‖ modus
(ˈməʊdəs)
Pl. (rare) modi (ˈməʊdaɪ); (in sense 4) moduses.
[L. modus: see mode n.]
† 1. Old Law. The qualification of the terms of a conveyance or other instrument; the consideration of a conveyance.
| 1590 Swinburne Testaments 137 Modus is a moderation, whereby a charge or burthen is imposed, in respecte of a commoditie... The meane or moderation is knowen by this worde (that) as I make A. B. my executor or giue him a hundred pound, that he maie erect a monument. 1850 Burrill Law Dict., Modus,..in old conveyancing. A consideration; the consideration of a conveyance, technically expressed by the word ut. |
2. gen. The way in which anything is done; mode or manner of operation.
Sometimes short for m. operandi or m. agendi (see 5).
| 1648 Evelyn Corr. (1852) III. 23 Touching the reports of this day..as that Rochester was entered by stratagem, or Canterbury (for none of the relators agree either in the place or modus). a 1686 T. Watson Body Div. (1692) 239 What shall be the modus or manner of Trial? 1780 in I. Allen Hist. Vermont (1798) 144 That either party should establish the modus, or rules to be pursued in determining disputes. 1846 in Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. IV. 259 The modus in which the electric charge passes along the wires. 1898 A. Lang Making Relig. viii. 143 Because..psychologists are unable to explain, or give the modus of a set of phenomena. |
† 3. Philos. = mode n. 6. Obs. In full modus essendi or modus existendi.
| 1675 Howe Living Temple ii. i. Wks. 1724 I. 126 [Criticism of Spinoza.] And if the Essence of Substance contains the inexisting Modi, the Essence of the Modi doth equally contain their inexistence in Substance. a 1679 T. Goodwin Christ Mediator ii. v. (1692) 48 One and the same thing is differenced from it self by a different modus, or manner of existing. a 1679 ― Man's Restaur. Grace iii. 9 The distinction of their personality (if abstractly considered from the essence) being but modus essendi. |
4. A money payment in lieu of tithe. In full modus decimandi.
| 1618 Selden Hist. Tithes x. 288 Where any..Prescription or Custome hath setled a Modus Decimandi or certain quantitie payable, though never so little, for the Tithe. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 111 It is to be wish'd that there were some more certain Modus in lieu of that troublesome way of Tything. 1687 Assur. Abb. Lands 31 Also Modus of Tithes was another Infringement of the Canons. 1747 Gentl. Mag. 57/1 The ancient Modusses and compositions for tythes. 1763 Burn Eccl. Law II. 388 Of modus's, or exemptions from payment of tithes in kind. 1766 Blackstone Comm. II. iii. 29–30. 1843 Meeson & Welsby's Excheq. Rep. (1844) XI. 676 The plaintiff was..employed in maintaining and upholding the said moduses. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt vi. I. 137 The spiritual person who still took his tithe-pig or his modus. |
5. In mod.L. phrases: a. modus agendi, the mode in which a thing acts or operates.
| 1849 Noad Electricity (ed. 3) 29 Scientific men are not agreed as to the modus agendi of the amalgam applied to the rubber. |
b. modus operandi, mode of operating: (a) the way in which a thing, cause, etc., operates; (b) in more recent use, the way in which a person goes to work.
| 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 222 Because their Causes, or their modus operandi (which is but the Application of the Cause to the Effect) doth not fall under Demonstration. 1835 Edin. Rev. LXI. 85 We are still ignorant of the nature..of this force, and of its modus operandi. 1843 Mill Logic iii. x. §8 I. 529 We must make entire abstraction of all knowledge of the simpler tendencies, the modi operandi of mercury in detail. 1874 W. Archer in Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. XIV. 130 The following will show the modus operandi. 1894 K. Grahame Pagan P. 86 It would hardly be in the public interest to disclose his modus operandi. 1935 G. Poole Haulage & Winding xiii. 324 Assuming that an overwind has taken place,..the modus operandi is as follows:—The engine-driver at once closes his throttle and immediately he has to call an assistant to go to the overwinding device; [etc.]. 1947 Sci. News V. 14 The modus operandi of insulin was, in Sakel's original theory, upon the nerve cells and the hormones which, he believed, excited their activity especially in the ‘vegetative centres’. 1949 [see how n.3 2]. 1955 Bull. Atomic Sci. Feb. 58/3 Their modus operandi against limited aggression would be simple. 1972 Mod. Law Rev. XXXV. 28 The modus operandi of a small claims judge should approximate more closely to that of a police detective. |
c. modus vivendi, ‘a mode of living’; a working arrangement between contending parties, pending the settlement of matters in debate.
| 1879 N. & Q. Ser. v. XII. 109 ‘Modus Vivendi’—This formula is in daily use to express a practical compromise. 1882 Standard 27 Dec. 4/7 The Russian Government and the Pope have arranged a modus vivendi. 1884 Manch. Exam. 9 Dec. 5/5 He hoped to establish a modus vivendi pending the conclusion of a Treaty. |
d. modus ponens (Logic), ‘mood that affirms’; the rule that from if p then q together with p, q may be inferred; an argument of this form. In full modus ponendo ponens.
| a 1856 W. Hamilton Lect. Metaphysics & Logic (1860) I. 344 We can always easily convert an hypothetical syllogism of one form into another,—the modus ponens into the modus tollens. 1870 W. S. Jevons Elem. Lessons Logic xix. 161 The argument is said to be of the modus ponens, or mood which posits or affirms. 1916 H. W. B. Joseph Introd. Logic (ed. 2) xv. 335 The argument is said to be in the modus ponens. 1957 P. Suppes Introd. Logic ii. 32 The Latin name for the Law of Detachment is modus ponendo ponens. 1972 Computer Jrnl. XV. 230/2 Applying the rule of modus ponens on the above instance. |
e. modus tollens (Logic), ‘mood that denies’; the rule that from if p then q together with not-q, not-p may be inferred; an argument of this form. In full modus tollendo tollens.
| a 1856 [see modus ponens]. 1881 Max Müller tr. Kant's Critique Pure Reason II. ii. i. 678 The modus tollens of reasoning, from consequences to their grounds, is not only perfectly strict, but also extremely easy. 1916 H. W. B. Joseph Introd. Logic (ed. 2) xv. 337 The modus tollens is of the form [etc.]. 1940 Mind XLIX. 208 An inference in the modus tollendo tollens..yields the contrary of the original contrary hypothesis. 1965 E. J. Lemmon Beginning Logic ii. 61 Modus tollendo tollens is the principle that, if a conditional holds and also the negation of its consequent, then the negation of its antecedent holds. |