a. [a. mid. Fr. absolut (mod. absolu), a 14th c. latinizing of Fr. asolu, assolu:—L. absolūt-um loosened, free, separate, acquitted, completed, etc.; pa. pple. of absolv-ĕre: see ABSOLVE. The senses were largely taken in 6–7 direct from L., in which the development of meaning had already taken place, so that they do not form a historical series in Eng.] Originally a pple. absolved, disengaged: then adj. disengaged or free from imperfection or qualification; from interference, connection, relation, comparison, dependence; from condition, conditional forms of knowledge or thought. Formerly compared absoluter, -est.
I. Detached, disengaged, unfettered.
† 1. pple. Absolved, loosened, detached, disengaged (from). Obs.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boethius, 175. Men sen it vtterly fre and absolut from alle necessite.
† 2. Disengaged from all interrupting causes, untrammeled; hence, completely absorbed in any occupation. Obs.
1483. Caxton, G. Leg., 197/1. She abode there as recluse … absolute in wakyng, in prayers, in fastynges and orysons.
† 3. Disengaged from all accidental or special circumstances; essential, general. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. de Pr. R. (1495), I. 5. The fader, the son, the holy ghost be thre persones by personall proprytees, but thabsolute propritees be comune to all thre persones.
II. Absolute in quality or degree; perfect.
4. Free from all imperfection or deficiency; complete, finished; perfect, consummate.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boethius, 89. For þe nature of þinges ne token nat her bygynnyng of þinges amenused and inperfit, but it procediþ of þingus þat ben al hool, and absolut.
1550. Bullinger, in Strype’s Eccl. Mem., II. 407. The most wise and absolute counsils.
1579. Lyly, Euphues, 123. A young man so absolute, as yat nothing may be added to his further perfection.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 62. Captaine Hender, the absolutest man of war for precise obseruing martiall rules.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., V. i. 44. As shie, as graue, as iust, as absolute: As Angelo.
1615. Sandys, Travels, 207. Where mariners be English: who are the absolutest vnder heauen in their profession.
1627. Feltham, Resolves (1677), I. xxvi. 46. It is not to any man given, absolutely to be absolute.
1643. Prynne, Sov. Pow. Parl., Ded. A ii. b. One person of the exquisitest judgement,… deepest Policy, absolutest abilities.
1705. Stanhope, Paraph., I. 49. The most absolute and perfect of all examples.
1875. Ruskin, Lect. on Art, III. 69. Two great masters of the absolute art of language, Virgil and Pope.
5. Of degree: Complete, entire; in the fullest sense.
1574. trans. Marlorat’s Apocalips, 40. From whence should we fetch the rule of absolute perfection.
1592. Greene, in Skaksp. Cent. Praise, 2. Being an absolute Johannes fac totum.
1641. Milton, Ch. Discip. (1851), I. 32. The honour of its absolute sufficiency.
1664. Dr. H. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 3. These holes were not absolute perforations, but onley dimples.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 897. Which yet is an Absolute Impossibility.
1792. Anec. of Pitt, III. xliii. 154. The absolute necessity for making peace with America.
1862. A. Trollope, Orley Farm, xvi. 127. This may with absolute strictness be the case.
1878. G. Macdonald, Ann. Quiet Neighb., xviii. 356. Leaving me in absolute ignorance of how to interpret her.
6. Pure and simple, mere; in the strictest sense. Absolute alcohol, i.e., perfectly free from water.
1563. Homilies (1640), II. xxi. II. 286. David was no common or absolute subject.
1677. Hales, Prim. Orig. Man., I. vi. 118. Duration without a thing that dureth … is the veriest, the absolutest Nothing that can be.
1688. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 989. The Fishing Hauk is an absolute Species of a Kingsfisher. Ibid. (1693), in Misc. Cur. (1708), III. 340. Musk-Rats, an absolute Species of Water-Rats, only having a curious Musky scent.
1834. E. Turner, Elem. Chem., 877. The strongest alcohol … is called absolute alcohol, to denote its entire freedom from water.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Wom. & Bks., II. I. 8. The absolutest, and sometimes loathsomest, trash.
1871. B. Stewart, Heat, § 26. To register still lower temperatures … a thermometer filled with Absolute Alcohol is employed.
III. Absolute or detached in position or relation; independent.
7. Of ownership, authority: Free from all external restraint or interference; unrestricted, unlimited, independent. Absolute prize, one which becomes the absolute property of the winner, as distinguished from a challenge cup, etc., held till competed for anew.
1533. Tindale, Sup. of the Lord, 30. To dispute of God’s almighty absolute power,… is great folly and no less presumption.
1576. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 263. The Bishops were never absolute owners heereof, till the time of King William Rufus.
1630. Prynne, Anti-Arm., 115. It makes man an absolute, an independent creature.
1695. Anct. Const. Eng., 19. As for the King … he hath not absolute unlimited power of doing whatever he will.
1738. Wesley, Psalms (1765), 89. Possest of absolute Command, Thou Truth and Mercy dost maintain.
1861. Times, 10 July. Lord Spencer offered an absolute prize cup worth 20l., to be competed for at 500 yards by the best shot of each of the three schools.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ. (1875), I. ii. § 12. 38. Thus the first cause must be in every sense perfect, complete, total: including within itself all power, and transcending all law, Or to use the established word, it must be absolute.
8. Hence, having absolute power, governing absolutely; unlimited by a constitution or the concurrent authority of a parliament; arbitrary, despotic.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olbion, xi. 178. Nor could time euer bring In all the seauen-fold rule an absoluter King.
1625. Bacon, Ess., xix. 80. To depresse them [nobles] may make a King more Absolute, but less safe.
1735–8. Ld. Bolingbroke, Dissn. on Parties, 160. Absolute Monarchy is Tyranny; but absolute Democracy is Tyranny and Anarchy both.
