faculty--prophetes.ai

faculty
  (ˈfækəltɪ)
  Forms: 4–6 faculte, (5 facultee), 5–7 facultie, 6– faculty.
  [ME. faculte, a. F. faculté: ad. L. facultāt-em power, ability, opportunity, also resources, wealth, f. facilis easy (cf. early L. facul adv. = facile easily).
  Facultās and facilitās (see facility) were originally different forms of the same word; the latter, owing to its more obvious relation to the adj., retained the primary sense of ‘easiness’, which the former had ceased to have before the classical period.]
  I. ‘The power of doing anything’ (J.).
  1. a. Of persons: An ability or aptitude, whether natural or acquired, for any special kind of action; formerly also, ability, ‘parts’, capacity in general. Sometimes (influenced by sense 4) used to denote a native as opposed to an acquired aptitude.

1490 Caxton Eneydos xv. 59 To her youen the facultee and power for to reherce and saye alle thinges that sholde come in her mouthe. 1573 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 7 M. Lewins extemporal faculti is better than M. Becons is. 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 128 The facultie and use of well writing. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. viii. 68 There is no kind of faculty or power in man or any other creature, which can [etc.]. 1605 Camden Rem. 11 Many excelling in Poeticall facultie. 1614 Bp. Hall Recoll. Treat. 87 Behaviour..which if a man of but common faculty doe imitate, he makes himselfe ridiculous. 1636 Massinger Bashf. Lover iv. i, The heavenly object..would..force him [Ovid] to forget his faculty In verse. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 95 ¶3 This Faculty of Weeping, is peculiar only to some Constitutions. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 141 ¶6, I devoted all my faculties to the ambition of pleasing them. 1795 Mason Ch. Mus. iii. 204 Music, though in one sense an Art, yet is in another a natural faculty. 1829 Carlyle Misc. (1857) II. 1 Were will in human undertakings synonymous with faculty. 1836 Johnsoniana 238 The faculty of teaching inferior minds the art of thinking. 1853 Lynch Self-Improv. iii. 68 Every self-improving man has faculty enough to become a good reader.

† b. A personal quality; disposition. Obs.

c 1565 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (1728) 89 They knew the king's faculties. c 1610 Sir J. Melvil Mem. (1683) 30 The Queen Mother knowing his [the King of Navarr's] faculty. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. ii. 73, I am Traduc'd by ignorant Tongues, which neither know My faculties nor person.

c. General executive ability, esp. in domestic matters. (Chiefly U.S., but colloq. in some circles in England.)

1859 Mrs. Stowe Minister's Wooing I. i. 2 Faculty is Yankee for savoir faire, and the opposite virtue to shiftlessness. 1884 J. D. Whiting in Harper's Mag. Oct. 741/1 Lizzie had ‘faculty’, and proved a notable housekeeper.

† 2. a. Of things: A power or capacity; an active quality, efficient property or virtue. Obs.

1490 Caxton Eneydos i. 14 The sterres had no faculte ne power..to enlumyne the sayd place. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 143 It passeth the faculty of our barbarous tonge to expresse ony of them. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. cvi. 296 Lovage, in facultie and vertues doth not differ much from Ligusticum. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. i. iii. 67. 1620 Venner Via Recta v. 87 It is..of a penetrating, cooling and detersiue faculty. 1665 Phil. Trans. I. 49 The Electrical faculty of Amber. 1707 Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 167 Nitre is of great Use..in Regard to its Faculty of contributing..to the Propagation of Plants.

† b. One of the ‘mechanical powers’.

1641 Wilkins Math. Magick i. iii. (1648) 13 Of the first Mechanical faculty, the Ballance. Ibid. vii. 43 That which is reckoned for the fourth faculty, is the Pulley. 1663 Charleton Chor. Gigant. 60 Leaver, Roller, Wheel, Pulley, Wedge, and Screw..fundamental Faculties of Mechaniques.

c. Math. A function of the form x{vb}{supm}{vb}{supa}, i.e. x(x + a) (x + 2a) (x + 3a).. to m factors. See factorial B a.
[Introduced c 1798 by Kramp, who afterwards withdrew it in favour of Arbogast's term factorial. The word has since been revived, but is less frequent in English than in Continental use.]

