active, a. and n.
(ˈæktɪv)
Also 4–5 actif.
[prob. a. Fr. actif, fem. active, ad. L. actīv-us. But it may be a direct adoption of the L., in the theological phrase vīta actīva, which is the earliest application of the word in Fr. and Eng. alike.]
gen. Characterized by action. Hence
A. adj.
1. a. Opposed to contemplative or speculative: Given to outward action rather than inward contemplation or speculation; practical; esp. with ‘life.’ (Also formerly absol. in pl. sc. virtues, faculties.)
| 1340 Ayenb. 199 Holy writ ous tekþ tuo maneres of liue..þe verste is yhote workvol [active] vor þet hi is ine zuynch of guode workes. 1340 Hampole Prose Tr. 24 Vnto thes men itt longith som tyme to vsene werkis of mercy in actife liffe. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A vii. 236 Actyf lyf or contemplatyf · Crist wolde hit alse. c 1400 Apol. for Loll. 23 Also þei tokun actifis & contemplatifis; þat sterun to vertewe be þer two maneris. 1401 Pol. Poems II. 63 There is maad mencion of two perfit lyves, that actif and contemplatif comounli ben callid, ffulli figurid by Marie and Martha hir sister. 1538 Starkey England 4 But wether hyt [i.e. perfection] stond in the actyve lyfe.. or els in the contemplative..hyt ys not al sure. 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 271 My speculative and active [1623 offic'd] instruments. 1609 Tourneur Fun. Poeme 355 All his industries (As well in actives as contemplatives). 1660 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 161/1 Philosophy concerns either action or contemplation (thence assuming two names, Contemplative and Active) the Active consisting in practice of moral Actions, the Contemplative, in penetration of abstruse Phisical causes, and the nature of the Divinity. 1828 D. Stewart Wks. VI. 122 As the operations in the minds of other men escape our notice we can judge of their activity only from the sensible effects it produces; thence we are led to apply the character of activity to those whose bodily activity is the most remarkable, and to distinguish mankind into two classes, the Active and the Speculative. |
† b. Practical, as opposed to theoretical. Obs.
| 1609 Douland Orinth. Microl. 2 Active Musicke, which also they call Practick, is..the knowledge of singing well. |
2. Opposed to passive: Originating or communicating action, exerting action upon others; acting of its own accord, spontaneous. In 17th c. often absol. in pl. sc. qualities, forces.
| c 1400 Apol. for Loll. 14 God may not autorise þat actyfe cursyng..But passyue cursyng..is just. 1413 Lydgate Pylg. Sowle ii. lx. (1859) 57 Quod the body..thou were in me actyf as fire is in the wood, and I in to the passyf as woode is in the fyre. 1477 Norton Ordin. Alch. v. (Ashmole 1652) 54 Heate, and Cold, be qualities Active, Moisture, and Drines, be qualityes Passive. 1592 W. West Symbolæogr. i. 48 G. The actiue person in Instrumentes is he which maketh the Instruments. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iv. v. 332 If it should be in the power of an Angel by applying actives to passives to produce an Insect. 1736 Butler Analogy i. v. 117 Perception of danger is a natural Excitement of passive fear and active caution. 1846 Mill Logic iii. iii. §9 (1868) 292 Objects which they first believed to be intelligent and active are really lifeless and passive. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. x. 492 The treasons of Eadwine were often passive rather than active. |
3. Grammar. a. properly, An epithet of Voice in verbs used transitively; opposed to Passive (and, in some languages, to Reflexive or Middle). That form of the verb in which the action asserted by it is viewed as a characteristic or attribute of the thing whence it issues, as opposed to the Passive Voice in which the action is viewed as an attribute of the thing towards which it is directed; or, that form of the verb in which the logical subject of the action is made by the speaker the grammatical subject of his assertion, as shown by the verb's agreement with it in inflections, by position, or otherwise. This being (in Aryan Languages) the simple or original form, verbs used intransitively naturally have no other, and are said to have the Active Voice only.
b. Less correctly, said of verbs themselves; in two senses. 1. Applied to verbs which assert that the subject acts upon or affects something else, as distinguished from Passive Verbs, or such as assert of the subject that it is acted on by something or suffers the action, and Neuter Verbs which assert an action or state that has neither character. 2. Applied to all verbs that assert action as distinct from mere existence or state; in this sense Active Verbs are divided into Active Transitive, in which the action passes over to or affects an object, as kill (corresponding to the Active of 1), and Active Intransitive, in which the action does not affect an object, as rise (forming part of the Neuter verbs of 1), Neuter in this nomenclature being restricted to verbs of existence or state, as be, sit.
