▪ I. program, programme, n.
(ˈprəʊgræm)
Forms: α. 7– program, (7 -grame). β. 9– programme. See also programma.
[In 17–18th c. Sc. use, in spelling program, ad. Gr.-L. programma, which was itself (c 1656–1820) also commonly used unchanged (see programma); about the beginning of the 19th c., reintroduced from F. programme, and now more usually so spelt (though not pronounced as F.); the earlier program was retained by Scott, Carlyle, Hamilton, and others, and would be preferable, as conforming to the usual English repr. of Gr. -γραµµα, in anagram, cryptogram, diagram, telegram, etc. However, program and programme have become established as the standard N. Amer. and British spellings respectively, with the exception that program is usual everywhere in connection with Computing. This latter distinction is followed in this article and throughout the Dictionary in editorial matter.]
† 1. A public notice; = programma 1. Sc. Obs.
| α 1633 W. Struther True Happines 38 The beginning of his discourse..is like a program affixed on the entrie of a citie. 1682 Decreit in Scott. Antiq. (1901) July 4 [They] determined..without affixing any previous programe or using any examinatione to appoint the said Mr. J. Y. 1707 (July 22) in Fountainhall Decisions (1759) II. 385 The Professor of Greek his place being vacant in the college of St Andrews.., there is a program emitted, inviting all qualified to dispute, and undergo a comparative trial. 1816 Scott Antiq. i, Will three shillings transport me to Queensferry, agreeably to thy treacherous program? 1824 ― St. Ronan's xiii, The transactions of the morning were..announced..by the following program. |
2. a. A descriptive notice, issued beforehand, of any formal series of proceedings, as a festive celebration, a course of study, etc.; a prospectus, syllabus; in current use
esp. a written or printed list of the ‘pieces’, items, or ‘numbers’ of a concert or other public entertainment, in the order of performance; hence
transf. the pieces or items themselves collectively, the performance as a whole.
| α 1808 Sporting Mag. XXXII. 43 The program of the Pantomime differs materially in the exhibition. 1823 New Monthly Mag. VII. 2 Anticipating the amusement of the month, by a regular program (that is a nice new word I have just imported from France, to supply the hacknied common-place of a ‘bill of the play’)—a regular program, I say, on the second page of your coloured cover. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. i. iii. (1858) 10 ‘In times like ours’, as the half-official Program expressed it, ‘when all things are, rapidly or slowly, resolving themselves into Chaos’. 1855 Sir E. Perry Bird's-Eye View India xxviii. 169 A program of the whole was sent me the night before. 1898 G. B. Shaw Perf. Wagnerite 3 In classical music there are, as the analytical programs tell us, first subjects and second subjects [etc.]. 1976 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 16 Feb. 17/1 This was the season's final program in the Toronto Symphony's Young People's Concerts series. |
| β 1805 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. III. 68 The..catalogue sold at the door better deserved..incorporation in this work than those programmes of festivals. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xiv, Mrs. Kenwigs and Miss Petowker had arranged a small programme of the entertainments. 1876 Grant Burgh Sch. Scotl. ii. xiii. 349 According to the programme of study drawn up for the grammar school of Glasgow. 1881 in Grove Dict. Mus. III. 33/2 Programmes are now commonly restricted in length to 2 hours or 2½... Formerly concerts were of greater length. 1936 G. Greene Gun for Sale iii. 107 They sat two programmes round at the cinema. 1975 Cricketer May 41/3 (Advt.), Immediate cash paid for all programmes up to 1960 {pstlg}5 minimum pre-war cup finals. |
b. gen. and
fig. A definite plan or scheme of any intended proceedings; an outline or abstract of something to be done (whether in writing or not). Also
transf., a planned series of activities or events.
| α 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1872) III. ii. i. 60 From the best scientific program..to the actual fulfilment, what a difference! 1839 J. Sterling Ess., etc. (1848) I. 332 All suggestions of the true and beautiful, which he cannot pre⁓define and lay down in program. 1860 Motley Netherl. (1868) I. iv. 114 In accordance with this program Philip proceeded stealthily. 1869 Browning Ring & Bk. viii. 1765 I'm in the secret of the comedy—Part of the program leaked out long ago! 1892 Sweet New Eng. Gram. Pref. 9 A less ambitious program would further allow of greater thoroughness within its narrower limits. 1941 Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists XXV. 1256 Past successes enable us now to look ahead to a difficult but orderly exploration program, rather than a frenzied, inefficient scramble for immediately needed oil. 1949 Shurr & Yocom Mod. Dance 3 The fallacy of this statement became increasingly apparent as personal contact with, and participation in, teacher education programs in the colleges and universities increased. 1955 Science 25 Nov. 1005/2 The satellite program..is already underway. 1961 Berkner & Odishaw Sci. in Space i. 15 An orderly scientific program [of space research] cannot be conducted if the unreliability associated with new vehicles is always present. |
| β 1839 Eclectic Rev. 1 Jan. 24 The general satisfaction which had been produced by the ministerial programme. 1841 Mill in Life & Labours Fonblanque (1874) 32 They [the Ministry] have conformed to my programme. 1860 W. Collins Wom. White ii. 277 Observe the programme I now propose. 1891 J. Morley Sp. Newcastle 2 Oct., We have had a programme unfolded which is calculated to stir the deepest energy and to rouse the sincerest convictions of every man with a spark of Liberalism in him. 1976 Liverpool Echo 7 Dec. 17/9 On the Wirral the West Cheshire programme was reduced to three games. 1977 Nature 11 Aug. 487/2 A joint programme to provide a set of soil structure standards..has been under way for five years at the Universities of Warsaw and Moscow. |
c. Mus. A sequence of objects, scenes, or events intended to be suggested by a musical composition or used to determine its structure.
