vote, which in that case creates a majority. 1821 Byron Two Foscari i. i, The majority In council were against you. 1844 Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. xv. (1862) 228 A majority of seven to five soon after [1640] decided that the levying ship money was legal. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. iii. 247 The clergy commanded an actual majority in that [Upper] House from their own body. 1860 Mill Repr. Gov. (1865) 16/1 At some period..almost every people, now civilized, have consisted, in majority, of slaves. 1882 Nature XXVI. 389 The majority of the coral which I [Haeckel] collected was obtained by divers. 1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonwealth I. v. 55 Neither Polk in 1844, nor Taylor in 1848,..had an absolute majority of the popular vote. 1971 G. K. Roberts Dict. Political Analysis 120 In politics..the number of votes constituting a majority is equal to 50 per cent plus one of votes cast (sometimes referred to as an ‘absolute majority’). |
b. with
adj., as
great,
vast, etc.
| 1710 Hoadly Orig. Civ. Govt. 154 The People of the Earth, that is, a vast Majority of Mankind, are represented by Moses, as voluntarily journeying from one part of the Earth to another. 1759 Robertson Hist. Scotl. I. ii. 97 A considerable majority declared for the treaty. 1818 Cruise Digest V. 244 It was determined by a great majority of all the Judges..that [etc.]. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 315 In the great majority of those towns..no courtly candidate could dare to show his face. 1875 Scrivener Lect. Text N. Test. 5 Nor in the vast majority of instances does it exist. 1903 J. Conn Fulness of Time xi. 161 What supported..the claims of Holy Church did not to the great majority require proof. |
c. the majority: the dead. Chiefly in the phrases
to join the majority,
to go or pass over to the majority. [After L. phrase
abiit ad plures.]
| 1719 Young Revenge iv. i, Life is the desart, life the solitude; Death joins us to the great majority. 1764 Lond. Mag. Nov. 581 ‘Oh, no, it is all over with me; I am going, as fast as possible, to join the majority.’—Ad plures. 1837 Carlyle Misc. Ess., Mirabeau (1840) V. 200 This Mirabeau's work then is done... He has gone over to the majority: Abiit ad plures. 1883 Longm. Mag. Dec. 179 He had passed over to the majority..we should see his face no more. 1889 T. A. Trollope What I remember III. 61 He, too, alas! has joined the majority. |
4. The number by which, in voting, the votes cast on one side exceed those cast on the other.
| a 1743 Ld. Hervey Mem. (1848) II. 253 All the lists made by the Prince's people gave him a majority of near forty. 1765 Ann. Reg. 41/1 This motion..passed in the negative by a very large majority. 1775 Ibid. 118*/2 The motion..was carried upon a division..by the majority of sixty. 1838 Thirlwall Greece xxx. IV. 135 This motion was carried,..by a very small majority. 1879 M{supc}Carthy Own Times II. xix. 59 A majority of forty-six was given for the resolution. |
† 5. Ancestry. [After L.
majores ancestors.]
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xvi. 146 Of evill parents, an evill generation, a posterity not unlike their majority. |
6. [Properly a distinct word:
ad. F.
majorité,
f. major major n.1] The rank or office of a major.
| 1776 in Harper's Mag. (1883) Sept. 546/2 Appointed to the Majority in the 2{supd} Reg{supt}. 1800 Asiat. Ann. Reg., Char. 45/2 M. D'Auband had been named to a Majority in the isle of Bourbon. 1814 Scott Wav. xli, I am surprised that the Prince should have offered you a majority, when he knows very well that nothing short of lieutenant-colonel will satisfy others. 1900 Daily News 11 Sept. 5/7 He was..promoted to a half-pay majority. |
7. attrib. and
Comb. majority-rule,
majority-vote;
majority calling, in Bridge (see
quot. 1964);
majority carrier Electronics, a charge carrier of the kind carrying the greater proportion of the electric current in a semiconducting material (
i.e. an electron in
n-type and a hole in
p-type material);
Majority-Socialist, one who, after the division of the German Socialists during the 1914–18 war, acted with the larger party;
majority verdict, the verdict of the majority of a jury; also
transf.| 1927 Daily Express 28 June 1/7 The system of ‘majority calling’ at auction bridge, the adoption of which in this country was first advocated by the ‘Evening Standard’. 1929 Laws Contract Bridge Portland Club 6 While, at the Portland Club, ‘value calling’ is invariably played at ‘Auction’, ‘majority calling’ is being used at ‘Contract’. 1964 Official Encycl. Bridge 343/1 Majority calling, the principle by which any bid outranks any other bid at a lower level, regardless of scoring value. |
| 1951 W. Shockley et al. in Physical Rev. LXXXIII. 151/2 The density of minority carriers is much smaller than the density of majority carriers in each region. 1962 Simpson & Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors vi. 100 Using equation (1.11) with the assumption that the conductivities in emitter and base are decided practically entirely by their majority-carrier densities, we obtain γ0 = [etc.]. |
| 1891 W. S. Lilly Shibboleths 113 Party politics..are mere majority-mongering. |
| 1903 Daily Chron. 17 Jan. 3/2 A majority dinner at which our hero..is entertaining the élite of London. |
| 1893 B. R. Tucker Instead of Bk. 169 Rule is evil, and..it is none the better for being majority rule. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. XI. 701/1 When such deep and permanent cleavages are absent, majority rule seems more likely to secure more equal freedom than any other, at least if free discussion and airing of grievances are presupposed. 1968 J. R. Pennock in Internat. Encycl. Social Sci. IX. 536 The term ‘majority rule’ stands for a rule of decision making within a specified group. At its simplest, the rule requires that the votes of each member shall be counted as equal to that of every other and that no vote or decision by a minority may override that of a majority. By extension, majority rule is sometimes contrasted with any rule requiring that decisions be unanimous or by any number larger than a simple majority. 1972 Guardian 28 Jan. 10/1 The Smith regime..is proving..how slender is the hope of orderly progress towards majority rule. |
| 1918 J. Buchan Hist. War XX. 125 The great governing parties, apart from the Conservatives on the extreme right and the Minority Socialists on the extreme left, were the Catholic Centre, the Radicals, the National Liberals, and the Majority Socialists. 1923 E. A. Ross Russ. Soviet Republic 20 At this time [sc. 1918] a Soviet was formed in Berlin, to which members of even the Majority Socialists adhered. 1972 S. Delmer Weimar Germany i. 6 Ebert and his ‘Majority’ Socialists called on him [sc. Prince Max] to hand over power to them. |
| 1905 Westm. Gaz. 7 Apr. 5/2 The jury..sent in to court to inquire if the parties would accept a majority verdict. 1966 H. Kalven et al. Amer. Jury xxxvi. 461 Numerous states allow for a majority verdict in civil cases. 1973 ‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Starry Bird vi. 82 We can all go home and finish our knitting if the majority verdict prefers it. |
| 1927 Chambers's Jrnl. 602/2 Now he had the majority vote. 1953 B. M. Cross Legislative Struggle xviii. 380 In committee sessions, disputed questions are decided by a majority vote. 1965 Wireless World Sept. 419 This is a triplicated system with a majority vote scheme for ensuring correct operation. 1973 Listener 20 Dec. 841/2 [An] impeachment resolution..requires a simple majority vote. |