▪ I. code, n.1
(kəʊd)
Also 5 coode.
[a. F. code, f. L. cōdex, cōdic-em; see codex.]
1. a. Rom. Law. One of the various systematic collections of statutes made by later emperors, as the code of Theodosius, code of Justinian; spec. the latter.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 2183 Þat mayst þou fynde al and sum In code ‘de raptu virginum’. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 255 Theodocius his code. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 427 The lawes and constitutions..founde either in the Code, in the booke of Digestes, or Pandectes. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Code, a Volume conteining divers books; more particularly a Volume of the Civil Law so called, which was reduced into one Code, or Codice, by Justinian. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) II. 355 The manuscript of the Theodosian code. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) V. 170 It is said in Justinian's Code. |
b. A systematic collection or digest of the laws of a country, or of those relating to a particular subject.
(In modern use, chiefly since the promulgation of the French Code Civile or Code Napoléon, in 1804.)
| 1735 Pope Donne Sat. ii. 96 Larger far Than civil codes with all their glosses are. 1771 Junius Lett. xliv. 237 There is no code in which we can study the law of parliament. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) I. 2 The different German tribes were first governed by codes of laws formed by their respective chiefs. 1828 W. Sewell Oxf. Prize Ess. 33 Their penal code was formed in no sanguinary spirit. 1844 Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. xix. §1 (1863) 301 Every government is bound to digest the whole law into a code. |
2. transf. a. A system or collection of rules or regulations on any subject.
| 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 158 In the legislative as in the religious code. 1841 Myers Cath. Th. iv. xxiv. 298 Christianity can never be reduced to a mere code of Ethics. 1875 H. E. Manning Mission H. Ghost xiii. 352 The Sermon on the Mount contains the whole code of perfection. |
b. ‘A collection of receipts or prescriptions represented by the Pharmacopœia’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
3. a. A system of military or naval signals. b. Telegr. A system of words arbitrarily used for other words or for phrases, to secure brevity and secrecy; also attrib., as in code telegram, code word.
| 1808 Wellington in Gurw. Disp. IV. 21 A long letter respecting..a code of signals for the army. 1875 Jevons Money (1878) 166 Maritime codes of signals. 1880 Brit. Postal Guide 241 Code telegrams are those composed of words, the context of which has no intelligible meaning. 1884 Pall Mall G. 12 Sept. 5/1 Telegraph companies had to face..the extension of the use of code words. |
c. Cybernetics. Any system of symbols and rules for expressing information or instructions in a form usable by a computer or other machine for processing or transmitting information.
| 1946 Nature 26 Oct. 568/1 The brains of the machine lie in the control tape, which is code-punched in three sections. 1947 New Republic 23 June 15/3 The machine, having been properly briefed by means of a code punched into a paper tape.., will perform its programmed task. 1948 Electronics Sept. 111/2 Orders to various parts of the machine..can be expressed conveniently as numbers in some arbitrary code. 1964 F. L. Westwater Electronic Computers i. 2 On a paper tape holes are punched across the tape according to a pre-determined code. 1970 J. Butler in Physics Probl. Reactor Shielding (O.E.C.D.) 109 A saving in computer time..compared with the discrete ordinate codes NIOBE and STRAINT. |
d. Extended uses in Biol. and Linguistics.
| 1958 P. B. Medawar in R. D'Arcy Thompson D'Arcy W. Thompson 225 The problem of the development of limbs is, first, to break the chemical code which embodies the instructions, and second to find out how the instructions take effect. 1964 Language XL. 243 The central concern is how the bilingual speaker becomes ‘inputted’ for two language codes. 1965 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics Fall 41 Number and pattern (or ‘code’—a favourite term in linguistics). 1965 Listener 2 Sept. 332/2 The conceptions of molecular codes, and the chemical storage of information which have arisen from work on reproduction, have stimulated fascinating speculations about the mechanism of memory and the mystery of dreams. |
† 4. A collection of writings forming a book, such as the Old or the New Testament. Also, a recognized division of such forming a volume. Obs.