| 1854 H. F. Chorley Mod. German Mus. II. 306 There is no parroting such a programme..to an opera as the overture to ‘Leonora’. 1883 Grove Dict. Mus. III. 34/2 There is a growing tendency amongst critics and educated musicians to invent imaginary ‘programmes’ where composers have mentioned none. 1944 W. Apel Harvard Dict. Mus. 605/1 In the final analysis, there are two types of program music: that which is good music regardless of the program; and that which is poor music even with a ‘good’ program. 1962 Listener 15 Mar. 489/3 While the majority of his piano pieces bear explanatory titles, in his symphonies he was far more reticent as to the underlying programme. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VIII. 231/3 Only in the so-called Romantic era, from Beethoven to Richard Strauss, is the program an essential concept. |
d. = dance programme s.v. dance n. 7.
| 1899 A. E. W. Mason Miranda of Balcony iv. 40 He compared programmes with Miranda... Four dances must intervene before he could claim her. 1913 Mrs G. de H. Vaizey College Girl xxvii. 369 The three programmes were filled to the last extra. 1949 N. Marsh Swing, Brother, Swing iii. 42 Her coming-out ball had been here... She felt the cord of her programme grow glossy under the nervous pressure of her gloved fingers. 1976 Times 11 June 14/6 Guests carry around little programmes to remind them who they are dancing with. |
e. Broadcasting. (
i) A broadcast presentation treated as a single item for scheduling purposes, being broadcast between stated times and without interruption except perhaps for news bulletins or advertisements.
| 1923 Radio Times 28 Sept. 1 From November 14th last year..we have..transmitted roughly 1,700 distinct evening programmes. 1933 Ibid. 14 Apr. 72/2 In the programmes for Friday next, you will find particulars of Looking In, first television review. 1946 B.B.C. Year-bk. 62 About 120 new programmes..are put on the air every week. Ibid., Such famous programmes as ‘Itma’, ‘Music Hall’, and ‘Workers' Playtime’. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio i. 17 Certain topical and miscellany programmes..go on the air in the form of a mixture of live and recorded segments. 1976 Times 21 May 2/8 Since the programme I have had about a dozen other nasty telephone calls. |
(
ii) A radio service providing a regular succession of programmes on a particular frequency.
| 1939 R. Macaulay Lett. to Sister (1964) 96 I've just read the debate on B.B.C. in Hansard... The fact is we can't get on without 2 programmes. 1939 [see home a. 2 e]. 1945, etc. [see light a.1 19 b]. 1946 B.B.C. Year-bk. 51 The Director-General promised that within ninety days of the end of hostilities in the West, the BBC would provide its listeners in the United Kingdom with two full-scale alternative programmes. Ibid., It is the aim of the Home Service to provide the home programme of the people of the United Kingdom. 1968 B.B.C. Handbk. 48 The popular music programme on 247 metres became Radio 1. The Light Programme, on 1500 metres and VHF, became Radio 2. The Third Network, which embraces the Music Programme, the Third Programme, Study Session and the Sports Service, became Radio 3. 1980 Times 31 July 15/3 Radio 3 used to be the most civilized and broad-ranging programme in the world. |
f. Electronics. Also
programme signal. A signal corresponding to music, speech, or other activity.
| 1935 Nilson & Hornung Pract. Radio Communication viii. 356 The program fed into the mixer does not always come directly from a microphone. 1948 A. L. Albert Radio Fund. xiv. 569 The frequency deviations of a program signal in frequency-modulation can be made, and is made, quite large... If the program has a wide frequency deviation, but noise does not, the signal-to-noise ratio of the output of a discriminator will be high. 1954 Molloy & Pannett Radio & Television Engineers' Ref. Bk. iv. 12 It is necessary at times to compress the programme from a range of 50 to 22 db. 1959 K. Henney Radio Engin. Handbk. (ed. 5) xxi. 7 Program signals have very complex wave shapes. 1970 J. Earl Tuners & Amplifiers iv. 77 The amplifier..must process the programme signal (e.g. the signal from the pickup, radio tuner, tape recorder or whatever). 1977 Gramophone Nov. 937/1 The 2760 copier unit completes the system..and has automatic end-of-tape sensing and erasure of programme. |
g. (
i) A sequence of operations that a machine can be set to perform automatically.
