[ad. L. agens, agentem, acting, pr. pple. of ag-ĕre to act, do.]
A. adj. Acting, exerting power, as opposed to patient. arch.
1620. Melton, Astrolog., 13. What a hot fellow Sol (whom all Agent Causes follow).
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 55. Aristotle … making it [mind] to be twofold, Agent, and Patient, concludes the former of them only to be Immortal.
1821. De Quincey, Confess. (1862), 83. Agent or patient, singly or one of a crowd.
B. sb. [The adj. used absol.]
1. One who (or that which) acts or exerts power, as distinguished from the patient, and also from the instrument.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., II. (1604), 120 (J.). Deliberation is … needlesse in regard of the agent, which seeth already what to resolue vpon.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, I. 5. For he maketh foure originals, whereof three are agents, and the last passive and materiall.
1646. S. Bolton, Arraignm. Errour, 295. Nor are we to be meer instruments moved by the will of those in authority … but are morall Agents.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. III. xxviii. 118. Our first parents became accountable, because they were free agents.
1809. Tomlins, Law Dict., Agent and Patient, when the same person is the door of a thing, and the party to whom done: as where a woman endows herself of the best part of her husband’s possessions.
1870. Bowen, Logic, xii. 401. In conformity with this view, the distinction between agent and patient, between something which acts and some other thing which is acted upon, is formally abolished.
2. He who operates in a particular direction, who produces an effect. Of things: The efficient cause.
1656. trans. Hobbes’s Elem. Philos. (1839), 131. The power of the agent is the same thing with the efficient cause.
1699. Bentley, Phalaris, 155. When the Samians invaded Zancle, a great Agent in that affair was Hippocrates.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, 31. I was still to be the wilful Agent of all my own miseries.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat. (1738), v. 83. Nor can I think, that any body has such an idea of chance, as to make it an agent or really existing and acting cause of anything.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., I. vii. § 3. Successful production … depends more on the qualities of the human agents, than on the circumstances in which they work.
3. Hence in mod. Science: Any natural force acting upon matter, any substance the presence of which produces phenomena, whether physical as electricity, chemical as actinism, oxygen, medicinal as chloroform, etc.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. on Waters, I. 81. Water is a most useful agent in chemistry.
1833. Brewster, Nat. Magic, xii. 298. The disintegrating and solvent powers of chemical agents.
1875. J. Dawson, Dawn of Life, vi. 134. The Rhizopods were important agents in the accumulation of beds of limestone.
1880. Geikie, Phys. Geog., ii. xi. 100. The winds are the great agents by which the moisture of the atmosphere is distributed over the globe.
4. Of persons: One who does the actual work of anything, as distinguished from the instigator or employer; hence, one who acts for another, a deputy, steward, factor, substitute, representative or emissary. (In this sense the word has numerous specific applications in Commerce, Politics, Law, etc., flowing directly from the general meaning.)
a. 1593. Marlowe, Massacre at Paris, III. iv. Go, call the English agent hither straight.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. iii. 165. Being the Agents, or base second meanes.
1607. Topsell, Four-footed Beasts (1673), 541. Diocletian … was Agent for the Romans in France.
1642. Howell, For. Trav., 78. Made themselves a prey to their sollicitors and Agents.
1704. Lond. Gaz., mmmmxxviii/4. Mr. John Pain, Agent to the Regiment.
1745. Mrs. Delany, Lett., 362. Agent, that is, rent-gatherer, to the dean.
1818. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange’s Life, II. xi. 22. He … employed a certain Mr. Crabtree as his agent, steward, etc.
1826. Scott, Woodst. (1832), 189. Since the devil fell from Heaven, he never lacked agents on earth.
1847. Craig, s.v., In Scots law, an agent is a solicitor for the Court of Session or other courts.
1882. Negot. Instr. Act (India), 40. An agent who signs his name to a promissory note, etc. without indicating thereon that he signs as agent, is liable personally on the instrument.
5. Of things: The material cause or instrumentality whereby effects are produced; but implying a rational employer or contriver.
1579. W. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 621. The gallowes is no agent or doer in those good thinges.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., I. iii. 46. Here is her hand, the agent of her heart.
1593. Nashe, Christs Teares, 21/1. Not a nayle in it [the Crosse] but is a necessary Agent in the Worlds redemption.
1661. Bramhall, Just Vind., 43. God doth often good works by ill agents.
a. 1842. Tennyson, Love thou thy Land, x. Nature … Thro’ many agents making strong, Matures the individual form.
1878. Jevons, Prim. Pol. Econ., 26. Whatever thus furnishes us with the first requisite of production is called a natural agent, that is, something which acts for us and assists us.
6. Comb. and attrib., as agent-noun, word, etc.
1879. Whitney, Sanskr. Gram., 374. There is hardly a suffix by which action-nouns are formed which does not also make agent-nouns or adjectives. Ibid., 385. Adjectives and other agent-words.