1756. Burke, Vind. Nat. Soc., Wks. I. 46. Republicks have many things in the spirit of absolute monarchy.
1775. Sheridan, Reading, 353. Our constitution is made up of a due mixture of the three species of government, being partly monarchical, partly republican, and partly absolute.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. iii. 114. An able king is practically absolute.
1887. Lord Acton, Lett. to Creighton, in Hist. Essays & Studies (1907), App. 504. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
9. Standing out of (the usual) grammatical relation or syntactic construction with other words, as in the ablative absolute. The absolute form of a word: that in which it is not inflected to indicate relation to other words in a sentence.
1527. Whitinton, Vulg., 3. Somtyme it is put in the case of the ablatyue case absolute.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc. (ed. 7), I. xvi. 41. The Absolute [Numbers] are simply pronounced without having any relation to any other number, measure, or quantity, as 2, 3, 4, &c.
1612. Brinsley, Pos. Parts (1669), 77. The Ablative case absolute. What mean you by absolute? A. Without other government.
1751. Harris, Hermes (1841), 142. All existence is either absolute or qualified: absolute, as when we say, B is; qualified, as when we say, B is an animal.
1859. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaphysic, II. xxxvi. 330. The child commences, like the savage, by employing only isolated words in place of phrases; he commences by taking verbs and nouns only in their absolute state.
¶ The absolute case in English was formerly the Dative or Instrumental: it is now the Nominative.
10. Viewed without relation to, or comparison with, other things of the same kind; considered only in its relation to space or existence as a whole, or to some permanent standard; real, actual; opposed to relative and comparative.
1666. Boyle, in Phil. Trans., I. 239. The Absolute or Comparative height of mountains.
1753. Johnson, Adventurer, No. 3, Wks. 1787, IX. 110. We find in it absolute misery, but happiness only comparative.
1785. Reid, Intell. Pow. Man, 293. This space therefore which is unlimited and immoveable, is called by Philosophers absolute space.
1822. Imison, Sci. & Art, I. 447. Absolute motion is the actual motion that bodies have, independent of each other, and only with regard to the parts of space.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 68. It is not so much the absolute quantity of moisture in the air as its relative humidity.
¶ Superlative absolute, that which expresses a very high degree of quality, as distinct from stating that it is the highest of a set compared together (Superlative relative).
IV. Free from condition or mental limitation; unconditioned.
† 11. Of persons and things: Free from all doubt or uncertainty; positive, perfectly certain, decided. Sometimes adv. positively. Obs.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., III. i. 5. Be absolute for death.
1604. Rowlands, Looke to It, 14. Thou that wilt vow most absolute to know, That which thy conscience knowes thou neuer knew.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 106. I am absolute ’Twas very Cloten.
1662. R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., § 92. 160. He would warrant my recovery … he commended it as one of the most absolute things in the World.
1676. Cottrell, Cassandra, VI. 561. ’Twill suffice to confirm me absolute in the opinion I have of thy Vertue.
12. Of statements: Free from conditions or reservations; unreserved, unqualified, unconditional.
1625–49. Charles I., Wks., 294. My thoughts were sincere and absolute without any sinister ends.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 89. That it is not an Absolute, Inconditionate Promise to the Whole is plain.
1736. Butler, Anal., II. vii. 363. Some of these promises are conditional, some are as absolute, as anything can be expressed.
1832. J. Austin, Lect. Jurispr. (1879), I. xii. 357. Where an obligation is absolute there is no right with which it correlates.
b. esp. in Logic.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. vi. 104. The Question … is not absolute,… but hypothetical.
1860. Thomson, Laws of Thought, 297. With the exception of the last case it would be impossible to frame an absolute proposition.
1870. Bowen, Logic, v. 127. In respect to the Relation of the Predicate to the Subject, Judgments are divided into simple or absolute, and conditional.
13. Metaph. Existing without relation to any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing.
1858. Mansel, Bamp. Lect. (ed. 4), ii. 30. By the Absolute is meant that which exists in and by itself, having no necessary relation to any other being.
1869. J. Martineau, Ess., II. 269. Schelling has vindicated the possibility of knowing the absolute.
1875. H. E. Manning, Holy Ghost, xii. 325. There has sprung up … a school of men who tell us that the Absolute is unknowable, and that we can therefore know nothing of God.
14. Metaph. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned.
1853. Sir W. Hamilton, Discuss., App. I. To Cusa we can indeed articulately trace, word and thing, the recent philosophy of the Absolute.
1856. Ferrier, Inst. Metaph., 370. Whatever can be known (or conceived) out of relation, that is to say, without any correlative being necessarily known (or conceived) along with it, is the known Absolute. Ibid. (ed. 2), 10. Another phantom is a mask, or rather a whole toy-shop of masks, which philosophers have been pleased to call the ‘Absolute’; but what they exactly mean by this name—what it is that is under these trappings,—neither those who run down the incognito, nor those who speak it fair, have ever condescended to inform us.
15. Metaphys. Considered independently of its being subjective or objective.
1809–10. Coleridge, Friend (ed. 3), III. 212. The absolute is neither singly that which affirms, nor that which is affirmed; but the identity and living copula of both.
1858. R. A. Vaughan, Ess. & Rev., I. 57. Schelling pronounced the subject and object identical in the absolute. Ibid. (1860), Ho. w. Myst. (ed. 2), I. 213. Shake off that dream of personality, and you will see that good and evil are identical in the Absolute.
¶ In the last three uses the word approaches the character of a substantive, as the name of a metaphysical conception: the Absolute, i.e., that which is absolute.
