Also 6 -creete. [ad. L. concrēt-us, pa. pple. of concrēscĕre to grow together: see CONCRESCENCE. Cf. F. concret, -ète, 16th c. -ette. The stress has long been variable; concre·te, the original mode, was given by Walker, and is used in verse by Lowell; co·ncrete was used by Chapman in 1611, and recognized by Johnson: the latter appears to be now the more frequent in the adj., and is universal in the sb. B. 3.
The frequent antithesis of concrete and discrete, appears to be influenced by a notion that the word represents L. concrētus, pa. pple. of concernĕre, in the same way as discrete is derived from L. discernĕre, discrētus.]
A. adj. (The earliest instances appear to be participial.)
† 1. United or connected by growth; grown together. Obs.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., in Ashm. (1652), 112. For all the parts … be Coessentiall and concrete.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., x. (1653), 170. Men, that have monstrous Mouths, and some with concreate lips.
† b. Continuous. In Acoustics applied to a sound or movement of the voice sliding continuously up or down; distinguished from discrete movement.
1651. W. G., trans. Cowel’s Inst., 60. The second manner of gaining, which … is a discreet or distinct increase, or secretly a Concrete or continued. Whatsoever is born or comes from any sort of animalls under our Subiection or power are absolutely gained unto us.
2. Made up or compounded of various elements or ingredients; composite, compound. ? Obs.
1536. Latimer, 2nd Serm. bef. Convoc., I. 40. A thing concrete, heaped up and made of all kinds of mischief.
1850. W. Irving, Goldsmith, v. 81. This concrete young gentleman, compounded of the pawn-broker, the pettifogger, and the West Indian heir.
3. Formed by union or cohesion of particles into a mass; congealed, coagulated, solidified; solid (as opposed to fluid). † a. as pple.; b. as adj.
a. 1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, IV. (R.). Those same vapours … be concrete or gathered into humour superfluous.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, Pref. Of the seconde sort is the Pumelse, concrete of froth.
1691. Ray, Creation (1714), 323. Before it was concrete into a stone.
b. 1605. Timme, Quersit., I. xiii. 58. In all metalls and concrete bodies.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XI. (R.). Even to the concrete bloud That makes the liver.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 216. Scammony is a concrete resinous Juice.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 74. One portion appears fluid and the other concrete.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 51/2. Formed of blood scarcely concrete.
1854. Hooker, Himal. Jrnls., I. i. 16. The seeds too, yield a concrete oil.
4. Applied by the early logicians and grammarians to a quality viewed (as it is actually found) concreted or adherent to a substance, and so to the word expressing a quality so considered, viz. the adjective, in contradistinction to the quality as mentally abstracted or withdrawn from substance and expressed by an abstract noun: thus white (paper, hat, horse) is the concrete quality or quality in the concrete, whiteness, the abstract quality or quality in the abstract; seven (men, days, etc.) is a concrete number, as opposed to the number 7 in the abstract.
Afterwards concrete was extended also to substantives involving attributes, as fool, sage, hero, and has finally been applied by some grammarians to all substantives not abstract, i.e., all those denoting ‘things’ as distinguished from qualities, states, and actions. The logical and grammatical uses have thus tended to fall asunder and even to become contradictory; some writers on Logic therefore disuse the term concrete entirely: see quot. 1887. In this Dictionary, concr. is prefixed to those senses in which substantives originally abstract come to be used as names of ‘things’; e.g., crossing vbl. sb., i.e., abstract n. of action, concr. a crossing in a street, on a railway, etc.
From an early period used as a quasi-sb., a concrete (sc. term).
[1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 118 b. Turnyng awry, that is to say: From the Concreto to the Abstractum (to use here the termes of Sophistry).]
a. 1528. Skelton, Bouge of Courte (R.). A false abstracte cometh from a false concrete.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., I. xvi. (ed. 7), 41. Understand, that of numbers some are said to be abstract, and some concrete.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 117. To expresse them by Abstracts from the Concret of their qualitie … As Maiestie, Highnes, Grace.
1657. J. Smith, Myst. Rhet., A viij b. The concrete signifies the same form with those qualities which adhere to the subject: The concrete is the Adjective.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., III. viii. § 1. Our Simple ideas have all Abstract, as well as Concrete Names: the one whereof is (to speak the language of grammarians) a ‘substantive,’ the other an ‘adjective’; as whiteness, white.
1725. Watts, Logic, I. iv. § 5. Concrete terms, while they express the quality, do also either express, or imply, or refer to some subject to which it belongs … But these are not always noun adjectives … a fool, a knave, a philosopher, and many other concretes are substantives.
