fixation
(fɪkˈseɪʃən)
Also 5 fixacioun.
[ad. med.L. fixātiōn-em (used in Alchemy), n. of action f. fixāre to fix.]
1. a. The action of fixing, in various senses (see fix v.).
| 1652–6 Heylin Cosmogr. i. (1682) 89 The fixation of the Popes in the Metropolis. 1671 F. Phillips Reg. Necess. 67 After the fixation of the Common Pleas or Actions of the people to a certain place in the Kings Palace at Westminster. 1671 Phil. Trans. VI. 2132 Some observations, touching Colours, in order to the Increase of Dyes, and the Fixation of Colours. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. ii. iv. (1869) I. 360 If this legal rate should be fixed below the lowest market-rate, the effects of this fixation must be [etc.] 1810 Bentham Packing (1821) 90 The fixation of the punishment not lying within the province of the jury. 1832 Austin Jurispr. (1879) II. lvi. 924 Procure the fixation of the stamp to the evidentiary instrument. 1864 Bowen Logic iv. 84 Language..has an important influence in the regulation and fixation of Thought. 1874 Carpenter Ment. Phys. i. i. §20. (1879) 21 The ‘training’..mainly consists in the fixation of the Attention on the audible result. 1886 Blackie What does Hist. Teach? 24 The fixation of the order of succession to the throne. 1953 Brit. Commonw. Forest Terminol. i. 56 Fixation, the process of stabilizing soil, particularly shifting sand, against erosion. 1968 Gloss. Terms Timber Preservation (B.S.I.) 21 Fixation, the act or state of fixing a preservative in the timber so that it will not leach. 1971 Novum Testamentum Jan. 56 The fixation in writing of a cycle of oral tradition. 1971 Nature 2 Apr. 289/1 Species formation through genetic divergence and its fixation by reproductive isolating mechanisms is a slow process. |
b. The fact or condition of being fixed.
| a 1631 Donne in Select. (1840) 219 Three enemies to that fixation and entireness of the heart. 1660 Fuller Mixt Contempl. xlix. (1841) 211 Which giveth the fixation to a colour and setteth it in the cloth. 1683 Dr. Fitzwilliam Let. in Lady Russell's Lett. (1773) 9 When your thoughts have been saddened..by a long fixation on the doleful object. 1831 Carlyle Misc. (1857) II. 301 Yet it had attained no fixation or consistency. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 17 Jan. 7/2 The first of a course of lectures on locomotion and fixation in plants and animals. |
c. A fixed habitation or location (obs.); a fixed proportion or standard.
| 1614 Raleigh Hist. World i. 8 For to Light created in the first day, God gave no proper place or fixation. a 1661 Fuller Worthies Suffolk iii. (1662) 68 He..was buried at York, far..from Ipswich his first fixation. 1774 Franklin Ess. Wks. 1840 II. 412 No everlasting, invariable fixation for coining can be made. 1836 Blackw. Mag. XXXIX. 63 The Prussian tariff pretends to proceed upon an ad valorem fixation. |
2. a. esp. in scientific uses: The action of depriving of volatility or fluidity: see fix v. 4. † In Alchemy: The process of reducing a volatile spirit or essence to a permanent bodily form; the conversion (of mercury) into a solid by amalgamation or combination. In mod. use: The process of rendering solid a liquid or semi-liquid substance; coagulation; also, the process of causing (a gas) to combine with a solid.