1889 Chrystal Algebra II. 374 Any faculty can always be reduced to another whose difference is unity.

3. An inherent power or property of the body or of one of its organs; a physical capability or function.

a 1500 Colkelbie Sow 637 And laking teith famvlit hir faculte That few folk mycht consaue her mvmling mowth. 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. Interpr. strange Words, There ben thre faculties..whych gouerne man, and are distributed to the hole bodye..namely animal, vital, and natural. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 324 The bodie, and the abilities of the same, whiche are called corporall faculties. 1607 T. Walkington Opt. Glass viii. (1664) 100 The Spirits..impart a faculty to the nerves of sense, and real motion. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 406 If the arteries bee dilated by a faculty, then are they contracted by their grauity. Ibid. 612 The Visiue Facultie..the Faculty of Hearing. 1656 Bramhall Replic. i. 5 Sensibility and a locomotive faculty are essentiall to every living creature. 1684 tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. i. 9 If the Faculty of the Guts be slow..and dull, they must be involuntarily excited to motion. 1729 Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 42 A man may use the faculty of speech as an instrument of false witness. 1741 Chambers Cycl. s.v., To account for the act of digestion, they [the antient philosophers] suppose a digestive Faculty in the stomach. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 362 Sight and hearing, for example, I should call faculties.

4. One of the several ‘powers’ of the mind, variously enumerated by psychologists: e.g. the will, the reason, memory, etc.
(By phrenologists applied to the congenital aptitudes supposed to be indicated by the cranial ‘organs’ or ‘bumps’: e.g. ‘language’, ‘imitation’, ‘constructiveness’. This use has greatly influenced popular language.)

1588 Fraunce Lawiers Log. i. i. 2 That ingraven gift and facultie of wit and reason. 1614 Bp. Hall Recoll. Treat. 66 When we are born, who knowes whether..we shall have the faculties of reason and understanding? 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxi. (1695) 126 The Understanding and Will, are two Faculties of the mind. 1726 Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 27 You cannot form a notion of this faculty, conscience, without [etc.]. 1785 Reid Int. Powers 369 The faculties of consciousness, of memory, of external sense, and of reason, are all equally the gifts of nature. 1830 Mackintosh Eth. Philos. Wks. 1846 I. 159 The Moral Faculty..is intelligibly and properly spoken of as One. 1839 Ld. Brougham Statesm. Geo. III, Loughborough (ed. 2) 44 Changes..effected while the monarch's faculties were asleep. 1859 Mill Liberty (1865) 34/2 No need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation. 1885 F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sc. ii. 46 Our personality..is centred in one faculty which we call the will.

5. Pecuniary ability, means, resources; possessions, property. sing. and pl. Also attrib., as in faculty tax.

1382 Wyclif Gen. xxxi. 14 Han we eny thing of residewe in faculteis and erytage of the hows of oure fader? ― Tobit i. 25 Tobie is turned aȝeen to his hous, and al his faculte restorid to hym. 1490 Caxton How to Die 11 Wylt thou the thynges that thou hast taken be by the restored after the value of thy faculte. 1615 Chapman Odyss. i. 620 The faculties This house is seised of. 1649 Alcoran 47 Restore to them [Orphans] their faculties, and devour them not unjustly before they be of age. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. II. 28 If so heavy an expence surpassed the faculties or the inclination of the magistrates..the sum was supplied from the Imperial treasury. 1792 A. Young Trav. France 104 The prices..are beyond their faculties and occasion great misery. 1797 Burke Regic. Peace iii. Wks. VIII. 356 We raise no faculty tax. We preserve [? read presume] the faculty from the expence. 1889 Cent. Dict., Faculty... 6. In the law of divorce (commonly in the plural), the pecuniary ability of the husband, in view of both his property and his capacity to earn money, with reference to which the amount of the wife's alimony is fixed. 1894, 1965 [see faculty theory, sense 12 below].