Both of these uses of the word are etymologically defensible, but both are inconvenient: the distinction between action and state is not always clear, and above all is one of things, not of assertions about them; that of action and passion is merely that of two ways of viewing and asserting the same action; while the passing over of an action to an object or the contrary is better expressed by Transitive and Intransitive, and is moreover not a division of verbs, but of the constructions of each verb separately, the great majority of verbs in Eng. having both constructions.
| 1530 Palsgr. 4 The thyrde parsonnes plurelles of verbes actyves in the frenche tonge..ende in ent. 1591 Percivall Span. Dict. C b, Of Uerbs personals there be three kinds, Actiue, Passiue and Neuter. 1765 W. Ward Ess. Gram. 59, A verb in the active voice very frequently denotes a state which implies no real action, as for instance to suffer; and so, a verb in the passive voice frequently denotes a state which implies no real suffering, as to be found. 1876 Mason Eng. Gram. 59 We may speak of one and the same action by means either of a verb in the active voice, or of a verb in the passive voice. |
4. a. Opposed to quiescent or extinct: Existing in action, working, effective, having practical operation or results. active list (see list n.6); also transf.; active service, war service in the field, at sea, or in the air.
| 1640–4 Capt. Mervin in Rushworth Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 214 The Gray-headed Common Laws Funeral; and the Active Statutes death and Obsequies. 1790 Boswell Johnson xxiv. (Rtldg.) 215 Here was one of the many, many instances of his active benevolence. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. 39 The whole government would be under the constant inspection and active controul of the popular representative and of the magnates of the kingdom. 1829 [see service n.1 12]. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 317 Kamtschatka, where there are seven active volcanos. 1838 Navy List 20 Sept. 118 Alphabetical List of Masters. Those in Italics are unfit for active Service. 1852 Ibid. 20 Dec. 327 The number of Captains on the Active List will be reduced to a number not permanently exceeding 350. 1857 Livingstone Travels vi. 113 It contains an active poison. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. vii. 102 Weary of tarrying where there was no chance of active service. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 79 It is the oxygen which is the active agent. 1899 Kipling Absent-Minded Beggar i, He is out on active service, wiping something off a slate. 1906 Harmsworth Encycl. VII. 576/2 No officer on the active list is allowed to leave the United Kingdom without special permission. 1907 Jrnl. Soc. Arts LV. 429/1 Of these only the Remington and the Hammond are to-day on the active list. |
b. spec. in Physics, = radioactive a.
| 1900 Rutherford in Phil. Mag. XLIX. 163 The top layer of paper over the thorium was found to be active on its upper side. 1905 [see active deposit]. 1938 R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) x. 120 Active isotopes that are lighter than the stable types disintegrate with emission of positrons. |
5. Opposed to sluggish or inert: Abounding in action; energetic, lively, agile, nimble; diligent, busy, brisk. (Of persons and things.)
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. iii. 24, I were simply the most actiue fellow in Europe. 1609 Man in the Moone (1849) 31 It maketh her unfitte to performe any agill or active thing. 1666 Pepys Diary (1879) iii. 485 He being the activest man in the World. 1718 Pope Iliad xv. 683 So strong to fight, so active to pursue. 1786 Cowper Lett. 31 Jan. Wks. 1876 224 Infirmities..which make him less active than he was. 1857 Buckle Civil. iii. 142 Now, the richest Countries are those in which man is most active. 1863 Fawcett Pol. Econ. iii. vi. 371 An active demand for any other commodity is characterised by a rise in its price or value. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxiii. 599 The most active seat of the trade. 1880 Manch. Guardian 16 Dec. 4/4 The market to-day has been more active than for a considerable time. |
6. On the credit side of the balance-sheet, of the nature of an asset; as opposed to passive, i.e. of the nature of a liability. (Common in Fr., but hardly English.)
