a. [f. L. type *constitūtīvus (perh. in med.L.), f. constitūt- ppl. stem: see CONSTITUTE and -IVE. F. constitutif, -ive is in Cotgrave, 1611.]
1. Having the power of constituting, establishing, or giving formal, definite, or organized existence to something; constructive.
In the Kantian Philosophy, constitutive ideas or principles of reason are opposed to regulative, q.v.
1592. West, Symbol., I. § 46. An Instrument constitutive is such an Instrument under the proper hand of the party as testifieth and describeth some contract of some debt or dutie to be paied, or some fact to be done or performed as an obligation.
1670. Baxter, Cure Ch. Dis., 277. The Churches Constitutive or Governing Head.
1816. Coleridge, Statesm. Man. (1817), 367. Whether ideas are regulative only, according to Aristotle and Kant; or likewise constitutive, and one with the power and life of Nature.
1855. Meiklejohn, trans. Kant’s Crit. P. R., 317. Still less is it a constitutive principle of reason authorising us to extend our conception of the sensuous world beyond all possible experience.
1867. J. H. Stirling, trans. Schwegler’s Hist. Philos., 231 (Kant). These ideas, if not constitutive principles to extend our knowledge beyond the bounds of experience, are regulative principles to arrange experience.
1870. Baldw. Brown, Eccl. Truth, 256. The great constitutive ideas which have moulded powerfully the institutions of society.
1879. R. Adamson, Philos. Kant, 107. The principle [of the intelligibility of Nature] … under which we subsume real experience is not constitutive but regulative, a mere maxim of reason, and subjective.
b. Having the power of appointing to an office.
1682. Enq. Elect. Sheriffs, 37. The Concurrence, Vote and constitutive Consent of a competent number of Free-men.
2. That makes a thing what it is; forming an essential part or element; essential.
1610. Bp. Hall, Apol. agst. Brownists, 10. You call for a double separation,—a first separation in the gathering of the Church … But of this constitutiue separation anone.
1654. Cromwell, Sp., 12 Sept. (Carlyle). Government by a single person and a Parliament is a Fundamental; it is the esse; it is Constitutive.
a. 1688. Cudworth, Immut. Mor., IV. vi. (R.). The constitutive essences of all individual created beings.
1853. Trench, Proverbs, 16. Its constitutive element … is not the utterance on the part of the one, but the acceptance on the part of the many.
3. That makes up or goes to make up; forming a part or element; constituent, component.
a. 1640. Jackson, Wks., II. 637. All the learning which he hath besides … is no constitutive part of the faculty which he professeth.
1670. Maynwaring, Vita Sana, i. 13. Subject to corruption and dissolution, through the fragility of constitutive parts.
1780. Harris, Philol. Enq. (1841), 428. The constitutive parts of the drama are six.
1861. Mansel, Aids to Faith, i. 5, note. Constitutive elements of the revelation itself.
4. With of: That constitutes, makes, forms, establishes, or determines.
1658–9. Burton’s Diary (1828), III. 366. That may be essential to a Parliament that is not constitutive of a Parliament.
1684. 2 Steps of Nonconf. Minister, 11. Constitutive of duty.
1858. Nat. Rev., Oct., 499. Of the three conceivable functions constitutive of a clerical order,—the Priestly, the Rabbinical, and the Prophetic,—the first is with us extinct.
† 5. Of a constituted character. Obs.
1658–9. Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 26. My judgment concurs wholly with your vote for two Houses. The question now is, what that House shall be, whether constitutive or restitutive.
† B. as sb. A constitutive part or element, a constituent. Obs. rare.
1647. Power of the Keys, iv. 73. I much wonder why … in the number of the constitutives of externall communion, publick prayer is not mentioned.
1697. J. Sergeant, Solid Philos., 51. According to his compleat Essential Form or Constitutive.
