Also 3–4 concepcioun(e, -ciun, 3–6 -cion, 5 -tyown, 5–6 -cyon; 3 consepcioun, 5 -cion(e. [a. F. conception (14th c. in Littré), ad. L. conceptiōn-em, n. of action f. concip-ĕre, concept- to CONCEIVE.]
1. The action of conceiving, or fact of being conceived, in the womb.
Occurs early in ecclesiastical use. Immaculate Conception: see IMMACULATE.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 220. (Cott.) Þe last resun of alle þis ron Sal be of hir concepcion. Ibid. (a. 1300), 11013. Fra sant iohn þe concepcion … til þe annunciaciun.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. X. 178. Careful Concepcion comeþ of such weddyng.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. i. (1495), 186. Aege is spase of the lyfe of a beest and begynnyth from the concepcyon.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., xlvii. 205 (Harl. MS.). He enterid … in to the wombe of oure seint marie the virgine; & þere he lay fro tyme of his consepcion vnto the tyme of his nativite.
1450–1530. Myrr. our Ladye, 5. So meruelous clene concepcion and holy byrthe.
1545. Raynold, Byrth Mankynde, 11. In tyme of conception of the seede.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 232. Conception is nothing els but the wombs receiuing and imbracing of the seede.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 287. At the second month after conception … [the head] forms half the height of the body.
fig. 1607. Shaks., Timon, I. ii. 115. Ioy had the like conception in our eies, And at that instant, like a babe sprung up.
b. attrib., as in Conception-day, the festival of the conception of the Blessed Virgin.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 24934 (Gött.). Seruise … proper of þat concepcion day.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 390. Þe Gospel on Nativyte and Consepcioun daies of Oure Ladi.
c. Order of the (Immaculate) Conception: name of a R. C. order of nuns.
1727. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Religious of the order of Conception; see Theatins.
1800. Archæol., XIII. 270. Ibid. (1840), XXVIII. 193. The late English Convent at Paris of the Order of the Conception, commonly called the Blue Nuns. Ibid., 194. The English Convent of nuns of the third order of St. Francis, called the Conception.
† 2. transf. The generation or production of plants and minerals. Obs.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva (1679), 7. Stumps … sowre the ground, and poyson the Conception.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 512. Th’ originals of Nature in thir crude Conception.
3. concr. That which is conceived: a. The embryo, fœtus. † b. Offspring, child (obs.).
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 388. Þis concepcion with kyngis sal be callid here-efter A verra victor a-vansid.
1526. [see 7].
1545. Raynold, Byrth Mankynde, 136. Whether the Conception be male or female.
1555. Eden, Decades, 132. If the inhabitantes shuld hereafter rebell in lyke maner, he buylded an other fort[r]esse (whiche he cauled the towre of Conception).
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 304. False conceptions or Moone-calues.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. ii. 4. Being thus deluded before the fall, it is no wonder if their conceptions were deceitfull, and could scarce speake without an error after.
1649. Selden, Laws Eng., II. xxvi. (1739), 116. Henry the Eighth was a Conception in whom the two Bloods both of York and Lancaster did meet.
1821. Southey, Vision Judgem., iii. Some accursed conception … Ripe for its monstrous birth.
† 4. Gram. The use of a masculine adjective with two or more substantives of different genders, or of a verb in the first or second person with two or more pronouns of different persons, on the principle that ‘the masculine conceives (i.e., comprises) the feminine,’ etc.: see CONCEIVE 12. Obs.
1530. Palsgr., Introd. 38. So moche attayne they towardes the parfection of the latine tonge … that they use also conceptyon, bothe in gendre and parsone. Ibid., 137. With their passyve participles, they use conception of gendres. Ibid., 299, 332, 391, 791.
5. The action or faculty of conceiving in the mind, or of forming an idea or notion of anything; apprehension, imagination.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 201. Swiftnes of þouȝtes and chaungynge of witte in þe concepcioun.
1592. Davies, Immort. Soul, xxx. (1714), 106. As if Beasts conceiv’d what Reason were, And that Conception should distinctly show.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VI. viii. 315. So things as they arise unto perfection, and approach unto God, or descend to imperfection, and draw neerer unto nothing, fall both imperfectly into our apprehensions; the one being too weake for our conception, our conception too weake for the other.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., vii. 37. Of as difficult conception, as the former.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxv. 187. Its bounding heights were lovely beyond conception.
b. In my conception: to my apprehension, as I conceive of the matter.
1787. Bentham, Def. Usury, ix. 85. In my conception, the reasoning … is just as applicable to the one sort of bargain as to the other.
1804. Castlereagh, in Owen, Wellesley’s Disp., 257. The benefit of a Mahratta connection has … been in my conception always over-rated.
6. Philos. a. In a general sense = prec.; † b. applied by Stewart to reproductive imagination.
1640. Hobbes, Hum. Nat., xi. (R.). All evidence is conception, and all conception is imagination, and proceedeth from sense.
1725. Watts, Logic, I. i. (1822), 10. If I were to distinguish them, I would say, perception is the consciousness of an object when present; conception is the forming an idea of the object whether present or absent. Ibid., II. (1736), 143.
1739. Hume, Treatise, III. vii. When after the simple conception of any thing we wou’d conceive it as existent, we in reality make no addition to or alteration on our first idea.
