also 4–5 aggregat. [ad. L. aggregāt-us united in a flock, associated, pa. pple. of aggregā-re, f. ag- = ad- to + gregā-re to collect; f. grex, greg-em a flock.]
A. ppl. adj.
1. pple. Collected into one body.
c. 1400. Apol. for Loll., 16. Aggregat, or gedred to gidre in on.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., in Ashmole (1652), IV. viii. 146. In our Conjunccion four Elements must be aggregat.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas. (1845), 181. Whan in my minde I had well agregate Every thinge that I in hym had sene.
1672. Baxter, Bagshaw’s Scandals, iv. 23. Scarce now to be numbred, any more than drops that are aggregate in a Pond.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. x. 165. After the Reformation estates became more aggregate and insulated.
2. adj. Constituted by the collection of many particles or units into one body, mass or amount; collected, collective, whole, total.
1659. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), III. 116. Were I not an aggregate person, and so obliged … to provide for my dependents.
1685. Morden, Geogr. Rect., 68. Polonia … is an aggregate Body consisting of many distinct Provinces.
1824. Dibdin, Libr. Comp., 15. Publications … of which the aggregate total is scarcely to be credited.
1859. Edin. Rev., No. 223, 49. Or were they but the representatives of the aggregate Hellenic races?
1876. Rogers, Pol. Econ., ii. 2. The aggregate amount of labour expended … is called the cost of production.
3. Law. Composed of many individuals united into one association.
1625. Sir H. Finch, Law (1636), 91. Corporations … whereof some are aggregate of many persons, that is to say, of a head and body: other consist in one singular person.
1771. Act 11 Geo. III., xix. in Oxf. & Camb. Enactmts., 78. Whether of University or City, aggregate or sole.
1862. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Constitn., xvii. 272. Each chapter is a corporation aggregate, and each person is a corporation sole.
4. Zool. Consisting of distinct animals united into a common organism.
1835. Kirby, Habits & Inst. Anim., I. v. 164. All the polypes are aggregate animals.
1848. Dana, Zoophytes, iv. 82. Aggregate, when the polyps of a compound zoophyte are united to one another by their sides.
5. Bot. Consisting of florets united within a common calyx or involucre, as in scabious, honeysuckle, and valerian. Sometimes of flowers, fruits: Collected into one mass.
1693. in Phil. Trans., XVII. 928. Such Trees and Shrubs, whose Flower and Fruit are Aggregate, as the Ficus.
1794. Martyn, trans. Rousseau’s Bot., vi. 67. An aggregate or capitate flower; or a head of flowers.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot. (1858), iv. 42. Lobel’s Catchfly, Flowers aggregate, tufted.
1858. Gray, Bot. Text-bk., 395. Aggregate Fruits, those formed of aggregate carpels of the same flower.
6. Geol. Composed of distinct minerals, combined into one rock, as granite. Cf. B sb. 4.
1795. A. Mills, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVI. 40. A vein of a compact aggregate substance, apparently compounded of quartz, ochraceous earth, chert, [etc.].
† 7. Gram. Collective. Obs.
1683. Dryden, Plutarch, 34. One in the aggregate sense as we say one army, or one body of men, constituted of many individuals.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., Wks. 1842, I. 69. Such as represent many simple ideas united by nature to form some one determinate composition, as man, horse, tree, castle, etc. These I call aggregate words.
8. absol. quasi-sb. (sc. state, etc.) esp. in phr. In the aggregate.
1777. Richardson, Dissert. Lang., 31. Man in the aggregate, is too irregular to be reduced to invariable laws.
1852. McCulloch, Taxation, II. xi. 377. These payments must amount, in the aggregate, to a vast sum.
B. sb.
1. Collected sum, sum total.
1656. trans. Hobbes’s Elem. Philos. (1839), 77. A cause is the sum or aggregate of all such accidents … as concur to the producing of the effect propounded.
1846. Mill, Logic, II. vii. § 2 (1868), 296. Every such belief represents the aggregate of all past experience.
1877. Mozley, Univ. Serm., v. 120. The general only regards his men as masses, so much aggregate of force.
2. A mass formed by the union of individual particles; an assemblage, a collection.
1650. Hobbes, De Corp. Polit., 78. A Multitude considered as One Aggregate.
1667. Boyle, Orig. Formes & Qual., 30. Agitating water into froth … that aggregate of small Bubbles.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 36, ¶ 9. Four is a certain aggregate of units.
1855. H. Spencer, Psychol. (1872), I. II. i. 159. Mind … is a circumscribed aggregate of activities.
1869. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, v. 134. That marvellous aggregate which we know as the Greek nation.
1878. P. Bayne, Pur. Rev., ii. 28. He was an aggregate of confusions and incongruities.
3. esp. Physics. A mass formed by the union of homogeneous particles (in distinction from a compound).
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., vii. 231. The whole Aggregate of Matter would retain well-nigh an uniform tenuity of Texture.
1704. Ray, Creation, I. 114. Those vast Aggregates of Air, Water, and Earth.
1814. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., 9. The chemical elements acted upon by attractive powers combine in different aggregates.
1870. Tyndall, Heat, vi. § 225. Snow … is not an irregular aggregate of ice particles.
4. Geol. A mass of minerals formed into one rock.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 169. To render fit for soils, even the hardest aggregates belonging to our globe.
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., ii. 36. Pompeii was built on a mass of volcanic aggregates.
5. Build. Material added to lime to make concrete.
1881. Mechanic, § 1111. 522. Any waste material of a hard nature may be used as aggregate in making concrete.
