▪ I. determiner1
(dɪˈtɜːmɪnə(r))
[f. determine v. + -er1.]
1. He who or that which determines, in various senses. a. He who or that which decides.
| 1530 Palsgr. 213/1 Determyner, determinevr. 1584 Fenner Def. Ministers (1587) 59 Anie other determinors of the issue. 1653 A. Wilson Jas. I, 167 The Sword, as it is the best determiner, so it is the most honourable Treater. 1659 Milton Civ. Power Wks. 1738 I. 547 No Man or body of Men in these times can be the infallible Judges or Determiners in matters of Religion. 1754 Richardson Grandison (1781) III. xvi. 125 Miss Grandison must be the sole determiner on this occasion. 1884 Century Mag. XXVIII. 122 The determiner of the future policy of the Church. |
b. That which decides the course of action, or determines the result.
| 1754 Edwards Freed. Will i. ii. (1762) 5 If the Will be determined, there is a Determiner. This must be supposed to be intended even by them that say the Will determines itself. Ibid. ii. vii. 90 The opportunity that is left for the Will itself to be the determiner of the act. |
c. One who ascertains definitely.
| 1846 Grote Greece i. xviii. II. 18 The original determiner of this epoch. |
d. Biol. = determinant B. n. 4.
| 1909 W. Bateson Mendel's Princ. Heredity 79 Hitherto we have spoken of the determiner for such a colour as grey in rabbits and mice as ‘dominant’ over the colours lower in the scale, such as black or chocolate... We shall then speak of the determiner for grey as epistatic to that for black. 1922 R. C. Punnett Mendelism (ed. 6) 113 A female determiner incapable of carrying sex-limited factors. 1926 J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. 236 The future symmetry of the embryo is not influenced by anything that one could call a ‘determiner’ in the cytoplasm. Ibid. 246 It then became an obvious task to discover more precisely where this structure-determiner was situated and how it acted. |
† 2. A determining bachelor of arts; = determinant B 1. Obs. (exc. Hist.)
| 1574 M. Stokys in Peacock Stat. Cambridge (1841) App. A. 6 [The bell shall] be tolled in every Colledge, Howse, Hall or Hostell where eny Determiners be. 1726 Amherst Terræ Fil. xlii. 224 The collectors..draw a scheme..in which the names of all determiners are placed in several columns, and over against them, in other columns, the days when, and the schools where, they are to respond. |
3. Gram. A class of limiting expressions modifying nouns (see quot. 1933). Also attrib.
| 1933 Bloomfield Lang. xii. 203 Our limiting adjectives fall into two sub-classes of determiners and numeratives... The determiners are defined by the fact that certain types of noun expressions (such as house or big house) are always accompanied by a determiner (as, this house, a big house). 1961 R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts ii. 39 The most characteristic modifiers of nouns in positions in front of the nouns are (1) determiners, such as the and possessives, and (2) adjectives. Ibid. 40 Determiner modifiers, pronounal in function, normally precede adjectival modifiers. 1964 Language XL. 37 Traditionally, grammarians have recognized two kinds of determiners: the, usually called the definite determiner, and a, usually called the indefinite determiner. It is now common to regard other elements as determiners, or as parts of determiners... Further, it is convenient to regard all, any, and the like as part of the determiner (these items are frequently called predeterminers). And finally, prenominal genitives such as his and John's are shown to behave as determiners by transformational criteria. |
▪ II. † determiner2 Law.
[subst. use of F. déterminer pres. inf.]
The final determining of a judge or court of justice: in oyer and determiner, a variant of oyer and terminer. (Obs. exc. Hist.)
| 1450 Paston Lett. No. 103 I. 138 That ye hadde sued hym for an especiall assise, and an oier and determiner. 1548 Hall Chron. 169 b, A commission of oyer and determiner, for the punishment of this outragious offence & sedicious crime. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 106 Iustices of Assises, Ewer, Determiner, and the lyke. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. i. (1821) 16 Of Oyer, Determiner, and Goale deliverie. 1848 Wharton Law Lex., Oyer and Terminer..sometimes written determiner. |