privation
(praɪˈveɪʃən)
[= F. privation (14th c. in Littré), ad. L. prīvātiōn-em a taking away, deprivation, n. of action from prīv-āre to bereave, deprive: see prive.]
1. The action of depriving or taking away; the fact or condition of being deprived of or † cut off from something; deprivation. Now rare.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 1806 Þis may be calde..a privacion of þe life, When it partes fra þe body in strife. 1483 Caxton Cato I iv, A man ought to suffer for a vertuous friend priuacion of all worldly goodes. a 1548 Hall Chron., Rich. III 39 King Richard had bene in greate ieopardie either of priuacion of his realme or losse of his life or both. 1686 tr. Chardin's Coronat. Solyman 15 Necessity..constrained them to prefer..the younger, and to fix him in the Throne, tho to the Privation of his elder Brother. 1756 Burke Subl. & B. ii. vi, All general privations are great because they are all terrible; Vacuity, Darkness, Solitude, and Silence. 1803 Man in Moon (1804) 47 His mind is in a state of privation from the greatest solace of religious hope. 1858 Lytton What will he do? vii. x, Condemned to the painful choice between his society and that of nobody else, or that of anybody else with the rigid privation of his. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 130 Rickets may be produced artificially in animals by absolute privation of lime. |
b. Law. The action of depriving of office or position; = deprivation 2; in R.C. Ch. = suspension. Now rare or Obs.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. 1701 Þis Kynge Edwarde gaf sentens And dome of his prywacioun For his hie rebellioun. a 1539 in Archæologia XLVII. 59, I chardge and commaunde you undre payne of priuacion that ye [etc.]. 1544 tr. Littleton's Tenures (1574) 116 b, This warrantise is expired by his [the Abbot's] privasion or by his death. 1628 Coke On Litt. 329. 1670 Blount Law Dict., Privation,..most commonly applied to a Bishop, or Rector of a Church; when by Death, or other act, they are deprived of their Bishoprick or Benefice. 1885 Cath. Dict., Privation. See Suspension. |
2. Logic. The condition of being deprived of or being without some attribute formerly or properly possessed; the loss, or (loosely) the mere absence of a quality, a negative quality.
Often called the negative or negation of the eighth Aristotelian category, ἔχειν, habitus, the fact of having.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. x. i. (Tollem. MS.), Privacion of matter and forme is nouȝt ellis but destruccion of all þinge. 1555 Eden Decades 87 To gyue substance to priuation, (that is) beinge to noo beinge. 1588 Fraunce Lawiers Log. i. xi. 49 b, The affirmatiue is called the habite, [i.e. habitus, ἔχειν] the negatiue the priuation thereof. 1620 T. Granger Div. Logike 107 Habite signifieth disposition, power, and act, to which priuation is opposite. 1654 Z. Coke Logick 95 Privative Opposition, is the fighting betwixt habit and privation. 1685 Boyle Enq. Notion Nat. 22 This Death, which is said to do so many and such wonderful things, is neither a Substance, nor a Positive Entity, but a meer Privation. 1838 Emerson Address, Camb., Mass. Wks. (Bohn) II. 192 Evil is merely privative, not absolute: it is like cold, which is the privation of heat. |
3. Want of the usual comforts, or especially of some of the necessaries of life.
| 1790 C. M. Graham Lett. Educ. 67 When you reflect on the many privations which people who cannot help themselves suffer when any of their attendants are out of the way. 1838 Lytton Alice iii. vii, ‘It can be a privation only to me’,..said Maltravers. 1845 S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. iv. i. II. 351 A needy band of mercenaries, urged by hunger and privation. 1853 J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. i. iv. 219 Prepared by penury and hard fare for the privations of a military life. |