| 1393 Gower Conf. II. 86 Do that there be fixation With tempred hetes of the fire. 1477 Norton Ord. Alch. in Ashm. (1652) 58 Without him Generation shall be none; Neyther of our Tinctures fixation. 1576 Baker Jewell of Health 166 b, This besides serveth to fixation in Alchemye matters. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. iii. 38 For the better fixation of the Mercurie. 1610 B. Jonson Alch. ii. i, Two Of our inferior works are at fixation. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. i. 50 The determination of quick-silver is properly fixation. 1665 Glanvill Scepsis Sci. vii, Salt dissolved, upon fixation returns to its affected cubes. 1759 B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng. I. Somerset 85 A Fixation of cold phlegmatic Humours. 1805 R. Chenevix in Phil. Trans. XCV. 104 The fixation of mercury by platina is by many regarded as visionary. 1813 J. Thomson Lect. Inflam. 645 The stiffness of a frost-bitten part..may be owing..to the fixation by cold, of the oil contained in the cellular membrane. 1813 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. ii. (1814) 57 The fixation of oxygene by the combustible body in a solid form. 1872 Oliver Elem. Bot. i. ii. 18 This fixation of the carbon and liberation of the oxygen of carbonic acid has been termed vegetable respiration. |
† b. The quality or condition of being non-volatile or able to resist the action of fire. Obs.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §328 Gold hath these Natures: Greatnesse of Weight; Closenesse of Parts; Fixation; [etc.]. a 1691 Boyle Wks. IV. 307 Adding fixation to a body, that was before either volatile, or less fixed. 1721 W. Gibson Farrier's Dispens. ii. Introd. 74 Fixation..where the Surfaces of the Particles of Bodies are so small..that they cannot be raised by the Force of Fire. |
† c. concr. A product of fixation. Obs.
| 1669 W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 114 Mercurius Precipitatus Diaphoreticus, which is a fixation or Precipitate. |
d. The process of fixing nitrogen or another substance as part of a biological or industrial process; see fix v. 4 c. Cf. nitrogen fixation.
| 1850 Jrnl. Hort. Soc. Lond. V. 57 The suspicion that the water evaporated had a more definite quantitative relationship to the fixation of the non-nitrogenous than to that of the nitrogenous constituents of the plants. 1862 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. CLI. 468 The question whether or not the assimilation of free Nitrogen by plants may account for all, or a part, of the otherwise unexplained fixation, is seen to be left in a dilemma almost inexplicable. 1888 Ann. Bot. I. 351 Experiments to determine the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen by vegetable substances. 1914 J. Knox Fixation of Atmospheric Nitrogen ii. 73 A great advantage of the NH3 synthesis for the fixation of nitrogen is that the amount of energy required for the process is small. 1927 S. A. Waksman Princ. Soil Microbiol. xxii. 558 Fixation of nitrogen in the soil is carried on largely by bacteria. 1930 Buchanan & Fulmer Physiol. & Biochem. Bacteria III. xvii. 178 In aerobic nitrogen and oxygen fixation there is a competition between nitrogen and oxygen to act as hydrogen acceptors. 1941 Jrnl. Biol. Chem. CXXXIX. 375 The fermentation of glucose by propionic acid bacteria was accompanied by fixation of C13O2 in the succinate. 1966 New Statesman 2 Dec. 824/3 A celebrated chemical process, on which all food supplies ultimately depend, is the ‘fixation’ of nitrogen from the air to fertilise the soil or the sea. |
e. The process of fixing biological specimens (cf. fix v. 4 d).
| 1891 Jrnl. R. Microsc. Soc. 287 Sublimate fixation produced excellent results. 1929 C. E. McClung Handbk. Microsc. Technique i. 8 Living protoplasm is a gelatinous or semi-fluid material, and after fixation it becomes a solid. 1969 Brown & Bertke Textbk. Cytology iii. 15/2 The most important single step in the preparation of tissues is fixation. |
f. Immunol. = complement-fixation.
| 1905 Centralblatt f. Bakteriol. (Originale) XXXIX. 603 (heading) The fixation of alexines by specific serum precipitates. 1970 Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Studies II. xxii. 12 The activation or fixation of complement..depends upon changes in configuration of immuno⁓globulin molecules when they are brought into close apposition during reaction with antigen. |
3. a. The concentration of the gaze upon some object for a given time with the intention of holding the retinal image upon the area of direct vision. Cf. fixate v. 3.
| 1889 H. Ellis tr. Moll's Hypnotism (1890) i. 2 Indian yogis and fakirs..throw themselves into the hypnotic state by means of fixation of the gaze. 1896 G. F. Stout Anal. Psychol. I. 214 For the most part, however, the fixation of images is not accompanied by overt movement or by any very appreciable muscular strain. 1924 [see fixate v. 3]. 1941 Nature 13 Sept. 321/1 Reading ordinary type an average adult reader traverses a line of print 3½ in. long in about six stages or fixations. 1951 [see fixate v. 3]. 1971 Sci. Amer. June 35/1 During normal viewing of stationary objects the eyes alternate between fixations, when they are aimed at a fixed point in the visual field, and rapid movements. |
b. Psychol. In Freudian theory, the arresting of the development of a libidinal component at a pregenital stage, so that psychosexual emotions are ‘fixed’ at that point. Also loosely, an obsession, an idée fixe. Cf. fixate v. 3 b.