| 1701 Grew Cosm. Sacr. iv. i, Then having learned the Hebrew tongue and procured A copy of the Hebrew code. 1736 Bailey (folio) Code, a Volume or Book. 1794 Paley Evid. i. i. ix. §3 The Christian Scriptures were divided into two codes or volumes. Ibid., Intending by the one a code or collection of Christian sacred writings, as the other expressed the code or collection of Jewish sacred writings. |
5. attrib. and Comb. code-bearing, code-breaking, code-checking, code-switching; code-book, a list of letters or other expressions, and of their correlates in a code, arranged as a key for encoding and decoding; a book containing a code (in other senses); code-language, a system of codes; code-name, a word or symbol used as a substitute for the ordinary name of a thing or person, for secrecy or convenience; also, one used to refer to something that has no name; so code-name v.; similarly code-number; code-script (see quots.).
| 1965 Listener 2 Sept. 332/1 The *code-bearing molecules, the nucleic acids. |
| 1884 Electrician XIV. 62/1 This firm recommends the use of the ‘ABC Telegraphic *Code Book’. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 15 Oct. 4/2 The Royal Automobile Club proposes..to establish a law unto itself, with its own code-books of rules, morals, and punishments. 1964 Y. Bar-Hillel Lang. & Inf. xvi. 279 A short signal sequence..to be decoded at the receiving end with the help of a code-book. |
| 1964 J. Z. Young Model of Brain viii. 128 In the procedures for *code-breaking adopted by cryptographers the problem is to discover the relevant features of, say, ink-marks or electrical signals that are being used for communication. |
| 1964 C. Dent Quantity Surv. by Computer vi. 73 The *code-checking and punch-checking procedures. |
| 1936 Discovery June 187/2 The spirit-doctors have a kind of *code-language of their own. |
| 1831 Carlyle Misc. (1872) III. 241 *Code-makers and Utilitarians. |
| 1919 L. Tissot-Dupont Dictionnaire des Termes Techniques de Télégr. 37 Nom conventionnel. *Code name. 1936 F. W. Crofts Loss of ‘Jane Vosper’ i. 22 Heading it with the code name and address of his firm. 1954 X. Fielding Hide & Seek iv. 48 A district so bountiful that among us it earned the code-name of ‘Lotus Land’. 1959 ‘O. Mills’ Stairway to Murder xvi. 162 A military Exercise, code-named Discretion. 1961 R. Seth Anat. Spying iii. 38 Among these was Wing-Commander Forest Yeo-Thomas, whose code-name was the White Rabbit. 1962 L. Deighton Ipcress File vii. 47 He was well code-named this captive Raven. |
| 1959 W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinemat. 85/2 *Code numbers, a series of numbers and key letters printed by film manufacturers on negative film at one foot intervals and used for stock identification. 1964 C. Dent Quantity Surv. by Computer iv. 38 It is not necessary for the taker-off to look up the library description... Someone else (the ‘coder’) could do this and merely insert the appropriate reference number (‘code’ number) against the taker-off's description. |
| 1952 New Biol. XII. 85 All the genes together constitute the ‘*code-script’ of the cell; that is, the complete set of controlling factors which carry in condensed form all the ‘information’ necessary for an organism to develop the distinctive properties of its species. 1964 G. H. Haggis et al. Introd. Molecular Biol. vii. 193 Indeed, if current attempts to decipher the chemical structure of chromosomes are successful, it may one day prove possible by deliberate manipulation of environmental agencies to make specific alterations in the genetic code-script. |
| 1823 Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 390 The humane *code-softener. |
| 1959 E. Pulgram Introd. Spectrogr. Speech xi. 82 The hearer is able to perform what communication engineers call *code switching, a process of adjustment to the articulatory habits of the speaker which permits the listener to learn quickly certain types and degrees of phonemic deviation. |
Add: [5.] code-breaker, one who solves or breaks a code; also, a computer used for doing this;hence code-breaking.
| 1932 Pop. Mechanics (Chicago) Apr. 639/1 The keenest *code breaker is said to have been an Oxford Greek professor. 1977 P. Fitzgerald Knox Brothers v. 136 Hall..imperiously told the Treasury that he must have more money for more code-breakers. 1983 Austral. Personal Computer Aug. 106/3 Supposing that the original message, the plaintext, was ‘11’, and the ciphertext was ‘2’, the codebreaker has no way of working backwards from ‘2’ to ‘11’. |
▸ code bloat n. Computing unnecessary growth in the size of computer software, esp. to unwieldy levels, usually as a result of poor programming practices; (also) the bloated code itself.
| 1984Macintosh Language Benchmarks in fa.info-mac (Usenet newsgroup) 11 Nov. I haven't found any serious bugs, but *code bloat is amazing. 1993 S. A. Maguire Writing Solid Code 125 That bug had been ‘fixed’ in Character Windows by the expedient of handling root-level windows in reverse order everywhere it mattered—adding to the code bloat. 2003 Computer Shopper (Nexis) Oct. 128 Given the amount of code bloat in Windows, Linux is a natural—and there are no royalties to pay Microsoft. |
▪ II. † code, n.2 Obs.
