† 1. Law. ‘A law, act of justice, or judgement, which renders a criminal process civil; which is performed by turning an information into an inquest, or the contrary’ (Harris, quoted by J.) The assimilation of Common Law to the Civil Law.
1704–10. Harris, Lex. Techn. (see above).
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Civilisation is performed by turning the information into an inquest, or vice versa.
1730–6. in Bailey.
1812. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 179. Getting us rid of all Mansfield’s innovations, or civilizations of the common law.
2. The action or process of civilizing or of being civilized.
1775. Ash, Dict., Civilization, the state of being civilized, the act of civilizing.
1828–46. Whately, Elem. Rhet., I. ii. § 4. 71. The descriptions some writers give of the Civilization of Mankind, by the spontaneous origin, among tribes of Savages, of the various arts of life, one by one, are to be regarded as wholly imaginary.
1879. M. Arnold, Mixed Ess., Pref. 6. Civilisation is the humanisation of man in society.
Mod. To attempt the civilization of the Australian aborigines.
3. (More usually) Civilized condition or state; a developed or advanced state of human society; a particular stage or a particular type of this.
1772. Boswell, Johnson, xxv. On Monday, March 23, I found him [Johnson] busy, preparing a fourth edition of his folio Dictionary…. He would not admit civilization, but only civility. With great deference to him, I thought civilization, from to civilize, better in the sense opposed to barbarity, than civility.
1775. in Ash (see 2).
1774. T. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry (1840), I. Dissert. 1 (T.). The general growth of refinement, and the progression of civilisation.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 117. Our manners, our civilization, and all the good things which are connected with manners, and with civilization.
1814. Sir T. Munro, Evid. bef. Comm. H of C. Then the Hindoos are not inferior in civilization to the people of Europe.
1857. Buckle, Civiliz., I. ii. 45. The seat of Egyptian civilization; a civilization which … forms a striking contrast to the barbarism of the other nations of Africa. Ibid., 46. The civilization of Europe … has shown a capacity of development unknown to those civilizations which were originated by soil.
1865. Lecky, Ration., I. 19. The ancient civilisations were never directed earnestly to the investigation of natural phenomena.
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., iii. 42. The more advanced the civilization, the less powerful is the individual.
b. transf.
1874. Lubbock, Orig. & Met. Ins., i. 13. Some communities of ants are more advanced in civilization than others.