| 1945 J. P. Eckert et al. Description of ENIAC (PB 86242) (Moore School of Electr. Engin., Univ. of Pennsylvania) 1 The intended use of the ENIAC is to compute large families of solutions all based on the same program of operations. 1954 Amer. Machinist 25 Oct. 136/1 The operator..sets a combination of switches calling for table movements equivalent to blueprint dimensions, or a ‘program’, then presses a starting button. 1962 E. Bruton Automation vi. 74 An automatic washing machine may be designed to wash for four minutes, empty, and spin-dry for ten. This is its programme. It can be ‘programmed’ in other ways. 1970 Which? Oct. 293/1 For most, there was a pre-rinse and a choice of two washing programmes, depending on how dirty the dishes were. 1972 Daily Tel. 11 Jan. 11/2 There's a Westinghouse electric clothes-dryer..which takes 12 lb of clothes and has five drying programmes: auto-dry, wash'n'wear, time dry, air fluff and low heat. 1977 Times 9 July 21/4 The ability of modern machines to offer merely rinse and dry programmes for clothes that have been prewashed by hand. |
(
ii)
Computers. A series of coded instructions which when fed into a computer will automatically direct its operation in carrying out a specific task. Also
transf.| 1946 Nature 20 Apr. 527/2 Control of the programme of the operation of the machine [sc. ENIAC] is also through electrical circuits. 1947 Math. Tables & Other Aids to Computation II. 358 An important limitation upon programming is that the machine must adhere to a prescribed linear course of operation. It cannot at any point choose between two subsequent programs on the basis of results already obtained. 1950 Phil. Mag. XLI. 256 The problem of constructing a computing routine or ‘program’ for a modern general purpose computer which will enable it to play chess. 1953 Proc. IRE XLI. 1245/1 A large family of high-speed, large-scale, stored-program, digital computers have been built. Ibid. 1247/1 This conditional instruction makes it possible for the programmer to write programs which take different courses of action depending upon the results of previous computation. 1960 Times 4 Oct. (Computer Suppl.) p. v/3 To prepare this sequence of instructions, or program (a spelling now adopted in computer terminology), the programmer will have broken down an operation into its simplest elements. 1971 Times Lit. Suppl. 4 June 635/2 Were accurate estimation of the merits of such positions possible, the next world chess champion could quite conceivably be a computer programme. 1972 Sci. Amer. Mar. 42/3 Computer instructions are so complicated that programmers are often baffled when they look at programs they have written but have not seen for several months, and a third party usually finds them inscrutable. 1972 R. M. Lee Short Course Basic Fortran IV Programming i. 8 Programs are written in one of the many user-oriented languages, such as FORTRAN, and then translated into machine language... The translation is done by the computer. 1974 Sci. Amer. Oct. 105/1, I have described the timing and the characteristics of the coordination of the eye-head movements that are elicited by the appearance of a visual target, and have presented our evidence for the conclusion that the programs for eye-head coordination are not present in the central nervous system in their entirety. 1977 W. S. Davis Operating Syst. v. 58 Before any program can be run, it must first be set up (cards loaded in the card reader, the printer loaded with..paper.., tapes and disk packs mounted, and so on). |
h. Psychol. and
Educ. In human and animal learning, a series of step-by-step questions or tests (
freq. designed to be used in a teaching machine operated by the learner) aimed at the establishment of learning patterns through the stimulus of rewarding correct responses or behaviour at each step.
| 1950 B. F. Skinner in Psychol. Rev. LVII. 207/2 Such a set was randomized in a program of reinforcement repeated every hour. In changing to this program from the arithmetic series..the pigeons were soon able to sustain a constant rate of responding under it. 1958 ― in Science 24 Oct. 971/2 The machines themselves cannot be adequately described without giving a few examples of programs. 1961, etc. [see linear a. 3 b]. 1962 Listener 17 May 855/2 The drawback to a multiple choice programme..is that plausible wrong answers must be presented to the student, and he may remember these instead of the correct ones. 1967 Coulthard & Smith in Wills & Yearsley Handbk. Managem. Technol. xi. 204 Two types of programme are currently in use: 1. The linear programme—which repeats a statement just made, omitting a key word or words, and requires the trainee to remedy the omission... 2. The intrinsic programme—which provides an explanation of a key point in the subject and asks the trainee to select the correct answer to a question from several alternative answers. 1976 W. B. Kolesnik Learning x. 226 The program can be used in grades one through twelve in the area of language, arts, mathematics, [etc.]. |
3. = programma 2;
spec. (
repr. Ger. Programm) in German schools, an essay or disquisition on some subject, prefixed to the annual report.