1846. Mill, Logic, I. ii. § 4. A concrete name is a name which stands for a thing; an abstract name is a name which stands for an attribute of a thing.
1851. Mansel, Proleg. Log., v. (1860), 144. This is the real distinction indicated by the use of concrete or abstract terms: the round, hard, white, body denotes the attribute as perceived in space; the roundness and hardness and whiteness severally denote the same attributes as separated in language.
1864. Bowen, Logic, iv. (1870), 88. The peculiar or proper appellation of a lower Concept or individual is called its concrete name.
1876. Mason, Eng. Gram., § 35. Abstract nouns are sometimes used in the concrete sense … Thus nobility frequently means the whole body of persons of noble birth.
1876. Jevons, Elem. Logic (1880), 21. The reader should carefully observe that adjectives are concrete, not abstract.
1887. Fowler, Deduct. Logic, I. i. (ed. 9), 15. Nothing has been said above of the common distinction between abstract and concrete terms … I have availed myself of the expression ‘abstract term,’ but avoided, as too wide to be of practical service, the contrasted expression ‘concrete term.’ Concrete terms include what I have called attributives, as well as singular, collective, and common terms.
5. Hence, generally, Combined with, or embodied in matter, actual practice, or a particular example; existing in a material form or as an actual reality, or pertaining to that which so exists. Opposed to abstract. (The ordinary current sense.)
Absolutely, the concrete, that which is concrete; in the concrete, in the sphere of concrete reality, concretely.
[1648. Milton, Tenure Kings, Wks. 1738, I. 314. These Apostles, whenever they give this Precept, express it in terms not concrete, but abstract, as Logicians are wont to speak.]
1656. Hobbes, Liberty, Necess., & Ch. (1841), 135. This … is a metaphysical entity abstracted from the matter, which is better than non-entity … But in the concrete it is far otherwise.
1710. Berkeley, Princ. Hum. Knowl., § 97. Time, place, and motion, taken in particular or concrete.
1789. Burke, Corr. (1844), III. 114. It is with man in the concrete;—it is with common … human actions, you are to be concerned.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. III. i. But, quitting these somewhat abstract considerations, let History note the concrete reality which the streets of Paris exhibit.
1848. Lowell, Fable for Critics. ‘At slavery in the abstract my whole soul rebels, I am as strongly opposed to ’t as any one else.’ ‘Ay, no doubt, but whenever I’ve happened to meet With a wrong or a crime, it is always concrete.’
1876. M. Arnold, Lit. & Dogma, 234, note. The most concrete and unmetaphysical of languages.
1880. W. Wallace, Epicureanism, 172. Their idea of this original matter was concrete and sensuous.
6. Made of concrete. [attrib. of B. 3.]
B. sb.
1. quasi-sb. A concrete, the concrete: see A. 4, 5.
1528–1725. [see A. 4].
1697. J. Serjeant, Solid Philos., 91. Entity is often us’d as a Concrete for the Thing it self.
1830. Macaulay, Ess., Bunyan. Bunyan is almost the only writer who ever gave to the abstract the interest of the concrete.
2. gen. A concrete or concreted mass, a concretion, compound; a concrete substance. Also fig. (Obs. in lit. sense, exc. as in next.)
1656. J. Serjeant, trans. T. White’s Peripatet. Inst., 361. The sun is a concrete of combustible matter.
1657. G. Starkey, Helmont’s Vind, Ep. to Rdr. The specifick excellency that is in any concrete of the whole vegetable family.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), s.v., Antimony is a Natural Concrete, or a Mix’d Body compounded in the Bowels of the Earth; and Soap is a Factitious Concrete, or a Body mix’d together by Art.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Observ., 9. Thus an unorganized concrete becomes a living tumour.
a. 1831. A. Knox, Rem. (1844), I. 63. That … concrete of truth and error, of greatness and meanness … the Roman Catholic Church.
3. spec. A composition of stone chippings, sand, gravel, pebbles, etc., formed into a mass with cement; used for building under water, for foundations, pavements, walls, etc. Often attrib. Also in comb. as concrete-press, a machine for compressing concrete into blocks.
1834. Lond. Archit. Mag., I. 35. Making an artificial foundation of concrete (which has lately been done in many places).
1836. G. Godwin, in Trans. Inst. Brit. Archit., 12. The generic term concrete … perhaps, can only date from that period when its use became general and frequent, probably not longer than 15 or 20 years ago.
1858. Glenny, Gard. Every-day Bk., 25/1. Paving with brick, tile, stone, or concrete.
attr. 1881. Darwin, Form. Veg. Mould, 181. The junction of the concrete floor with the walls.