| 1875 Poste Gaius iii. 350 Selling the active and passive universality of the insolvent's estate..to a purchaser who became liable to the insolvent's creditors. |
7. Used as the first element in such obv. Comb. as active-bodied, active-limbed, active-minded.
| 1870 Bryant Homer I. v. 152 There the active-limbed, Fleet Iris stayed them. 1837 Whewell Induct. Sc. (1857) I. 121 The pleasure which..active-minded men feel in exercising the process of deduction. 1878 Seeley Stein III. 547 The more active-minded among his contemporaries. |
8. Comb. active carbon, charcoal = activated carbon, charcoal (see activate v. b); active current Electr. (see quot. 1926); active deposit Physics (see quot. 1955); active layer Geomorphol., a surface layer of soil, overlying permafrost, that freezes in winter and thaws in summer; active mass Chem., the molecular concentration of a substance (see mass-action (b) s.v. mass n.2).
| 1918 Jrnl. Industr. & Engin. Chem. X. 813/2 If our object is to make an active carbon, none of the mineral matter must be removed before heating. 1921 Jrnl. Soc. Chem. Industry XL. (Trans.) 231/1 All the secret process active carbons come upon the market in the form of a fine powder. 1938 Thorpe's Dict. Appl. Chem. II. 319/2 Active charcoal is widely used in industry for the recovery of valuable products which exist as attenuated vapours in unadsorbable gases. |
| 1924 S. R. Roget Dict. Electr. Terms 2 Active current. 1926 Gloss. Terms Electr. Engin. (B.S.I.) 30 Active current, that component of an alternating current (regarded as a vector quantity) which is in phase with the voltage. |
| 1905 Rutherford in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 1904 A. CCIV. 172 In speaking generally of the active matter, which causes excited activity, without regard to its constituents, I have used the term ‘active deposit’. 1906 ― Radioactive Transformations iv. 95 All bodies surrounded by the radium emanation become coated with an invisible active deposit, possessing physical and chemical properties which sharply distinguish it from the emanation. 1955 Gloss. Terms Radiology (B.S.I.) 6 Active deposit, solid radioactive deposit formed by the decay of a radioactive emanation. |
| 1943 S. W. Muller Permafrost 5 Above the permafrost is a layer of ground that thaws in the summer and freezes again in the winter. This layer represents the seasonally frozen ground and is called the active layer. 1977 A. Hallam Planet Earth 89 The churning of the active layer by freezing and thawing prevents the development of a stable soil structure. |
| 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., Active mass. 1910 Encycl. Brit. VII. 27/1 These spatial concentrations are often called the ‘active masses’ of the reacting components. 1932 Philbrick & Holmyard Text Bk. Theoret. & Inorg. Chem. ii. iii. 110 This law was first enunciated in 1864 [in Forhandl. i Vidensk.-Selsk. i Christiania, p. 92] by Guldberg and Waage, who stated that the rate at which a substance reacted was proportional to its active mass. |
B. n.
1. A person devoted to the active life. (Cf. adj. 1 and contemplative n. 1.)
| c 1380 [see contemplative B. n. 1]. a 1425 Cloud of Unknowing (1944) 5/18 Into þis day alle actyues pleynen hem of contemplatyues, as Martha did on Mary. 1671 Phillips New World of Words, Actifs, an order of Fryars, that feed on Roots, and wear tawny habits. 1946 E. A. Peers Fool of Love vii. 118 It is as an active that Ramon [Lull] appeals to the present age most widely. 1950 A. Huxley Themes & Variations 154 Were there not then, as always, a few ardent contemplatives and actives? |
2. [Elliptical uses of the adj.] a. See active a. 1, 2.
b. Gram. The active voice; an active verb. Cf. passive n. 2.