| 1831 Carlyle Early Germ. Lit. in Misc. Ess. (1872) III. 182 A series of Selections, Editions, Translations, Critical Disquisitions, some of them in the shape of Academic Program. 1831 ― Sart. Res. ii. iii, Scraps of regular Memoir, College-Exercises, Programs, Professional Testimoniums. 1833 Sir W. Hamilton Discuss. (1852) 556 (Prussian Primary Education) The director, or one of the masters, in an official program, is to render an account of the condition and progress of the school. 1880 J. Morrison in Expositor XI. 461 Such is the derivation..given by Niemeyer in his Programm on the expression. 1884 Amer. Jrnl. Philol. V. 504 He admires greatly Hermann's program on ‘Interpolations in Homer’. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
programme-book,
programme-card,
programme-maker,
programme-making,
programme note,
programme-seller,
programme vendor; in sense 2 b, with reference to political ‘programmes’, as
programme-mongering,
programme-spinner,
programme-spinning; (sense 2 e)
programme content,
programme director,
programme editor,
programme engineer,
programme item,
programme planner,
programme planning,
programme staff,
programme time; (sense 2 g)
program step,
program tape,
program testing;
program counter Computers, a register in the control unit of a computer which contains the address of the next instruction to be executed, this number being increased by one each time unless an instruction to do otherwise occurs;
programme boy,
girl, a boy or girl employed to sell programmes at a place of entertainment;
programme-building, the selection of items for a concert or for a period of broadcasting; so
programme-builder;
programme chairman U.S., one who arranges the programme of events or the agenda for a particular event for a society, etc.;
programme company, a company authorized to make programmes and advertisements for broadcasting on British commmercial television;
programme contractor = programme company, so
programme-contracting a.;
program(me) control, (
a)
= programmer 3; (
b) control of or by a program(me);
program(me) controller = programmer 1 c, 3;
programme girl: see
programme boy;
programme junction Broadcasting (see
quot. 1941);
program library Computers = library1 3;
programme line Telecommunications (see
quot. 1940);
programme movie = programme picture;
program(me)-music, music intended to convey the impression of a definite series of objects, scenes, or events; descriptive music;
programme pencil, a small pencil for filling in a programme-card at a dance, etc.;
programme picture, a cinema film made relatively cheaply and intended to be shown as part of a programme that includes another film as the main feature;
program register Computers = control register s.v. control n. 5;
programme service Broadcasting, a service consisting in the regular broadcasting of radio or television programmes for reception by the public;
programme symphony, a symphony with a programme (sense 2 c).
| 1954 Grove's Dict. Mus. (ed. 5) VI. 943/2 Philip Hale's long series of notes for the Boston Symphony Orchestra made the programme-books of that orchestra valuable historic documents. 1976 New Yorker 9 Feb. 102/3 The wretched program book gave no texts—only excerpts from the Woolf cycle, and translations of the rest. |
| 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §889 Programme boy, girl, seller. 1928 B.B.C. Handbk. 73/2 The programme builders believe that..the 60,000 hours of programmes will receive the liveliest and most general approval..by the application of a common-sense policy. 1947 Penguin Music Mag. Dec. 27 Every programme-builder should know the symphonic repertoire from A to Z. 1961 Listener 21 Dec. 1088/3, I don't know what was in the mind of the programme-builder of the concert given by the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra. |
| 1928 B.B.C. Handbk. 74/1 The best method of explaining the details of programme building is to follow a week's programmes from their first beginnings to the day on which they are broadcast. 1935 Discovery Sept. 277/1 It may be left safely to the B.B.C., whose experience and standards of programme building..may be relied upon to result in presentations in line with public approbation. 1948 Penguin Music Mag. Feb. 93 Mr. Barbirolli's extraordinary skill in programme-building. 1957 Encycl. Brit. IV. 208/2 It is principally under the headings (5) and (6)..that radio has created expression forms peculiar to itself, and in most other respects program-building is creative only in the sense that the program-builders can build combinations of suitable music and speech around one or another central idea. |
| 1886 Kipling Departm. Ditties, etc. My Rival, My prettiest frocks and sashes Don't help to fill my programme-card [at a ball]. 1948 Penguin Music Mag. June 135 The Orchestra's first programme-card was several degrees more adventurous than any before it. 1961 U.S. Nat. Bureau Standards Rep. Fiscal Year 1961 57 The Bureau contributed to the planning and success of the Symposium through the efforts of..Dr. C. M. Herzfeld, Program Chairman. 1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 27 June 5-e/3 She is a past president, program chairman and secretary of the chapter. |
| 1958 New Statesman 22 Mar. 375/3 As each programme-company in turn began broadcasting in the regions, the tale was always the same: of viewers with a choice, most chose the ITV channel most of the time. 1962 Rep. Comm. Broadcasting 1960 1 in Parl. Papers 1961–2 (Cmnd. 1753) IX. 259 Independent television comprises not only the ITA but also the programme companies, which have at various dates since 1954 been appointed by the ITA. 1968 Listener 11 July 84/3 What are called the programme companies, in ITV, are set up in the first instance as contractors on the basis of the advertising franchise in their area. |
| 1958 New Statesman 20 Dec. 880/1, I am not sure that I agree that the effect of the competition on the programme-content is as superficial as they seem then to have found. 1964 M. McLuhan Understanding Media (1967) xxviii. 293 Like the radio that it still provides with program content, the phonograph is a hot medium. 1968 Listener 29 Aug. 285/3 There is now hardly a significant publication, from the weekly reviews to the mass-selling dailies, which does not have equity in one or other of the programme-contracting companies. |