Also coode.
Pitch, cobbler's wax.
| 1358 Ord. in Riley Lond. Mem. (1868) 301 Code, rosin, or other manner of refuse [litour]. c 1440 Wyclif Ex. ii. 3 (MS. Bodl. 277) Sche took a segge leep, and clemede it with coode [1382 glewishe cley, 1388 tar]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 85 Code, sowters wex [H.P. coode]. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) ii. 103 Be-paynted with sowters code. |
▪ III. † code, n.3 Obs.
Also cud, cude.
[The ME. ō with corresp. Sc. u points to an OE. *cód, which is however unknown.]
A chrism-cloth. (Very common in Sc. in 16th c.: see cude.)
| c 1420 Anturs of Arth. xviii, Cristunt and crisumte, with condul and with code. 1483 Cath. Angl. 85 Cud, crismale. |
▪ IV. code, v.
(kəʊd)
[f. code n.1]
The forms coded ppl. a. and coding vbl. n. are common in all uses.
1. a. trans. To enter in a code.
| 1815 Milman Fazio (1821) 85 Robbery..Is sternly coded as a deadly crime. 1885 Law Times LXXX. 44/1 The clerk was engaged..in forwarding these messages, all of which he coded as having been sent out at 2.25. |
b. To prepare (a message) for transmission by putting it into code words.
| 1898 Westm. Gaz. 20 Apr. 3/2 However inaccurately the message may be coded. 1903 Hardy Dynasts I. v. iii. 91 Now that the fume has lessened, code my biddance Upon our only mast. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 7 June 7/3 Coding had been really reduced to a fine art, and by its aid the cost of a cablegram was often reduced not merely to a penny per word, but to a farthing. 1924 Galsworthy Forest 1, I'm going to code that cable. |
c. Cybernetics. To put into the form required by a code (see code n.1 3 c).
| 1947 Goldstine & Von Neumann (title) Planning and coding of problems for an electronic computing instrument. 1948 Electronics Sept. 116/1 Orders themselves are coded to appear as numbers. Ibid. 116/3 A coded order can be converted to the selection of a gate opening voltage. 1956 Spaceflight I. 27/2 A data input circuit..codes all information picked up by the satellite's instruments, and a modulator..superimposes the coded data on a carrier signal. 1958 Oxf. Mag. 29 May 469/1 The new [computing] machines..require the relatively new skills of ‘programming’ and ‘coding’. Ibid., The preparation of ‘data’ and ‘instructions’ in the coded form acceptable by the machine. 1967 Oxford Computer Explained 9 Coded orders are attached to the original order and passed to the Dispatcher, who allocates an order reference number which is stamped on the order and on the coding form. |
d. In extended use. Cf. code n.1 3 d.
| 1959 Jrnl. Molecular Biol. I. 218 These molecules presumably carry in coded form the information necessary to specify the many features of the particular organism concerned. 1962 Lancet 29 Dec. 1384/1 Preventing R.N.A.–messenger coding and thus participation in protein synthesis. 1964 G. H. Haggis et al. Introd. Molecular Biol. viii. 212 The question of how a sequence made up from four different bases might specify unambiguously a sequence made up from twenty different amino acids is known as ‘the coding problem’. 1964 L. Kaiser in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 103 Direct connections between both processes of coding–decoding are found in spelling. |
2. code for (Microbiology): to be the genetic code for (an amino-acid or sequence of amino-acids); to be the genetic determiner of.
| 1962 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. XLVIII. 1086 (heading) On the role of soluble ribonucleic acid in coding for amino acids. 1969 New Scientist 18 Dec. 590 They contain more than enough RNA—about 3300 nucleotides—whereas only 3000 or so are needed to code for the three proteins. 1978 Sci. Amer. Sept. 52/2 There is a locus on one pair of homologous chromosomes that codes for eye color. 1983 Oxf. Textbk. Med. I. iv. 23/2 Genes coding for mammalian peptide chains are interrupted by a number of non-coding sequences or introns. |
▪ V. code
obs. form of cud.