a. (sb.) [a. OF. contemplatif, -ive (12th c. in Littré), ad. L. contemplātīv-us, f. ppl. stem of contemplāre to CONTEMPLATE: see -IVE.]
A. adj. (adv.)
1. Given to or having the habit of contemplation; meditative, reflective, thoughtful.
1340. Ayenb., 245. Þe yefþe of wysdom … þet þe holy gost yefþ to þe contemplatiue herte.
1485. Caxton, Chas. Gt., 21. The which kyng deuoute & contemplatyf wythoute cure.
1502. Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W., 1506), I. vii. 59. These deuoute and contemplatyf spyrytes.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., II. v. 23. This Letter wil make a contemplatiue Ideot of him.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Atheism (Arb.), 337. The Contemplatiue Atheist is rare … And yet they seeme to be more then they are.
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., II. How far beyond itself doth it plunge the contemplative mind!
1856. Masson, Ess., Wordsw., 375. It is this tendency to relapse into a few favourite, and, as it were, constitutional trains of thought, that makes the contemplative character.
† b. Speculative, theorizing. Obs.
1657. Austen, Fruit Trees, I. 6. Some who have taught this art … have been in it only contemplative men, having little or no experience in it.
1661. Boyle, Spring of Air, Pref. (1682), 3. Except by some able mathematicians and very few other contemplative men.
2. Characterized by, of the nature of, or tending to contemplation.
c. 1430. Lydg., Venus-Mass, in Lay Folks Mass-bk., 395. In my contemplatyff medytacions.
1485. Caxton, Chas. Gt., 2. A werk wel contemplatyf for to liue wel.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., I. i. 14. Our Court shall be a little Achademe, Still and contemplatiue in liuing Art.
1667. Denham, Death of Cowley, 75. Fix’d and contemplative their looks, Still turning over Nature’s books.
1787. Ann Hilditch, Rosa de Montm., II. 14. To enjoy the delightfully contemplative prospect.
a. 1843. Southey, Doctor, cxxvi. (1862), 317. The same sober, contemplative, deep feeling of the realities of religion.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxv. 350. Smoking a contemplative cigar under the clear starlight.
3. Opposed to active, esp. in contemplative life, in the Middle Ages, a life given up to religious contemplation and prayer, esp. that of the religious recluse; so contemplative man, etc. In later use not confined to religious meditation.
The theological use appears to come directly from St. Augustine, De Civit. Dei, viii. § 4; the contrast of activus and contemplativus is also in Seneca, and corresponds to the Aristotelian contrast of πρακτικός and θεωρητικός which came down through Philo and the Greek Fathers.
c. 1340. Hampole, Prose Tr., 22. Thou shalt medle the werkis of actife liffe with goostely werkis of live comtemplatyfe.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 383. It is seid comunli, þat þes two wymmen ben two lyves, actif and contemplatif; þe first is Martha, and þe toþer Marie. Ibid. (1388), Ps., Prol. The lif of actif men, the spirituel beholding of contemplatif men.
c. 1450. Castle Hd. Life St. Cuthb. (Surtees), 2177. Þis lyf contemplatyue þan Cuthbert in a pryue place began. Ibid., 3404. In Farne contemplatyue, þe world fra.
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 41. The Philosophers … wrangling, whether Vertue bee the chiefe, or the onely good; whether the contemplatiue, or the actiue life doe excell.
1670. Clarendon, Ess., Tracts (1727), 187. Sixtus Quintus … betook himself to a contemplative life, that is, to the contemplation how he might come to be pope.
1823. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1858), III. 112. The active life of Rawleigh is not more remarkable than his contemplative one.
1885. Catholic Dict., s.v., Protestants … accuse contemplative orders of idleness.
† b. Theoretical, as opposed to practical. Obs.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 100. We shall therefore, after our manner, joyn the Contemplative and Active Part together.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. I. i. 6. Al Arts and Sciences (whether active or contemplative).
4. Contemplative of: contemplating: † a. meditating on; b. looking or gazing at; c. having in view, reckoning upon.
14[?]. Prose Legends, in Anglia, VIII. 151. Contemplatif of gostlynesse.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. vi. They became contemplative of the mud.
1876. Miss Braddon, J. Haggard’s Dau., I. 1. The fisherman, contemplative of that awful horizon.
1884. Law Times, 14 June, 113/1. The words … are plainly contemplative of a contingency … at an unknown and future period.
† 5. Used advb. = CONTEMPLATIVELY. Obs.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, II. 1453. A monke there dwellyng contemplatyue.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xxxix. (1887), 203. Religion being vsed most what contemplative, and in nature of opinion.
B. sb.
1. A person devoted to religious meditation; one who leads the ‘contemplative life.’
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, Prol. 4. Þe lyf of actyf men, þe meditacioun of contemplatifs.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 289. Þis chirche shulde be maad of actyves and contemplatyves.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xx. § 8. Henoch … who was the first contemplative and walked with God.
1799. J. Scott, Bahar-Danush, Pref. 20. The sacred collar of the humble contemplative.
1864. Sat. Rev., 21 May. The lonely contemplative, haunting his solitudes.
b. (See quot.)
1658. Phillips, Contemplatives, certain Fryers of St. Mary Magdalens Order, who wear black upper garments, and white underneath [so in Cotgr. 1611].
1730–6. in Bailey (folio); and in mod. Dicts.
† 2. One who contemplates or considers anything. Obs. rare.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnarium, Poet. Wks. 1721, II. 120. Silkworms and Spiders, and a thousand kinds … Work wonders by Contemplatives admir’d.
† 3. Short for contemplative life. Obs.
14[?]. Purif. Marie, in Tundale’s Vis. (1843), 135. The turtull by contemplatyffe For synne soroweth with waymentyng.
† 4. pl. Matters relating to contemplation. Obs.
1609. Tourneur, Fun. Poem Sir F. Vere, Wks. 1878, I. 175. All his industries (As well in actives as contemplatives).
