a. and sb. [a. F. continuant or L. continuānt- pr. pple. of continuāre.]
A. adj.
† 1. Continuing, persisting in time, enduring; remaining in force. Obs.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, V. xviii. (1620), 213. Romes Empire, so spacious and so continuant.
1642. Sir E. Dering, Sp. on Relig., 21 Oct. x. E iij b. Whether this … Order be continuant or expired.
1660. Gauden, Brounrig, 117. These dispensations are … neither frequent nor continuant.
2. Capable of a continuous sound: applied to certain consonants; see B. 1.
B. sb.
1. A consonant of which the sound can be continued or prolonged, as opposed to a stop or check, in which the sound is produced by the explosion of a stoppage in some part of the oral cavity. Commonly applied to the sounds f, v, þ, ð, s, z, etc., as contrasted with the stops p, b, t, d, etc., but also including liquids and nasals.
1861. Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., VIII. 373. When the continuant is a fluid consonant.
1887. Athenæum, 13 Aug., 207/1. He retains the incorrect designation of the Teutonic continuants as ‘aspirates.’… It seems to be implied that the Teutonic surd continuants changed directly into voiced stops, the theoretical intermediate stage of voiced continuants being ignored.
2. Math. In Theory of Equations, ‘A determinant in which all the constituents vanish except those in the principal diagonal and two bordering minor diagonals.’ Salmon, Higher Alg. (1885), 18.
1873–4. T. Muir, in Proc. Royal Soc. Edin., VIII. 229, Continuants—A New Special Class of Determinants.
1881. Burnside & Paxton, Th. Equations, xi. § 129 (1885), 285. It appears that the quotient of any determinant by the one next below it in the series can be expressed as a continued fraction in terms of the given constituents. On account of this property determinants of the form here treated are called continuants.