  II. Kind of ability; branch of art or science.
  † 6. A branch or department of knowledge. Obs.
  In this sense the word is used to render the Med.L. facultas = Gr. δύναµις used by Aristotle for an art or branch of learning.

c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame i. 248 To speke of love? hyt wol not be; I kannot of that faculte. c 1400 Test. Love ii. (1560) 282 b/2 All the remnaunt beene no genders but of grace, in facultie of Grammar. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. ccxiv. 232 Y⊇ whiche I remytte to theym that haue experience in suche facultie. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 30 The greate learned clerkes in al faculties. 1598 F. Meres in Shaks. C. Praise 22 In this faculty the best among our Poets are Spencer..Daniel, etc. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 335 Books written in all faculties:—Grammar..Poetry..History [etc.]. 1757 Burke Abridgm. Eng. Hist. ii. ii, He brought with him a number of valuable books in many faculties.

7. spec. One of the departments of learning at a University. Hence Dean of a Faculty.
When four faculties are mentioned, those intended are Theology, Canon and Civil Law, Medicine, Arts, of which the first three were called the Superior Faculties. Logic, Rhetoric, Astrology, Surgery, Grammar, and (in the English Universities) Music are occasionally spoken of as Faculties, and degrees could be taken in them; but the Masters teaching these branches did not form distinct bodies as those mentioned in sense 9.

[c 1184 Giraldus Cambrensis De Gestis ii. i. (Rolls) I. 48 Ubinam in jure studuerit..Præceptor autem ejusdem in ea facultate. Ibid. ii. xvi. (Rolls) I. 73 In crastino vero doctores [hospitio suscepit] diversarum facultatum omnes.] 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 259 Whan eny man is i-congyed þere to commence in eny faculte. 1482 Monk of Evesham (Arb.) 97 In connyng of dyuynyte as in other lyberals facultees. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxvii. (1887) 162 This man, whom I now prefer to this degree, in this facultie. 1641 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 29 The..Professor..in Latin demanded..to what Faculty I addicted myself. 1649 J. H. Motion to Parl., Adv. Learn. 27 We have hardly Professours for the three principall faculties. 1835 Malden Orig. Univ. 5 This faculty [of arts] originally constituted the whole university [of Paris]; and the faculties of theology, law, and medicine, were not added till a later period. 1868 M. Pattison Academ. Org. iv. 114 In colleges, properly so called, the head will be the dean of his faculty. 1875 Edin. Univ. Calendar 37 The Chairs of the University are comprehended in the four Faculties. The affairs of each Faculty are presided over by a Dean. 1879 M. Arnold Irish Cathol. Mixed Ess. 101 At Bonn there is a Protestant faculty of theology. 1892 Durham Univ. Calendar cxii, Degrees in the Faculty of Music.

8. In a more extended sense: That in which any one is skilled; an art, trade, occupation, profession. Obs. exc. arch. or Hist.

c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 244 For unto swiche a worthy man as he Accordeth nought, as by his faculte, To haven with sike lazars acquaintance. 1494 Fabyan Chron. ii. xlvi. 29 A cunnynge musician; the whiche, for his excellence in that facultie, was called of the Brytons God of Glemen. 1503 Act 19 Hen. VII, c. 11 The facultie of Bowyers [is] almoste distroyed. 1529 in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. xiv. 253 No persone..shall take..any..Straunger, to occupy the facultie of Barbery or Surgery. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 163 They lende listening eare, to..slaunderers..have them in high..favour, who professe that facultie. 1605 Rowlands Hell's Broke Loose 14 By facultie at first, I was a Taylour. 1675 Art Contentm. vii. §6. 214 We..rely upon men in their own faculty. We put our estates in the lawyer's hand, our bodies into the physician's. 1687 Congreve Old Bach. i. i, Wit, be my faculty and pleasure my occupation. 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 208 A..Soap⁓boyler, dwelling without Aldgate..and..another Gentleman of the same Faculty..in Southwark. 1839 Alison Hist. Europe I. ii. §66. 184 They..proposed to abolish all.. crafts, faculties, apprenticeships, and restrictions of every kind. 1841 Stephen Laws Eng. I. 7 To gentlemen of the faculty of physic the study of the law is attended with some importance. 1853 Marsden Early Purit. 388 Doctors in the University and the three learned faculties.