| 1910 A. A. Brill tr. Freud's Three Contribs. to Sexual Theory i. 11 A phase of very intense but short-lived fixation on the woman (usually on the mother). Ibid. 27 We find feelings of inversion in the unconscious psychic life, fixation of libido on persons of the same sex. 1925 A. & J. Strachey tr. Freud's Coll. Papers III. iv. 447 In my Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie I have expressed the opinion that each stage in the development of psycho⁓sexuality affords a possibility for the occurrence of a ‘fixation’ and thus for the laying down of a disposition to illness in later life. Ibid. 453 Fixation can be described in this way. One instinct or instinctual component fails to accompany the rest along the anticipated normal path of development. 1946 O. Fenichel Psychoanal. Theory of Neurosis i. v. 65 They represent, rather, pathological cases with special oral-sadistic fixations. 1947 A. Huxley Let. 9 Mar. (1969) 567 Marlow is one of those classical cases, so dear to psychoanalysts, with a fixation on his mother, about which he feels subconsciously guilty, so that he can't associate sex with respectability. 1957 F. Alexander Psychoanal. & Psychotherapy v. 103 According to this view there is a reciprocal relationship between fixation and regression. 1963 Daily Tel. 15 May 25/8 A young man with a fixation about boats. 1970 Ibid. 21 Feb. 8/3 Victorian taste had a fixation with the Gothic. |
c. Med. The immobilization and holding in place of a limb or joint or the parts of a fractured bone; the holding in place of a displaced or floating organ by means of sutures.
| 1897 W. J. Walsham Surg. (ed. 6) 829/1 (Index), Fixation of kidney. 1906 Walsham & Spencer Surg. (ed. 9) iii. 254 Fixation of a fracture by open operation. 1908 Rose & Carless Man. Surg. (ed. 7) xix. 476 The fixation of the fracture in a good position is provided for by the application of suitable splints. 1926 Jrnl. Bone & Joint Surg. VIII. 496 (caption) Vanadium (author's design) steel plate with transfixion of bone, giving maximum fixation and security. 1948 F. W. Holdsworth in Brit. Surg. Pract. IV. 192 Internal fixation is, therefore, advisable by plating the fracture of the radius with a 4-screwed vitallium plate. 1951 Dorland Med. Dict. (ed. 22) 566 Internal fixation, the fastening together and fixation of the ends of a fractured bone by means of wires, plates, screws or nails applied directly to the fractured bone. 1957 R. Nissen in Mulholland Current Surg. Managem. 57 (title) Repair of esophageal hiatal hernia by fixation to the abdominal wall. 1966 J. S. Batchelor in R. Furlong Fractures & Dislocations 215, 85 fractures treated by early fixation within six days of injury gave a non-union of 23 per cent. 1968 S. Taylor et al. Short Textbk. Surg. (ed. 2) xxv. 379 In the past, fixation of the kidney (nephropexy) was performed for such symptoms as aching in the loins. Ibid. xxx. 449 Pathological Fracture... Treatment includes immobilization by internal fixation of the fracture if that is feasible. |
4. attrib. and Comb. fixation-point, the point at which an eye is directed, so that its image falls on the most sensitive part of the retina; also, the most sensitive part of the retina.
| 1890 Billings Med. Dict., Fixation-point.., the point of sight—i.e. the point of which the retinal image is on the centre of clearest vision; the crossing-point in outer space of the lines of regard. 1909 E. B. Titchener Text-bk. Psychol. i. 81 The object first becomes visible as a patch of black;..finally, as it approaches the fixation-point, it appears in its true colour. 1932 S. Duke-Elder Text-bk. Ophthalmol. I. xiii. 580 A position in which the eyes are both directed upon the same fixation point situated straight ahead and infinitely far away. 1950 Sci. News XV. 24 Seven different fixation points were discovered, for the following spectral regions. 1971 Nature 11 June 395/1 The subject fixated a central point in the pre-exposure field and after a ‘ready’ signal the stimulus was presented briefly to the left or right of the fixation point. |