Circular

a. and sb. In 5–6 -er, 5 -ere, 6 Sc. -eir, 6–7 -are. [ME. circuler, a. AF. circuler = OF. circulier, a partially Latinized alteration of OF. cerclier:—L. circulār-is, f. circul-us CIRCLE. The F. cerclier was successively refashioned as cerculier, circulier, circulaire; the Eng. became with the Renascence circular.]

  A.  adjective.

  1.  Of the form of a circle; round in superficies.

1430.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, II. xi. A smale aulter … that was halfe circuler.

1541.  R. Copland, Galyen’s Terapeutyke, 2 F iv. The vlcere that are cyrculer and rounde.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. ix. 22. The frame thereof seemd partly circulare, And part triangulare.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 1, ¶ 5. Round of Politicians at Will’s … those little Circular Audiences.

1833.  Sir J. Herschel, Astron., vi. 224. A body which always casts a circular shadow must itself be spherical.

1861.  Parker, Goth. Archit., I. i. (1874), 3. Circular churches were occasionally used from an early period.

  † 2.  transf. Perfect, full, complete. Obs.

1616.  Chapman, Homer’s Hymn to Hermes, 82. Nor must you … Boile in your gall a grudge too circulare. Ibid. (1618), Hesiod, Ded. 142. Nor were those Greeks so circular in their elegant utterance, but their inward judgments and learnings were as round and solid.

1631.  Massinger, Emperor East, III. ii. In this, sister, Your wisdom is not circular.

1659.  Dryden, On Cromwell, v. How shall I then begin or where conclude To draw a fame so truly circular? For in a round what order can be shewed, Where all the parts so equal-perfect are?

  3.  Moving in or passing over a circle; orbitual; describing a circle.

c. 1450.  Epiph., in Tundale’s Vis. (1843), 103. As Phebus went by meuyng circulere.

1585.  Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 25. Into a circuler dance.

1635.  N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., I. iv. 76. It is probable that the terrestriall Globe hath a circular motion.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 663. Like the circular motion of a wheel.

  b.  Circular tour: one which is completed at (or near) the place of starting; circular ticket, one serving for all the stages of such a tour.

1860.  Advt. Circular tour of Loch Lomond and the Trosachs, returning from Stirling or Edinburgh.

1873.  Cook’s Excursionist, No. 5 June. Through-tickets, semi-circular tickets, and circular tourist tickets.

  4.  fig. a. Moving or occurring in a round or cycle of repetition.

a. 1643.  G. Sandys, Bk. Job, 12 (T.). The life of man is a perpetual war, In misery and sorrow circular.

1647.  Crashaw, Poems, Death Herrys, 95. When weak time shall be poured out into eternity, and circular joys Dance in an endless round.

a. 1684.  Earl Roscom., Wks. (1753), 23 (J.).

  b.  fig. Forming a link in a circular chain.

1841–4.  Emerson, Ess. Circles, Wks. (Bohn), I. 125. The circular or compensatory character of every human action.

  5.  Of the nature of arguing or reasoning in a circle.

1646.  Gillespie, Malè Audis, 50–1. Mr. Coleman … chargeth me with a circular argumentation.

1681.  Hobbes, Rhet., I. ix. 24. To praise the Work from the Vertue of the Worker, is a circular proof.

1700.  T. Baker, Reflect. Learn. (1708), 73 (J.). One of his [Carte’s] first Principles of Reasoning … seems to be too circular to be safely built upon; for he is for proving the Being of a GOD from the Truth of our Faculties, and the Truth of our Faculties from the Being of a GOD.

  6.  Circuitous, roundabout, indirect.

1617.  Middleton & Rowley, Fair Quarrel, II. ii. If you knew well my heart, you would not bee So circuler.

1865.  Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. i. You circular old dodger.

  7.  = CYCLIC. Obs. rare.

1711.  J. Dennis, Orig. Lett. (1721), II. 381 (J.). Had Virgil been a circular Poet, and closely adher’d to History, how could the Romans have been transported with that inimitable Episode of Dido...?

  8.  Affecting or relating to a circle or number of persons; esp. in circular letter, ‘a letter directed to several persons, who have the same interest in some common affair’ (J.); circular note (a.) prec.; (b.) a letter of credit addressed by a banker (e.g., in London) to several bankers in other countries, in favor of a certain person named therein, usually a person on a tour.

1659.  Bp. Walton, Consid. Considered, 192. Their chief Priest … sends circular letters to the rest about their solemn feasts.

1637.  R. L’Estrange, Answ. Dis., 29. And never any Letter perhaps, was more Universally Circular, then This has been.

1776.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. xii. 246. Circular epistles were sent … to all the principal cities.

1827.  Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), III. xiv. 75. The country gentlemen … were tried with circular questions, whether they would comply with the king in their elections.

a. 1847.  Mrs. Sherwood, Lady of Manor, I. v. 149. An old lady … came from a distant part of the county to pay a circular visit among her relations.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 225. Circular letters, imploring them to sign, were sent to every corner of the kingdom.

1850.  Thackeray, Kickleburys, Wks. (1869), 188. My lady K. walked over to the money changers, where she changed a couple of circular notes.