9. a. The whole body of Masters and Doctors, sometimes including also the students, in any one of the studies, Theology, Law, Medicine, Arts.
The use of the Latin word in this sense originated at some period in the 13th cent.; quot. 1255 indicates a use intermediate between this and sense 7.

[1255 in Chartularium Univ. Paris (1889) I. 278 Nos..magistri artium..propter novum et inestimabile periculum, quod in facultate nostra imminebat. 1325 Title of Decree in Munimenta Acad. (Rolls) I. 117 Quod facultas artium plene deliberet de tractandis in congregatione generali.] c 1425 Wyntoun Chron. viii. iv. 241 Þai studyusly Ðe matere in þare faculteis Sowcht. 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. 17 The several Faculties are distinguished by their Habits. 1687 Lond. Gaz. No. 2275/3, 24 Doctors of the several Faculties, the two Proctors, and 19 Masters of Arts. 1774 Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry I. Diss. ii. 11 Louis the eleventh..borrowed the works of the Arabian physician Rhasis, from the faculty of medicine at Paris. 1832 tr. Sismondi's Ital. Rep. vii. 152 The faculty of the Sorbonne..was acknowledged to be the first theological school in Europe.

b. The whole teaching staff of a college, university, or school. orig. and chiefly U.S.

1767 in J. Maclean Hist. College N. Jersey (1877) I. 292 Concurring with the Trustees of this College in the establishment and support of a Faculty. 1780 in Docs. Revolutionary Hist. New Jersey (1901–17) IV. 223 The trustees and Faculty are now exerting themselves with great diligence for the improvement of the seminary. 1843 Yale Lit. Mag. IX. 66 That was all I could ever get from him on the subject—‘that the Faculty were funny fellows, very—had sent him off for laughing’. 1893 W. K. Post Harvard Stories 79 There are many classes and individuals..as firmly established..as the Faculty. 1902 ‘G. M. Martin’ Emmy Lou 264 Once one would have said with ‘the teachers’, but in the High School one knew them as the Faculty. 1967 Boston Sunday Globe 23 Apr. 3/1 Catholic University officials worked behind the scenes Saturday to find quick settlement of a student-faculty strike that virtually closed the school Thursday. 1969 Listener 12 June 833/1 Students and some faculty are compelling the American universities to painful self-scrutiny.

10. transf. The members of a particular profession regarded as one body: a. of the medical profession (in popular language ‘The Faculty’).

1511–2 Act 3 Hen. VIII, c. 11 Calling to them such expert persons in the said Faculties [of Physicians and Surgeons]. 1529 More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1185/2 One of the most cunning men in y⊇ faculty. 1638 T. Whitaker Blood of Grape Pref. 2 The faculty deserveth the patronage of a Prince. 1699 Garth Dispens. iv. (1730) 101 A zealous Member of the Faculty. 1747 Wesley Prim. Physic (1762) p. xiii, We must do something to oblige the Faculty. 1840 Hood Up the Rhine 14 Fat bacon..was once in vogue amongst the Faculty for weak digestions. 1884 Gilmour Mongols 186 Their own faculty have no remedy for this disease.

b. Sc. the Faculty (also the Dean and Faculty) of Advocates.