| 1954 Act 2 & 3 Eliz. II c. 55. §2 The programmes broadcast by the Authority shall..be provided not by the Authority but by persons (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘programme contractors’) who, under contracts with the Authority, have, in consideration of payments to the Authority.., the right and the duty to provide programmes or parts of programmes to be broadcast by the Authority. 1958 New Statesman 5 July 1/2 With commercial success and popular support behind them the existing programme contractors, and those who would like to become programme contractors, are in a much more powerful position than they were when ITV was an untried gamble. 1962 Rep. Comm. Broadcasting 1960 166 in Parl. Papers 1961–2 (Cmnd. 1753) IX. 259 The [Independent Television] Authority's power to control the companies, once they are appointed programme contractors, is illusory and negligible. |
| 1945 J. P. Eckert et al. Description of ENIAC (PB 86242) (Moore School of Electr. Engin., Univ. of Pennsylvania) b–5 The simplest procedure for handling the problem is to devote one multiplier program control to each of the n multiplications. 1951 M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 21/1 The president of the National Broadcasting Corporation ridiculed the proposal to separate business control from program control. 1953 Proc. IRE XLI. 1271/2 (heading) Program control of external units. 1957 D. M. Considine Process Instruments & Controls Handbk. ix. 78 The operation of a tire vulcanizer, on a completely automatic timed basis, is an example of program control. 1977 Design Engin. July 15/3 Eight parallel latched outputs are available as binary, BCD, or as a 7-segment-plus-decimal-point output under program control. |
| 1957 D. M. Considine Process Instruments & Controls Handbk. ix. 78 By controlling sequence, intervals, and rates of change, a program controller may encompass all the operations in a complete industrial process. 1961 Times 4 Aug. 2/3 Independent Television in Wales..now invite application for the following key posts:... Programme Controller. In this position, experience of Television production, a knowledge of Welsh, and broad interests over the whole field of entertainment are essential. The Controller in Cardiff will plan and budget all programmes, and must know how and where to produce or acquire material. 1967 F. W. Clarke Installing Small Pipe Central Heating vi. 37 Where a boiler supplies hot water and serves the heating, the various jobs required of it can be simply co-ordinated by a programme controller. This turns the heating or the hot water on and off at selected times, as set on the clock. 1976 C. Bermant Coming Home ii. iv. 161, I returned to Granada and sent a memo to the programme controller. |
| 1946 Math. Tables & Other Aids to Computation II. 102 Counters are used not only for arithmetic purposes, but also as a part of the programming circuits which determine when and how a given unit shall perform. Each unit whose operations consume more than one addition time has such a program counter. 1962 Huskey & Korn Computer Handbk. xvi. 29 In the case of a jump instruction, the address for the next instruction to be fetched comes from the address part of the present instruction... The state of the program counter must be changed to agree with this address so that it will count on from the new starting point. 1977 Design Engin. July 15/3 There are four parallel inputs, a testable sense input, three bi-directional control flags for use as inputs or outputs, a program counter, a two-word stack for nested subroutine calls, and an instruction-decode programmable logic array. |
| 1961 G. Millerson Television Production i. 15 He may operate the buttons and faders for video switching himself, but most networks consider the programme director too preoccupied with the many other aspects of production, and delegate this job to another person. 1972 Listener 6 July 2/1 Michael Rice, the Programme Director, asked one of his people..to lead the production team. |
| 1929 Radio Times 8 Nov. 387/3 Broadcast reading has only been tried half-heartedly. The programme editors still suffer from..fear of not pleasing everybody all day long. 1949 Ibid. 15 July 41/3 He returned to the BBC as a programme engineer. 1962 Programme engineer [see balance n. 14 b]. |
| 1905 Daily Chron. 13 Feb. 9/3 An interesting story of a medical student's love for a programme girl..was told. 1918 [see cloak-room b]. 1921 [see programme boy]. 1979 G. Latta tr. Jacquemard-Sénécal's Eleventh Little Nigger i. v. 47 The programme girls..persuaded her to swallow a considerable amount of whisky. |
| 1962 Programme item [see programme planning]. |
| 1941 B.B.C. Gloss. Broadcasting Terms 25 Programme junction, brief interval between the end of one programme and the beginning of the next, used for switching operations whereby transmitters are linked to, or detached from, the network concerned. 1975 Listener 23 Oct. 532/2 There was internal machinery to see that there were common programme junctions. |
| 1960 Ann. Rev. Automatic Programming I. 93 (heading) MERCURY autocode: principles of the program library. 1977 R. E. Harrington Quintain xii. 139 Sanderson gave me the constants and I just ran the program. I didn't even write it. He got it from the program library. |
| 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 676/2 Programme (or program) line, a transmission line, of superior propagation characteristics, for relaying broadcasting programmes. 1944 Proc. IRE XXXII. 601/1 A key located to the left of the VU meter should be used to connect this meter to the outgoing program line. |
| 1895 Daily News 23 Jan. 7/3 Mr. Chamberlain is above all things a programme maker... In the year 1885 he constructed what was called an ‘unauthorised programme’ for the Liberal party. 1929 Radio Times 8 Nov. 393/1 There are people who..abuse the programme-makers! 1977 Broadcast 13 June 5/2 Programme makers could..put their ideas to the empirical test by means of a pilot programme. |