1879.  Farrar, St. Paul, II. 438. The circular Epistle which is generally known as the Epistle to the Ephesians.

  9.  Math. Of or pertaining to the circle, or its mathematical properties; as in

  Circular arc, cubic, error, function, measure; circular line (a.) see quot. 1796; (b.) the imaginary straight line joining the center of any circle to either of the two circular points at infinity, and forming a tangent to the circle; circular parts (of Napier), ‘five parts of a right-angled or a quadrantal spherical triangle; they are the two legs, the complement of the hypothenuse, and the complements of the two oblique angles’ (Hutton, Math. Dict.); circular points, the two imaginary points at infinity through which all circles pass, also called focoids.

1599.  Massinger, etc. Old Law, V. i. All Studies else are but as circular lines And death the centre where they must all meet.

1796.  Hutton, Math. Dict., I. 289/1. Circular Lines, a name given by some authors to such straight lines as are divided by means of the divisions made in the arch of a circle. Such as the Sines, Tangents, Secants, &c.

1859.  Todhunter, Sph. Trigonom., v. § 66 (1871), 35. Two rules, which are called, from their inventor, Napier’s Rules of Circular Parts. Ibid. (1874), Trigonom., ii. § 20. 10. The fraction arc divided by radius is called the circular measure of an angle.

1878.  J. Wolstenholme, Math. Problems (ed. 2), 247. The two impossible circular points at infinity.

1884.  B. Williamson, Diff. Calc., xii. § 186 (ed. 5). This curve is called a circular cubic. Ibid., 431. Eliminate the circular and exponential function from the equation.

1884.  F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 60. [The] Circular Error … in a clock [is] the difference of time caused by the pendulum following a circular instead of a cycloidal path.

  10.  Technical.

  Circular bolt: ‘a machine employed by the Nottingham lace manufacturers in making net’ (Simmonds, Trade Dict.). Circular canon (Mus.): a canon that leads back to the beginning and repeats itself instead of coming to a regular close. Circular-circular work (Arch.): ‘a term applied to any work which is formed by the intersection of two cylinders whose axes are not in the same direction’ (Gwilt). Circular crystals: ‘a term applied to the flattened groups of radiating needles which form when solutions of oxalurate of ammonia, salicine, and other substances are evaporated in a thin layer on a microscopic slide’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.). Circular file: ‘a circular saw or serrated disc, adapted to run on a spindle or mandrel, and used in cutting teeth of cog-wheels’ (Knight, Dict. Mech.). Circular instruments; instruments for measuring angles, graduated round the whole circumference of a circle, i.e., 360°. Circular loom: ‘a loom in which the shuttle moves in a circular race and continuously in one direction through warps arranged in a circle’ (Knight, Dict. Mech.). Circular number: a number whose powers terminate in the same digit as the number itself. Circular polarization: see POLARIZATION. Circular sailing (Naut.): navigation by the arc of a great circle (see CIRCLE sb. 2 b.). Circular saw: a saw in the form of a circular disc, which is made to revolve rapidly on its axis. Hence circular saw-mill, etc. Circular shears: ‘shears for sheet-metal consisting of two circular blades on parallel pins’ (Knight, Dict. Mech.). Circular work (Arch.): ‘a term applied to any work with cylindric faces’ (Gwilt).

1869.  Ouseley, Counterp., xv. 105. If it [the canon] is made continually to recur to the beginning, so as never to come to a regular close, it is called Infinite, or *Circular.

1796.  Hutton, Math. Dict., *Circular Numbers, are such as have their powers ending in the roots themselves. As the number 5, whose square is 25, and its cube 125, &c.

1852.  C. W. H[oskyns], Talpa, 178. As easily as a *circular-saw cuts a plank.

1816.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 98. The construction of a circular saw-mill, invented by Smart.

  11.  Comb., as circular-cutting, -edged, -shaped, -storied, -visaged, adjs.; circular-wise adv.

1852.  C. W. H[oskyns], Talpa, 182. The *circular-cutting implement I have described.

1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, I. 151. Gouges are … *circular-edged tools.

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., v. A couple of large-headed, *circular-visaged males.

1598.  Yong, Diana, 302. The thunderclap as it comes not right down but *circularwise.

1725.  Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Pheasant Pouts, Place the Nets … circularwise.

  B.  sb. † 1. A circular figure or space. rare.

1560.  Rolland, Crt. Venus, II. 595. In ane conclaue all maid of Christall cleir … Bot ȝit he saw within that circuleir.

1815.  J. Gilchrist, Labyrinth Demolished, 44. O, C, G, with their diversities, are circles or circulars.

  2.  Short for circular letter or note: now esp. a business notice or advertisement, printed or otherwise reproduced in large numbers for distribution.

1818.  Todd, Circular Letter … Modern affectation has changed this expression into the substantive; and we now hear of nothing but circulars from publick offices, and circulars from superintendants of a feast or club.

1822.  Byron, Lett. to Kinnaird, 6 Feb. The circulars are arrived, and circulating.

1848.  Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, iv. (L.). Down with the Court Circular—that engine and propagator of Snobbishness. I promise to subscribe for a year to any daily paper that shall come out without the Court Circular.

1856.  Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. ii. 155. He summoned the peers by circular to London.

1880.  Brit. Post. Guide, 6. Circulars,—i.e., letters which, from internal evidence, appear to be intended for transmission in identical terms to several persons … may also be sent by book post.

1888.  Lindley, Partnership (ed. 5), 222. A change in the name of a firm … coupled with announcements of the change by circulars sent to the old customers.