1711 Act Faculty Edin. 18 July in Lond. Gaz. No. 4887/3 The Dean and Faculty of Advocates understanding, that several malicious Reports have been rais'd. 1848 Wharton Law Lex., Faculty of Advocates, the college or society of advocates in Scotland. a 1862 Buckle Civiliz. (1869) III. iii. 145 A great part of the Faculty of Advocates was expelled from Edinburgh.

III. Conferred power, authority, privilege.
11. a. Power, liberty, or right of doing something, conferred by law or permission of a superior. faculty to burden: Sc. Law (see quot. 1809).

1534 in W. H. Turner Select Rec. Oxford 128 They would clere take away from the Chaunceller all faculty to banish..eny townesmen. 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. vii. 17 Duncane Hath borne his Faculties so meeke. 1681 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1883) I. 271 Usinge the facultie of a freeman. 1752 Carte Hist. Eng. III. 345 Pole..laid aside the marks of his legatine authority and abstained from the exercise of his faculties. 1800 Colquhoun Comm. Thames viii. 259 Care has been manifested in..divesting Power of the Faculty of Abuse. 1809 Tomlins Law Dict. s.v., In the Scotch law..a faculty to burden is the power or right of charging an estate with a sum of money. 1824 J. Marshall Const. Opin. (1839) 320 The charter of incorporation..gives it [a bank] every faculty which it possesses. 1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. x. (1875) 422 Something anti-civil and anti-social which the State had the faculty to judge and the duty to suppress.

b. A dispensation, license: esp. Eccl. an authorization or license granted by an ecclesiastical superior to some one to perform some action or occupy some position which otherwise he could not legally do or hold. Court of Faculties: a court having power to grant faculties in certain cases. Master of Faculties: the chief officer of that court.

1533–4 Act 25 Hen. VIII, c. 21 §3 The Archbishop of Canterburie..shall haue power and authoritie..to giue..dispensations, compositions, faculties, grants, rescripts [etc.]. 1591 Lambarde Archeion (1635) 11 The Court of Faculties, for Dispensations. 1607 J. Cowell Interpr. s.v., An especiall officer..called..the Master of the faculties. 1662 Bk. Com. Prayer, Ord. Deacons Pref., None shall be admitted a Deacon, except he be Twenty three years of age, unless he have a Faculty. 1712 Prideaux Direct. Ch.-wardens (ed. 4) 75 The Bishop can grant Faculties for the building..of them. 1843 Act 6–7 Vict. c. 90 §8 The Master of the Faculties..is hereby..empowered to issue Commissions [etc.]. 1857 Froude Short Stud., Monast. (1867) 282 An abbot able to purchase..a faculty to confer holy orders. 1869 Times 16 Mar. 12/4 This was an application..for a faculty or license to make some alterations in the interior of the church. 1872 Phillimore Blunt's Church Law iv. i. 263 Private rights to particular seats, conferred by a faculty, i.e. a license from the ordinary. 1885 Mozley Remin. II. lxxv. 70 The faculties..did not assign pews to persons..but to persons and families residing in certain houses.

IV. 12. attrib. a. (sense 11) as faculty-court, faculty-office; b. (sense 7) as faculty-place; c. (sense 10) as faculty-composition, faculty-habits, faculty-influence; d. (sense 9 b) faculty business, faculty-full (n.), faculty list, faculty meeting, faculty member; also, faculty doctrine = faculty psychology; faculty-pew, -seat, a pew or seat in a parish church appropriated to particular persons by a faculty: cf. sense 11; faculty psychology, a term for those systems of psychology in which certain mental faculties were held to be the forces and powers accountable for the phenomena of mind; so faculty psychologist; † faculty-tax, a property or income tax; faculty theory, the theory of taxation according to which every man should help to bear public burdens according to his ability; faculty wife chiefly U.S., the wife of a faculty member (see sense 9 b above), esp. one whose life revolves around faculty social functions, etc.