| 1904 W. James Let. 1 Jan. in R. B. Perry Tht. & Char. W. James (1935) II. 201 Münsterberg has the most extraordinary power of schematization and program-making. 1949 Penguin Music Mag. Feb. 19 That almost perfect example of programme-making, Music in Miniature. 1980 Listener 3 Jan. 21/1 Industrial disputes [in broadcasting] took up more time than programme-making. |
| 1935 Movie Mirror Dec. 106/1 Dropping into the theater, prepared for a regular program movie, my interest was caught after the first few feet and worked up to a fever pitch at the final reel. |
| 1879 Grove Dict. Mus. I. 232/2 Berlioz was one of the most uncompromising champions of what, for want of a better name, has been dubbed ‘programme music’. 1881 Ibid. III. 38/1 The Abbé Vogler..was..a great writer of programme-music. 1954 C. S. Lewis Eng. Lit. in Sixteenth Cent. i. ii. 139 Disorder in life rendered by disorder in art. This is in poetry what ‘programme music’ is in music. |
| 1923 M. R. Werner Barnum 319 And then in Barnum's program notes each year appeared this notice. 1942 E. Blom Music in England ix. 149 Ella also wrote his own programme notes. 1958 ‘E. Dundy’ Dud Avocado i. vii. 136 I'd never seen a ballet whose story I was able to follow even when the programme-notes were in English. 1965 Listener 25 Nov. 874/1 The relevance of the play to the 'thirties in Britain and also to Radio in Europe Week was so admirably condensed in a programme note in Radio Times by the producer, Douglas Cleverdon, that it does not seem worth labouring. 1978 Daily Tel. 20 Jan. 13/1 To 25 years' experience before the camera can be added (I learn from the programme note) some recent experience as a director in the theatre. |
| 1895 Montgomery Ward & Co. Catal. Spring & Summer 115/2 ‘Programme’ Pencils, round, enameled in colors with gilt tip and ring. Suitable for use in lady's memorandum book. 1921 E. N. Hull Sheik i. 9 She hesitated, tapping her programme-pencil against her teeth. 1928 Sunday Dispatch 19 Aug. 14/2 A ‘programme’ picture is a film which costs from {pstlg}6,000 to {pstlg}8,000 or thereabouts, and cannot be called a ‘super’. 1935 Movie Mirror Dec. 38/3 Your Reviewer Says: An average program picture, but Velez fans will want to see it for sure. 1956 Programme planner [see c.]. 1961 A. Wilson Old Men at Zoo ii. 92 The television engineers and programme planners with whom the office now seemed filled. 1974 Guardian 23 Jan. 1/5 If the [TV] close-down had been at 10.30 there would have been more room for manoeuvre by the programme planners. |
| 1940 R. S. Lambert Ariel & all his Quality iii. 77 Charles Siepmann..was promoted to..Director of Programme Planning. 1962 Rep. Comm. Broadcasting 1960 159 in Parl. Papers 1961–2 (Cmnd. 1753) IX. 259 What particular ‘time slots’ each [TV company] is to occupy, and with what programme items... That is to say, the overall programme planning. |
| 1948 Gloss. Computer Terms (Mass. Inst. Technol. Servomechanisms Lab. Rep. R-138) 8 Program register, the part of the computer used for holding orders after they are extracted from storage but before they are carried out. 1956 Program register [see control register]. 1962 R. V. Oakford Introd. Electronic Data Processing Equipment iii. 37 Information (normally instructions) can be transferred to the program register in the control unit from general memory or from the arithmetic (process) unit. |
| 1921 Programme seller [see programme boy]. 1977 M. Babson Lord Mayor of Death v. 45 Here comes the programme seller. |
| 1940 L. R. Lohr Television Broadcasting ii. 23 Televison transmitters have been in operation from time to time in Philadelphia, Schenectady,..and Bridgeport, but none of these had established a program service for the public at the time of writing. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio i. 17 The next link is a continuity suite where the entire programme service is assembled. |
| 1940 R. S. Lambert Ariel & all his Quality ii. 43 Programme and administrative staff had not been divided into watertight..categories. 1977 Listener 28 Apr. 540/2 There has been a planned increase of programme staff, facilities and output. |
| 1950 High-Speed Computing Devices ix. 157 The Type 604 can perform 60 program steps, or operations, per card; a program step includes any one of the four arithmetic operations, or a number transfer. 1956 [see command n. 1 d]. 1978 Sci. Amer. Feb. 29/2 (Advt.), Because of this dual capability, it can..identify which program step a system was executing at the time of malfunction. |
| 1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 162 Nationalism..destroys both the aristocratic quality of the eighteenth-century abstract symphony and the individualist quality of the nineteenth-century programme symphony. 1962 Listener 29 Nov. 941/2 The third symphony..was suggested by visits to Mycenae and Venice. Programme symphonies are even more out of fashion than the normal type, but I can only say that I tried to express the emotions aroused in me by the places rather than to paint pictures of them. |
| 1948 Math. Tables & Other Aids to Computation III. 126 We can have on the first section of the program tape..the program for arranging the data in order by age. 1964 C. Dent Quantity Surveying by Computer iii. 26 In other cases the data tape is read in under control of the instructions (stored in the memory by the program tape), the data being worked on as it is read in. |
| 1959 J. Jeenel Programming for Digital Computers viii. 393 In program testing one usually employs certain techniques especially developed for this purpose. 1964 F. L. Westwater Electronic Computers ix. 140 The coding is tested on the computer... (This is called ‘program testing’.) |
| 1957 Practical Wireless XXXIII. 529/2 Fewer programmes..would enable the BBC to..reject the dross which is still allowed programme time. 1977 M. Babson Lord Mayor of Death xii. 82 Programme vendors..were..shaking their heads regretfully at would-be customers. |
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program trading n. U.S. Stock Market the computerized trading of securities, using programs which automatically initiate the purchase or sale of stocks when preset criteria are met (such as price differentials between markets); the simultaneous purchase and sale of multiple stocks by this means;
spec. the simultaneous purchase of stocks and sale of futures contracts on them, or vice versa.