| 1530 Palsgr. Introd., The actyves have but the pronowne or substantyve before the verbe. 1582 G. Martin Discoverie Manifold Corruptions i. 13 If passives must be turned into actives, and actives into passives, participles disagree in case from their substantives..: who would so presume in the text of holy Scripture, to haue al grammar..at his commaundement, but Beza & his lik? 1611 Brinsley Pos. Parts. (1669) 29 Cannot a Verb Neuter take r, to make it a Passive, as Actives do? c 1620 A. Hume Orthogr. Brit. Tongue (1865) 32 Verbes of doing are actives or passives. The active verb adheres to the person of the agent; as, Christ hath conquered hel and death. 1669 Milton Accedence 20 The Active Signifieth to do, and always endeth in o, as Doceo, I teach. 1818 E. V. Blomfield tr. Matthiæ's Gr. Gram. II. 710 The effect of the active consists in determining the case which it governs. 1879 W. W. Goodwin Elem. Greek Gram. (new ed.) 110 The uncontracted forms of the future active and middle of ϕαίνω..are found in Homer and Herodotus. 1933 O. Jespersen Essent. Eng. Gram. xii. 121 The subject of a passive verb is what in the active would be an object. But if in the active there are two objects, only one of them can be made the subject. 1973 N. S. Smith tr. Ruwet's Introd. Generative Gram. vi. 114 This solution..still does not allow the formal indication of the relation between the passive (3) and the active (4). 1985 R. Quirk et al. Comprehensive Gram. Eng. Lang. 163 In English, prepositional verbs..can often occur in the passive, but not so freely as in the active. |
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Add: [A.] [8.] active immunity Immunol., acquired immunity which is induced in an individual by exposure to an antigenic stimulus.
| 1897 Muir & Ritchie Man. Bacteriol. xix. 426 *Active immunity is obtained by (a) injections of the organisms either in an attenuated condition or in sub-lethal doses, or (b) by sub-lethal doses of their products. 1928 L. E. H. Whitby Med. Bacteriol. ii. 16 In active immunity the defensive mechanisms of the body have been created either by a response to a previous infection or artificially by inoculation with vaccines. 1985 M. F. Myles Textbk. Midwives (ed. 10) xxviii. 485 Some weeks elapse before the baby produces an active immunity to various organisms. |
active matrix Electronics, pertaining to or designating a form of liquid crystal display in which each pixel is controlled by its own transistor, thus improving contrast.
| 1980 Information Display Nov. 9/2 To overcome addressing problems, an *active matrix silicon MOS wafer was used to address the display (one transistor and one capacitor per element). 1984 Fortune 28 May 76/3 While laboratory samples of active-matrix screens exist..the production process is still a question mark. 1992 IEEE Spectrum Mar. 3/1 Experts said the technology..could produce displays that are lighter..and more energy-efficient than the active-matrix liquid-crystal displays. |
active site, (a) Biochem., the region of an enzyme which binds specifically to the substrate and participates directly in catalysis; (b) Chem., a region of a solid surface possessing catalytic activity.
| 1957 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. LXXIX. 2657/1 The substrate is assumed to be absorbed with a precise fit into an area called the ‘*active site’ of the protein. 1984 J. Pennington in C. A. Heaton Introd. Industr. Chem. viii. 294 The term active sites was coined to describe those localities on the surface which would induce the desired chemical reaction. 1990 Protein Engin. IV. 117/1 The glutamine and tyrosine are the only polar, non-liganding residues present in the active site of the enzyme at close enough proximity to the iron atom to play a direct role in catalysis. |
active transport Biochem., the transport of molecules or ions across a cellular membrane against an electrochemical gradient.
| 1937 Trans. Faraday Soc. XXXIII. 912 *Active transport of a substance is brought about by some kind of dynamic machinery working within living cells. 1964 G. H. Haggis et al. Introd. Molecular Biol. vi. 155 Movement against the concentration gradient or, more generally, movement of the transported molecule or ion to a state of higher thermodynamic potential energy, is termed active transport. 1989 Sci. Amer. Nov. 51/3 Concentrations of micronutrients in blood plasma are usually low; to scavenge them from the blood, the choroid plexus relies on active-transport mechanisms. |
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▸ activewear n. orig. U.S. casual, comfortable clothing, esp. in styles suitable for sport or exercise; sportswear.
| 1924 N.Y. Times 10 Aug. 10 e/4 Line checks in bright shades upon medium grounds are preferred for *active wear, with pastel and ivory grounds prevailing in party frocks. 1984 Sears Catal. 1985 Spring–Summer 41 Laundered-look cotton activewear bursting with casual character and comfort. 2006 Guardian (Nexis) 22 Apr. (Weekend section) 73 High street specialist Blacks has just launched..its first range of women's activewear, which includes hooded tops, T-shirts and shorts in supersoft wickable fabrics. |