1785. Reid, Int. Powers, IV. i. Wks. 368/1. Conception is often employed about objects that neither do, nor did, nor will exist. Ibid., IV. iii. 375/2. I take imagination in its most proper sense to signify a lively conception of objects of sight.
1792. Stewart, Elements, iii. Wks. II. 144. By Conception, I mean that power of the mind which enables it to form a notion of an absent object of perception, or of a sensation which it has formerly felt.
1874. Wallace, Hegel’s Logic, i. 4. The specific phenomena of feeling, perception, desire and will, as far as they are known, may be in general described under the name of Conception.
c. The forming of a CONCEPT or general notion; the faculty of forming such.
[Cf. Boethius, In Prædicam., Wks. (1546), 129. Genera et species non ex uno singulo intellecta sunt, sed ex omnibus singulis mentis ratione collecta vel concepta.]
1830. Coleridge, Ch. & St., 12. A conception consists in a conscious act of the understanding, bringing any given object or impression into the same class with any number of other objects or impressions by means of some character … common to them all.
1837. Sir W. Hamilton, Logic, vii. (1866), I. 120. Conception … expresses the act of comprehending or grasping up into unity the various qualities by which an object is characterised.
1860. Abp. Thomson, Laws Th., § 40. Conception, or the power of forming general notions.
7. That which is conceived in the mind; an idea, notion.
In the first two quotations with an allusion to sense 3.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 294. Whiche sayd spirituall chyldre ben the spirytuall concepcyons of the mynde.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. i. 3. There is no conception in a mans mind, which hath not … been begotten upon the organs of Sense.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 26. The true and safe conceptions which we ought to have as touching the Gods.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., I. i. § 3. Words being for no other end but to express our conceptions of things.
1692. Dryden, trans. Evremont’s Ess., Pref. 5. There is … a justness in his conceptions which is the foundation of good writing.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. ii. As inpossible … as for a blind man to have a conception of colours.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 73, ¶ 6. I had not enlarged my conceptions either by books or conversation.
1842. Dickens, Lett. (1880), I. 59. I can give you no conception of my welcome here.
† b. What is merely conceived, a mere fancy.
1604. Shaks., Oth., III. iv. 156. Pray heauen it bee … no Conception, Nor no Iealious Toy, concerning you.
† c. An opinion, notion, view. Obs.
1678. Marvell, Corr., Wks. 1872–5, II. 607. Your further conceptions intimated in yours of the 8th.
8. Philos. a. In a general sense = 7.
1640. Hobbes, Hum. Nat., i. § 7. There [are] in our minds continually certain images or conceptions of the things without us.
1739. Hume, Treatise, II. i. Wks. I. 334. ’Tis universally allow’d, that the capacity of the mind is limited, and can never attain a full and adequate conception of infinity.
1762. Kames, Elem. Crit. (1833), 476. When I describe a picture … to another, the idea he forms of it is termed a conception.
a. 1863. Whately, Commpl.-bk. (1864), 92. It is a conception, not perception, that we have of anything not in actual present existence.
b. A general notion, a CONCEPT; sometimes called a general conception.
‘The Conception (Begriff) is opposed to the Intuition, for it is an universal representation, or a representation of that which is common to a plurality of objects’ (trans. Kant’s Logic, in Reid’s Wks., 987).
1785. Reid, Int. Powers, V. ii. Wks. 393. General terms … do not signify any individual, but what is common to many individuals; therefore we have distinct conception of things common to many individuals—that is, we have distinct general conceptions.
a. 1834. Coleridge, Lit. Rem., III. 34. A conception of the understanding, corresponding to some fact or facts, quorum notæ communes concapiuntur, the common characters of which are taken together under one distinct exponent, hence named a conception, and conceptions are internal subjective words.
1856. Mill, Logic, II. 192. We get the conception of an animal … by comparing different animals.
1856. Meiklejohn, trans. Kant’s Crit. Pure R., 24. Space is no discursive, or as we say, general conception [Begriff] of the relations of things, but a pure intuition [Anschauung].
1889. Caird, Philos. Kant, I. 289. The object of a conception is universal, of a perception, individual.
9. Origination in the mind; designing, planning.
1822. Imison, Sc. & Art, II. 396. In the conception of this ideal picture, all the little circumstances should be contrived in such a manner, that they shall strike the spectator no more than they did himself in his conception of the story.
1857. Heavysege, Saul (1869), 382. Prompt my deeds Shall be henceforth, and close on the conception.
b. Something originated in the mind; a design, plan; an original idea (as of a work of art, etc.); a mental product of the inventive faculty.
[1587. Golding, De Mornay, v. 51. The reasonable life hath his conceptions and breedings … We commonly terme the doings or actions thereof by the name of Conceptions or Conceits, after which maner the learned sort do cal their bookes their Children.]
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 312. I haue a young conception in my braine.
1843. Prescott, Mexico, V. vi. (1864), 314. It was a bold conception, that of constructing a fleet to be transported across forest and mountain before it was launched.
1883. F. Wedmore, in 19th Cent., XIII. 223. The element of satire that underlies Shakespeare’s conception of the part of Bencdick.
† e. The spontaneous framing and utterance of prayer: cf. CONCEIVED 2 b. Obs.
1661. Grand Debate, 57. Conceptions of Prayer by a publick person … are not to be rejected as private Conceptions.
† 10. A fanciful expression, a conceit. Obs.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, Ded. (J.). He … is full of conceptions … and witticisms … below the dignity of heroic verse.