1877 E. S. Ward Story of Avis v. 51 Some pressing *Faculty business took him..to Professor Dobell's house. 1905 W. James Mem. & Stud. (1911) v. 83 In faculty-business he might not run well in harness, but..his influence on the students would be priceless.

1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 97 An wholly professional and *faculty composition.

1863 H. Cox Instit. ii. xi. 568 The *Faculty Court, belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

1912 W. McDougall Social Psychol. (ed. 5) 378 All these doctrines..are forms of the ‘*faculty doctrine’ whose fallacies have so often been exposed.

1905 W. James Mem. & Stud. (1911) v. 84 In a university..a few undisciplinables..may be infinitely more precious than a *faculty-full of orderly routinists.

1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 97 Professional and *faculty habits.

1791 Mackintosh Vind. Gall. Wks. 1846 III. 64 This ‘*faculty influence’, as Mr. Burke chooses to phrase it, was not injuriously predominant.

1911 H. S. Harrison Queed xviii. 218 The president sat up late going over his *faculty list.

1839 H. Caswall America xii. 200 [The professors] form a body denominated the Faculty, and conduct the government of the institution by regulations and laws established by themselves in ‘*Faculty meetings’ from time to time. 1911 H. S. Harrison Queed xviii. 218 There was one man on the staff that West objected to from the first faculty meeting.

1903 W. James Mem. & Stud. (1911) xiv. 331 The College had always gloried in a list of *faculty members who bore the doctor's title.

1715 Kersey, *Faculty-office.

1881 Dict. Eng. Churchm. 354 All..pews other than *faculty pews in an ancient church are the common property of the parish.

1682 Prideaux Lett. (Camden) 123, I hope by this you are secured of a *faculty place..and advise you to thinke of takeing your D{supr}{sups} degree in laws as soon as you can.

1886 Encycl. Brit. XX. 41/1 To free us from the mythology and verbiage of the ‘*faculty-psychologists’. 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl. s.v. Psychology, C. von Wolff (1679–1754) is regarded as the typical faculty-psychologist.

1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. I. ii. 27 Gall..took the *faculty-psychology as his ultimatum on the mental side, and he made no farther psychological analysis. 1897 C. H. Judd tr. Wundt's Outl. Psychol. 11 The faculty-psychology considered these class-concepts as psychical forces or faculties, and referred psychical processes to their alternating or united activity. 1951 J. C. Flugel Hundred Years Psychol. (ed. 2) ii. 34 Beneke equally avoids the dangers of the faculty psychology, inasmuch as the powers or ‘faculties’ with which he deals are not broad characteristics or abilities,..but quite specific forms of apprehension, feeling or behaviour.

1872 Phillimore Blunt's Church Law iv. 1. 263 marg., No jurisdiction in *faculty seats.

1766 Hist. Europe in Ann. Reg. 45/2 Besides a *faculty-tax upon all personal estates. 1797 Burke Regic. Peace iii. Wks. VIII. 356 Land and offices only excepted we raise no faculty tax. 1911 E. R. A. Seligman Income Tax 398 The only other state in which the faculty tax lasted during the nineteenth century is South Carolina.

1894 ― Progress. Taxation iii. 127 The *faculty theory of taxation is very old. That a man should contribute to the public burdens in proportion to his ability or faculty is a principle which dates back to the middle ages. 1896 C. C. Plehn Introd. Public Finance ii. ii. 84 Each citizen should contribute as he is able. They claim that it is easier to measure ability than it is to measure benefit. This theory is called the faculty theory, the term ‘faculty’ having been found in this sense in early tax laws. 1965 J. L. Hanson Dict. Econ. & Commerce 169/1 Faculty theory of taxation, an alternative term for the ‘Ability-to-pay’ theory of taxation.

1962 A. Lurie Love & Friendship iv. 63 She had a great advantage over every other *faculty wife at Convers. 1977 New Yorker 8 Aug. 68/3 (Advt.), For students, retirees, faculty wives, husbands, and others, it could work out to be a pretty good deal.