a.; 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
1. 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. Shaks., 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, Orinthop. 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, II. 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 that 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.
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.
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. Opposed to quiescent or extinct: Existing in action, working, effective, having practical operation or results.
1640–4. Capt. Mervin, in Rushworth’s 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.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 317. Kamtschatka, where there are seven active volcanos.
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.
5. Opposed to sluggish or inert: Abounding in action; energetic, lively, agile, nimble; diligent, busy, brisk. (Of persons and things.)
1597. Shaks., 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. Guard., 16 Dec. 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.
1786. P. Thicknesse, Journ. Austrian Netherlands (ed. 2), Let. ii. 15. This very able and active minded Prince, when he visited these parts of his dominions, made Brussels, (the capital of the Païs-bas) the last town he entered, chusing to know the courtiers first from their neighbours.
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.