| 1984 Institutional Investor Sept. 77/2 *Program trading is well on its way to becoming a service that's crucial to maintaining institutional market share, just like block trading. 1990 Forbes 5 Feb. 199/3 With program trading causing commonplace intra-day swings of 50 to 70 points in the DJI, more 150-point-plus ‘crashlets’ can be expected. 1994 Wall St. Jrnl. 25 Feb. c2/2 The relentless selling activated the New York Stock Exchange's 50-point ‘collar’ rule that effectively stifles program trading any time the Dow industrials rise or fall 50 points. 2001 Washington Post (Electronic ed.) 4 Apr. The Dow dropped 200 points early in the day, automatically triggering restrictions on program trading that were instituted after the 1987 stock market crash to minimize market volatility. |
▪ II. ˈprogram, ˈprogramme, v. [f. prec. n. The note s.v. program, programme n. applies equally to the vb.] 1. trans. To arrange by or according to a programme; to draw up a programme of; to scheme or plan definitely.
| 1896 Westm. Gaz. 12 Sept. 4/2 This match was programmed to start yesterday, but owing to the state of the weather had to be postponed. 1900 Ibid. 17 July 6/3 Meetings, he declares, were wrongly programmed. 1905 Pall Mall G. 19 Dec. 2 The devolutionist scheme was programmed and published on September 26, 1904. 1912 A. Bennett Jrnl. 16 Feb. (1932) II. 44 On Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. as ‘programmed’ a week ago, I began ‘The Regent’. 1949 Archit. Rev. CVI. 375/1 Let us..consider a country like Japan where, after wholesale destruction, four million minimum dwellings are now being programmed. 1956 Sun (Baltimore) (B ed.) 24 Sept. 10/2 Senator Scott found..that 75 per cent of the soil bank outlay of $261,000,000 programmed for 1956 was to be spent in twelve mid-Western farm states. 1970 Daily Tel. 30 Jan. 2/4 He tried to programme her day into housework and study, but with four children and a pile of nappies it did not work. 1977 Gramophone Feb. 1308/1 The items are programmed in a quite interesting way, the fireworks of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 being followed by the cool renunciation of Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1. 1979 Church Times 25 May 14/5 When the ceremonies and speeches were over, the General..was programmed to leave the gathering and walk along the red carpet to his car. |
† 2. intr. To write programme notes.
Obs. rare.
| 1889 G. B. Shaw London Music in 1888–89 (1937) 243 He programmed in a pat-the-young-man-on-the-back style. |
3. trans. and intr. To broadcast.
U.S.| 1937 Amer. Speech XII. 101 To program means..to broadcast. 1967 Boston Sunday Herald 26 Mar. ii. 8/2 (Advt.), Personalities are an important ingredient in today's radio, and WCOP provides warm, personable, well established people—they program 24 hours a day with your listening pleasures in mind. 1969 N.Y. Rev. Books 2 Jan. 17/3 We can program twenty more hours of TV in South Africa next week to cool down the tribal temperature raised by radio last week. 1978 Chicago June 22/1 CSO does not program enough contemporary music. |
4. a. To express (a task or operation) in terms appropriate to its performance by a computer or other automatic device; to cause (an activity or property) to be automatically regulated in a prescribed way.
| 1945 J. P. Eckert et al. Description of ENIAC (PB 86242) (Moore School of Electr. Engin., Univ. of Pennsylvania) b–4 In this fashion, problems involving numbers of multiplications far in excess of 24 can be programmed. 1949 Nature 22 Oct. 684/2 The problem must be programmed, that is, it must be split up into a series of simple operations which the machine can perform. 1952 Phil. Mag. XLIII. 1245 When a mathematician assembles the set of orders required to work out the solution of a problem he is said to be programming this problem for the machine. 1955 IRE Trans. Industr. Electronics II. 3/1 Industry needs more flexible methods of programming machine cycles to achieve automatic operation of machine tools in limited-quantity production. 1958 Times Rev. Industry Feb. 52/2 The Burroughs Typing Sensimatic has unmatched flexibility. The control unit permits each job to be individually programmed. 1962 G. A. T. Burdett Automatic Control Handbk. xix. 2 The engineer must programme the operations which the machine is to carry out. Preferably this programming, i.e. planning in advance and in sequence all the steps of the required operations, should involve the minimum of human effort and..a computer may be used. 1971 Sci. Amer. Apr. 71 Evidently an annual cycle of feeding and fasting is also programmed in the animal. 1973 A. Parrish Mech. Engineer's Ref. Bk. xix. 15 If feeds and speeds are programmed such that the spindle motor is producing its maximum horse power, any hard spots in the work piece can result in stall. 1977 Sci. Amer. Sept. 187 (caption) Typical task for a traveling-wire EDM is cutting gear teeth... When a slow and complex series of cuts is programmed, it can run unattended for 60 hours. |
b. To incorporate (a property)
into a computer or other device by programming.
| 1972 Carr & Mize MOS/LSI Design & Application viii. 233 The uniqueness desired within the master PLA chip is often programmed into the master chip by changing only the gate mask. 1977 D. Bagley Enemy xv. 121 He's installed a scad of microprocessors in that control board... He could program his timetables into them. 1977 Nature 11 Aug. 571/3 This book..deals with the problem of programming ‘common sense’ into a computer. |
5. a. To cause (a computer or other device) automatically to do a prescribed task or perform in a prescribed way; to supply with a program. Also
absol.| 1945 J. P. Eckert et al. Description of ENIAC (PB 86242) (Moore School of Electr. Engin., Univ. of Pennsylvania) b–1 The problem of programming the ENIAC. Ibid., We then wish to program the first accumulator to transmit its contents twice into the second one. 1947 Proc. IRE XXXV. 761/1 When an accumulator is programmed to transmit subtractively, it will transmit, not the number it holds, but the complement of the number it holds. 1950 Phil. Mag. XLI. 256 (heading) Programming a computer for playing chess. 1961 K. Amis New Maps of Hell i. 33 Here an airborne device, programmed to detect and forestall aggressive intentions, ends by prohibiting most kinds of human action. 1962 Lancet 8 Dec. 1215/2 The Pegasus computer can be programmed to punch out the desired results on standard teleprinter tape. 1973 Daily Tel. 8 Jan. 13 (Advt.), What you get for {pstlg}505. 1. Full central heating and domestic hot water... 5. Time switch to programme the boiler. 1973 Sci. Amer. Sept. 87/1 Cardiographic instruments can be programmed to sound an alarm if an alarming event occurs. 1976 M. M. Mano Computer System Archit. ii. 74 For small quantities it is more convenient to use a programmable ROM, referred to as PROM... Each cell in a PROM incorporates a link that can be fused by application of a high current pulse. A broken link in a cell defines one binary state and an unbroken link represents the other state... This allows the user to program the unit in his own laboratory..to achieve the desired relationship between input address and output data. 1976 Physics Bull. Dec. 535/3 The operation is computer controlled so that the mirrors can be programmed to follow a particular source round the sky. |
| absol. 1954 Amer. Machinist 25 Oct. 134/2 Tool Engineers..will have to learn a new approach to tooling. Instead of designing massive fixtures or intricate mechanical controls, they will ‘program’. 1958 Oxf. Mag. 29 May 470/1 It is not difficult to learn to program..backed by regular university lectures in numerical analysis and computing. 1966 Sci. Amer. Sept. 72 The ability to write a computer program will become as widespread as the ability to drive a car. Not knowing how to program will be like living in a house full of servants and not speaking their language. 1977 Daily Tel. 14 Nov. 8 (Advt.), To program, just read down the column, making the appropriate keyboard entries as you go! |
b. fig. To train to behave in a predetermined way.
| 1963 Language XXXIX. 455 He succeeded in programming the live bees that crowded around the imitation insect to head in a prescribed direction to seek and find nectar. 1966 L. Jones in A. Chapman New Black Voices (1972) 459 We have always been separate, except in our tranced desire to be the thing that oppressed us, after some generations of having been ‘programmed’..into believing that our greatest destiny was to become white people! 1967 Freedomways VII. 131 The black student is being educated in this country as if he were being programmed in white supremacy and self-hatred. 1968 New Scientist 19 Dec. 653/1 To what extent can astronauts, environmentally be-suited, rigidly programmed, and electrically guided to their destination, be said to resemble the courageous explorers of the past? 1975 A. Price Our Man in Camelot iv. 71 Your cover is perfect... You were trained and programmed for just such an operation as this. 1976 J. Ross I know what it's like to Die ii. 12 Violent death programmed him to action in a predetermined routine; his reflexes conditioned by his training. |
6. Psychol. and
Educ. To form into a teaching programme (
program,
programme n. 2 h).
| 1958 B. F. Skinner in Science 24 Oct. 976/2 When material is adequately programmed, adjacent steps are often so similar that one frame reveals the response to another. 1971 Pittenger & Gooding Learning Theories in Educ. Practice iii. 91 Programming complex behavior requires careful planning and sequencing of material. |
7. intr. Astronaut. Of a spacecraft: to perform a scheduled and automatically controlled manœuvre.
| 1958 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 11 Oct. 1/5 He said the first stage appeared to have ‘programmed’—started curving on its trajectory to the northeast—higher than it should. 1962 M. Caidin Man-in-Space Dict. 156/2 Programming, movement of a booster vehicle through assigned trajectory maneuvers in flight, as when a booster launches from a vertical position, then programs over toward horizontal flight. 1962 J. Glenn in Into Orbit 189 ‘We're programming in roll OK,’ I said. |